I'm Travelling Alone (48 page)

But then she met Markus Skog. Liv-Hege had fallen asleep in someone’s car and woken up in Oslo. Her mate was picking up a packet of something. Speed. Whatever. And there he was, in a flat in Grønland. Liv-Hege had fallen head over heels in love, and they became an item. Markus Skog had introduced her to heroin, so now she had two loves. Heroin was the perfect drug for her. Much better than glue, with all its waste products and impurities. Glue made her zone out, true, but also sick and nauseous most of the time. Heroin was completely different. Markus Skog had injected her for the first time on a summer’s day down by the River Aker, and Liv-Hege had barely believed such bliss was possible. It was as if her body had been in tension her whole life and, finally, it could relax. All the sharp barbs and her piercing misery turned into a huge smile. One big, beaming, lovely smile with pink clouds of eternal beauty. People were good. The world was fantastic. For ever. Since that day, they had never been apart. A perfect, heavenly triangle. Markus, her and heroin. They had moved about, living here, there and everywhere. Markus knew a lot of people. And when Markus started dealing, they got to know even more. Dealers were the celebrities of the underworld, always surrounded by an entourage of famous and obscure faces, and even though he had only been a street dealer, they had done well. One autumn they had lived in a campervan up at Tryvann. The party atmosphere had been pretty good – a lot of cocaine and speed, but not enough heroin; Liv-Hege had missed it. It would be good to get some. Getting properly high again. Fortunately, the party crew withdrew to the city centre over time. And then there were just the three of them left in the campervan. Markus, her and the lovely liquid gold which would soon be going into her veins.

‘Please can you hook me up?’

Liv-Hege looked beseechingly at Markus Skog, who was pacing up and down inside the campervan.

He had just snorted two lines of speed and cocaine mixed together and was quite manic. He was talking to himself constantly, and his eyes were the size of saucers.

‘Markus?’ she pleaded with him again. ‘Hook me up, will you?’

Liv-Hege pulled up the sleeve of her jumper and rested her arm on the small grey plastic table.

‘Dammit, Liv-Hege, do it yourself. Why do I have to do everything for you?’ Markus Skog grunted as he cut more lines on the table.

‘But I like it when you do it,’ Live-Hege said. ‘Please?’

‘You’re real nag, did you know that? I don’t know why I put up with your bony arse. Tell me, Liv-Hege, why do I? It’s not as if you contribute anything, is it?’

Liv-Hege stared shamefully at the floor and tightened the rubber tube around her arm herself. Markus bent down and snorted both lines, one in each nostril.

‘Ah, here we go, that’s it. That’s right, now we’re going places.’

He laughed out loud to himself and slammed his fist into the wall. Liv-Hege jolted, almost missing the vein with the needle, but she got it in at last. The warmth started flooding through her body. Finally. Pink clouds. Endless beaches.

She had just dropped the needle on to the floor when there was a knock on the door of the campervan.

‘Hello?’

A woman’s voice.

‘What the hell?’ Markus said.

He tried looking through the curtain, but had forgotten that they had cardboard for windows and that he couldn’t see out of the filthy campervan.

‘Police.’

A male voice this time.

‘Shit,’ Markus said, starting to clear the table of drugs. ‘Liv-Hege? Help me, will you?!’

But Liv-Hege saw no reason to do anything at all. She had a big smile on her face and was heading for a place where all was well. Just exactly how it happened, Live-Hege couldn’t remember, but suddenly a female police officer was inside the campervan.

‘Mia Krüger, Violent Crimes Section. We’re looking for this girl. Have you seen her?’

‘Ah, that’s Pia.’ Liv-Hege smiled when she saw the picture.

‘Shut your mouth,’ Markus yelled at her.

‘But it is Pia, isn’t it, Markus? Can’t you see?’

‘I said shut your mouth,’ Markus Skog screamed again.

‘Markus?’ the policewoman suddenly said. ‘Markus Skog?’

‘What’s going on, Mia?’

It was the male police officer outside.

‘Mia Krüger, now who would have thought it?’ Markus grinned. ‘It’s been a long time.’

The police officer called Mia looked as if she had seen a ghost.

‘How’s your sister?’ Markus laughed. The two last lines had kicked in now; his mouth was one big, gaping hole of teeth and laughter.

‘Oh no, that’s right, she kicked the bucket, yeah? Yes, she did, couldn’t handle the pressure, ha-ha. I’ve seen it happen so many times, good girls from nice families. Can’t take the heat, they’ve had it too easy.’

Liv-Hege hadn’t seen the police officer pull out a gun, but it was there now, in the small, dirty campervan. Liv-Hege herself had mentally left the campervan. She was sitting on a mountaintop, watching from a distance. It was nice and warm. The wind was blowing briskly through her hair.

In the room far away, the one she had left, Markus had picked up a syringe on the table. He was frothing around the mouth now. He waved the syringe at the police officer and laughed maniacally.

‘Want to try it, Mia? Eh, are you sure you don’t want a taste? Your sister couldn’t get enough of it. Spineless cunt, poor little Sigrid, ha-ha.’

From the lovely mountaintop where she was sitting, Liv-Hege had a clear view of what happened next. It was almost like being in the cinema. Markus hawked up a gob and spat at the policewoman while at the same time trying to stab her with the syringe. The policewoman jumped back and a bang sounded. The mountaintop turned into a volcano now; there was rumbling underneath her. The policewoman fired her weapon twice. Markus Skog was flung back across the room and lay bleeding on the floor.

Liv-Hege Nylund woke up two weeks later and found herself suffering serious withdrawal symptoms in a room she didn’t recognize. Karen was sitting next to her, and for a whole week she never left her side. They had strapped Liv-Hege to the bed and she had never experienced anything so horrendous. She was in hell. It was as if every cell in her body was wide awake and screaming in hell. A billion hangovers at the same time; she howled as if the devil himself had taken residence in her; she lay strapped to the bed in the white room until the drug had left her system. All the time with Karen by her side. Her sister had watched her, fed her, held her hand, calmed her down. She had been gone, but now she was back.

Finally, she was allowed out of bed. She could to go to the lavatory on her own, eat her own food at the table. Karen never left her alone. Then she was allowed out into the garden. To sit on the grass. Gaze at the sun. Look at the trees. Karen was smiling now; she hadn’t seen Karen smile during the whole of her detox, but now her sister was happy.

What Karen Nylund didn’t know was that Liv-Hege had no intention of staying alive. She had lost everything. Her two loves. Markus Skog and heroin. What could this world offer her? Nothing.

One week later, the first time she was allowed out for a walk on her own, she climbed a spruce in the forest as high as she could, tied a rope around her neck.

And jumped into freedom.

Chapter 81

‘I’m so sorry,’ Mia said.

‘Oh, it’s fine. You killed her. And now you’re going to die. It all fits together rather neatly, don’t you think?’

Karen smiled and patted Mia’s hand. She went back to the kitchen and returned with a slice of chocolate cake.

‘Would you like some cake, Mia?’

Mia shook her head.

‘But you have to eat something. It’s really good, I promise. It’s my mother’s recipe.’

Mia glanced sideways at the screen on the table. Marion Munch was lying immobile on the bed in the basement room. Mia saw her stir. Thank God. The little girl was merely asleep. Karen Nylund smiled and ran two fingers across the screen.

‘I look forward to getting her ready. It’s important that children are clean, don’t you think?’

Karen smiled at her. Mia started to feel scared. She had been relatively calm so far, but her terror was taking control of her now. She felt she was in the presence of evil. She had never seen eyes like that before. It was as if the woman in front of her was fully aware of what she was saying and doing and yet was completely devoid of empathy and normal, human emotions.

‘Do you want to know what happens next? Shall we play that game?’ Karen smiled and got up.

‘Can’t we play another game?’ Mia said.

She had to play for time now. For her own sake, but mostly for Marion’s. Her body was aching. She thought about Munch. How he would react if Marion was killed. She couldn’t bear to think of it. It was too unreal.

‘So what do you want to play, then?’ Karen smiled again.

‘Anything,’ Mia said, attempting a smile as well. ‘Perhaps we could talk about Margrete?’

Karen grew more serious now. She frowned and folded her arms across her chest. Mia Krüger tried desperately to read what was going on inside her mind, how this woman was thinking, to find a weakness, but it was impossible to penetrate.

‘Margrete is fine,’ Karen chirped, smiling again now. ‘She goes to school in heaven and has four classmates; soon, she will have five and a teacher.’

‘Classmates?’ Mia said, baffled.

‘Oh yes, they’re about to start school. Haven’t you worked that out?’

Finally, the pieces came together in Mia’s head. ‘I’m travelling alone.’ The satchels. The schoolbooks. The skipping rope. Karen Nylund had some twisted notion of creating a class in heaven where she would be the teacher. That had to be the logic inside the mind of this psychopath. Mia felt a pang of guilt. Why hadn’t she worked this out sooner? If she had, then Marion might not be lying prisoner in a small room in the basement in this house of horrors in the country.

‘She also has a dog,’ Karen continued. ‘A lovely little Alsatian puppy. She loves playing with the puppy. Look how happy she is, Mia, look.’

Karen pointed towards the ceiling and remained standing with a sheepish grin on her face.

‘Mummy is coming soon, Margrete. Not long now.’

Karen winked and blew a kiss towards the sky.

‘Why ten dresses and only five girls?’ Mia tried.

‘What?’ Karen said.

‘You ordered ten dresses, but you’ve only taken five girls?’

‘No girl should have just the one dress, don’t you think? Did you have just the one dress, Mia? Back home in Åsgårdstrand? When you played with little Sigrid?’

Mia bit her lip when she heard Sigrid’s name. She felt the rage tear at her body again, but she managed not to lose her temper.

‘So you’ll stop at five?’ She smiled.

‘Yes.’ Karen nodded pensively as if she was considering whether she should have added more. ‘Best really, small class sizes, so everyone gets a chance to be seen and heard. It’s important, don’t you think, that everyone is seen and heard? Perhaps I should have gone for ten – what do you think? Is five enough?’

‘Oh, absolutely.’ Mia nodded. ‘You’ve done well. I think you’ve done very well.’

‘Do you really?’ Karen frowned.

‘Oh yes, definitely,’ Mia continued. ‘It’s a good idea and a fine plan. Margrete couldn’t go to school alone. I mean, seriously?’

‘Exactly,’ Karen said, sitting down at the table again. ‘It was the least I could do, really.’

‘It was well thought out,’ Mia continued. ‘And incredibly well executed. I mean, we were clueless. You tricked us properly, you’re seriously clever.’

‘Yes, I am, aren’t I?’ Karen smiled and clapped her hands.

‘You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met.’ Mia nodded.

‘I’ve been planning it for such looong time,’ Karen said. ‘Every detail. But in the end it turned out to be so easy, and that’s the worst bit – it was so easy, so easy, you were barking up the wrong tree; it has been a really fun game, don’t you think?’

‘Yes, really fun.’ Mia smiled.

‘And now it’s nearly over. That will be nice.’ Karen sighed. ‘All that needs to happen is that we all die, then we’ll be done.’

‘Yes, that will be good.’ Mia smiled while her thoughts raced around inside her head. ‘Did you say now, Karen? Right now? Who is going to die now?’

‘You first,’ Karen said. ‘Then Marion. No, wait. I haven’t made up my mind yet.’

‘Oh?’ Mia said. ‘I thought you said you had a plan. That’s unlike you.’

‘I know.’ Karen chuckled. ‘But I can’t decide everything, some things depend a little on chance.’

‘Do they? Please tell?’

‘I had a guy who helped me,’ Karen said, sitting down again. ‘Men are idiots, but you know that, don’t you?’

‘Complete idiots.’ Mia smiled.

‘Yes, they are, aren’t they, quite incredibly dense. But this one, he really took the biscuit. He was stupid, very stupid, do you know what I mean?’ Karen laughed.

‘And who was he?’

‘Oh, just some guy, what was his name again, oh yes, William, that was it. He was married, but he fancied me – they do, you know, men are disgusting. He helped rebuild the room. I didn’t want the old room. I wanted a new one.’

‘Because Margrete had lived there?’

‘Yes, it wasn’t nice any more.’

‘I understand.’

‘So he helped rebuild it, and then I thought of something funny.’

‘What?’

Karen could barely contain herself now. She snorted and giggled like a little schoolgirl.

‘We made a film,’ she tittered.

‘A film?’

‘Yes, with his mobile. I laughed so hard afterwards.’

The Kiese film. It was a hoax.

Mia tried to keep a straight face.

‘What kind of film was it?’

‘He pretended to be really terrified.’ Karen laughed. ‘And he gave the wrong coordinates about his location. You know, GPS, the kind of thing they have in cars?’

‘Yes?’

‘He gave the wrong coordinates. Isn’t that funny?’

‘Hilarious,’ Mia said, not quite managing to smile any more. ‘And what coordinates did you give?’ she cleared her throat.

‘Well, that’s the best bit,’ Karen giggled. ‘The coordinates for a house further down the road. Isn’t that brilliant? You did get the film, didn’t you?’