‘Where is his room?’ Remi says in a harsh voice as he comes up behind her. He grabs hold of her arm and holds her tight. Emilie tries to wriggle free, but his grip is so hard and so vicious that resistance only causes her more pain.
‘Where is his room?’ Remi says again, now louder.
‘In there,’ Emilie sobs and nods her head in the direction of the hallway.
Remi releases his hold on her.
‘Put him in there, I don’t want to listen to that bloody—’
Emilie picks up Sebastian, puts his head close to her own and strokes his back while she tries to console him. She walks down the hallway, past the door to the bathroom and into Sebastian’s room.
‘You need to be quiet now,’ she says, trying to control herself, but even she can hear that her pleading voice is close to breaking. Be strong, she tells herself, for Sebastian’s sake. It’s up to you to stop him from experiencing even more trauma than he already has.
Fortunately Sebastian seems to calm down at the sight of his things and his bed, the pale blue wallpaper, the action figures, the stuffed toys and Lightning McQueen – they all help to make him breathe more easily and he finally stops wailing and sobbing.
This in turn makes Emilie weep even harder. Her little boy. So small and vulnerable.
‘And you,’ Remi says to her when she comes back out. ‘Stop your bloody crying.’
Emilie nods, even though the tears keep flowing.
‘Close the door.’
Emilie does as she is told. Remi nods in the direction of the living room where Mattis is frantically trying to free himself. Emilie rushes over to him, she tries wiping away some of the blood on him, and doesn’t care that her hands and clothes get wet and sticky.
She turns to Remi, who has followed and stopped right in front of her.
‘What are you doing, Remi, why—’
He wags an angry finger at her.
‘I think you know if you just think about it.’
Emilie stops.
‘No,’ she says. ‘I don’t.’
‘Then you’re a stupid cow.’
Again Emilie tries to understand, but she can feel the effects of not having eaten for two days. Her brain quite simply refuses to work and the frantic thoughts make her dizzy.
‘You may be right, so why don’t you tell me? Explain it to me.’
Remi inhales and clutches his head. He massages his temples. Then he looks up at the wall, at the two footprints.
Emilie’s mobile rings. Her eyes automatically seek out the sound.
‘Is that yours?’ Remi asks.
Emilie doesn’t reply.
‘Is that yours?’ he demands to know.
Emilie nods.
Remi walks towards the sound and finds her mobile on the large, black coffee table. He takes it, checks the display and lets it ring. However, she can see that the noise troubles him. With a brusque, panicky movement he blocks the call and tosses the mobile aside.
Then he sits down on a chair. Rubs his fingertips against his temples again. Something glides across his face. An expression or an emotion, Emilie isn’t sure. But she’s quite sure that she doesn’t like what she sees.
Remi tries to think clearly.
It proves to be difficult.
He has only been inside the house once before and he hadn’t planned on doing this. He doesn’t know what he had hoped to get from Emilie. Just something. That she would say she was sorry and mean it, rather than merely say it. That she would understand.
He should have taken some more of the pills he swallowed before he went to Johanne’s flat, then he wouldn’t have been able to feel anything. But now he feels everything. The pain in his hand and in his head. It’s as if the walls are closing in on him and threatening to crush him.
So what’s he going to do now?
What next?
He lifts his head and looks around. His gaze stops on the stuffed reindeer head mounted on the wall. The eyes are dark and shiny. As if the light is still on in them.
‘Do you hunt?’ he asks, looking at Mattis.
Mattis nods reluctantly.
‘Then I guess you keep guns in the house, don’t you?’
Chapter 73
Bjarne mutters curses under his breath. Emilie Blomvik still isn’t answering her phone. And worse, she has just blocked his call.
He swears loudly and drives as fast as he can in the direction of the Trafikkmaskinen interchange roundabout to get out of Oslo. While he weaves frantically in and out of the traffic, he finds a white cable, which he plugs into his mobile. He sticks the earplugs into his ears and calls Fredrik Stang again.
‘Did you get hold of Romerike Police?’
‘Yes, they’re despatching a patrol car to the address now.’
‘Just the one car?’
‘Yes, they said that was all they had available.’
Bjarne rolls his eyes.
‘Okay, I’m on my way there now. Have you found out more information about Remi Gulliksen?’
‘Yes, a bit. He was born and grew up in Jessheim, but now lives in a small flat in Tøyen.’
‘Have we sent people over to his address?’
‘We have. Gjerstad has got everyone working on it.’
‘Great.’
‘By the way, Remi was due to be evicted from his flat today.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, that could have been what set him off.’
‘Hm. Keep me posted.’
‘Will do.’
Some high-risk driving enables Bjarne to get out of Oslo in the rush-hour while he calls Directory Enquiries and asks to be put through to Nordby Nursery. There he learns that Sebastian Blomvik failed to show up today.
Bjarne calls Emilie again, but this time his call is cut off immediately.
‘Damn,’ he says and hits the accelerator.
Emilie Blomvik.
She was his first, his only one. Now, when he thinks about it, he doesn’t know why he loved her, only that he did. He couldn’t explain it. Perhaps it was just that she made him feel loved and valued. He believed that she admired him. That’s what she told him, she praised him, called him nice and good. No one had ever said that to him before.
But he should have known that it couldn’t last. Emilie wasn’t that kind of girl. She got bored easily and hated staying in. She liked going to parties and having fun, while he just wanted her all to himself. At first when the rumours about Markus and her started to circulate, he refused to believe them. He was in denial.
Right until that became impossible.
Emilie was his first, his only one. He could never erase her; no one would ever surpass her. It had started with Emilie and it would finish with Emilie.
The doorbell rings.
He is startled, as are Emilie and Mattis. Both of them are about to cry out, but Remi points the gun at them.
‘Hush,’ he says. ‘Not a sound.’
Chapter 74
Bjarne has barely left Oslo when his mobile rings again.
‘Yes?’
It is Ella Sandland.
‘I’ve just spoken to Remi Gulliksen’s mother,’ she says. ‘Remi visited them Tuesday evening. She says he went berserk.’
‘In what way?’
‘He beat up his father.’
An articulated lorry pulls out in front of Bjarne. He sounds the horn and flashes his headlights while he says: ‘Why?’