The Lost Boy
No. 1 international bestseller and Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg’s new psychological thriller – irresistible for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo.Detective Patrik Hedstrom is no stranger to tragedy. A murder case concerning Fjallbacka’s dead financial director, Mats Sverin, is a grim but useful distraction from his recent family misfortunes.It seems Mats was a man who everybody liked yet nobody really knew – a man with something to hide…His high school sweetheart, Nathalie, has just returned to the area with her five-year-old son – could she shed light on who Mats really was?However, Nathalie has her own secret. If it’s discovered, she will lose her only child. As the investigation stalls, the police have many questions. But there is only one that matters.Is there anything a mother would not do to protect her child?
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CAMILLA LACKBERG
The Lost Boy
Translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Copyright © Camilla Lackberg 2009
Published by agreement with Nordin Agency, Sweden
Translation copyright © Tiina Nunnally 2013
Jacket layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2012; Jacket photographs © Clayton Bastiani/Trevillion Images (boy, beach and sea); Chad Ehlers/Getty Images (lighthouse and rocks); Shutterstock.com (sky).
First published in Swedish as Fyrvaktaren
Camilla Lackberg asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source ISBN: 9780007473212
Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007419562
Version: 2017-05-19
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
For Charlie
Table of Contents
It was only when she placed her hands on the steering wheel that she saw they were bloody. Her palms felt sticky against the leather. But she ignored the blood as she shifted into reverse and a bit too hastily backed out of the driveway. She heard the gravel spray out from under the tyres.
They had a long drive ahead of them. She cast a glance at the back seat. Sam was asleep, wrapped up in a blanket. He really ought to be strapped in with a seat belt, but she didnât have the heart to wake him. She would just have to drive as carefully as possible. Immediately she let up on the accelerator.
The summer night had already started to brighten. At this time of year the hours of darkness were practically over before they even began. And yet this night seemed endless. Everything had changed. Fredrikâs brown eyes had stared rigidly up at the ceiling, and she realized that there was nothing she could do. She had to save herself and Sam. She couldnât think about the blood. She couldnât think about Fredrik.
There was only one place she could go.
Six hours later, they reached their destination. Fjällbacka was just starting to wake up. She parked the car near the Coast Guard building, taking a moment to work out how she could manage to carry everything. Sam was still sound asleep. She took out a package of tissues from the glove compartment and wiped her hands as best she could. It was hard to get all the blood off. Then she took the suitcases out of the boot of the car and quickly dragged them over to Badholmen, the island with the diving platform, where the boat was docked. She was worried that Sam might wake up, but she had locked the car so he wouldnât be able to get out and tumble into the water. With an effort she stowed the luggage on board the boat and unlocked the chain, which was meant to keep the vessel from being stolen. Then she ran back to the car, relieved to see that Sam was sleeping as calmly as when sheâd left him. Picking him up, she carried him, still wrapped in the blanket, over to the boat. She kept her eyes fixed on her feet as she stepped on board so she wouldnât slip. Carefully she placed Sam on the deck and then turned the key in the ignition. The motor coughed but started up on the first try. Though she hadnât driven a motorboat in a long time, she was certain she could manage. She backed out of the mooring berth and then headed out of the harbour.
The sun was shining but hadnât yet had time to warm the air. She felt the tension slowly seeping away, and the horror of the night lost some of its grip on her. As she looked at Sam she wondered if what had happened would scar him for life. A five-year-old was fragile. Who knew what might have been destroyed inside him? She would do everything in her power to make him whole again. She would take away the evil with a kiss, just as she did when he fell off his bike and scraped his knee.
