Karin Fossum - Eva's Eye

Eva sat down on her backside with a thump. She clutched the packet tightly. Maja’s idea had been exactly the same as hers, to hide the money in an empty paint tin! She buried her head in her hands for a moment, overwhelmed by it all, money that no one knew about, that no one owned, a staggering sum was now lying in her lap. An enormous life insurance. She pulled out the remainder of the packets, there were eleven in all. They were fat, roughly the thickness of four or five slices of bread, she imagined, and she laid them one on top of the other on the floor, it was a real pile by the time she’d finished. She no longer felt cold. Her blood was singing in her veins, she was panting as if she’d been on a long run, she could almost fancy her brow was beaded in sweat. She fumbled with the zips in her jacket so that she could stuff her treasure in the pockets, with which it was well supplied. Two packets in each jacket pocket and the rest in her trouser pockets, that might do. But she had to do the zips up properly afterward, she couldn’t risk them falling out on the way back. She’d made up her mind to run back to the car, somehow she just had to get rid of all this unaccustomed energy that was coursing through her body. A run, a wild run through the heather, that was what she needed now. She stood up. She’d risen to gain better access to her pockets, but just at that moment she heard a sound. It was a familiar sound, a sound she heard every single day and so recognized instantly, but now her heart stopped with a nasty jolt and stood still for a long moment. It was a car.

It came purring toward the cabin, she heard it change down and the sound of brittle, frozen heather beating against the bumper. Its bright headlights penetrated the split timber of the walls in places, she stood as if turned to stone with the packets of money in her hands, not a thought in her head. Her mind was absolutely empty, all she felt was blind panic, and then her body took over, it acted, and her thoughts followed it, she watched almost in amazement as she shoved the packets back into the paint tin, pressed down the lid, tiptoed across the floor, which creaked a little, but the car’s engine was still running. She opened the bathroom door, pushed away one polystyrene square, and dropped the tin down the hole. Then she switched off the torch.

A car door slammed. She heard rapid steps and shortly after the jangling of keys in the lock. It was the middle of the night and someone was letting themselves into Maja’s cabin! It couldn’t be anyone with honest intentions, she thought, and heard the screeching of rusty hinges, now someone was tramping into the little covered entrance. In a few moments the person out there would discover the open window. The entire cabin would be searched. Eva wasn’t thinking anymore, she stood as if on a burning ship, and now she chose the foaming ice-cold sea. Resolutely, she put one leg into the toilet. She steadied herself on the frame, realized that she couldn’t get her other leg in because the hole wasn’t big enough, lifted her leg out again, and instead stuck both her legs in at the same time, allowing herself to sink into the dark space. Her feet kicked wildly as she waited to touch bottom, and at last she felt it, a sort of soft mass into which she sank. The footsteps up above were entering the cabin as she grabbed the torch and threw it down at her feet. Then she hunkered down, strained a little to get her shoulders through and scrabbled in the dark for the square to cover the hole with, balanced it on her fingertips, and maneuvered it carefully into place above her head. Then she was left in total blackness, not a gleam of light anywhere, and she sank down a bit further, gave up trying to crouch, and seated herself properly. She sank a bit more. She rested her forehead on her knees. There hadn’t been much smell when she’d first gone into the toilet and looked down, now the stink began to worsen as her body heat warmed up the contents. She sat there breathing as carefully as she could with her nose stuck between her knees, the torch had rolled to the side and was out of reach. The tin with the two million in it was between her legs. A door slammed in the cabin, and now she heard violent curses. It was a man and he was livid.

She had to breathe through her mouth. She didn’t open her nasal passages even for an instant. Eva was afraid she might faint. She tried to listen to what he was doing, he was certainly searching for something. He didn’t bother to keep quiet, maybe he’d even switched the light on, she thought, and suddenly remembered her day sack, which she’d left on the living room floor. The thought of it almost made her sick. Could he have seen the light of her torch? She didn’t think so. But the day sack on the floor — would he realize that she was still here? Would he search the cabin from top to bottom? Perhaps that was what he was doing right now, and at any moment he might come tramping into the extension and tear open the door of the earth closet. But would he remove the lid and look down? She forced her nose into her kneecaps and breathed carefully through her mouth. There would be silence in the cabin for a while, and then the racket would break out afresh. After some minutes she heard his footsteps approaching, they were in the lobby again, she heard something topple and crash, and more swearing. Then he came into the workshop. Silence fell again.

She imagined him standing staring at the door of the bathroom now, and thinking as everyone else would have done, that perhaps someone was hiding inside. There were more footsteps, Eva ducked and waited, heard a great creak as he opened the door. The world stood still for several seconds, she was just one quivering mass of terror, hot blood pumping through her body, but then everything stopped completely, breathing, heart, and blood, which had become viscous as oil. Perhaps he was only a meter away, perhaps he could hear her breathing, so she stopped, until her lungs began to feel as if they were bursting. Each second was an eternity. Then she heard footsteps again, he’d retreated and was clattering about with something near the workbench. Suddenly it struck Eva that he might need to use the toilet, if he went on searching for long enough he might need to relieve himself, and then he’d come in again, remove one of the pieces of polystyrene and pee into the hole. He’d either get her feet, if he chose the hole next to the outer wall, or if he used the other one, he’d pee on her head. And if he switched on the light he’d see that there was someone sitting down there with a paint tin between her legs. She had no idea who he was. Maja hadn’t told the truth, there was something she’d left out, and it was Maja who’d got her into this crazy situation, just as she’d done a thousand times before, and Maja who’d provided the opportunity for her to get hold of some money, tons of money, even though she’d never wanted it, only enough for food and bills. She didn’t need any more. She’d willingly have given him the lot, or perhaps they could go halves, she thought, why did he have any more right to it than she did, it was the money of a childhood friend and they had shared everything. She’d been named by Maja as her beneficiary.

The man was now tearing through drawers of tools and rubbish, he sounded violent, agitated; judging by the noise the cabin would look like a battlefield before he’d finished. She wondered if he’d decide to spend the night there, perhaps bed down in one of the bunks beneath a thick winter duvet, while she sat here on this pile of feces with numb feet. She might get frostbite; if she had to sit here till the morning she’d die of cold and despair and the stink, but perhaps he was a common thief like herself and had to get away before daylight. That was what she hoped. She hoped and prayed, while he stamped about the cabin searching continuously. She felt herself becoming drowsy, realized that she mustn’t sleep, but she kept slipping away, the smell wasn’t so obvious then, or perhaps she was completely anaesthetized. It would have been lovely to sleep a while, it struck her that it might be difficult to get out again, it would be impossible to get a firm footing in the boggy morass she was sitting in, perhaps she’d be left down here on her own to die with two million in her lap. Maybe she ought to call for help, get out and take her clothes off and simply share the money with the bastard who was in there rummaging about not knowing where to look. She thought about this as she became vaguely conscious that it had gone quiet at last, as if he really had turned in, possibly on the sofa under the checked rug. Possibly he’d been down to the cellar and found a bottle of red wine, which he’d warmed on the gas stove and added sugar to; hot, sweet red wine, the fringed woolen rug, and a little fire in the grate. She flexed her fingers and discovered they were stiff. Slowly she seemed to shut down, against the cold and the smell, closed her eyes and her mind, leaving only one small corner of consciousness open in case he came in again to pee, or to search more thoroughly, but the corner became smaller, she receded inwards and downwards in the dark, and a last thought flew quickly through her mind: how on earth had she ended up here?