He had been standing fairly close to Nina when she had approached one of the police officers to ask about their strategy, but the response had been evasive.
‘We’ll search the lake, of course, but that won’t happen until tomorrow, when it’s light,’ the officer had said, speaking very quietly.
All but two of the staff had returned to the nursery this evening. White candles had been placed on the tables and in the windows, which gave the whole place a church-like atmosphere.
After fifteen or twenty minutes the sound of the helicopter died away. Jan turned to his boss. ‘I think I need to go home and try to get some sleep. I’ll come back first thing; it’s my day off, but I’ll come in anyway.’
Nina nodded. ‘I’m going shortly myself,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing more we can do tonight.’
Since arriving at the nursery Nina had not uttered one word of criticism to Jan. On the contrary, she appeared to support him completely, blaming the whole thing on Sigrid, who had a different supervisor over at Brown Bear: ‘She should have checked.’
Jan shook his head. The last time he’d seen Sigrid she had been lying on the sofa in the Brown Bear staffroom; she had been given some kind of sedative when they got back from the forest.
‘Neither of us was really on top of things today,’ he said, pulling on his jacket. ‘It was pretty chaotic up there... We had too many children with us.’
Nina sighed. She looked over at the dark windows, then at the telephone. ‘I think someone else has found him in the forest,’ she said. ‘Someone who has taken him home with them... I’m sure William is fast asleep in a warm bed somewhere, and the police will get a phone call first thing in the morning.’
‘Absolutely,’ said Jan, buttoning his jacket. ‘See you in the morning.’ With a final nod to Nina, he left the nursery.
It felt colder than nine degrees when he got outside, but that was probably just his imagination. It wasn’t winter yet, far from it. A warmly dressed person just couldn’t freeze to death, even if he was lying out in the open. Sheltered from the wind, behind a concrete wall, for example, he would be fine for several days.
Jan set off. As he passed the brightly lit windows of Brown Bear he caught a glimpse of the staff keeping vigil inside, along with William’s parents. Jan could see the mother slumped in a chair, a cup of coffee in front of her. She looked terrible.
Jan wanted to stop and stare for a while, but he kept on going.
At the edge of the forest he stood and listened; he could hear nothing but the wind soughing in the trees. The sound of the helicopter had completely disappeared by now. It might come back later with its thermal-imaging camera, but that was a risk he would have to take.
Jan looked around one last time, then stepped over the little ditch by the side of the road and headed off among the trees. He powered up the slope.
William had been alone and locked inside the bunker for over four hours now. But he had warm blankets, food and drink, and toys; he’d be fine. And soon Jan would be there with him.
31
With each autumn evening that passes, St Patricia’s grey façade seems a little colder and darker to Jan. As he cycles past the wall on this particular evening, the hospital behind the wall looks like a great fortress. Pale, shimmering lights are visible in many of the windows, but they do not convey a welcoming atmosphere. Shadows seem to be moving inside the rooms, gazing out with longing from behind the bars.
Is one of the windows ajar up there?
Is that guitar music he can hear in the night?
No. Just his imagination.
Jan quickly cycles on past the hospital and down to the pre-school, away from the wall. It is Sunday, and only two months to go until Christmas. He is free this weekend but has come down anyway; he and Hanna parted company four days earlier with a kind of promise to help each other. Or at least not to give each other away.
‘You can’t get into the hospital through the sally port,’ Hanna had said in Jan’s kitchen. ‘Nobody gets in that way... I’ve never got past the visitors’ room.’
‘So your friend Carl... he lets you and Rössel meet up there?’
‘No, Ivan stays in his room. I send him letters.’
More secret letters, Jan thought. But he merely asked, ‘So how do I get in, then?’
‘Through the basement,’ Hanna said. ‘I can show you the entrance, if you like.’
Jan definitely liked the idea. He remembered that Högsmed had talked about a way from the hospital to the pre-school through the basement. But it’s not a very pleasant route, the doctor had said.
What does that mean? Are there rats in the basement? Or people?
He arrives at the Dell and cautiously opens the door, knowing perfectly well that he’s not supposed to be there tonight.
‘Hello?’ he says quietly. ‘Hanna?’
There’s a brief silence, then he hears her voice from the kitchen: ‘Come in... everything’s fine.’
Jan steps inside and closes the door. ‘All quiet?’
‘Yes — I managed to get them off. But they were like little monsters this evening, running around and screaming, just pushing me to the limit all the time.’
Jan says nothing; he knows that Hanna isn’t particularly fond of the children.
As he takes off his jacket he notices that it is almost half past nine. He keeps his shoes on and takes a couple of steps towards the kitchen and the drawer where the keys are kept, but Hanna holds out her hand.
‘Here.’ She has already taken out one of the key cards, and passes it to Jan.
‘Thanks.’
‘You haven’t changed your mind?’
Jan shakes his head and goes over to the door leading to the basement. It feels a little odd to enter the code and open the door in front of someone else at this late hour.
He turns around. ‘See you later.’
‘No,’ she says. ‘I’m coming down with you.’
He has no time to object; she switches on the light and sets off down the stairs, and all Jan can do is follow her.
He uses the underground corridor every day to deliver and collect the children, and by this stage Jan is heartily sick of the pictures on the walls. The smiling mice seem to be sneering at him.
They won’t be using the lift tonight. Hanna leads the way to the safe room. Jan hasn’t been here for more than two weeks — not since he stood there and heard someone coming down in the lift in the middle of the night. Someone who turned out to be Hanna.
‘So there’s a secret passageway here?’ Jan wants to know.
‘Secret... Well, it’s hidden.’ She presses down on the handle and opens the steel door. Then she turns around and looks at Jan. ‘Are you sure about this?’
Jan nods.
‘Come on, then.’
When Hanna switches on the light and Jan steps into the safe room, he suddenly has a picture in his mind’s eye of a frightened little five-year-old boy sitting on a mattress in there. His heart skips a beat — but the light comes on to reveal a completely empty room.
The mattress and the pillows are still there, just as he remembered them. And the steel door at the far end of the room is still closed.
Hanna walks over to the door. ‘Here it is.’
‘That door is locked,’ Jan says. ‘I’ve already tried it.’
‘I mean the floor.’ She is pointing downwards.
‘The floor?’
Jan walks forward — and feels something uneven beneath his feet. He looks down at the blue fitted carpet, but he is standing on something underneath it, something small and narrow.