‘What kind of killer throws up right in front of his victim?’
‘Well, not Abelsen.’
‘No, that’s my point.’
Matthew found a cigarette in his pocket. His hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t operate the lighter.
‘Breathe in.’ Rakel took it from him and held the flame close to the cigarette. ‘You really ought to quit that, Matt.’
He nodded and exhaled. ‘Yes…But not today.’
‘No, probably not.’ She put the lighter back in his pocket.
The glow of the cigarette lit up the darkness. Matthew looked at Rakel. ‘Who the hell would do something like that?’
She gave a light shrug. ‘You would know that better than me, wouldn’t you?’
Matthew looked down. ‘Have you ever killed anyone?’
‘No.’ She shook her head and her ponytail bounced from side to side. ‘Were you thinking about your father and the dead men in Thule?’
‘I was thinking about me,’ Matthew said, blowing the smoke out hard. ‘After all, I killed Ulrik.’
‘Ulrik was my friend,’ Rakel said quietly. ‘And a bloody good one…I don’t want to talk about it. But you didn’t have a choice, did you? So it’s not the same thing.’
Matthew took another drag on his cigarette. ‘What if Arnaq is dead? I didn’t bring her back when I could have. I could have saved her life…And what about my wife and the little girl in her belly? I was driving when they died.’
‘It’s still not the same as killing, Matthew,’ Rakel said. She had stopped walking; her voice had softened to a whisper. ‘I didn’t know that you used to be married. I’m so sorry to hear…I don’t know what to say. But being involved in an accident isn’t the same as killing someone.’
‘But if I hadn’t been driving the car that day…If I hadn’t left Arnaq and her friends behind in Færingehavn.’
Rakel placed her hand on Matthew’s arm. ‘That has nothing to do with killing and it’s completely wrong to think like that, Matt. Whereas your father; he shot two men in the head. Now that’s a totally different matter.’
‘Ottesen says that you have planes searching the area around Færingehavn.’
‘Yes. We’ll keep looking until we find them.’
‘Dead or alive…’
‘I’m sure your sister is alive.’ Rakel’s voice grew quiet again as she spoke about Arnaq.
‘Why?’ Matthew tried to catch her eye, but she avoided him.
Rakel let go of his arm and looked across the pond towards the emergency vehicles outside Jakob’s house. ‘We should be getting back.’
‘Are you just saying that about Arnaq? Or did you see something out there?’
Rakel sighed and ran her hand over her face. ‘I don’t know… Given how it looked…I don’t know. To me it looked like two killings and two kidnappings, and I have a hunch that the boys are dead.’
‘What makes you say that?’
Rakel looked away.
‘You’re thinking that girls can be raped?’
‘Yes.’
‘I have to go there now.’
‘You need to talk to Ottesen first and nothing can happen until tomorrow morning.’
The blue flashing lights grew brighter as Matthew and Rakel returned to the house.
‘If you don’t want to be alone tonight,’ Rakel ventured cautiously, ‘then you’re welcome to stay at my place…You must be really upset by everything that’s happening right now. We can carry on talking in an hour when I get off duty.’
‘Thank you,’ Matthew said. ‘Right now my brain is mush…I think I’ll be staring at the ceiling all night.’
‘We can talk all night, if you like,’ Rakel said. ‘I usually go to the gym after work, but it’s too late today, and I just want to go home. You can sleep on the sofa, if you’re able to sleep. The kids are with their father.’
‘You have children?’
‘Yes, two of them.’ She smiled. Her upper front teeth were set back slightly from the rest. Her black eyes started shining again. ‘Minik and Paarnuuna.’
‘Lovely.’ He looked briefly at her face. ‘You must have had them young?’
‘I was twenty-one when I had Paarnuuna. They’re the greatest kids in the world.’
‘I would like to meet them one day.’
‘We should go for ice cream some time,’ Rakel said. ‘A day the kids are home, I mean.’
‘Yes, let’s do that,’ Matthew said. ‘Right now all I want to do is lie in the darkness on my own.’ He looked up. Ottesen was standing outside Jakob’s house, holding his mobile.
‘What are you two up to?’
‘Shooting the breeze,’ Rakel said quickly.
‘Probably a good idea,’ Ottesen said, nodding towards the house. ‘We found plenty of DNA evidence in there which will help our investigation, including vomit and some hairs from under Jakob’s nails.’
‘Black hair?’ Matthew wanted to know.
‘No.’ Ottesen shook his head. ‘Just as blond as yours.’
24
The water swayed softly underneath him. It was calming and alien at the same time. It felt cold. As though he was floating in the sea. The waves caressed his skin in long, gentle strokes. They felt like hands. Two hands massaging him firmly but softly, making his skin tingle.
The fingertips dug softly into his skin in calm, languid movements. The hands grabbed him and turned him over so that he was facing down. Rakel was lying right underneath him. She was naked and her eyes smiled inscrutably. Her mouth was open in a broad smile so he could see her teeth; the two front ones, which were set back a little from the others, drew his gaze. Freckles spread out around her smile. Her eyes were black, alive. They looked into him. They seemed expectant.
She nudged his chest and swam downwards. Through the water. For a moment he flailed his arms before realising that he was floating. Below him he could see all of her naked body. Her hips. Her small breasts. Her strong shoulders. Her hair was so dark brown that it seemed black as it flowed out into the sea in slow, undulating movements.
She beckoned him and he dived down towards her. Her smile broadened and fine lines appeared in the skin around her eyes.
He stared at her naked body. She moved her arms and legs in a sensuous, dancing motion. She swayed from side to side, pivoting at her waist.
Her lips whispered to him, but he couldn’t understand her. His chest was starting to feel tight. He needed air. He turned his head and looked up towards the surface. It was meant to be very near, but now it was nothing but a flickering light somewhere far above him. He started to panic.
He could feel her hands again. Exploring his body. She pressed herself close against his skin. Her face was in front of his. There was no fear in her eyes. No death. They shone right into him while her lips covered his mouth. Her legs locked themselves around his hips. Her hands cradled his head and she caressed his ears with her fingers. He gave into the kiss. Letting in her tongue. Letting in the air. He breathed through her kiss.
Matthew sat up in bed with a jolt. The flat was completely dark. There was no light in the night. Slowly he began to calm down.
‘What the hell,’ he whispered to himself, and got out of bed. He had a strong erection, but ignored it.
He found his cigarettes and pushed open the door to the balcony.
He tried to fight the lust the dream had left him with. It was a long time since he had touched a woman. Eighteen months, almost. After the accident he had been sure that it would never happen again, but now he had doubts. The smoke was blowing into the living room and he dropped the cigarette into the big bowl of water and cigarette ends. He found his mobile and looked up Rakel on Facebook. She was pretty. More than pretty. But she wasn’t the one who distracted his thoughts; it might have been her for a brief moment, but not deep down within him. Not deep inside, where Tupaarnaq’s eyes, freckles and lips had latched onto him.
He put on a jumper and sat down on the sofa. He shouldn’t ha
ve dozed off. There was far too much going on. The images of the injuries to Jakob’s stomach chased each other around his thoughts. At times he imagined Arnaq cut up in the same way, in the same chair. Then Tine in the wrecked car. Ulrik with blood foaming from his mouth.
Matthew grabbed the notebook that he wrote to Emily in and opened it. At first he couldn’t concentrate, but after closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths the letters and the words began to appear.
25
FÆRINGEHAVN, WEST GREENLAND, 21 OCTOBER 2014
The autumn snow had melted, apart from the odd patch, but it was only a matter of days or weeks before winter would strike the small, abandoned town again.
Matthew looked at Tupaarnaq’s back. Her stride was strong and long. Her rifle hung over her shoulder and her dark jacket.
They had agreed with Ottesen that they wouldn’t enter any area cordoned off by the police, but it wasn’t a promise that they would be able to keep. The whole house was cordoned off, and they hadn’t sailed all this way for nothing.
‘Shall I go first?’ Tupaarnaq had stopped at the cordon. The flimsy plastic police tape flapped in the wind. ‘That way you’re prepared.’
‘Rakel and Ottesen said too much yesterday, so I’m ready.’ He looked up at the windows. ‘After all, she’s my sister and I just want to find her.’
‘You’re never ready for blood,’ Tupaarnaq said through gritted teeth as she lifted up the plastic tape so that they could slip under it. ‘You think you’re ready, but no…’
Matthew looked into Tupaarnaq’s eyes for a moment. When the sun didn’t reflect in them, they were as black as the darkest night.
‘Remember,’ Tupaarnaq went on. ‘Don’t pick anything up in there…It’s useless as evidence, if we touch it.’
‘I won’t touch anything.’
‘I’m talking to your subconscious,’ she said, releasing the tape, which sprang back into place between two rusty iron spears. ‘It won’t react rationally to blood.’
‘There’s no need for you to freak me out completely before we’ve even set foot inside,’ Matthew snapped, and walked up the few steps to the external landing, which ran like a gallery along the front of the main building of the dilapidated house.
‘Yes, there is.’ She took her rifle from her shoulder, held it in front of her and pulled back the bolt to slip a cartridge into the chamber. ‘And watch your step.’
The wind howled through the empty first floor above them. Not a single window was intact in any of the three wings, and the doors at the end of each corridor were missing. The wallpaper was coming off the walls and plaster was falling from the ceilings. You could see exposed wood in several places, and over the years a palette of tired colours had formed in big patches. There were crumbling books and magazines on the first landing, mixed with plaster and dirt. In several places empty bakelite fittings hung from the stained ceilings.
‘It’s the first room to your right,’ Tupaarnaq said.
Matthew looked at her. ‘We’ll check all the rooms.’
‘Of course, but you should always start with the one you fear the most, otherwise your fear will dull your senses while you look at the other rooms.’ She looked at him. ‘In you go.’
The floor of the small room was covered by a thick layer of dirt, small pieces of plaster, and wooden splinters from the wall. A rusty single bed frame with no mattress was pushed up against one wall. The biggest bloodstain was in the middle of the room. It had run in several directions and was the width of the bed. In front of the bed was a smaller puddle. Much of the larger stain had been smeared. Most of the blood had seeped through the floor.
Matthew slumped to the floor with his back against the wall near the window. He stared impotently at the sloping wall, which reached across the bed and was stained with damp patches.
Tupaarnaq squatted down on her haunches and studied the stains in the middle of the floor. She held her rifle in one hand so the butt rested on the floor as she looked back and forth between the two bloodstains.
‘Two people died in here,’ she said.
Matthew looked at the bloodstains in front of her. He had to make an effort to speak. ‘Two?’
‘There’s blood from two people here.’ She pointed to a small piece of wood lying at the edge of the dried blood pool. ‘When you’ve slaughtered a lot of animals, you learn how blood moves, and right here two people lost their lives.’
‘You’re sure that they’re dead?’ Matthew’s voice was quivering.
She nodded. ‘There’s a lot of blood here. I’ve seen men as well as animals die from losing less blood than there is here. The two who lay here were dead before they were moved.’
‘What about the last stain?’ Matthew said. ‘Over by the bed…Is that also from one of those two people?’
Tupaarnaq shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. It doesn’t seem logical.’
A shiver went down Matthew’s spine.
‘What did Rakel say to you yesterday?’ Tupaarnaq wanted to know.
‘She thinks that the boys are dead and that someone took the girls.’
‘Why?’
‘Because…girls are raped.’
‘Let’s see,’ Tupaarnaq said quietly. ‘I can tell from the dirt that someone sat here. The girls possibly.’
Matthew nodded slowly. The same thought had crossed his mind when he examined the floor at the end of the bed. He wished more than anything in the world that his sister was alive, even if it meant that the others were most likely dead. The thought that he wanted the others to be dead hurt, but he did. Rather them than Arnaq.
Tupaarnaq looked at the spot, then trained her gaze on the corridor. ‘Either there was more than one killer or he was incredibly strong. There are no drag marks here or in the corridor. No blood traces apart from in this room.’ She turned her head. ‘I agree, I think the girls are alive.’
Matthew pushed himself up off the floor. ‘Let’s keep looking. There must be traces of them somewhere.’ He surveyed the arm of the fjord through the broken window. ‘And we need to have a word with that Faroese guy from the bunker point when we’re done here,’ he added. He followed Tupaarnaq out into the corridor. ‘The guy who attacked me was also very big, and perhaps he killed Jakob just before…or just after attacking me.’ He shook his head.
‘The one we met when we were out here with Abelsen was also big,’ Tupaarnaq said. ‘A giant…Are there other men as tall as him in Nuuk?’
Matthew shrugged. ‘I’ve only met one, a former US officer now working for the Greenlandic government. But there might be more.’
‘It’s possible,’ Tupaarnaq said. ‘But it’s not as common to be two metres tall up here as it is in Denmark.’
They became aware of the sound of a helicopter. Matthew and Tupaarnaq rushed down the stairs and outside. The sound grew louder and soon a red AS 350 helicopter flew across the ground and began to circle. It went so low that they could see the pilot as well as the two officers inside it.
Matthew didn’t recognise the pilot, but one of the officers was Rakel. He waved to her just as the helicopter veered to the right and continued along the outskirts of the abandoned town, after which it flew across the quay at low speed while it searched the area.
‘I think they’re searching from the air only,’ Matthew said, repressing the thought of him and Rakel in the sea.
26
Tupaarnaq looked up at the sky, which was heavy with charcoal clouds. ‘I’ve spent far too many winters in a Danish prison.’
Matthew looked at her. He was busy securing the rubber dinghy.
‘The days are shorter up here in the winter,’ she continued. ‘In a month we’ll have just a couple of hours of daylight around noon at most. I’ve missed that.’
‘You’ve missed the darkness?’
‘Call it what you like,’ she said. ‘To me it’s not just darkness; it’s also light.’ She looked at him. ‘You haven’t experienced a Greenlandic winter yet, have you?’
‘I’d like to show you the light in the darkness,’ she went on. ‘Except that’s not how it works; you have to find your own light. Or it won’t shine.’
It had taken Matthew and Tupaarnaq a couple of hours to search every building. They examined the ones around the plain as well as the warehouses. They had been inside most of them before. Two months earlier they had been looking for a little girl who had gone missing in 1973. Some old 8mm films had led them to search Færingehavn. The footage showed how Najak had been slowly broken down until she died.
The Air Greenland helicopter had circled the area for almost two hours before it had flown off.
Shortly afterwards Matthew and Tupaarnaq had rowed the dinghy back to the boat and climbed on board so that they could reach the Polaroil bunker point before it got too dark. The light had already started to fade.
Snow started to fall on and around the boat. Matthew went inside the wheelhouse to join Tupaarnaq, who had started the engine.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘You can drive us over there.’
‘Me? You want me to take the wheel?’
‘Yes, there are few places where the water is as calm as here, so why not?’
Matthew nodded and smiled.
‘It’s not hard,’ she went on. ‘And you did okay last time.’
‘And the rocks?’
‘You can see those on the monitor, but I can watch it for you as long as you drive slowly.’
Matthew pushed the shiny throttle upwards and felt how the bow of the boat rose immediately as it carved its way through the water.
Outside the wheelhouse, the snow was falling more densely. Tupaarnaq flicked a small switch, which got the windscreen wipers going.
‘Will the sea freeze over here?’ Matthew asked, accelerating with caution.
‘No, I’m guessing it’s like Tasiilaq,’ Tupaarnaq said. ‘The tides are too strong for the ice to set.’
The boat shot across the sea. On the small screen next to the wheel Matthew could see that they were cruising at between twelve and fourteen knots. He knew that Tupaarnaq could easily get the boat to go thirty knots, and more in calm weather.
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