Page 149 of Hidden in Memories
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Daniel sees the side door open slowly. He prepares himself for the worst; he can’t let himself hope for a better outcome.
Just as he catches a glimpse of Hanna inside, he sees the SWAT team instantly prepare to fire. Their weapons flash in the moonlight as they assume their positions with lightning speed and well-practiced movements.
He begins to run toward the hotel. He is shouting, but can barely hear his own voice.
“Don’t shoot! Donotshoot!”
The door opens wide, and Hanna is standing there. Behind her is a tall man in a black jacket, with a dog in his arms. It seems as if Hanna tells him to put down the animal and raise both his hands, because he nods and obeys clumsily.
“Don’t shoot!” Daniel yells once again as Hanna takes a few steps forward with Mogren.
Then chaos breaks out.
Two members of the SWAT team push Hanna aside and hurl themselves at Mogren. They force him down onto the snow with his hands behind his back. Meanwhile the dog is running around, trying to bite them, attacking fiercely in order to protect her master. Someonegrabs a hold of her leash, and as she is dragged away from Mogren, she begins to howl hysterically.
Hanna scrambles to her feet, blinking in confusion at the melee around her. She seems totally disorientated.
“The hostage is on the top floor,” she calls out. “He’s alive, but there’s gasoline everywhere.”
Then she sways, and Daniel reaches her just before her legs give way. She droops in his arms like a limp rag doll, and he clutches her to his chest. He doesn’t know whether to tell her off or console her. In the end he does both.
He is so relieved that she is okay. That it all went well in the end.
What would he have done if she had died in there? The thought is unbearable.
“Never do anything like that again,” he whispers as he strokes her hair. “Never ever.”
Hanna is crying so hard that her whole body is shaking.
“You have to get Filip out.”
Daniel turns his head and sees that police officers and firefighters are hurrying into the building.
“They’re on their way,” he assures her. “You don’t have to worry.”
He holds her even more tightly.
“It’s over.”
122
Lake Åre shimmers in the moonlight as Daniel drives toward Solbringen, where Hanna lives.
There is no one else on the road, it is almost midnight, and a myriad of distant stars sparkle in the dark sky.
Hanna is sitting beside him, curled up and in a world of her own. Her forehead is resting on the side window; she has hardly said a word since they left the police station. After the resolution of the hostage drama, everyone gathered for a debrief. It is an established rule: No one is allowed to go home after an incident like this without talking it through first.
Filip has been taken to the hospital in Östersund, and all suspicions against Paul Lehto have been dismissed. Bengt Hedin, however, is still missing—he has a lot of explaining to do, but that can wait. Right now Daniel is enormously relieved that the murderer was arrested without anyone else being hurt.
He glances at Hanna—her eyes are closed. She didn’t say much during the debrief. It is clear that the long hours of negotiation have taken their toll.
He turns into her street.
“Would you like me to come in?” he asks when he pulls up outside her house.
She gives him a wan smile.
