Dead Below Zero

by Sten Ostberg

  ‘I could have told Marte but I didn’t.’

  ‘Whatever it is you’ve imagined—’

  ‘Imagined? Are you really denying what I saw?’

  ‘No. But it’s got nothing to do with this.’

  ‘Really? Put Marte on and let her decide.’

  Karl met her gaze. ‘This isn’t the time or the place.’

  Marte frowned.

  ‘Maybe it is. You’re so keen to tell the truth. Perhaps I will as well.’

  ‘Vigar, none of this is going to help you.’

  ‘What is he saying?’ Marte mouthed at him.

  ‘You act like you’re upstanding, Karl, but you’re full of shit.’

  ‘You’re too young to understand.’

  ‘And I was too young to understand what my stepfather did. Have you any idea what it was like trying to grow up with the memory of the perverted things he did to me?’

  ‘I can’t begin to imagine how awful that was. But we’re here for you now. Stop all this and come back to us.’

  ‘I’m going to do it.’ There was hysteria in Vigar’s voice.

  Karl could hear something heavy being scraped along a solid floor. ‘Just stop a moment!’

  ‘Put Marte on, I’ll only speak to her now.’

  Karl gripped the handset tighter. ‘Vigar, what do you need me to say?’

  ‘Promise to help us. Promise you’ll stay silent.’

  What else could he say? Karl sighed. ‘All right.’

  Vigar’s breath boomed in the earpiece. ‘I need your promise.’

  ‘You have it.’

  ‘Say it. In front of the others.’

  ‘I promise … I’ll stay silent.’ Karl watched Marte and Brynja exchange a glance.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  ‘That’s your word. You can’t go back on it.’

  ‘I realise that, Vigar. Now you have to come home.’

  ‘No. I know Mum wants me to stay out of the way now.’

  ‘Let’s work things out here.’

  ‘I’ll wait for the snow to ease then I’ll head to town.’

  ‘That’s miles to walk. You’ll freeze to death.’

  ‘Remember, you promised.’ Vigar cut the call.

  ‘Vigar?’

  ‘What’s happening?’ Brynja demanded.

  ‘He hung up.’

  Brynja took the phone from him and called him back. ‘Straight to his voicemail.’

  ‘He said once the storm has improved he’s going to head for Tromso. Could take him some time to get there through the snow.’

  ‘We can’t stop him then.’ Marte’s eyes were on the floor.

  ‘And there are several ways he could get there.’ Brynja added.

  It hadn’t escaped Karl that neither had yet acknowledged the promise he’d just made to Vigar. Did they now both assume his silence was academic?

  ‘It’s getting light though. He might be spotted. And there’ll be security cameras in town.’

  ‘What are you thinking, Karl?’ Marte’s eyes darted as she tried to read his.

  Karl turned to Brynja. ‘Is there anywhere that Vigar could shelter near here?’

  ‘No, why?’

  ‘It sounded like he’d got under cover somewhere. Said he was going to wait out the snow.’

  ‘Nearest thing is the garage,’ she said dismissively.

  Where Vigar had tried to hang himself two years ago.

  Marte headed out of the lounge first.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Marte hurried through the utility room and into the garage

  The lights detected her movement and flickered on. The space was empty of vehicles and the door wide open.

  ‘Vigar?’ There was nowhere he could hide but perhaps he’d escaped outside when he’d heard her coming in.

  Karl and Brynja entered behind her.

  Marte crept to the doorway and looked out. ‘Vigar!’ She searched for footprints at the threshold. The snow that had been blowing in had encroached in a semicircle by a couple of feet. It was undisturbed.

  ‘Vigar?’ Brynja called. ‘Was he really just here?’

  Marte shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. He would have left tracks and the light were off when I came in.’

  Brynja looked slowly up at one of the steel beams above them.

  Marte knew that was where he’d briefly dangled from a length of plastic-coated chain.

  Karl gazed into the snow, now eerily illuminated by the early morning light. ‘And you’re sure there’s nowhere else nearby that he could shelter?’

  Brynja nodded, then had second thoughts. ‘They’re building a new house, not far from here. It was only foundations the last time I saw it but that was a good few months ago.’

  ‘How near is it?’ Marte asked.

  ‘Directly opposite and up the dirt track between the hedges.’

  Karl turned. ‘So Vigar could have made it there in a few minutes?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  Karl stepped out into the snow. ‘If he comes back, make sure he doesn’t leave. I’m going to take a look.’

  ‘Wait!’ Marte tried to stop him.

  Karl was gone.

  ‘Karl!’ He was right about Vigar being spotted or captured on camera, but was that why Karl really wanted to bring him back? He’d made a promise but Marte suspected if he did what he believed was right, breaking it was something he’d reluctantly reconcile himself with.

  ‘I’m going with him.’ Brynja took a pace forward.

  Marte grabbed her sleeve. ‘We have to wait here.’

  Brynja pulled free from her grip. ‘You can wait here if you want.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Karl tried to estimate where the end of the driveway was but the snowfall was so heavy that he ended up running into the low, buried wall that ran along the edge of the lawn. He climbed over it and was up to his thighs in a drift.

  Brynja had said the track was opposite so he ploughed forward in a straight line until he saw the tops of the tall hedges either side of it. The incline was steep but he managed to slog up it, the increasing daylight making the white trail in front of him glow orange.

  He could just discern fresh footprints headed in the same direction he was. It was unlikely anybody but Vigar would visit a property still under construction in the early hours of the morning and the middle of a blizzard.

  When Karl eventually hit the brow of the hill he saw the dark shape of the substantial two-storey house. It was half finished, clad in scaffolding and had polythene sheeting roped to it that billowed in the wind. He recalled the flapping noise when Vigar had called him and could hear it as he approached.

  He prayed Vigar hadn’t left yet. But even if he hadn’t, persuading him to come back home was another matter.

  When he reached the property he ducked under the shelter of the scaffolding. There was no front door so he stepped through the opening and into the darkness of the interior. He opened his mouth to shout Vigar’s name but thought better of it. He wanted to locate Vigar first rather than alert him to his presence.

  He passed through the hallway where the staircase was half built and didn’t yet connect the two floors, which meant Vigar wouldn’t be upstairs.

  A cough from the room up ahead. Thank God he was still here. Karl made his way to the rear and entered what he assumed to be the kitchen.

  He could see the orange snow falling past the polythene sheeting at the window. On the draining board beneath it, Vigar’s phone screen glowed.

  Another cough beside him.

  Karl turned and saw Vigar hanging from one of the exposed overhead pipes by a length of rope.

  Vigar gagged and his legs kicked spasmodically.

  ‘Vigar!’ Karl supported him by the waist. Vigar’s body convulsed. He got his free fingers under the noose around his throat to loosen it.

  He awkwardly slackened the knot at the back of his neck, but Vigar was too heavy. Karl felt his stomach muscles tremble with the strain. He couldn’t ho
ld him much longer and if he didn’t get the rope off soon he would have to release him again.

  Karl tugged the noose and just got it clear of his head before he collapsed backwards.

  Vigar landed on top of him hard, knocking the wind out of him. He struggled out from under him and turned him gently onto his back.

  ‘Vigar.’ He was semi-conscious. Karl slapped him and his eyelids opened. ‘What were you thinking?’

  Vigar tried to say something but his words were crushed inside his bruised throat. His pupils rolled back in his head.

  ‘I’m going to call an ambulance.’

  Vigar shook his head violently and tried to rise.

  ‘Don’t move.’ Karl stood and grabbed Vigar’s phone from the draining board. He squinted down at it. Without his reading glasses he’d have to identify which icon on the screen was the phone from the coloured blobs there.

  Vigar’s arm slid around his neck and his other hand tried to snatch the phone from Karl.

  ‘Vigar!’

  Vigar dragged him back and they slammed into the rear wall of the kitchen.

  ‘You need medical help. I have to call them.’

  Vigar gurgled something in his ear but tightened the crook of his elbow against Karl’s Adam’s apple.

  ‘Let me go!’

  But Vigar didn’t and the pressure on Karl’s windpipe increased.

  Karl prised his arm away. ‘You’ve already used this phone to call me. The police will know you were here. Let me get you the help you need.’

  But as Karl peered down at the screen again, Vigar’s fist connected with his cheek.

  Momentarily dazed, Karl felt the phone being wrestled from his fingers. He tried to focus on Vigar but the blow had disoriented him. He felt warmth and tasted saltiness where his mouth had been crushed against his teeth.

  Vigar lost his footing, collapsed against the wall and slid down it. But he still held tightly onto the phone.

  Karl extended his hand. ‘Give it to me.’

  Vigar shook his head but Karl could see the whites of his eyes again.

  ‘You’ve starved your brain of oxygen. Let me get you help before it’s too late.’ He attempted to grapple the phone from him, but Vigar maintained a grip with both hands. Karl jerked it hard but he still wouldn’t let go.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  Karl spun to the doorway and found Brynja standing there.

  ‘Leave him alone!’

  ‘He just tried to hang himself. We have to get him to hospital.’ This time he secured the phone and staggered back.

  ‘Vigar?’ Brynja kneeled down beside her son. She slapped his cheek but he was out cold.

  Karl quickly dialled.

  ‘Vigar!’ Brynja shook him.

  ‘Emergency services,’ the female voice said in Karl’s ear.

  But the phone was ripped from his grasp again.

  Brynja hurled it at the cement floor where it shattered.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  ‘D’you realise what you’ve just done?’ Karl trembled with rage.

  ‘Nobody can know Vigar was here.’

  ‘He used it to call us at the house!’ Karl scraped the handset up but the screen was dead. ‘Now we can’t phone for help.’

  ‘Vigar!’ She slapped him harder.

  He murmured.

  ‘I think he’s going to be okay’

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about? I’ll run to the house and send for an ambulance.’

  Brynja stood. ‘If you do that, we’ll be gone when you get back.’

  ‘Why? And where will you go? You’ll both die out in this storm.’

  ‘At the moment, that’s the only option you’re giving me. If you call the ambulance now, it’s over.’

  ‘It is anyway.’

  ‘For me. But I have to at least try to spare Vigar.’ She returned to her son and examined the rope burns on his neck. ‘I’m his mother. Can’t you understand why I have to do this?’

  Karl did. But they both knew her vigilance was 15 years too late. ‘So if this is about Vigar, what’s best for him?’

  Brynja’s jaw tightened. ‘I nursed him after his first attempt. Let’s get him back to the house where I can examine him properly.’

  ‘I know about your medical training, Brynja, but d’you really think you’re qualified to make that call? I don’t know how long he’d been hanging here before I arrived.’

  ‘We’re wasting time. Are you going to help me?’

  Karl weighed up his options. If he went to summon an ambulance on his own could he run the risk of Brynja moving Vigar? He suspected it was a bluff, but she seemed so hell bent on redeeming herself as a mother it was the sort of irrational thing she might do.

  ‘Well?’

  But without the phone, getting Vigar back to the house so Brynja could assess him was the next best course of action.

  ‘And what if he needs treatment you can’t give him?’

  ‘Then I’ll call the ambulance myself.’

  ‘You give me your word?’

  She nodded.

  Karl quickly helped her get Vigar to his feet.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  As Karl and Brynja carried him, Vigar’s boots made a trough down the middle of the track. Karl had most of his weight.

  ‘Where’s Marte?’ he puffed. At least they were going downhill now.

  ‘I thought she was behind me.’

  ‘She followed you?’

  ‘She probably went back to the house.’

  They reached the bottom of the trail and crossed the road to where they could see the lights burning in the windows. It was daylight now but the snowfall was so thick they still needed them as beacons.

  They struggled Vigar up the drive and Karl used his free hand to bang on the front door.

  Nobody came to answer.

  Where the hell was she? After what had transpired in the last few hours, Karl knew Brynja was capable of anything. ‘Let’s take him through the garage.’

  She nodded and they hefted Vigar to the open door and into the empty area within before hauling him into the kitchen via the utility room.

  ‘The lounge.’ Brynja nodded in its direction. ‘It’s warmest there.’

  ‘Marte!’ he shouted.

  No response.

  They laid Vigar on the couch in front of the wood burner and Brynja kneeled and began her examination.

  Karl wiped wet flakes from his eyelashes. ‘Marte!’

  ‘Vigar, can you hear me?’ She loosened his jacket and rubbed the back of his hand.

  ‘Where is she?’

  Brynja looked up at him. ‘I promise, Karl. She was behind me and then she was gone.’

  ‘If you’re lying to me—’

  ‘I’m not,’ she scowled. ‘Perhaps she went to the car to look for her phone.’

  Vigar moaned.

  Brynja turned back to him. ‘Sweetheart, can you hear me?’

  ‘She wasn’t on the driveway.’

  ‘We could hardly see. Will you get me some blankets?’

  Karl didn’t move.

  ‘Karl, please!’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘There’s some in the cupboard in the hall.’

  Karl rushed to get them and found them on the top shelf.

  When he returned Marte had moved from her position at Vigar’s side. She was just closing the glazed door.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  Her eyes darted to the other side of the room.

  Karl’s followed. The phone unit had gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  ‘What did you do with it?’

  ‘I thought the fact I pulled you out of the water meant you’d let me handle this my own way, but I see that my saving your life counts for nothing.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘And I threw the phone upstairs out of my bedroom window when I got changed out of my wet clothes. There are none left in the house now.’

  Karl crossed the
room and pushed past her to get to the door. He opened it and tried to squint through the curtain of snowfall.

  ‘I hurled it a long way out there. You won’t be able to find it.’

  He knew it would be pointless hunting for it until the storm had eased. ‘So what the hell are you going to do if Vigar does need an ambulance?’

  She undid her coat, took the blankets from Karl and returned to Vigar. ‘Close the door. He’ll catch a chill.’

  He slammed it hard.

  Brynja kneeled once more and unfolded one of the blankets over him.

  Vigar suddenly sat up, eyes open and exclamation trapped in his throat.

  Brynja calmed him and eased him back against the cushions. ‘Ssshhh.’

  Vigar’s eyelids fluttered closed again.

  ‘I’m going to look for Marte.’ Karl paused at the lounge door. ‘Nothing you need to tell me?’

  Brynja shook her head once and returned her attention to Vigar.

  ‘After all she’s done for you, I really want to believe you.’

  ‘I’ve already told you. She chased after me. I swear I heard her on the track to the house but I couldn’t see her through the snow. I thought she went back.’

  Even though he doubted Brynja, Karl couldn’t waste any more time. If Marte was lost outside in the storm he had to find her as soon as possible.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  When Marte opened her eyes and blinked against the pitch darkness, the aroma in her nostrils told her she definitely wasn’t at home in bed.

  She shifted her body against the solid and uneven surface she was lying on and her stale breath bounced back at her face.

  Lifting her hands from her sides, her knuckles butted into a flat surface. She was inside some sort of container that smelt like sawdust and when she pushed against the lid above her, it wouldn’t give.

  Her breathing became erratic as she beat it with her fists. How long would her oxygen last if she was sealed inside?

  ‘Help!’ She waited and listened for a response but could only hear the wind. The entire back of her head was numb and when she put her fingers there the sting felt like the skin had been taken off.

  Marte carefully examined the area but flinched with each gentle probe. It was obvious she’d been struck with something.