The woman almost seemed to be whimpering now. “I just don’t know, Lasse,” she said over and over.
“Why do you think they’ll come back here?” he asked. “You told them I was at sea, didn’t you?”
“Yes. But, Lasse, they know which shipping line you work for. And they’ve heard about the van that comes here. The black one let it slip out, and it was obvious that the Danish cop was furious, you could see it. They probably already know that you haven’t been to sea for several months now. That you’re in the catering division instead. They’ll find out, Lasse, I know they will. Also that you send us the leftover food in a company van. All it takes is a phone call, Lasse, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Then they’ll come back. I think they just went to get a search warrant. They asked if they could take a look around.”
Merete held her breath. The police were coming back? With a search warrant? Is that what they thought? She looked at her bleeding wrist and pressed her thumb hard against the wound. The blood trickled out from underneath and pooled in the folds of her wrist, dripping slowly on to her lap. She wasn’t going to let go until she was convinced that the battle was lost. They would probably win, but right now they were feeling cornered. What a wonderful feeling it was.
“What reason did they give for looking around the property?” asked Lasse.
The pressure in Merete’s ears grew stronger. She was having trouble counterbalancing it. She tried to yawn as she concentrated on listening to what they were saying. She could also feel a pressure inside her hip now. In her hip and her teeth.
“The Danish detective claimed he had a brother who works for Novo, and he wanted to see the place where a big company like InterLab had started out.”
“What bullshit.”
“That’s why I called you.”
“When exactly were they here?”
“Not twenty minutes ago.”
“So we might not even have an hour. We’ll also need to shovel up the body and take it away, but there’s not enough time. And we’d have to clean up and wash down afterward. No, we’ll have to wait until later. Right now the important thing is to make sure they don’t find anything, and then leave us in peace.”
Merete tried to banish the words “shovel up the body.” Was it really her Lasse was talking about? How could any human being be so loathsome and cynical?
“I hope they come here and get you before you can escape!” she yelled. “I hope you all rot in prison, like the bastards you are! I hate you. Do you hear me? I hate you all!”
Slowly she stood up as the shadows merged in the smashed panes.
Lasse’s voice was ice cold. “So maybe you finally understand what hate is! Maybe now you understand, Merete!” he shouted back.
“Lasse, don’t you think we should blow up the building now?” the woman broke in.
Merete listened intently.
There was a pause. He must be thinking. It was her life that was at stake. He was figuring out how best to get away with killing her. It was no longer about her — she was done for. It was about saving their own skins.
“No, the way things are, we can’t do it. We’ll have to wait. They mustn’t suspect that anything is wrong. If we blow everything up now, it will ruin our plan. We won’t get the insurance money, Mum. We’ll be forced to disappear. For good.”
“I’ll never manage that, Lasse,” said the woman.
Then die with me, you witch, thought Merete.
Not since the day when she looked into Lasse’s eyes at their rendezvous at Cafe Bankerat had she heard him speak so gently. “I know, Mum. I know,” he said. He almost sounded human for a moment, but then came the question that made Merete press even harder on her wounded wrist. “Did you say that she’s blocked the door of the airlock?”
“Yes. Can’t you hear it? The pressure is being equalized much too slowly.”
“Then I’m going to set the timer.”
“The timer, Lasse? But it takes twenty minutes before the nozzles will open. Isn’t there any other solution? She’s stabbed herself, Lasse. Can’t we shut off the ventilation system?”
The timer? Hadn’t they said that they could release the pressure whenever they liked? That she wouldn’t have time to hurt herself before they opened it up? Was that a lie?
Hysteria began rising inside her. Watch out, Merete, she told herself. Don’t overreact. Don’t retreat inside yourself.
“Shut off the ventilation system? What good would that do?” Lasse was clearly annoyed. “The air was changed yesterday. It will take at least eight days for her to use up the oxygen. No, I’m going to set the timer.”
“Having problems?” Merete shouted. “Doesn’t your shitty system work after all, Lasse?”
He tried to make it seem like he was laughing at her, but she wasn’t fooled. It was obvious that her scorn made him furious.
“Don’t worry,” he said, controlling himself. “My father built this system. It was the most sophisticated pressure-testing system in the world. This is where you got the finest and most thoroughly tested containment linings on earth. Most other places pump water into the containment and pressure-test it from the inside, but my father’s company also applied pressure from outside. Everything was done with the utmost precision. The timer controlled the temperature and humidity in the room and set all the parameters, so the pressure couldn’t be equalized too fast. Otherwise the containers would crack during quality control. That’s why it all takes time, Merete! That’s why!”
They were crazy, all of them. “You really do have problems,” she yelled. “You’re all insane. You’re finished, just like me.”
“Problems? I’ll give you problems!” he raged. She heard some clattering outside and quick steps in the hall. Then a shadow appeared at the edge of the glass, and two deafening bangs came through the loudspeaker system before she saw one of the windowpanes change color again. Now it was almost totally white and opaque.
“You’d better pulverize this building completely, Lasse, because I’ve left so many calling cards in here that you won’t be able to remove them all. You won’t get away.” She laughed. “You won’t get away with it. I’ve made that impossible for all of you.”
The next minute she heard six more bangs. They were evidently from shots fired in pairs. But both windowpanes held.
A short time later she began feeling pressure in her shoulder. Not too much, but it was still uncomfortable. She also had pressure in her forehead, sinuses, and jaw. Her skin felt tight. If this was the effect of the slight equalization caused by the minuscule crack in the door, then what awaited her when they released all the pressure would be absolutely intolerable.
“The police are coming!” she yelled. “I can feel it.” She looked down at her bleeding arm. The police wouldn’t arrive in time; she knew that. Soon she’d be forced to lift her thumb away from the wound. In twenty minutes the nozzles would open.
She felt something warm sliding down her other arm, and saw that the first wound had opened itself menacingly. Lasse’s prophecies were going to come true. When the pressure inside her body increased, the blood would come gushing out.
She twisted her body slightly so she could press her other trickling wrist against her knee. For a second she laughed. It felt like some sort of child’s game from the distant past.
“I’m activating the timer now, Merete,” he said. “In twenty minutes the nozzles will open and release the pressure in the room. It will take about another half hour before the room is back down to one atmosphere. It’s true that you have time to kill yourself now, before that happens. I don’t doubt that. But I won’t be able to watch anymore, Merete, understand? I can’t see you because the glass is totally opaque. And if I can’t see you, nobody else can either. We’re going to seal up the pressure chamber, Merete. We have lots of plasterboard out here. So you’re going to die in the meantime, one way or the other.”
She heard the woman laugh.
“Come on, brother, help me with this,” she heard Lasse say. His voice sounded different now. In control.
There was a scraping sound, and slowly the room got darker and darker. Then they turned off the floodlights
