Chapter 113
Vidar had warned Adrian to be cautious: Felicia had been carrying the truth about Mikael Soderstrom’s death for over twenty years and had concealed it well.
She had just hidden Killian Persson in her own basement.
She had lost a pregnancy in the landslide.
There was no telling what other surprises she might be capable of.
Adrian opened the door to his car and tried to get her to sit inside. Vidar and Siri watched from a distance.
Then Felicia said something that made Adrian stop short. He hesitated, just for a moment.
That was all it took. Felicia punched him in the face, tore herself loose, and ran for the forest.
Adrian looked surprised, then weary.
He ran after her, with Vidar a few steps behind.
She didn’t get far. Just a short distance into the trees she was overpowered by Adrian, who pressed her into the muddy ground.
“She said she wanted to call her kids,” he grunted. “What the hell was I supposed to say to that?”
Vidar looked at Felicia, lying there in the dark.
Sometimes, the eyes say nothing; other times, they say so much. Isn’t that remarkable.
—
She had been hovering in the background of the investigation the whole time.
When Vidar tried to talk to her, get her to confess, because it would make everything easier, she remained tight-lipped.
Perhaps it was no wonder; she was probably trying to protect her family.
And herself. Vidar had seen it happen before, more than once.
And what would Felicia even have said? Still, he gave it a shot.
“Felicia,” he said, “if you could tell me in your own words, how it happened.”
“Tell you about what?”
“The night Mikael died.”
“I don’t know. I was at home.”
“I know that. But while you’re home that night, Killian calls you from the party. Doesn’t he? He tells you that the Lindells have withdrawn their savings from the bank.”
Vidar paused. This was a crucial moment. He hoped she would crack, that maybe this was going to work after all, because Vidar had seen that happen before too. Sometimes, something snapped loose inside them when the truth was laid out as fact, plainly and straightforwardly, and they capitulated.
But Felicia didn’t react. She just sat there staring at her hands. Thin as a flickering flame. When she didn’t say anything, he went on.
“Killian isn’t the one who commits the burglary, you are. He isn’t the one who gets caught by Mikael, you do. Isn’t that so?”
“No.”
“But you see,” Vidar said, “it couldn’t have been Killian.
He left the party too late. He couldn’t have made it in time.
And Sander was with him. Jakob wasn’t there, neither was anyone else.
Which only leaves you. And I’m guessing you didn’t think anyone would get hurt, did you?
All you cared about was the money, that’s all you wanted, to help you and Madeleine. ”
When Felicia heard her mother’s name, a tremor ran through her.
“Here’s what I think: When Mikael shows up, you get scared. He tries to stop you. What happened? Did he try to talk you out of it?” He leaned forward. “Did he touch you? Did he try to hurt you?”
He waited again.
“I was at home” was all she would say.
“It would be no wonder,” Vidar said, as though he hadn’t heard her, “if you acted out. I mean, considering Mikael is the sort of guy he is, how he’d treated you before.
You’ve got the spade you used to break the glass and get inside.
You swing it at him twice. Then you run home to get the car, and that’s when you see Killian.
Because he’s coming to your place after the party, as you had agreed, right? Is Madeleine awake at that point?”
He didn’t think she had been, but he wanted to say her mother’s name again. It made her quake.
Now she opened her mouth.
“Killian is dead,” she said.
“I’m very sorry,” Vidar said, because he was.
The next part of the tale hung in the air between them; Vidar could feel it. She was close to giving in.
“But in 1999, he’s alive,” Vidar said. “He tries to help you that night, when you tell him what happened. You aren’t a witness to the accident, you’re in the car when Killian drives off the road, but you take off before anyone can see you.
We have footprints. Killian runs to Sander’s for help, and you run home. ”
That was all Vidar really had. He hoped she wouldn’t realize that, that she would guess Vidar knew more about that night than he did.
He felt genuine sympathy when he looked at her. Eighteen years old. She must have felt so alone that night. Killian, too, presumably.
“That’s about the size of it,” Vidar said, leaning back again, crossing one leg over the other. “Does that sound familiar?”
A flicker in Felicia’s eyes. She still didn’t speak.
If there were any words left, after all these years, she was keeping them to herself.
—
“I wonder where she was going,” Vidar said to Siri afterward, when it was all over. “Just now, when she tried to run away.”
There was probably an answer, there always was, just not the one you expected.
“Maybe just…away,” she said, a grim heaviness behind the words.