LW01 - Before The Frost by Henning Mankell

Author:Henning Mankell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-04-13T19:59:28+00:00

CHAPTER 28

She was swimming as fast as she could, but the great waves had almost caught up with her. Suddenly she saw rocks in front of her, big black prongs sticking out of the water ready to spear her. Her strength ebbed away and she screamed. Then she opened her eyes. Linda felt a sharp pain in her head and wondered what was wrong with the bedroom light. Then she saw her father's face looming over her and wondered if she had slept in. What was she supposed to do today? She had forgotten.

Then she remembered. What caught up with her was not the great waves but the memory of what had happened right before she plunged into darkness. The stairwell, the street, the man who stepped out of the shadows, delivered his threat and hit her. She winced. Her father laid a hand on her arm.

"It's OK. Everything's going to be OK."

She looked around the hospital room, the dim lighting, screens and the rhythmic hissing of medical equipment.

"I remember now," she said. "But how did I get here? Am I hurt?"

She tried to sit up while at the same time testing all her limbs to make sure nothing was broken. Wallander tried to restrain her.

"They want you to stay lying down. You were knocked unconscious, though there doesn't appear to have been any internal damage, not even a concussion."

"How did you get here?" she asked and closed her eyes. "Tell me."

"If what I've heard so far from my Danish colleagues and one of the emergency-room physicians here at the Rikshospital is correct, you were extremely lucky. A patrol car was driving past and actually saw a man knock you down. It only took minutes for the ambulance to arrive. The officers found your driver's licence as well as your ID card from the training college. They had contacted me within half an hour. I drove over as soon as I heard about it. Lindman is here too."

Linda opened her eyes and looked at her father. She thought in a fuzzy way that she might be a little in love with Lindman, even though she had hardly had anything to do with him. Am I delirious? I return to consciousness after some lunatic has knocked me out and the first thing I think is that I've fallen in love, and much too quickly at that.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Where's Lindman now?"

"He went to get a bite to eat. I told him to go home, but he wanted to come with me."

"I'm thirsty."

Wallander gave her some water. Linda's head was clearer now; images from the moments before the assault were coming back.

"What happened to the creep who assaulted me?"

"They arrested him."

Linda sat up so quickly her father couldn't stop her.

"Lie down!"

"He knows where Anna is. Or perhaps he doesn't know that but he does know something."

"Stay calm."

Reluctantly she stretched out on the bed again.

"I don't know his name, he could be Torgeir Langaas. But he knows something about Anna."

Her father sat down on a chair beside the bed.

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