They walk up to the bulletproof glass on the door. Jurek Walter is now sitting on his bed. Roland puts his earplugs into his ears and then opens the slot in the door.
“Jurek Walter,” he says in a relaxed voice. “It’s time …”
Anders watches the man get up from the bed and walk to the door while unbuttoning his shirt.
“Stop and take off your shirt,” Roland says, although the man is already doing so.
Jurek Walter walks slowly toward them.
Roland shuts the slot and fastens it with movements that are just a bit too fast, too nervous. Jurek stops and slips out of his shirt. He has three round scars on his chest. His skin hangs limply from his arms.
Roland opens the slot again and Jurek walks the last few steps.
“Hold out your arm,” Roland says. A slight hiccup betrays his fear.
Jurek puts his arm through the slot but does not look at Roland at all. He’s staring intently at Anders.
Roland jabs the needle into an upper-arm muscle and injects the liquid quickly. Jurek’s hand jerks in surprise, but he does not withdraw his arm until he has received permission.
Roland shuts the slot and locks it as swiftly as he can. Jurek Walter stumbles back toward his bed. He sits down. His movements are jerky. Roland drops the needle and they watch it roll across the concrete floor.
When they look back through the glass, it’s misty. Jurek Walter has breathed on it. He’s written a single word backward in the haze: JOONA.
“What’s that say?” asks Anders, his voice weak.
“He’s written ‘Joona.’ ”
“Joona? What the hell does that mean?”
Before the haze dissipates, they look in. Jurek Walter is sitting on his bed as if he’d never moved.
Lars Kepler is the pseudonym of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril & Alexander Ahndoril, both critically acclaimed writers under their own names. Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril’s first novel Stjärneborg (Castle of Stars) has been translated in several languages while Alexander Ahndoril’s novel The Director, about Ingmar Bergman, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The Joona Linna Thriller series has been published in several languages around the world.
Lars Kepler, The Joona Linna Thrillers 3-Book Bundle
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