The Voices Beyond: (Oland Quartet Series 4)

by Johan Theorin

  Right at the back, beneath piles of old nets that stank to high heaven, he found a couple of wooden boxes marked with a yellow sticker. He carried them out into the light.

  The boxes had been carefully nailed shut. He thrust an old fish-gutting knife under the lid and forced the first one open. The contents were exactly what he had expected. He replaced the lid, wrapped his treasures carefully in a blanket and took them over to the car.

  He glanced over at the skiff and the birds one more time. The sea eagles were back on the gunwale, bending down to eat. The ravens were waiting their turn. Soon the birds would have torn Wall’s body to pieces, bit by bit. All the Homecomer could do was call the police, perhaps. Anonymously, of course, from a phone box.

  He got in the car and drove off.

  The New Country, November 1933

  Aron is lost. Winter has returned to the new country, and everything is white. Empty and white. Mountains in the distance, forest close by, wide expanses of snow. And then the wide trench, slicing through the landscape like a dark-brown wound.

  The mosquitoes have gone now that cold covers the wilderness, but life for Aron and Sven is not much easier.

  Their home is a ramshackle hut where weary workers from at least ten different countries gather every night. All the immigrants eat dry bread and a thin meat soup around the iron stove, then fall into bed, often sharing, top to tail.

  The hut stinks like an old stable. The labourers stopped washing when the water froze, which was several weeks ago.

  Aron hears the wind howling on the other side of the thin wall and thinks about Öland, about the shore and the rocks he used to stand on in the sunshine, about the days when he would go out shooting with his grandfather, about the evenings when his mother would tell him stories, him and his sister, Greta – but these are faint childhood memories.

  He is fifteen years old now. He has started to mix up the old language and the new, strange, foreign words that seep into his head and come out of his mouth, faster and faster.

  It’s not just that he is older – he has started to change, to turn into a foreigner. There is no mirror in the hut, but he can feel fine hairs beginning to sprout on his cheeks and chin, a downy beard that is gradually getting thicker and stronger.

  Every morning he wakes in the cold, surprised that he is still able to move. If the stove has gone out during the night, it is his job to relight it – if there is any wood left. He pushes in a few sticks and manages to get it going. At the same time he hears Sven and the other occupants of the hut slowly beginning to move, coughing and grunting.

  One morning an older man (Aron thinks he might be German) two bunks away doesn’t wake up. Someone shakes him, but quickly draws back. The German is as stiff as a board.

  ‘Heart attack,’ Sven says quietly.

  Aron looks at the dead man and thinks of Gilbert Kloss, who collapsed and rolled into a grave on a sunny summer’s day. His heart had stopped, too, but that was from fear.

  The German is carried out and buried far away, out of sight, beneath a wooden cross. No one wants to think about him any more. He is dead.

  Aron is determined to survive. In spite of the work, in spite of the cold.

  Whether the stove is burning or not, the hut never feels warm. All those frozen joints and muscles struggle to thaw out. Icicles hang from the ceiling, frost creeps down the walls. There is a thermometer nailed to one of the huts; it often shows minus twenty-five degrees.

  But still they have to go out. Time to work, to break fresh ground. They trudge through the snow beneath the fir trees; they shovel, fell trees, hack their way into the frozen ground, all because the trench must keep on growing.

  The long white days in the ditch become routine.

  Sven works just as hard as everyone else, but he has almost stopped talking in the cold. Sometimes he takes out his wooden box, checking for the thousandth time if there is any snuff left. Then he mutters something with his head down, and carries on hacking.

  Occasionally, he comes to life in the hut in the evenings, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. He stares around wildly and raises his hand to Aron in the darkness, ready to strike if he asks the wrong question – but Aron has almost caught up with Sven and merely stares back. He is tall, and he is too tired to be frightened of Sven, so he stands his ground, his legs apart; he has started to defend himself.

  If Sven hits him, he retaliates. It feels good to strike back.

  Jonas

  ‘How are you getting on?’ his mother asked.

  Jonas kept the receiver pressed to his ear, not knowing what to say. He had things to tell her, about the ghost ship and the hunt for Peter Mayer, but he didn’t dare speak. He didn’t know who might be listening. Uncle Kent had said they mustn’t talk about what had happened, and he could turn up at any moment. This was his telephone, on a table by the window in his house.

  ‘Fine,’ he said eventually.

  ‘Is Dad behaving himself?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you homesick?’

  ‘A bit.’

  ‘I miss you and Mats.’

  Jonas had realized by now that Peter Mayer was dead, but Uncle Kent had been just the same as usual at breakfast, chatting and joking with Mats and their cousins.

  Niklas had been less talkative, but then he was always quieter than Kent.

  ‘Only four weeks to go, then you’ll be back in Huskvarna,’ his mum said.

  Jonas was trying not to think about Huskvarna. Four weeks. A whole month.

  The line was crackly and his mother’s voice sounded a little tinny, so Jonas asked, ‘Are you at home?’

  ‘No, I’m in Spain, in Malaga. I told you I was coming here after midsummer – don’t you remember?’

  Jonas didn’t remember that at all, but now he knew that he couldn’t go home even if he wanted to. The house was empty; he was stuck here at Villa Kloss.

  ‘When will you be back?’

  ‘In a week. I’m going to do some travelling first.’

  Jonas heard the answer, but he was barely listening; he had been looking out of the window and had noticed a movement over by the cairn.

  The grey-haired man was standing there next to the stones, his hand resting on the cairn. Jonas peered through the glass, but the reflection of the sun on the water in the Sound made the man look dark and blurred.

  ‘Jonas? Are you still there?’

  ‘Yes … Yes, I’m here.’

  He blinked. And saw the man begin to make his way down. It almost looked as if he were sinking into the ground behind the cairn.

  ‘Guess what I bought today, Jonas!’

  ‘Dunno.’

  ‘A Spanish present. But I’m not telling you what it is …’

  Mum went on and on, but suddenly she decided the call was getting too expensive. She would phone again soon. And she loved him.

  Jonas wondered if she was alone in Spain, but he didn’t want to ask.

  ‘See you soon!’

  ‘OK.’

  Slowly, he put the phone down. The ridge was deserted now.

  He wouldn’t think about any of it. Not about Mum in Spain, or what had happened in Marnäs, or the cairn ghost.

  He would just get on with his work.

  Fifteen minutes later he was back on the decking, already hot and pouring with sweat. He could hear the sound of splashing and cheerful voices from the jetty, while he was on his knees working hard to clean each plank. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was hopeless. The far end in the northern corner was mouldy and dark grey after years of neglect, and he couldn’t bring back the pale colour, however hard he tried.

  He paused and looked over at the ridge. The grey-haired man hadn’t reappeared, but he saw a boat moving around out in the Sound. It was Uncle Kent’s launch, circling in the sun beyond the gill nets.

  Urban, Mats and Casper were jumping and diving from the stern. They looked like dark shadows against the sparkling water, but the biggest shadow, Kent, was stan
ding by the gunwale hauling in the line. Someone had just been water-skiing.

  Kent had asked Jonas at breakfast if he wanted to join them, but he had said no.

  He just wanted to carry on sanding, and to stop himself thinking. Stop himself remembering. But when he closed his eyes he could see Peter Mayer glancing over his shoulder in terror at Uncle Kent before he fled into the darkness. Into the forest and out on to the road.

  Jonas wiped the sweat from his brow. Waved a fly away from his ear.

  The waters of the Sound sparkled, the launch continued to zoom around in circles.

  By the time he had sanded twenty planks, Jonas felt as if he were going to faint; he had to go and cool down.

  The pool looked inviting, but he grabbed his trunks and went down to the shore. He took a detour via the cairn to check it out, but no more rocks had fallen down. There was no one in sight. The cairn ghost had gone.

  He ran down the stone steps, past the dip and on to the shore. The summer sun was so bright here among the rocks that it could easily blind you. Jonas kept his eyes lowered so that his baseball cap shaded his face.

  ‘Hi, Jonas!’

  Aunt Veronica was waving to him, treading water about ten metres out. She was a good swimmer and would forge along with powerful strokes, her legs kicking strongly.

  ‘Hi.’

  ‘How was the fair last night?’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Lots of people?’

  ‘Yes … quite a lot.’

  Jonas didn’t want to think about the fair, or the pursuit in the darkness and the screech of tyres. He slipped off his shoes and stepped out on to the rocks, but almost let out a scream – they were red-hot.

  ‘Put on some flip-flops, Jonas!’ Veronica shouted.

  Jonas didn’t reply; he just gritted his teeth and made himself keep going.

  He waited until Veronica had started swimming again, then he changed into his trunks and went and stood by the water’s edge. The air was hot and still, but occasionally a cool breeze blew in off the Sound. Öland was a windy place. Sometimes the winds were as hot as in some far-flung desert, sometimes they were bitterly cold. The surface of the water was also constantly moving, and right now it was full of the foaming backwash from Uncle Kent’s shiny launch. The boat was still whizzing around beyond the gill nets. No one was water-skiing at the moment, but the three boys were sitting in the stern in their trunks. And Kent was at the wheel, straight-backed and in control.

  Jonas saw him turn and say something to Mats and their cousins, and they all laughed. Then he caught sight of Jonas, and waved.

  ‘Hi there, JK!’

  He was smiling, as if nothing had happened last night.

  ‘Why don’t you go out with the boys?’ Veronica called. ‘Have some fun!’

  Jonas gazed at the shadowy figures in the boat. At Kent, who had chased Peter Mayer out on to the road, and at Mats and their cousins, who hardly ever told Jonas what they were going to do.

  He shook his head. ‘I’d rather stay here.’

  Gerlof

  ‘I heard about the death,’ Gerlof said.

  ‘Which one?’ Tilda asked.

  ‘The hit and run. The young man.’

  Tilda didn’t say anything, and after a moment he went on, ‘Has there been another death here on the island?’

  After a moment, she said, ‘There has, yes.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Do you know Einar Wall?’

  ‘I know who he is,’ Gerlof said. ‘An old fisherman who lives on the east coast, just like you, but to the north of Marnäs.’

  ‘Tell me more.’

  ‘I don’t know much more … I should think he must be a pensioner. He’s always been a fisherman and a hunter, but he’s done plenty of other things that were considerably less respectable. He’s the kind of man people whisper about.’

  ‘So he was a bit of a dodgy character, in other words?’

  ‘The fish he sold was probably more popular than Einar himself. But I’ve never done any business with him. He’s a good bit younger than me – between sixty and seventy, I’d say.’

  ‘He was,’ Tilda said.

  ‘Is he dead?’

  ‘We had an anonymous tip-off on Friday evening to say that he was lying dead outside his cottage. And he was. We think it happened that day, or the previous night.’

  ‘How did he die?’

  ‘I can’t tell you that.’

  Gerlof knew that he shouldn’t ask any more questions, so he simply said, ‘And the hit and run?’

  ‘Wall’s nephew. He was hit by a car on the main road … Peter Mayer.’

  Gerlof gave a start. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Peter Mayer. He was twenty-four years old; he ran out in front of a car the night before Einar Wall died. He was Wall’s nephew; apparently they were very close. So we’re looking into the connection, wondering if one death perhaps led to the other … That’s why I was curious to find out what you knew about Wall.’

  Say something, Gerlof thought.

  But he didn’t. He should have told Tilda about Peter Mayer some time ago, but he hadn’t got round to it. What could he say now? Perhaps it was just a coincidence that Mayer had been hit by a car just after Jonas Kloss had identified him, but …

  ‘We can talk more later,’ he said. ‘I have to go. John’s picking me up.’

  ‘Are you going on a trip?’

  ‘Not really – we’re just going for coffee,’ Gerlof explained. ‘With a gravedigger’s daughter.’

  Not all farmers on the island had been blessed with such extensive property as the Kloss family; Sonja, the daughter of Roland Bengtsson the gravedigger, was married to a retired farmer who had owned no more than half a dozen dairy cows, a few fields of potatoes, and a straw-covered stone barn which housed a small flock of chickens. The farm had been sold, and now Sonja and her husband lived in Utvalla, in a small house on the east coast overlooking low-lying skerries with a healthy bird population. Beyond the skerries lay only the Baltic horizon, like a dark-blue stage floor stretching towards eternity. Or at least towards Russia and the Baltic states.

  But Gerlof wasn’t looking at the sea as he eased his way out of John’s car. He was looking north. It wasn’t very far to Einar Wall’s cottage from here; it was probably only a few kilometres away, behind a series of inlets and headlands.

  Gerlof had called Sonja and invited himself and John over for coffee. You could do that kind of thing on the island with people you knew, and he had known Sonja for years.

  There were suitcases in the hallway; Sonja and her husband were flying to Majorca the following day. However, they were pleased to welcome their guests. Gerlof’s first question concerned their late neighbour.

  ‘No, we didn’t hear a thing that evening,’ Sonja replied. ‘We didn’t see anything either – there’s a pine forest between us.’

  ‘Wall was a tricky customer,’ her husband said. ‘We knew he sold fish and game, but I think he sold other things as well. If you were out that way, you often saw strange cars coming and going. The drivers always looked grim – they never waved, which isn’t a good sign.’

  ‘And he drank, of course,’ Sonja said. ‘I suppose that’s what killed him … His heart probably gave out in the end.’

  ‘So he had a heart attack?’

  ‘That’s what we heard – that he was sitting drinking in his boat and he collapsed in the heat.’

  ‘That sounds plausible,’ Gerlof said.

  Silence fell around the coffee table. So far, they had just been chatting, even though the subject matter had been quite serious, but Gerlof really wanted to talk about Sonja’s father.

  ‘Sonja, I’m not sure whether you know this,’ he began, ‘but I worked with your father in the churchyard when I was young. It was only for a short time, but he was very kind to me.’

  ‘Oh – when was that?’

  ‘In 1931, and there was another young boy there, too, whom Roland seemed to be keeping an
eye on … I think his name was Aron, Aron Fredh.’

  Sonja and her husband exchanged a quick glance. It was obvious they recognized the name.

  ‘Aron and my father were related,’ Sonja said at last. ‘Dad looked after him from time to time.’

  ‘So you were also related to Aron?’

  ‘Distantly, yes. It wasn’t actually my father who was related to Aron’s family; my mother and Aron’s mother, Astrid, were cousins.’

  Astrid Fredh. Gerlof made a note of the name.

  ‘But none of them is still alive?’

  ‘No, they’re all gone. Astrid died in the seventies; she’d left Rödtorp by then. Aron had a younger sister, Greta, but she had a fall at the home in Marnäs last year and died.’

  Gerlof vaguely remembered the incident, but it hadn’t happened on his wing and, unfortunately, falls were far from uncommon among the elderly. You had to be very careful with those shiny floors and rugs.

  ‘Where did Aron and his family live?’ he asked. ‘On the coast?’

  ‘They lived over to the west … at Rödtorp, next to the Kloss family’s land. Astrid and Greta stayed there more or less until the end of the thirties, but Aron and his stepfather went to America.’

  Gerlof was taken aback – not by the fact that they had gone to America, but by the relationship.

  ‘Stepfather? So Sven wasn’t Aron’s biological father?’

  Sonja glanced at her husband once more. ‘Sven came to the island as a farmhand at the beginning of the twenties,’ she said. ‘Aron and Greta had already been born by then.’

  Gerlof noticed that she didn’t mention who their real father was.

  After a brief silence, John spoke up. ‘Do you happen to know where Sven and Aron went when they got to America?’

  ‘Goodness, I’ve no idea. It’s almost seventy years ago, after all.’

  ‘They didn’t write home?’

  ‘Not letters,’ Sonja said. ‘But there might be a postcard from them in my father’s collection … Just a minute.’

  She left the room and returned with a dark-green album, which she handed over to Gerlof. It was old and worn, with gold lettering on the front: POSTCARD ALBUM.