Blood on Snow Read Free

affair or two.
    “I was thinking of taking a holiday over Christmas,” I said. “Asking someone to come with me, and go away for a while.”
    “A travelling companion? I didn’t think you knew anyone that intimately, Olav? That’s one of the things I like about you, you know. That you haven’t got anyone to tell secrets to.” He smiled and tapped the ash from his cigar. I didn’t get upset—he meant well. The word “Cohiba” was printed on the cigar band. I read somewhere that at the turn of the century cigars were the most common Christmas present in the Western Hemisphere. Would that be a good idea? I didn’t even know if she smoked. I hadn’t seen her smoking at work, anyway.
    “I haven’t asked yet,” I said. “But—”
    “I’ll pay you five times your usual fee,” Hoffmann said. “So you can take the person in question on a never-ending Christmas holiday afterwards if you want.”
    I tried to do the math. But like I said, I’m pretty useless.
    “Here’s the address,” Hoffmann said.
    I had worked for him for four years without knowing where he lived. But then, why should I have known? He didn’t know where I lived. And I’d never met his new wife either, just heard Pine going on about how hot she was, and how much he’d be able to rake in if he had a bitch like that on the streets.
    “She’s on her own in the house most of the day,” Hoffmann said. “At least that’s what she tells me. Do it whatever way you like, Olav. I trust you. The least I know, the better. Understood?”
    I nodded. The
less
I know, I thought.
    “Olav?”
    “Yes, sir, understood.”
    “Good.”
    “Let me think about it till tomorrow, sir.”
    Hoffmann raised one of his neatly manicuredeyebrows. I don’t know much about evolution and stuff like that, but didn’t Darwin say there were only six universal facial expressions for human emotions? I’ve no idea if Hoffmann had six human emotions, but I think what he was hoping to communicate with his raised eyebrow—in contrast to what he would have meant by an open-mouthed stare—was mild annoyance combined with reflection and intelligence.
    “I’ve just given you the details, Olav. And now—after that—you’re thinking about
refusing
?”
    The threat was barely audible. No, actually, if that was the case then I probably wouldn’t have picked up on it. I’m completely tone-deaf when it comes to noticing the undertones and subtexts in what people say. So we can assume that the threat was obvious enough. Daniel Hoffmann had clear blue eyes and black eyelashes. If he was a girl I’d have said it was make-up. I don’t know why I mention that, it’s got nothing to do with anything.
    “I didn’t have time to respond before you gave me the details, sir,” I said. “You’ll have an answer by this evening, if that’s okay, sir?”
    He looked at me. Blew cigar smoke in my direction. I sat there with my hands in my lap. Fiddling with the brim of the labourer’s cap I didn’t actually have.
    “By six,” he said. “That’s when I leave the office.”
    I nodded.
    —
    As I walked home along the city streets through the snowstorm, four o’clock came and darkness settled over the city again after just a few hours of grey daylight. The wind was still strong, and there was an unsettling whistling sound from dark corners. But like I said, I don’t believe in ghosts. The snow crunched under the soles of my boots, like the snapping spines of dusty old books, but I was thinking. I usually try to avoid doing that. It’s not an area where I see any hope of improvement with practice, and experience has taught me that it rarely leads to anything good. But I was back in the first of those two calculations. The fix itself ought to be fine. To be honest, it would be easier than the other jobs I had done. And the fact thatshe was going to die was fine as well: like I said, I think all of us—men and women alike—have to accept the consequences when we make mistakes.