Hammond Innes: Blue Ice

As though I had spoken my thoughts aloud, a voice said softly — This is where he would like to have been buried, isn’t it?’

I ‘turned. It was Jill. Her face was very pale and her lips trembled. I think she had been crying, but I was not sure. ‘I was thinking just that,’ I said. I looked round at the fjord and the mountains. ‘This was what he lived for.’ And then I looked again at the little cross stuck in the heaped-up mound of earth that was so fresh that the sods had not yet bound together to form a solid covering of grass. Had he died a natural death — or had he been murdered? Why had the application to exhume the body been blocked? The answer lay right there. I had only to lift the sods and dig down to the coffin … I glanced at Jill. She had been prepared to face a legal exhumation. There was no difference really. And yet… ‘He’ll be happy here,’ I said quickly, for fear she would divine my thoughts.

‘Yes,’ she murmured. ‘Thank you for bringing me, Bill.’ Her lip was trembling again and she started off down the graveyard path to the gate. I followed her and as we reached the road she said, ‘When is the exhumation?’

‘There isn’t going to be one,’ I answered. ‘The application has been refused.’

She sighed. I think it was with relief. ‘I’m glad,’ she said. ‘There seems no point in disturbing him now.’

I looked at her. ‘Don’t you want to find out whether it was an accident or not?’

‘No,’ she answered. ‘Nothing that we do can bring him back to life.’

I didn’t say anything and we crossed the wooden planking of the quay. Dick and Curtis and Sunde were waiting for us as we came on board. ‘Well?’ asked Curtis.

‘No good,’ I said. ‘The application has been blocked at the top. There’s somebody doesn’t want a postmortem examination.’

‘Jorgensen?’

‘Maybe,’ I answered and ordered the boat to be cast off.

‘Hold it,’ Dick said. ‘Dahler’s up at the hotel, phoning.’

‘Who’s he contacting?’ I asked.

But Dick didn’t know. And when Dahler came on board he gave no explanation. ‘I am sorry if I delay you,’ he apologised.

‘It’s all right,’ I answered. ‘I’m only moving just down the fjord.’ I ordered Wilson to cast off and had the engine started.

The sun set as we left Fjaerland. For a moment the snows of the Jostedal high above the village were tinged with pink. Then the light faded and the fjord was a dark, cold gash in the mountains, its waters no longer green, but inky black. Night fell quickly and lights began to show in the huddle of wooden buildings round the quay.

Just beyond the headland, not a mile from the village, I steered the boat into a wooden landing stage. Above it, perched precariously on a little plateau of green grass, stood a fisherman’s solitary hut. We moored the boat to the rotting piles and I ordered the dinghy to be cleared.

‘What’s the idea?’ Curtis asked.

I glanced round. Jill was standing by the cockpit, watching us. ‘I didn’t want to lie at Fjaerland with my representative staying up at the hotel,’ I said. ‘I had a bit of a row with him.’ Then I asked Jill to take Wilson and get some food prepared.

As soon as she had gone below, Curtis said, ‘Is your representative a short man in a black suit, with a round, chubby face?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Well, he boarded a fishing boat and went off down the fjord about ten minutes before you came back to the boat with Jill.’ He looked at me searchingly. ‘What are you up to, Bill?’ he asked. And then as I didn’t answer immediately, he said, ‘You’re planning to dig Farnell’s body up, aren’t you?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘The church is quite isolated. The moon rises just after midnight. We’ll have four hours.’

He caught hold of my arm. His eyes were suddenly angry.

‘You can’t do it,’ he said.

‘Can’t do it?’ I laughed. ‘Don’t be a fool. It’s quite safe. There’ll be nobody around. And even if we are interrupted they won’t know who we are. That’s why I didn’t want to moor up at Fjaerland.’

‘I’m not worried about your being discovered,’ he answered. ‘It’s Jill I’m thinking about.’

‘Jill?’ I remembered how she had sighed and said she was glad there was to be no exhumation. ‘Jill mustn’t know,’ I said.

‘God almighty, man,’ he cried. ‘She been standing there white as a sheet ever since you ordered the dinghy to be cleared. Do you think she doesn’t realise why you’ve moored up here?’ ‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘Are you going to tell her?’

‘Of course not,’ he answered.

‘Right,’ I said. ‘Now let’s get on with clearing the dinghy.’

But he caught hold of my arm and swung me round. I could feel his fingers like a vice on my flesh and the sudden thought crept into my mind that he was in love with Jill. ‘Are you going through with this?’ he demanded angrily.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Curtis — don’t be childish. Jill needn’t know anything about it. But I must know how Farnell died.’

‘Why?’

‘Isn’t it obvious? If he was murdered, then Schreuder knows the location of the mineral deposits. If the body bears no indication of a struggle, then perhaps the secret has died with him. I must know the answer to that.’

‘You must know the answer!’ he sneered. ‘Can’t you think of anything else but your bloody mineral grabbing? The girl wants the body left alone. She doesn’t want the poor sod disturbed to satisfy your damned avarice.’

‘It’s not my avarice,’ I replied hotly. ‘Work for a hundred thousand men could be built up out of those deposits — if they exist. And I mean to find out. Jill needn’t know. And if she does discover it, then I think she’ll understand. You needn’t have anything to do with it if you’re squeamish about corpses.’

Curtis laughed. ‘I’m not squeamish,’ he said. ‘I’m thinking of the girl. If you’re going on with this, then she must be told. She must give her permission.’

‘I’m not asking her,’ I answered shortly.

‘But she’s a right to be consulted.’

‘Right?’ I asked. ‘She’s no rights in the matter at all.’

‘I tell you she has. She has the right-’

I caught hold of his arm. ‘Listen, Curtis,’ I said. I was tired of all this ridiculous argument. ‘Who’s captain of this boat?’

He hesitated. ‘You,’ he answered.

‘And who’s in charge of this expedition?’

‘You are,’ he answered reluctantly.

‘Right,’ I said. ‘Now get that dinghy slung over the side. We meet up here on deck at eleven-thirty — the three of us; you, Dick and I. Warm clothes and rubber shoes. I’ll look after the girl.’

For a moment I thought he was going to argue. But the long habit of obedience to command was stronger than his sudden outburst of conscience. He turned and began to haul the dinghy over the rail.

At supper that night everybody seemed unnaturally quiet. Jill ate in silence, her eyes on her plate. Only Dahler was talkative. I wondered who he had telephoned from the hotel. ‘What is your next move, Mr Gansert?’ he asked me quite suddenly.

‘Wait for Sunde’s partner,’ I answered.

‘It is a pity Mr Sunde will not talk without his partner.’ His eyes met mine. Some devil of laughter was there in the dark pupils. He glanced at Sunde.

The diver looked up quickly. Then his eyes fell to his plate again. He seemed nervous.

Dahler smiled. An unnatural excitement emanated from the man.

After the meal, I got everyone off to bed. It had been a long day and they were tired. Moreover, the sudden transfer from coast to mountain air had made us all sleepy.