Axel opened the bottle and poured cognac into the large tulip-shaped glass. The smell of corrosive caramel now mingled with the faint scents coming from Bie’s rose garden. He’d never told Bie that he had tried to contact Brede before his father’s funeral. Brede was part of a world he couldn’t talk about to her. They’d been married now for twenty-something years. She still occasionally told him she loved him. It had always embarrassed him. He wasn’t afraid to express his feelings, but he had never managed to believe she meant it. Bie admired him. She admired everyone who was strong, and ended up despising them when they turned out not to be after all. She felt as if they’d tricked her. It was the certainty that he would never disappoint her in this way that made her whisper these I love yous.
He raised the glass and let the evening light run out of it. As he was about to put it to his lips, his mobile phone rang. On the display he read the number of a colleague from work, and immediately he knew what it was about, because his colleague was on duty that evening. He smiled to himself at the sudden thought of downing the cognac in one so that he would be unable to cover for whoever was sick.
Instead he put the glass down and took the call.
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Certain Signs that You are Dead Page 38