Blackwater

Blackwater Read Free Page A

Book: Blackwater Read Free
Author: Kerstin Ekman
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Crime
Ads: Link
off and put it on the scooter seat. His hair was black with streaks at the temple that looked silvery. Narrow slits of eyes in the strong light, black inside. And behind him all the spiky white Norwegian mountains.
    ‘He’s looking for his reindeer,’ said Gudrun. And when they got up there, he cried out, ‘Bouregh!’ and then they had gone on talking to each other in their Sami. Johan understood no more than every tenth word and was deeply embarrassed when the tall man said something to him and he couldn’t answer. The man ruffled his hair and touched him.
    He could visualise the scene at any time. But he was thrifty about doing so. It must never get worn out, nor must the sight up there against the sky of the tall man who was his father.
    That was it. There was no other explanation.
     
    Then he heard Vidart’s car, a Duett with a faulty silencer. The dogs had heard it long before he did and were already barking.
    Vidart repaired and sometimes bought and sold used cars. He only used the Duett to carry the milk churns in. His wife always used to drive it across Torsten Brandberg’s yard up to the enclosure. But a stop had been put to that now.
    Gypsy bastard, Torsten said. That cripple who can’t work. Assessed disabled at fifty thousand. Of course he’s stealing.
    Torsten had himself bought four brand-new Hakkapeliitta tyres from Vidart. Given eleven hundred for them. And don’t think he kept quiet about it, either. He had told them all over the kitchen table that Vidart had simply phoned the insurance company and said, ‘I had four new Hakkapeliitta tyres stolen last night. And what’s worse, I’ve promised them to someone who’s driving down to work today. So you must get a move on over settling that claim.’
    ‘Is Vidart a gypsy?’ Johan had asked Gudrun afterwards, but she didn’t know. Torsten said that people called that were that. ‘Why does he hate him?’ Johan asked. What a word! But she had let the needle stop in the cloth, as if testing out the word on Torsten and Vidart. ‘He’s always disliked Vidart,’ she said in the end. ‘Probably because he’s new here.’
    Vidart had lived in Blackwater for only seventeen years. That was longer than Johan’s lifetime. The goats in the enclosure were Harry Vidart’s. They leapt about between the wrecks of cars and had gnawed all the tree trunks clean. Torsten had told him to remove a rusted-up Volvo PV and shift the electric fence further in. The bit of the enclosure facing the road was the Brandbergs’.
    Torsten had told him long ago. Vidart had bought the property from the widow of old man Enoksson and she didn’t know about the enclosure situation. Most people said the road up there was public, but Torsten said the bit from the barn was his, as was the bit of the enclosure where the Volvo was. It glowed fox-red with rust and the goats clambered on it to get at a willow that still had some leaves on it. Apart from that the enclosure looked as if it had been sprayed with defoliant.
    In the presence of witnesses, Torsten had told Vidart for the last time to move the wreck and the fence. It was to be done by Monday at the latest, he had said. That was the same week as Johan’s end of term.
    Vidart had moved the fence a bit further in and removed everything loose from the wreck. He was going take the rest in the front-loader, but there was something wrong with the hydraulics. So that week went by.
    On Tuesday morning, when Vidart’s wife came with the Duett loaded with churns for milking, there was a gate right across the road. She got out and saw it was just fastened with a twisted wire. She didn’t dare open it, but turned round and drove away. After that, Vidart took the tractor across the hay meadows up to the enclosure and the goat shed every morning and evening.
    Naturally all this could not go on in the long run. He couldn’t do the milking twice a day when he had his workshop to run, and his wife couldn’t drive the tractor. He was

Similar Books