and regarded Dessie with new interest.
“What language is that?” Jacob asked, bewildered. “It doesn’t sound like any Swedish I’ve heard.”
She turned to her grandfather again.
“No,” she said, “we haven’t done anything bad. Not yet, anyway. I’m just wondering, purely hypothetically.”
“Yes, please,” Dessie said. “Coffee would be good, and a sandwich, if you’ve got any cheese.”
The old man stood up and staggered off toward the kitchen. Dessie took the opportunity to go out into the gloom of the hall and crawl in under the stairs, where the only toilet in the house was situated. When she got back, the old man had prepared some bread and cheese and had boiled water for instant coffee. He was sitting with his hands clasped on the wax tablecloth, his eyes squinting as he mulled over Dessie’s question.
Dessie nodded and took a bite of the sweet bread and Port Salut. Then she interpreted simultaneously for Jacob so he could follow. Hiding in Finland wouldn’t work. The Finnish police were far more effective, and brutal, than the Swedes. Any Finns on the run came over to Sweden as quickly as they could.
But if you absolutely had to get to Finland, that was no problem, as long as you had a freshly stolen car, of course.
Anyone could cross the Torne River wherever they liked. There were bridges in Haparanda, Цvertorneе, Pello, Kolari, Muonio, and Karesuando. Each had its advantages and disadvantages. Haparanda was the biggest and slowest, but the guards there were the laziest, so you might not get questioned. Kolari was the least used and fastest, but you were more likely to be noticed there. You had to choose your route in Morjдrv - north toward Цverkalix or south to Haparanda. Then you just had to aim straight for Russia as quickly as you could.
“Russia?” Jacob said. “How far away is that?”
“Three hundred kilometers,” Dessie said.
“Christ,” Jacob said. “That’s nothing. Manhattan to the end of Long Island.”
According to Dessie’s grandfather, it was hard to get into Russia, and it always had been.
In his day, the no-man’s-land along the border had been mined with explosives, but they were all gone now. Nowadays it was the most remote boundary of the European Union. It was tricky but not impossible. The biggest problem wasn’t getting out of the EU, but into Russia. You had to leave the car and then walk across, maybe just north of Tammela. There was a main road on the other side of the border that would take you to Petrozavodsk, and from there to St. Petersburg.
Dessie and Jacob sat in silence until the old man had finished. Then he stood up, put the coffee cups on the draining board, and wandered off toward the television again.
“We have to shut the door to stop the midges from getting in when we leave,” Dessie said. “I think he likes you.”
Chapter 130
THEY FILLED THE CAR with diesel from the farm’s illegal agricultural tank. Then Jacob took the wheel.
“Where am I going?”
“Straight on until you see ‘Suomi Finland’ on the signs,” Dessie said, putting the seat back down and stretching out.
He aimed north and emerged onto the main road again.
If the Rudolphs managed to reach Russia, he’d never see them again, that much he was sure of. Anyone with a lot of money could buy protection there, and anyone without it could disappear among the country’s homeless millions. He stiffened his grip on the wheel and pressed the accelerator. His head still felt groggy from his long nap. The car was small and sluggish, with a weirdly noisy engine. He’d never driven a diesel before. The landscape glided past and it really was astonishingly beautiful. Craggy cliffs falling to the sea. Blue peaks rising to the north. The road wound its way along the coast, getting ever narrower and more twisted and scenic. He was on his way toward the end of the world. The Rudolphs were on their way there, too.
Dessie’s cell phone started to ring on the dashboard. He glanced at the woman beside him. She was fast asleep, mouth open in a narrow line.
Jacob grabbed the phone and said, “Yeah?”
“We’ve found the left-luggage locker,” Gabriella said. “It was in the basement of the Central Station. You were right. Both of you were.”
He clenched his fist in triumph.
“It contained everything you suspected: light shoes, brown wig, coat, trousers, sunglasses, Polaroid camera, a couple of packs of film, pens, stamps, postcards, eyedrops, and a really sharp stiletto knife, as well as some other stuff.”
She fell silent.
“What?” Jacob said. “What else was there?”
His raised voice woke Dessie, and she sat herself up beside him.
“We found the passports and wallets of all the murder victims - apart from Copenhagen and Athens and Salzburg.”
He braked and stopped the car by a twenty-four-hour cafй. He was searching for words but couldn’t find any.
“Your daughter’s were there,” Gabriella said quietly. “I’ve got them on the desk in front of me. Her fiancй’s as well. You’ll get them when you’re back.”
“Okay,” he muttered.
“You wanted to know if any cars had been stolen in northern Sweden late yesterday, didn’t you? A farmer north of Gysinge has just reported the theft of a Volvo two forty-five. A nineteen eighty-seven model, red. License number CHC four-one-one.
“A two forty-five - that’s a sedan?”
“A wagon. I’m sending a text message with all the details.”
He put the car in gear and looked round. They were in a small village. A tractor trailer pulled out of the parking lot just ahead of him.
“How far have you gotten?” Gabriella asked.
Jacob pulled out onto the road behind a gigantic lumber truck billowing smoke.
“Halfway. Thanks for the call,” he said.
“I wish there were more I could have done,” Gabriella said quietly. Dessie looked at him.
“Call your cousin,” Jacob said. “We have the make of the potential getaway car.”
She took the phone.
The sun was just rising to the north.
Chapter 131
THE FOREST GREW THICKER after Цrnskцldsvik, and signs of habitation thinned out. Between the towns of Umeе and Skellefteе, a distance of almost 150 kilometers, Jacob hardly saw a single house. The end of the world was getting closer and closer, wasn’t it?
In the town of Byske, the jet lag struck him like a sudden fog. The last traces of his ability to judge
