Юхан Теорин - The Voices Beyond

‘An attack on the Kloss family?’

Rita nodded. ‘He said he was going to ruin their business. Get his revenge. Pecka was going to make sure that no one wanted to stay at the Ölandic Resort. They would lose millions... He told me exactly what he was going to do.’

The Homecomer also got to his feet. He gave a brief smile. ‘Let’s do it.’

At the beginning of July, a shimmering heatwave had moved in across the island. The sun rose above the Baltic Sea at half past four in the morning, and by seven any trace of the night’s chill had disappeared. At nine, the heat out on the alvar was almost overwhelming. Some birds, like the cuckoo, had already fallen silent.

Gerlof realized that, up to now, the summer had merely been warm. This was heat , with glaring sunshine from a white sky making the air quiver, and not a breath of wind.

Like many other villagers, he preferred to spend time down by the shore, where there was at least the hint of a sea breeze. Sometimes John was there too, sanding down the gig or replacing a rotten plank.

Gerlof was sitting in the shade of the boathouse in a low deckchair, wearing his straw hat. ‘I won’t be here for much longer,’ he said to John.

John wrinkled his nose and carried on with his work. ‘You’ve been saying that for years.’

‘I didn’t mean that,’ Gerlof said quickly. ‘I meant physically, down here in the village. Both my daughters will be arriving with their families soon, and there’s not enough room in the cottage. So I’ll be moving back up to the home in Marnäs.’

‘When?’

‘Next weekend... In ten days.’

John looked at Swallow and shook his head. ‘She won’t be ready by then.’

‘I know,’ Gerlof said gloomily. ‘And I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get down to the village. But my thoughts will be with you.’

Otherwise, his thoughts were mainly occupied by two young boys: Aron Fredh and Jonas Kloss.

Not that Aron was a boy any more, if he had survived the trip to the Soviet Union, but that was how Gerlof pictured him. A young boy in the sunshine, standing by a freshly dug grave. Had the knocking sound from down in the ground scared him that day? Gerlof assumed it had; he remembered a tall, gaunt man had come to fetch Aron from the churchyard. His stepfather, Sven, the committed communist.

Then he thought about Jonas Kloss, another frightened boy. He had also been scared by ghostly goings-on, but Gerlof wasn’t convinced that it was only his fear of the cairn ghost and his experiences on board the ship that had made Jonas so tense.

He suspected that Jonas also had family problems.

When John had finished working on the gig for the day, Gerlof slowly made his way back up to the garden. But the sun was too strong; he couldn’t sit outside any longer.

After a while, one of his grandsons helped him to set up a parasol. It provided shade for him and a small part of the garden, but the rest of the lawn was looking very much the worse for wear.

Gerlof took out his handkerchief and wiped his brow. It was twenty-eight degrees in the shade. Plants were dying, animals hiding away.

A few species of bird seemed to be enjoying the warmth and the light. When Gerlof looked inland he saw a shadow high in the sky: a hawk searching out rodents in the grass down below. Its wings were spread wide like black sails, and it hovered above the alvar, circling effortlessly.

Gerlof wondered whether the hawk was happy, experiencing such freedom.

Or perhaps it wasn’t free at all.

Just hungry.

Gerlof was hungry, too; he went inside for a bowl of yoghurt with cinnamon. The phone rang while he was standing in the kitchen. It was Tilda, with news.

‘We’ve heard from the coastguard.’

‘About the ship?’

‘No, it’s still missing. But they’ve found a body out in Kalmar Sound — a seaman.’

It was the summer heat, Gerlof thought. As the waters of the Sound warmed up, bodies floated to the surface.

‘Was he from the Elia ?’

‘Possibly. The Kalmar police are dealing with the matter. He had ID on him, so they’re checking it out.’

‘Good,’ Gerlof said. ‘I’m checking out a few things, too.’

He heard Tilda sigh, but carried on anyway. ‘I’m trying to track down the old man on the ship... The American, if that’s what he actually was.’

‘According to Jonas Kloss, he was a Swedish-American,’ Tilda said.

‘Yes, but if he’s the person I think he is, then he emigrated to Russia, not America. That fits in better with what was going on at the time. And, if that’s the case, his name is Aron Fredh.’

‘I don’t recognize the name,’ Tilda said. ‘But let me know if you find him.’

‘It’s not easy. There are far too many people on the island at the moment.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Tilda said drily. She was silent for a moment, then added, ‘The discovery of the body means that we’re going to have to question Jonas Kloss. And this time it will be a formal interview, not just a chat.’

‘At the station?’

‘We’ll probably do it at his home, if he feels safer there.’

But does he? Gerlof thought. Out loud, he said, ‘I’d like to be there, if that’s all right.’

Tilda laughed. ‘Hardly.’

But Gerlof refused to give in. ‘I can be... what did you call it? A witness, an independent observer to make sure that everything is done properly.’

After a brief silence, Tilda said, ‘In that case, the boy would have to agree.’

‘I think he will.’

‘And you’d only be allowed to sit there,’ Tilda stressed. ‘You wouldn’t be allowed to say a word, or to talk about it afterwards.’

‘I can do all that.’

‘Really?’ Tilda sounded far from convinced.

‘We’re having visitors, JK,’ Uncle Kent said.

He was standing straight-backed in the heat on the decking, and he looked far from pleased. He was gazing out at the deserted coast road, and Jonas could see the corner of his left eye twitching slightly, just as it had done that evening in Marnäs.

He had tried to avoid his uncle as much as possible after that evening but, as he was working on the decking right next to the front door of the house, it wasn’t always possible. Uncle Kent walked past him morning and evening. Sometimes in a suit, sometimes in shorts and a T-shirt. Sometimes he said a quick hello, sometimes he seemed too stressed even to notice Jonas.

This evening he was wearing a dark-grey suit and had stopped on his way from the car to tell Jonas about the impending visit.

‘Who’s coming?’

Kent looked at him, weighing him up. ‘The police,’ he said. ‘They’re coming here tomorrow evening, JK. They want to talk to you.’

‘What about?’

Kent turned his attention to the Sound. ‘They want to discuss the mysterious ship you claim you saw out there. Nothing else... So all you have to do is answer their questions. And I’ll be there the whole time.’

Jonas glanced at the house and saw two heads through the panoramic window: his brother, Mats, and his cousin Urban were sitting on the sofa, watching TV. He knew that they knew he’d told the truth about the cinema visit; they hadn’t said anything to him, but they knew. And he was still waiting for some kind of retribution.

‘Is that all right, JK?’ Kent said.

Jonas nodded and turned to look in the other direction, at the coast road and the ridge. There wasn’t a soul in sight. The cairn was still there, of course, but there had been no sign of the ghost over the past few days. It was as if Gerlof’s revelation that the cairn wasn’t a real grave had frightened it away.