Карин Фоссум - Hell Fire

“Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I wrote to you,” he said.

“Yes. To be honest, it made me a little nervous,” Bonnie admitted. “I thought that maybe someone was after me.”

“You have no reason to be nervous,” he said. “You knew Erna far better than I did. But I understand from her family that she could be rather difficult. I believe it was you who found her?”

“Yes,” Bonnie said. “She was in the bathroom. I don’t know what the cause of death was, but she had hit her head. I went to the funeral because I felt I should.”

“Did you talk to her family?”

“No, I’d never met them. They wouldn’t have known who I was and there were so many people there. I didn’t go to the reception afterward either because I had to get to a client.”

“And when you lose one client, you are immediately given a new one?” Falck asked.

“Yes, you can say that again. We’ve got long waiting lists.”

She looked around the office. There were shelves and shelves of books, and lots of plants that were far nicer than her own. She spotted a fern, a Swiss cheese plant, and a succulent.

“Now, let me tell you why I’ve asked you here,” Falck said with a smile. “Not everyone writes a will, but Erna Vibe certainly had. It was done long before she died and is very detailed. And signed by several legal witnesses, so no one can contest it. Because, as I’m sure you know and have heard, that does sometimes happen. Inheritance is not to be taken lightly. And the fact is that you are a beneficiary of Erna’s will.”

“I see,” Bonnie said, shaking her head. She had never felt loved by Erna in the way that she did by Gjertrud.

“As regards the house, furniture, and other movables, they will of course go to the family,” he explained. “But she has also left money, and some of it has been left to you.”

“Money?” Bonnie said, astounded. “I didn’t know she had any money; she was very frugal.”

“All old people are frugal,” Falck said. “No matter how wealthy they are. Perhaps that is why they are wealthy. And Erna had a lot of money.”

“Right,” Bonnie said quietly. “I had no idea. Did she inherit it from her husband? He died a long time ago now.”

“Yes,” Falck said. “He was a successful businessman. And Erna looked after his money well. Some wealthy elderly people give their money to various foundations, but Erna gave a lot to the local social services. Which you are part of. But some of the money is directly for you. Your son Simon is also mentioned. She thought of you both.”

Bonnie had never been so surprised in all her life. She remembered the five bottles of perfume and how thrilled she had been to get them.

“Are you sitting comfortably?” Falck asked.

Bonnie looked at him, baffled. “Yes,” she said with a light laugh. “Your chairs are very comfortable.”

He leaned forward over the desk; she noticed that he had a thick gold band on his finger and was wearing not a tie, but a bow tie. He smelled good too. There was something familiar about the scent. Olav.

“Erna has left you two million kroner.”

You could hear a pin drop. His smile was roguish.

“No,” Bonnie said automatically. “No, I don’t believe it. There has to be a mistake.” She felt like the ceiling was floating down and a gentle breeze was playing in the plants.

“A mistake?” Falck said, grinning. “Why do you say that?”

“She’s got children. She’s not allowed to deny them their inheritance — aren’t there laws against that sort of thing?”

“The children are also inheriting a fortune; like I said, she was very wealthy. They have no reason to complain, nor have they. In fact, they have asked me to pass on their regards and thanks for everything you have done for their mother over the years. Erna talked about you all the time, it seems. And how good you were. You were irreplaceable — reliable and good in every way.”

He looked at Bonnie’s astonished face. She kept shaking her head. It was more than she could comprehend. This sort of thing happened to other people, people who had rich uncles in America.

“You must have meant a lot to her,” he continued. “And you have no doubt earned every single penny. That’s what the family says too. Congratulations,” he added, chuckling. “Two million goes a long way. It might take some time before the money comes through, though, but I will let you know as soon as it does. In the meantime, I will need your account details. And now I think you should go out and buy yourself a bottle of good champagne.”

When Bonnie got up from the comfortable chair, her legs would hardly hold her; she took his hand but felt she had no strength. She was a little dizzy, beside herself.

“It will sink in at some point this evening,” Christian Falck assured her. “You may not even be able to sleep tonight. You’ll be floating a foot above the mattress.”

Bonnie had to laugh at that. She thanked him and went back through the waiting room. She opened the heavy oak door and stepped out onto the street into the blue afternoon. I will never again judge anyone in my life, she promised herself. Erna was probably just shy and afraid to show her feelings: old school, the war generation, the ones who never got anything. They kept it all bottled up. She decided to go to Sydney Grill. She ordered a cheeseburger, struggled up onto one of the high bar stools by the window, and looked out. Suddenly she loved this town more than anything in the world. The river and all the bridges, the riverside walk. Saint Hallvard and his woman in the boat, the old theater. The old run-down pubs, Lauritz and Dickens and Kongens Våpen. The old brewery that was illuminated at night. When you saw it on the other side of the river from the station, it looked like a dream palace. A pigeon had strayed into the road, presumably from the main square. It strutted down the grass divide, lithe and beautiful. It wasn’t a gray pigeon with blue feathers. It was a white dove with golden flecks. Didn’t they symbolize peace?

“Old people often save up all their money,” she explained. “And then when they die, the money is given away. And you and I have been given a lot. We don’t have it quite yet because it takes some time before it’s in the bank.”

“How much did we get?” Simon asked, wide-eyed.

“A lot,” Bonnie said. “So we can buy ourselves nice things. You can get a new bike, and I can get a new car.”

“Oh,” he squealed with delight, “is it really that much?”

“We might even be able to go to Gran Canaria,” Bonnie added with a laugh.

Simon sat with his mouth open. What he was hearing was making his head boil and he was flushed to the roots of his hair. “I want to go to Africa,” he said, full of hope.

Bonnie gave it some thought. “Yes, let’s go to Africa and see the lions,” she said. “But we’ll have to get vaccinations first. You know, shots, so we don’t get ill.”

“Yes,” Simon whooped and clapped his hands. “I’ll have loads of shots!”

He started to run around the room with a plastic lion in his hand, and Bonnie went into the kitchen to open the champagne. Just as Falck had said, it really hadn’t sunk in yet, and she certainly wouldn’t be able to sleep. Not on a day like today.

“One day, I’m going to die,” Mass said seriously. “The house will be too big for you on your own. Perhaps we should move into a small apartment?”

“Die?” Eddie said and rolled his eyes. “But that won’t be for ages! So we can at least wait until you’re old.”

Mass looked at her son’s brown curls. His big white hands and double chin. If only he had a brother or sister, but that had never happened and it was too late now. She wanted to go out for a drive with him, sit close to him in the car, enjoy the good weather. They drove out to Tangen and Frydenlund. Mass pointed at the blocks of apartments and residential complexes and said how nice they were. Look at the big balconies. I could have flower boxes there. And you wouldn’t need to clear the snow. They drove across the river and up the hillside. There were lots of big detached houses here, but they were just out for a run in the car and Mass liked driving. Eddie had bought himself a Coke at a store and sat beside her, burping every time he took a sip. It had always irritated her before but not anymore. He was the son she had been given, and she had always been patient with him.