by Sten Ostberg
‘You know what’s going to happen now.’
He nodded gravely. ‘Of course. But there’s no other way.’
‘Vigar’s only a boy. This will destroy him.’
‘It was self-defence though.’
‘That means nothing, Karl, and you know it. Not after they tried to dispose of Kjell’s body. What’s going to happen to them?’
He sighed. ‘It doesn’t look good … for either of them.’
‘What if there’s another way?’
Karl didn’t like her expression. ‘There isn’t. Just give me the phone.’
She still made no move to hand it over.
‘Then I’ll use theirs.’
Marte stepped sideways to block his route down the stairs. ‘Karl, just take a moment.’
‘We don’t have a moment.’
‘Just one minute.’
‘The longer we leave it, the worse it’s going to be for them.’
‘It’s Vigar we’re talking about.’
‘I know that. But I’m a policeman.’
‘No, Karl, you’re not. Not anymore.’
‘Marte, there’s nothing we can do to help them now. Do you want us to become implicated?’
‘I realise Brynja can’t take the blame for Vigar, but how much would their situation be improved if Kjell was still here?’
‘But he’s not. What are you suggesting?’
Marte didn’t answer but waited for Karl to catch up with what was in her eyes.
‘We can’t bring him back here.’
‘Why not?’
‘Forensics would know he’d been moved. And even if they didn’t they’d calculate how long he’d been dead and want to know why it took Brynja so long to report the incident to the police.’
‘But she has.’
‘I’m not a policeman, remember?’ Karl could see she wasn’t listening to him. ‘This is going to be painful for all of us but you must let me make the call.’
‘So, my sister called us 20 … 25 minutes ago. That will be logged. She called a family member who is a policeman.’
‘Marte …’ He took hold of her forearms.
‘Listen, listen!’ Marte pushed back against him. ‘What if Kjell staggered out of the house after the fight? There’s already blood in the hall. Brynja and Vigar waited some time for him to return, but when he didn’t they started to worry and began to search for him. If they didn’t know he was dead that would account for the hour’s delay in reporting it. When there was no sign of him, they returned to the house and called us.’
‘Marte, stop.’
‘We drove over here and helped them look. After half an hour, or however long it takes us to get Kjell back from the pond, we find his body and that’s when you make the call.’
‘That’s enough!’ Karl moved her firmly to one side. ‘I can’t believe you’d even consider this.’
‘They’re my family. I have to protect them. Like you protected Nadina from Ditmar Haugen in the cabin. We both did the same with the Gulbrandsens when they tried to take her from us. Were you being a policeman then?’
‘Nadina is a child, an innocent. Brynja and Vigar, they—’
‘Made a choice? When Kjell attacked them? They had no choice.’
‘Are you not thinking of our child now? If we’re convicted as well what do you think will happen to her?’
‘I can’t allow this to happen to Vigar when there’s something we can do.’
‘Marte, please don’t put me in this position.’
‘There’s a blizzard blowing outside. Any tracks we make will be impossible to find by tomorrow.’
‘Listen to me. I love Brynja and Vigar, but the best thing we can do for them now is to make sure they don’t get any further into trouble.’
But Marte’s attention shifted over Karl’s shoulder just before something hard connected with the back of his head.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Murmured voices weaved in and out of Karl’s unconsciousness.
A loud slam woke him and he heard a crunch when he lifted his head from his chest. Looking up he saw shelves of canned food and a naked lightbulb burning above him. He put his hand to his throbbing neck and realised he was leaning against what sounded like a plastic bag of grain.
Shakily getting to his feet, he saw it was dried cat food. He was still wearing his coat and had begun to sweat in it. Karl tried the door. Locked. He’d obviously been shut in the tiny storeroom because there were no windows to climb out of.
‘Marte?’ He battered the door with his fist. ‘Let me out!’
Anger took over as he pounded the panel harder. It rattled in its frame but the wood was solid. ‘Don’t do this!’ His scalp beat in time with his accelerated heartbeat.
Brynja must have struck him from behind. How long had he been out? However long it was, Marte had obviously decided that he was best kept out of the way. Surely she didn’t really believe her plan was going to work. He stood back and kicked hard below the door handle but after four attempts he realised his leg would break before the door. ‘Shit.’
Marte was impetuous. It was how the 27-year age gap between them manifested itself. And she was fiercely protective of her family. That appeared to be overriding her common sense. And if she were following through with her idea to bring Kjell back to the house would he have any choice but to go along with it? As soon as she moved the body they’d both be involved, and how could he then be transparent with the police about what had happened? He had to stop her. ‘Open this fucking door, now!’
A squeak on the tiles outside the door.
‘Who’s there? Marte?’
No response.
Were the three of them standing out there listening to him? ‘You have to open this door. If you do it now, I’ll forget this happened. I understand why you did it but this is the wrong course of action. It’s not too late. I’ll call the police and we can say Marte and I have just arrived.’
‘They’ve gone.’ It was Vigar’s voice.
‘Vigar, open the door.’
‘I can’t.’
‘How long ago did they leave?’
‘Just now.’
So that was the slam he’d heard. It wasn’t too late. ‘Vigar, I know you didn’t meant to do what you did. If you were defending yourself, as well as your mother, that will count in your favour. If you deceive the police it certainly won’t.’
‘But we already have.’
‘Your mother panicked. When she decided to move Kjell she wasn’t thinking straight. Only about what could happen to you.’
Silence.
‘It’s not too late to stop this before it gets beyond our control. Open this door.’
A car started outside.
Karl knew it was his Outlander. ‘Quickly, Vigar!’
‘They told me to make sure you didn’t leave.’ He sniffed.
‘You’re an intelligent guy, Vigar.’ Karl knew he had only a handful of seconds. ‘Think. At this point you have the power to stop this. We’ll all support you. But we won’t be able to do that if we’re arrested as well. Do you really want your mother to go to jail?’
Tyres crunched over snow.
‘Vigar, I know the law. I know how it can help the innocent. But if you let them drive out of here, it’s over.’
Vigar didn’t reply.
‘No time to think. Act now. Vigar!’
Karl heard the key turn in the lock.
CHAPTER NINE
Karl jerked the handle and hurried into the kitchen. Vigar was standing there with a white towelling dressing gown belted around him. Pushing past him, Karl made for the back door and wrenched it open. Snow blasted him as he stepped outside and lurched around the side of the house to the front driveway.
He reached it just as the silver Outlander dropped onto the road and swerved right.
‘Marte!’ He frantically waved his arms at the vehicle as it took off with the two women in the front.
Either they hadn’t seen Karl or
had deliberately ignored him. Karl didn’t even have time to curse. He made his way back to the rear of the house, noticing that the trench he and Marte had made earlier had almost been filled in with fresh snow.
‘Just missed them!’
Vigar was clinging to the doorway of the dining room. ‘I’ll call Marte on Mum’s mobile.’ He grabbed it from the kitchen table.
‘No.’ Karl took it from Vigar. ‘No calls. They’re all logged. If you do that, questions will be asked about why we were phoning her from here.’
‘But if our story’s going to be that we were out looking for him it’s plausible that—’
‘There will be no story. And no calls, understand?’ Karl pocketed the phone.
Vigar nodded.
‘Is there another car in the garage?’
‘Mum’s.’
‘Where are the keys?’
Vigar crossed the kitchen and took two fobs from a dish on top of the microwave. ‘This one’s for the garage door.’
Karl snatched them both from him.
‘There’s an entrance through the utility room.’ Vigar pointed to the door behind Karl.
‘Stay here and do nothing.’ Karl turned, opened the door and made his way past the washing machine and drier to the garage.
Brynja’s gleaming white Agera was illuminated by automatic strip lights. Karl pressed the fob for the garage door and it started opening while he unlocked the sports car and got in. Hawken Pond was ten or so minutes away and Marte had a head start. He hoped the Agera could close the gap.
The car started first time but Karl had to wait for the sluggish garage door to open.
‘Come on.’
He put his foot on the pedal as soon as it did and skidded through the tracks already on the driveway. As the vehicle slewed right, the snowfall was so heavy he could barely see a few feet beyond the windscreen.
Karl accelerated and squinted through the glass, trying to spot the lights of his car.
CHAPTER TEN
‘We just have to pray the ice held.’ Marte turned to Brynja who was sitting rigidly in the passenger seat. ‘Brynja?’
Her sister didn’t react. Her hands were clenched in her lap. Marte had got her to wash the blood off them but told her to leave the wounds on her face as they were. Then she’d helped her get dressed into a pair of jeans, pullover, boots and a coat.
‘I’m sorry I hit Karl.’
‘It’s done now. We have to do what we can.’ Marte’s fingers trembled around the wheel. The shock of learning what had led them to make their journey still hadn’t sunk in.
‘You don’t have to do this.’
‘Don’t be stupid. You’d do the same for me.’ But Marte wasn’t sure Brynja would. She’d always taken the easy option – marrying a wealthy man instead of the boy she loved from childhood. Brynja had his child but he was a struggling sculptor and she’d left him after an affair with Kjell. She’d squandered her medical career for the trappings that had come so easily from Kjell and hadn’t made any harder choices than where Vigar went to school. But she’d been paying a dear price for it that even Marte hadn’t suspected.
‘How do we know Karl won’t just call the police when we let him out?’
‘That’s something we’ll have to deal with when we get back. If Kjell’s car has held. If it hasn’t …’ She knew what that would mean for Brynja. There was no way they could hide that secret. No way Karl would or her for that matter. But if they could just move Kjell and leave him out in the snow. Jesus, was she insane? If she wasn’t she’d be turning the car around, driving straight back to the house and freeing Karl.
‘If Kjell’s in the water we have to say it was down to me.’ Brynja closed her eyes. ‘Send Vigar back to college and pretend he never came home. He’s too fragile. He’ll never be able to deal with jail.’
Marte knew that was true. As much as she loved Vigar and his dark sense of humour she was all too aware of how disconnected from real life Brynja’s mothering had left him.
‘Why did he come home?’
‘He was depressed. His girlfriend ended their relationship and he has exams in three weeks’ time.’
Sounded like the problems of your average teenager to Marte but she knew Brynja blew every facet of his life up into something that had driven him to take the same sort of medication as she did. He’d tried to commit suicide when he was 17 by hanging himself in the garage. It hadn’t been attention-seeking either. He’d waited for his parents to go out and had only been foiled because Brynja had left her phone behind.
‘We have to take this one step at a time.’ She slowed the car as she peered through the thick flakes and could scarcely see the road. ‘Let’s think about the conversation with Karl on the drive back. That will all depend on what we find when we get to the pond.’
‘I’m so sorry I hit him.’
Marte hadn’t yet seen another motorist. Anyone out in this storm would have to be mad. But even though it made driving almost impossible it was keeping the road empty. If they could just get there and back without encountering another vehicle … ‘Did anybody see you going to or from the pond?’
‘No.’
‘Good.’ If Kjell’s car had gone under the ice they would turn around, go back and discuss with Karl what to do. Maybe they could leave Vigar out of it. But she doubted her husband would go along with that. If Kjell’s car were still reachable though, they’d bring him back and leave him outside before they released Karl.
They wouldn’t lie about what happened between Brynja, Vigar and Kjell – only about how Kjell ended up in the snow. But if they could convince the police that neither Brynja nor Vigar tried to cover up what they did, maybe they would only suffer the consequences of what this outwardly was – a domestic gone horribly wrong.
Would Karl stand by his principles if Marte could be convicted as well?
‘This is the turning.’ Brynja pointed.
Marte swung the car down the track. Although it was only about a hundred yards away, the pond remained hidden behind a curtain of snow.
They both leaned forward, as if it would help them see it sooner.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Karl could see the trench on the left side of the road and knew he was nearing the turn off for the pond. He recalled how they’d been there the year before with Brynja, Kjell and Vigar. They’d had a family picnic and Marte had laughed at how over cautious Karl had been when Nadina crawled near the water.
He thought about the laughter that day. Nobody could ever have conceived then that such grim circumstances would prompt their return.
Visibility was getting worse but Karl didn’t want to take his foot off the pedal. He had to reach the pond before Marte did something that would condemn them all. Part of him prayed that Kjell’s car had broken through the ice. What Brynja had done was already irrevocable and it made no difference if her husband’s body was above or under the water. It would also mean that Marte couldn’t follow through with her plan.
He was already trying to work out how they could explain the delay between the times they arrived and reporting the incident to the police. If he’d called them as soon as Vigar had released him he wouldn’t have been able to stop Marte before they arrived. He just had to hope that he could convince them both to return to the house without Kjell and let him handle things.
The car canted left and he jerked the wheel in the opposite direction as he realised what he’d done. He’d drifted to the edge of the trench on a curve and his wheel had slid down the incline.
Karl slammed the brakes on but it was too late. The car tilted and glided down into the trench.
‘No, no, no!’ He accelerated again but could hear the back wheel struggling to get a purchase on the snowy bank. ‘Shit!’
The car shot forward another four feet then started to tip onto its side. Karl fruitlessly tried to shift his weight over to the passenger seat but the lightweight sports car quickly obeyed gravity.
Opening the door, Karl cl
ambered back over the edge of the trench and looked down at the lodged vehicle as it settled there. Even if he pushed it back onto its wheels he’d never be able to drive it back onto the road.
He squinted against the flakes and attempted to see if there was a gap to drive it out of further along but knew he was wasting time.
How much further could it be to the pond? Karl left the car and continued on foot.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘Are you sure that was the right turning?’
Brynja was still peering through the window and didn’t answer.
‘We should have reached the pond by now.’ Marte slowed the car. She didn’t want to drive them over the edge and end up on the ice as well, but she couldn’t see further than the front of the Outlander.
‘I’m positive that was it.’ But Brynja didn’t sound it.
Marte hadn’t seen any tracks from Kjell’s vehicle but guessed the heavy snowfall would have covered them over by now. ‘I can’t remember it being this far. Are you sure?’
Brynja bit her lip.
Marte slowed the car to a crawl. ‘Maybe we should go back.’
Brynja turned to face her and relief instantly registered. She nodded.
Marte understood her sister dreaded seeing her husband’s body again but anger spiked. ‘You know this is our only chance?’
She nodded again.
‘I want to help you but there’s no time to be scared. If I turn this car around we have to do what Karl says. Understand?’
A tear trickled down Brynja’s cheek and she seemed paralysed by the decision she had to make.
‘And you know what the outcome will probably be for Vigar.’
Brynja closed her eyes.
Marte put her foot on the brake. ‘I can’t guarantee Karl will want to lie about Vigar’s involvement. And I don’t blame him for that. His priority is Nadina and I. Think carefully. Do we drive on or go back?’
Brynja looked away to the windscreen.
‘I need your answer.’
Brynja’s eyes were locked ahead.
