‘So the murder weapon was a mat,’ John said.
‘It was still in Greta’s room. I told the staff to put it somewhere safe so that the police can take a look at it. There could be fingerprints, or other traces. The mats don’t get washed very often up there.’
‘Did you call your own personal police officer?’
Gerlof sighed. ‘Tilda, yes. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very interested... she just said that fingerprints on a mat don’t really count as proof. I think the only thing that would convince her is a confession from Veronica Kloss.’
‘Not much chance of that,’ John said.
‘No. And that’s why we’re sitting here. Like two owls.’ Gerlof glanced over at Villa Kloss and sighed again. It was almost ten o’clock, and he felt tired and powerless. ‘What can we do?’ he said. ‘This is like one of those old disputes over land; it just gets more and more bitter. We’ve got Aron Fredh on one side, and the Kloss siblings on the other. This could end very badly.’
‘Do you want to go home?’ John said.
‘Yes.’
John started up the car and set off along the coast road, away from Villa Kloss.
‘Perhaps I could stay the night at your place,’ Gerlof said.
‘Of course.’
‘Then we can try and have a word with the Kloss family tomorrow. When it’s light.’
‘Good,’ John said.
But Gerlof didn’t think there was anything good about it.
Lisa
What am I doing here? Lisa thought in the darkness down by the shore. How did I end up in the middle of all this?
She didn’t really remember; she just knew what she had to do. Kent Kloss had set a trap for Aron Fredh, and she was part of it.
She lay pressed against the rockface above the entrance to the dip; she could hear the rushing of the sea behind her and was vaguely aware that her new friend Paulina was crouching on the edge of the rock on the other side. It was after midnight, which meant it was technically Sunday morning and the month of August had just begun. Lisa and Paulina had already been in position for over an hour.
The moon had risen, but its light didn’t reach into the crevices in the rocks above the shore.
Kent had brought a powerful torch with him, and Lisa and Paulina had their walkie-talkies so they could alert him if anything happened. If someone approached the rocks, they were to press the ‘send’ button twice; if someone entered the dip, they were to press it three times.
Kent had hidden himself further along, somewhere near the bunker, with his camouflage jacket and his torch. Lisa thought he might be armed, too, possibly with a knife. It was just a feeling she had, the way he moved when he crept down from the ridge.
She couldn’t see much at the moment; the area all around her lay in darkness, thanks to Kent. Once the rest of the Kloss family had gone to bed, he had turned off all the lights on the outside of the house and the lighting in the garden.
At first, Lisa couldn’t understand why only Kent was down here with them; there was no sign of any other members of the family. Neither of his siblings, none of the boys.
But when she saw how silently Kent moved she began to realize that this was a mission he wanted to keep from the rest of them. He didn’t want anyone to see what happened here tonight.
Only those who were a part of the trap.
Lisa and Paulina were each holding one end of a length of rope, which was attached to an old nylon fishing net concealed under a thin layer of gravel at the entrance to the dip.
When (or if) Aron Fredh appeared, they were to raise the net and pull it tight, blocking the narrow track.
‘If he tries to run, he’ll get tangled up in the net,’ Kent had explained. ‘Just like a fish.’
‘And then?’
‘Then we can relax and have a chat,’ Kent had said, without explaining exactly who would be relaxing and chatting.
A cool breeze had begun to blow in off the Sound, and Lisa shivered. The height of summer was almost past; each night was a little darker and colder than the one before. Soon, she would be going home.
But, right now, she was here. She would get the job done as quickly as possible.
Absolutely nothing had happened since they began their watch, apart from the odd bat flitting past like a black rag in the darkness. They could hear the faint sound of the waves lapping down below; a boat occasionally chugged by out in the Sound — but nothing else. No old man had approached the dip.
Lisa cautiously stretched her upper body so that she wouldn’t get pins and needles. She blinked. Waited. Wondered which street corner Silas was hanging around on tonight. Then she heard something.
Not footsteps in the night, just a low, muted sound. A boat engine. But this one was much closer than the others had been, and it wasn’t going away. It was heading for the shore, slowing down just off the land belonging to the Kloss family. It seemed to have stopped; the engine was idling.
Lisa tried to twist around so that she could have a look, but she couldn’t see a thing. Without the moonlight, the sea was completely black.
Then she heard more noises, much closer. The crunch of gravel.
Someone was very close to her, down in the dip. But it wasn’t a man, it was a tall, slender figure. A woman.
‘Lisa?’
Paulina’s quiet voice. Lisa could see her only as a shadow in the darkness, the whites of her eyes shining. She must have left her hiding place and crept along the bottom of the dip; she was only a couple of metres away.
Lisa leaned over and whispered back. ‘Paulina... What are you doing?’
The other girl held out her hand. ‘Listen,’ she said, pointing towards the Sound. ‘Listen to me... Veronica Kloss is down there. She’s fetched the motor launch.’
‘The motor launch?’
Paulina kept her eyes fixed on Lisa. Her Swedish was much better now; she spoke with virtually no accent.
‘The Kloss launch,’ she said. ‘Veronica and Kent are going to shoot Aron Fredh. They’re going to take him out in the boat, attach weights to his body and throw him overboard.’
Lisa was trying to understand. ‘You mean... You mean murder?’
Paulina nodded, then she reached up and grabbed Lisa’s arm. ‘We have to go,’ she said. ‘Right now.’
Lisa blinked. ‘What?’
But Paulina didn’t answer, she just kept tugging at Lisa’s arm.
Eventually, Lisa got to her feet. ‘Is he here?’ she whispered.
Paulina shook her head. ‘Come on!’
‘But why?’
Lisa couldn’t understand what the rush was, but Paulina wouldn’t give up. She pulled even harder, and in the end Lisa dropped her end of the rope, swung her legs over the edge and scrambled down the slope.
Paulina turned away from her briefly, and shouted along the dip in a loud, shrill voice, ‘He’s got a gun! He’s outside the bunker!’
A man’s voice shouted in response, and Lisa saw a white light appear further along the dip. Kent Kloss had switched on his torch.
Lisa jumped down on to the gravel, managing to keep her balance. Paulina gave her a shove.
‘Run!’ she yelled. ‘Now!’
The loud cry galvanized Lisa into action, and she ran. Away from the dip, down towards the water. Paulina was running behind her, pushing her on. Across the gravel, down to the shore.
Behind them, the beam of the torch swept across the walls of the dip and suddenly it picked up a powerful figure in the darkness.
It looked like the old man, Lisa thought. Aron Fredh.
But he wasn’t down in the dip. He was standing up on the ridge, not far from the cairn. And he was holding something in his hand. Something shiny.