Fireraiser

by Torkil Damhaug

  – To you?

  – I don’t know … There’s someone else there.

  – Female? Male?

  – The voice is deep. It’s a man. He’s saying something to Karsten.

  Elsa shut her eyes tight as though trying to see the scene for herself. – Now we’re approaching the limits of what you’re able to remember, she said in a low voice.

  Synne held her breath. – I must have been there, she whispered. – I must have been there when Karsten died.

  The sinew in her temple began to throb.

  – I can’t, she mumbled, and noticed that she was shivering.

  – Open your eyes, Synne.

  She did as Elsa told her.

  – Are you there?

  – I saw him, Synne mumbled. – Suddenly it was very vivid.

  Elsa laid a hand on her arm. – Now you’re back here again. Feel where your breath is. Feel what you can smell. And hear, and see.

  – Is that thing with the basement something I remember?

  Elsa wrinkled her forehead. – It might have really happened. Or the basement might have a symbolic meaning. Whichever it is, those pictures are true for you.

  – Will I remember any more?

  – You’re the only one who can answer that, Synne.

  – But you can help me?

  – If you wish. There is another method.

  – Using the cards?

  Elsa shook her head without taking her eyes off her. – Something more direct. We can find a way round whatever it is that is guarding your memory.

  Synne pressed her hands against the sides of her head. Between each throb of pain, it felt both heavy and empty.

  – Do you mean hypnosis?

  – Something like that. It might be worth trying. You’ll have to decide. But we won’t go any further today. You’re exhausted.

  Afterwards, they sat downstairs in the living room again. Synne had told Elsa about her headache and had been given more of the three-year tea, and still the lightning flashed up through her temple.

  – Drink more, it helps, said Elsa, and stroked her hair. – Pain in the head increases the closer you get to the thing you’ve been carrying around with you all these years.

  It sounded logical.

  – I’ve often thought about Karsten too, Elsa continued. – So much happened to him so quickly that Easter. More than he could handle. Both Adrian and Kai warned him against being with that Pakistani girl.

  Synne struggled to follow what she was saying. – Who is Kai?

  Elsa blinked several times. – He was raised by Gunnhild. She lifted her teacup, put it down again. – My sister, she added. – She was ill and unable to take care of him any more. Since I came back, he’s been living with me.

  She stood up, and Synne had to do the same.

  – Adrian’s always trying to help other people, said Elsa. – But Karsten was in love. Or perhaps mostly very confused. When I read the cards for him, they told me a lot more than I was willing to say out loud. Since then, I’ve often thought I should have stayed home that Easter weekend.

  – Would it have changed anything?

  Elsa looked out of the window. – I don’t know, Synne. There are forces that are way beyond our control. But something inside us tries to choose which of them we allow ourselves to be used by.

  Synne hadn’t the energy to feel if it was possible to see the world in such a way.

  – Jasmeen Chadar says her brother killed Karsten, she said. – I met him. He told me he took Karsten to the river, that he was furious with him, but that he let him go.

  Elsa nodded. – I think he’s telling the truth.

  27

  What have you done with my head? Kai shouted. It was as though it was rolling about on the ground next to his body. He tried to turn; his arms wouldn’t move, nor his legs. He had to vomit. His mouth was taped shut but it came anyway, a violent lurching that filled his mouth and spouted out through his nostrils. He twisted round, his face downwards. Don’t breathe, he ordered himself. If you breathe in now, you’re finished.

  The car he was lying in came to a halt with the engine still running. He concentrated on getting enough air into his lungs. Remains of the stomach acid burned in his nose. Exhaust fumes mixed with the smell of dogs.

  The boot was wrenched open abruptly.

  – We’re going to release your legs. If you keep still, we won’t have to give you another dose.

  It felt as if his eyebrows came off as the tape over his eyes was ripped away. Kai peered up at Vemund, who was holding the stun gun in one hand.

  – Nice fucking mess you’ve made here.

  The figure who appeared beside him looked big. He had long grey hair that was partially contained beneath a black cap.

  Two pairs of hands took hold of Kai, lifted him out and leaned him up against the car. He made noises for them to remove the tape that was still covering his mouth.

  – Shut up, Vemund hissed. – Or do you want me to break the teeth you have left?

  Kai tried to nod that he understood, they were the ones in charge. He had to think tactically now; if he panicked, he wouldn’t stand a chance. They wouldn’t take him out there, not right next to the two cars. He still had some time, maybe a few minutes.

  They were in a forest. The well-built guy pushed him through the trees, Vemund following. A few minutes later, they came to a lighting mast. Kai recognised it. Beyond the orange light he saw the outlines of the factory complex, the asphalt plant where Vemund used to work, the place where they’d had the combat exercise that Easter.

  They clambered down a slope and emerged on to a works road. The quarry was a few hundred metres away. Kai could see a digger and something that looked like a drilling rig. They set off in the opposite direction.

  After a few metres, he stopped and doubled over, pretending to be heaving again.

  – Cunt wants to puke, said the big man, and Kai recognised the voice. He hadn’t seen Noah since that Easter at Sæter’s. He was big and unpredictable, but in poor physical shape. – Should we let him drown?

  – No way am I going to drag that lump of meat around, answered Vemund, and took hold of Kai by the shoulder. – Fuck you.

  He ripped the tape away from his mouth. Kai coughed and spluttered, doubled over again as though he was about to fall. Noah held him.

  – You can walk yourself.

  Kai staggered a couple of steps forward and then sank to his knees.

  Vemund took a run at him and kicked him in the side. – You’re not that bad. Get up.

  The pain helped him to think more clearly. He no longer felt the nausea. Focused his mind on a single thought, held on to it as he groaned wordlessly and struggled back to his feet. Let his head hang, was careful to stumble even though he now had his balance and his strength back.

  Noah was on one side of him, a pistol in his hand; it looked like a Colt. – If the cuckoo goes down one more time, I’m going to shoot.

  – We’re not going to shoot him, Vemund interrupted. – If he’s got lead in him, the metal detector goes off and the stone crusher stops.

  – Ah shit.

  Noah walked on for a few more metres, turned again. – What about his teeth?

  – We’ll check them, knock them out if they’ve got fillings.

  Noah shook his head. – You think of everything.

  – Just don’t want this bag of shit getting off too lightly, Vemund murmured. – He’s going to suffer ten times more than Sweaty did by the time I’m finished with him.

  They continued along the track, piles of fine-ground gravel covering the slope on the lower side. There was a shed a couple of hundred metres further on, with a platform behind it. Kai recognised it. Eight years ago, when Vemund showed them round the place, this was where the biggest stones were crushed. Kai had stood on the edge of the platform and looked down into the dark chasm. He remembered Vemund explaining how chipping and coarse gravel were made, how the most finely ground stone was then used in
the production of asphalt.

  He could hear hoarse breathing in his ear, like a great wind slowly picking up. It was his own breathing, and when Noah stepped out on to the platform, he slumped forward again, pretended he had collapsed. As he felt Vemund grab his arm, he spun round and rammed his head into his stomach. The skinny body snapped like a dry twig. Kai swung his arms, hit him above the temple with such force that he felt the pain all the way up to his shoulders.

  Noah came at him from behind. Kai managed to turn, but the giant wrapped his arms around him, growling like a dog. Kai dug his teeth into his ear, tearing it from side to side. With a howl, he ripped it off. The hold broke; Noah staggered backwards, put his hands to his head, a thin shower of blood jetting through his fingers. Kai leapt forward and drove his foot into Noah’s crotch. The giant collapsed like a folding deckchair, and Kai hammered his wrists down on to his exposed neck. Noah fell to the ground, flattened, but immediately started trying to get back to his feet.

  Kai managed to grab up a stone. It was medium sized, with rough edges, and he was only just able to hold it in his taped hands. With Noah on his feet again and stepping towards him, he raised his arms above his head and hurled the stone at the giant’s face. Again Noah collapsed backwards, lay on his side. Kai kicked out at the side of his jaw, and connected so hard that suddenly the point of Noah’s chin was bulging out of his cheek on the other side. He landed a few more kicks before grabbing Noah’s jacket and tipping the huge body over the side of the platform. It rolled down the chute, and there was a thud as it hit the base of the crusher, followed by an avalanche of stones.

  Vemund was still lying where he had fallen. Kai limped over to him, pressed his foot against his neck, spat out a few lumps that were probably gristle and blood. – Now I’m going to kill you, he said, so calmly that it almost made him laugh out loud. And for a moment he could feel how easy it would be to lift his foot and tread down on that defenceless larynx. He forced himself to wait.

  – Get out your knife.

  – Ain’t got one, Vemund groaned.

  Kai pressed down with his foot. There was a whistling sound from beneath him, and Vemund fumbled a flick knife out of his pocket. Kai kicked it out of his hand, picked it up, held the handle between his knees, sprung the blade and starting filing through the tape, all the time keeping his eyes on Vemund.

  – Just got a few questions for you, he wheezed.

  With his hands free, he picked up the stun gun and pressed it against Vemund’s throat. Fired once there, once in the ribcage, another one in the back. Bent over and looked at the face, the storm of little twitches that came and went.

  – A few questions I want you to answer. Why the hell do you have to make it so difficult?

  Kai found the car keys in Vemund’s jacket pocket. He shoved him into the passenger seat; Vemund lay there like a bundle of clothing.

  There was a towel in the back seat. It stank of dog, but it was all he had. He got into the driver’s seat, switched on the interior lighting, looked at himself in the mirror. Blood dribbled from a cut on his cheek, but otherwise most of the blood wasn’t from him.

  Once he’d wiped off everything that hadn’t coagulated, he turned towards the slumped shape.

  – Now the two of us are going to have a chat, he said. – It’s going to go like this. I ask questions, and you answer them.

  He could see in Vemund’s eyes that he understood.

  – We can get this over with in just a few minutes, he went on, noticing how mild his own voice sounded. – But if I have to use this … he prodded the pistol into Vemund’s stomach, – then it’s going to take us quite a bit longer. Your choice. I’m in no hurry.

  Still no answer.

  – Maybe we’d better go back to your place and have a word with Vera and the little one, would you like that?

  – No, Vemund murmured.

  – Okay, we’ll try and get it sorted out here then. Keep the wife and kid and dogs out of it.

  He started the engine, left it running.

  – We’re going to talk about the evening Karsten Clausen disappeared, he said, prodding Vemund again with the barrel of the gun. – You still with us?

  Vemund groaned. With a little goodwill, it might have sounded like a yes.

  – The first question is, what did Karsten say to you that evening?

  – I never spoke to him.

  Kai suddenly jabbed the barrel of the stun gun into Vemund’s neck.

  – This is going to hurt. I really don’t think this is what you want. I know you were the one who bumped off Karsten Clausen. I know you got Sweaty to fetch his sister and drive her home.

  As he was speaking, he remembered something Sweaty had said.

  – I also know you took photographs of what happened that night. And I intend to get a look at them. My question is, what did Karsten say to you while he was still in a condition to speak?

  Vemund tried to lift his head; it flopped down on to his chest again.

  – He didn’t say nothing. He was dead when I got there.

  28

  Pepsi was there before the first piece of fish had reached the bottom of the food dish. The dog wasn’t interested in dried food any more, would only eat the same as they ate. The vet had told them she had an allergy and shouldn’t eat fish, but Dan-Levi liked to sneak her some of the leftovers. He could never get used to the idea of throwing away good food.

  Afterwards he parked Ruth and Rebekah in front of the TV. Another emergency solution, because Sara was at a parents’ meeting and Ruben had asked for help with a written assignment. And then there was Rakel. He ought to have sat down beside her and listened to what she had to say. What had happened at school, or on the way to school. Or what hadn’t happened. Why she hadn’t been with her classmates for the whole of that week.

  The phone rang. He was on the point of turning off the sound, but when he looked at the display, he felt he had to take it.

  – Am I disturbing you? asked Synne.

  Dan-Levi put the plate of fish on the cooker and shut the door to the TV room, where Ruth and Rebekah were arguing about which channel to watch.

  – Quite all right, he said, trying to keep the stress out of his voice. – How’s the writing going?

  He knew that was the worst thing you could ask a writer, and added: – This won’t be an interview, I promise you. He gave an embarrassed little laugh.

  – It’s difficult, she said. – Difficult in a way I hadn’t expected. I don’t think I’m going to carry on with it.

  In the living room, the girls were involved in a full-scale quarrel.

  – Excuse me just a moment. Dan-Levi opened the door wide and spent the next thirty seconds arbitrating. He was only partially successful; neither one was satisfied with the solution. He shut out the protests and returned to the conversation.

  – I’ll call later, Synne offered, but he said that wasn’t necessary.

  – You’re surely not considering abandoning the whole idea?

  She didn’t answer that.

  – Shahzad Chadar was going to kill Karsten, she said after a pause. – But he didn’t do it.

  Dan-Levi took off his glasses, and while Synne told him about Shahzad’s visit to the stables, he peered out through the dining-room window at the vague contours of the trees in the garden. Sometimes it was almost a relief not to see things in sharp outline.

  – He might have taken you to the river to make a lie seem more credible, he objected once she had finished.

  It sounded as if the same thought had occurred to her.

  – Do you believe in coincidences, Dan-Levi?

  He hesitated. – It’s a useful word on occasion.

  – I’ve been to see a woman who reads the cards. She’s the mother of Adrian, who knew Karsten.

  He sat down on the stairs. – You mean Elsa Wilkins.

  – Do you know her?

  He told her about the interview. That she had read the cards for him too. But not a word about
the Lovers upside down.

  – Adrian was one of Karsten’s best friends, Synne went on. – One of the few he had. Adrian and his cousin helped Karsten when his life was threatened.

  A thought was circling round in Dan-Levi’s head. It took a few seconds for it to land somewhere he could get hold of it.

  – So you’re saying Karsten knew this cousin. Do you know anything about him?

  – His name is Kai. At least I think he’s Adrian’s cousin. Elsa said he grew up at her sister’s.

  – Gunnhild?

  At that moment, an ominous sound came from the kitchen and Dan-Levi ended the conversation. Even before opening the door, he knew what had happened and was preparing himself to see the floor covered in pieces of fish and broken plate, with a very happy dog snuffling about sorting one from the other.

  Rakel helped him to tidy up. Every accident could be turned into something good, he liked to think. The good on this occasion was that it gave him a little more time with her.

  – Here’s the rest, said Rakel as she offered him a handful of smashed fragments. – Maybe it can be glued together.

  – Probably not, he announced.

  – You mustn’t be angry with Pepsi, she said.

  He patted her on the head. – Pepsi is an animal. Animals aren’t responsible for their actions in the same way you and I are.

  Rakel looked him straight in the eye. He had often thought she had the eyes of an old woman.

  – I had the same dream again last night.

  He shivered. – Not that one about Pepsi?

  She shook her head, and he noticed he breathed easier.

  – The other one I told you about. That you’ve been away a very long time. I dreamed that I crept into the secret room. Then I heard you outside the house and I ran out, but they had ruined you so badly that I didn’t recognise you.

  For a few moments Dan-Levi stood there staring straight ahead. Then he put the pieces of the broken dish into a milk carton and squashed it down into the rubbish basket. When he stood up again, he saw that his daughter had tears in her eyes. He hugged her tightly.