Page 142 of Hidden in Memories
Once again he is talking about Curt Wretlind, the man behind this dreadful tragedy. Hanna can feel his pain, it is raw and genuine.
The space between them is filled with powerlessness and frustration.
“I’m just as dirty as the rest of them,” Erik whispers. “None of us deserves to go on living.”
114
“We have to go in now,” Jonas Höglid says to Daniel. “We can’t wait any longer.”
He is standing in the snow with his legs apart, hands on his hips, looking Daniel in the eye. He nods toward the motor home, where Hanna is still on the phone.
“She’s been at it all day and she’s gotten precisely nowhere. For all we know the hostage might already be dead. This is a complete waste of time. We’ve waited far too long, and there’s a limit to what my boys can cope with. They’ve been on standby for over five hours.”
Jonas is about ten years older than Daniel, and comes from Östersund. A muscular man who talks louder than necessary. He spreads his hands wide.
“If we don’t intervene soon, it could be too late.”
Daniel flexes his fingers inside his gloves as he weighs up the alternatives. They are faced with a choice where every decision could mean the loss of human life.
Hanna has made significant progress. She has established an effective channel of communication with Mogren. He has gone from bitterness and aggression to admitting what he has done and acknowledging his guilt. At the same time, he still seems convincedthat death is the only way out. He is agitated and trapped, very close to the breaking point.
An unpredictable man driven by immense self-loathing.
They have no idea how Filip is doing, plus Mogren is barricaded in a building that could go up in flames in minutes. All it would take is a few matches or a lighter for the disaster to become a fact.
With each passing hour, the pressure increases.
“I think we should go in with three men,” Höglid states firmly.
Daniel has met his type before. He himself behaved that way at the beginning of his career, he was the kind of police officer who preferred action to discussion. Sometimes it is unbearable to remain passive when lives are at risk, but that is not enough to justify a critical decision like the one facing them now.
“My boys are trained for situations like this,” Höglid continues. “They can take Mogren out before he has the chance to harm the hostage.”
“But what if he’s in the bar with Filip? Can they really make it all the way up there without Mogren realizing what’s happening?”
Daniel chooses his words with care. It is not a good idea to create an internal conflict.
“All it would take is for someone to step on a creaky stair, and the game is up,” he adds.
“They know what they’re doing.”
Daniel doesn’t like the way Höglid dismisses him before he has finished speaking. In the end Daniel is the one who will make the decision—he is the senior officer at the scene.
The question is whether they should wait and give Hanna more time, or go for what might be the safer option and send in specially trained armed officers?
Two lives are hanging by a thread. Maybe more, if something were to go wrong during the operation. It would take so little to fail—the margins are desperately slim.
It is an inhumanly difficult decision.
“I think we should give Hanna another hour,” he says.
Höglid considers the suggestion for a few seconds.
“Okay—but no more. At exactly nine thirty I’m sending the boys in.”
115
It is like being inside an hourglass with the sand trickling through way too fast.
