Читать книгу The Sandman онлайн

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The man in the chequered jacket takes aim at the other man, but abruptly turns round instead and throws a ball that hits Joona on the shoulder.

For several minutes snowballs fly in all directions. Joona slips and falls. The bearded man loses his hat and the other man rushes over and fills it with snow.

The woman claps her hands, and is rewarded with a snowball to her forehead which sits there like a white bump. The bearded man bursts out laughing and falls backwards into a pile of old Christmas trees. The man in the chequered jacket kicks some snow over him, but gives up. He’s panting as he turns to look at Joona.

‘And where the hell did you come from?’ he asks.

‘National Criminal Police,’ Joona replies, brushing the snow from his clothes.

‘The police?’

‘You took my child,’ the woman mutters.

Joona picks up the fur hat and shakes the snow off it before handing it to the man in the jacket.

‘Thanks.’

‘I saw the wishing star,’ the drunken woman goes on, looking Joona in the eye. ‘I saw it when I was seven … and I wish you’d burn in the fires of hell and scream like—’