Page 128 of Hidden in Memories
Every minute feels like an eternity.
If Filip isn’t already dead, they are facing a hostage situation. There is also a great deal to suggest that Mogren is mentally unstable, which makes him even more unpredictable.
The tires screech as Daniel turns into the hotel complex without slowing down.
Hanna has called the duty officer at regional dispatch and requested the immediate deployment of a SWAT team with an experienced negotiator. RapidReach text messages have gone out to all key personnel who are usually brought in during a hostage situation like this. Unfortunately the only police helicopter is being used elsewhere, so the team will have to drive up from Östersund. This means it will be three to four hours before they are on the scene—optimistically at around two thirty.
Daniel would like them here right now.
To be on the safe side, he parks some distance away from the entrance. Leffe is waiting for them behind one of the neighboring buildings.
“Do you think Filip is still alive?” Hanna asks Daniel as she unfastens her seatbelt.
“I hope so.”
He knows he sounds terse. That isn’t his intention, but the gravity of their position has pushed aside all superfluous words.
The hotel looms up a few hundred yards away. The sky is gray and overcast; the windows stare down, black and empty. Someone could hide absolutely anywhere in there.
Daniel’s heart is pounding as he stares at the complex. He thinks of other critical incidents in which he has played a part. In Gothenburg, where he worked to bring down criminal gangs, he was at serious risk on more than one occasion. These were difficult challenges in particularly exposed areas.
This could be worse.
He wishes there was a handbook for dealing with a perpetrator of Mogren’s caliber. Even if Filip is inside the hotel, and still alive, he is still at the killer’s mercy. In which case they are facing the enormous task of persuading Mogren to give himself up, to hand over his prey unhurt. However, if he is in the throes of some kind of psychosis, it might not even be possible to establish contact.
Mogren has already killed twice. He has no reason to spare Charlotte’s son.
Daniel gets out of the car with a heavy heart.
This is no ordinary hostage situation where the kidnapper wants something in exchange. This is what is known as a victim situation: Mogren has abducted Filip for emotional reasons.
He has picked out his victim in order to do him harm, not in order to effect some kind of exchange. He seems to be living entirely within his own world of bitterness and old injustices. Otherwise he wouldn’t have taken his revenge on his own half sister and nephew.
How do you even reach a man like that?
102
Half an hour later the mountain hotel is completely surrounded and cordoned off. The police patrol cars are at the front, the snow scooters at the back.
A large group of onlookers has gathered and been moved away.
Hanna has just walked in a wide circle around the outside of the entire complex with Leffe to get an overview. There is no other damage apart from the broken pane of glass in the door, which suggests that Mogren got in that way. However, there is no way of knowing whether he is still in the main building itself.
He could be anywhere.
So could Filip.
Hanna’s stress levels are making her pulse race, and all her senses are on full alert. Leffe is doing his best to help, but fear and confusion are written all over his lined face. This kind of intense mental pressure is hard to handle.
It is more than challenging for everyone involved.
As they head back to Daniel, who is talking on the phone, Hanna wonders how they are going to communicate with Mogren. Somehow they have to get him to talk to them. Trained negotiators are on their way from Östersund, but it will be hours before they arrive.
It could be too late.
By this stage Mogren must be aware that the police have tracked him down. He only has to glance out the window to see the cordons. At the same time, it is essential that he doesn’t become so stressed that he does something stupid.
It is a very fine balancing act.
