Lazarus by Kepler Lars

Author:Kepler, Lars [Kepler, Lars]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Mystery & Detective, Suspense, Thriller, Fiction
ISBN: 9780008205973
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-03-18T13:00:00+00:00

49

Seven hours later the dog handler drops Saga off on Timmermansgatan. She runs the last block to her building on Tavastgatan, rushes up the stairs, gets in her flat, locks the door behind her, checks it, then pulls the curtains in all the windows.

The sky is black above the rooftops.

She goes into the kitchen and starts calling colleagues involved in the search for her dad. No one has anything to report yet, but one tells her he’s going to be getting the results from eight base stations tomorrow.

Saga swallows an impulse to shout and swear at him.

Instead she explains very calmly that her dad has been buried alive, and that he might not survive the night.

‘Please, try to put more pressure on them,’ she pleads. ‘I need the results this evening, it could make all the difference.’

She hangs up, wipes the tears from her cheeks, takes off her dirty clothes and tosses them in the laundry basket, then has a quick shower to clean the wounds on her legs and arms before they get infected.

She cut herself badly in the undergrowth behind Cornelia’s house.

It was already dark by the time the dog handler arrived.

Saga was watching from the veranda when she drove up in an old estate car. She stopped behind the Jeep in the carport, got out, put a rucksack down on the ground, then opened the back of the car.

A tall woman in her thirties, Amanda was wearing a black cap over her strawberry-blonde hair, black hunting clothing, and heavy hiking boots with ankle supports and ski-boot fastenings.

She gave the two police dogs some water after the drive, and Saga went up to her.

‘You found us,’ she said, holding out her hand.

Amanda seemed shy, she averted her gaze a little too quickly, then introduced her dogs.

Billie, a Belgian sheepdog, specialised in finding dead bodies, picking up the smell of cadavers and dried blood. Her head was black, but her thick mane was almost reddish-blonde.

Ella, a black retriever, was trained to find people alive. She had been flown down to Italy after the most recent earthquake.

Saga crouched down and talked to Ella, hugging her and patting her behind the ears, and telling her she had to find her dad alive.

Ella stood still, listening, and wagging her tail.

Though she wasn’t wearing suitable clothing, Saga decided to go into the forest with Amanda and the dogs. She needed to be sure they didn’t miss anything when they got tired, that they didn’t miss any trace of a scent. They used their torches to light their way, letting the dogs decide which direction they should take.

It took them almost six hours to search the dense forest. Saga tore her jeans and kept catching her hair on jagged branches.

Amanda had superimposed a grid on a satellite map so that she could mark off the sections as they searched them.

They reached Björknäs without having found any trace of Valeria or Saga’s father.

By the time they got back to their vehicles, Saga had begun to

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