The Ice Cage — A Scandinavian Crime Thriller set in the Nordic Winter (The Baltic Trilogy) (30 page)

‘
What are you doing? I’m your father for godssake!
’

‘No you’re not.’

Furious, s
he fired the gun into the air. They did
as she asked and turned around
.

‘
Walk.
’

Boeck looked back to see
Eva’s gun pointed at him. She
hated him. He was a murderer and she wanted to kill him so much it made her shake
. All
her
senses
were
o
n red alert. She did shoot, but in the air. I was groaning in the car as she watched them go.
Once the men were far enough, she jumped into the SUV and
we skidded off. Eva put
all her anger into the acceleration.

57

As Eva drove me to the dog lady’s house
,
I than
ked her for saving me once more
. S
he
was sorry she hadn’t believed me from the start.

‘
Why didn’t you tell me Boeck was your father?
’

‘
I couldn’t imagine him being
involved in anything like that.’

‘
How can you not know abo
ut your own father’s activities?’

‘He’s my stepdad, i
f even that.
’

‘
Your mother must have known.
’

‘
She’s never told me anything. Maybe she’s afraid, maybe she doesn’t want to put me at risk, or maybe she just doesn’t know. She can’t possibly keep tabs on everything he does.
’

‘
We have to talk to her. She must know more.
’

When
we arrived at the dog lady’
s house, I had a hot shower and put on some dry clothes, while
Eva tried to get hold of her mother
,
who was vis
i
ting her
sister in
Helsinki
. There was no answer,
so she would have to try later.
Once I was dressed
,
I sat
down
at the kitchen table and
the
old woman
brought
me a bowl of soup and a sandwich
.
I had three dogs
sta
ring at me from the floor and they
immediately made me sneeze
. It wouldn’t be long before I started wheezing
as well
.
When
I told the woman that dogs gave me asthma
,
she suggested taking them out of the room.

Why
do
people never understand that taking
animal
s out mak
e
s no difference whatsoever?
The house would have to be disinfected for me to spend time in it without having an asthma attack. It reeked of dog. The air and the furnishings were impregnated w
ith canine essence.
Gasping for air,
I stood up and s
tumbled to the front door holding
the plate with the bowl of soup
. I had to get out
or
the
mongrels would suffocate
me. I
didn’t need this. I
’d
already
d
ied and resurfaced in extremis.

‘
Wait.
’

Eva held me back, but
I couldn’t hold back the tears when I spoke. It was all too much.

‘
I need air. You really won’t like me if I have an
asthma attack. I
become extremely irritable.
’

‘
It’s too cold outside.
Let’s
go to the
attic.
It’s n
ot exactly tropical either, but at least t
he dogs never go there.
’

Once in the attic, we agreed that
w
e needed to escape from the island
as soon as possible
.
There was no time to lose.
If caught, Boeck would show us no
mercy. Murder was his panacea and u
nless we moved quickly, we would end up
in his cage
.

I in
sisted o
n contacting the police
first
, but Eva
was
adamant there was no colleague
she could trust
. Boeck was best buddies with the chief of police and very resourceful when it came to digging up information. Eva usually did the rounds on her own
. It was a small police force and t
he chief of police
was always away at
conferences. The only other colleagues were Jacob and Ernst. Jacob was t
he cuddling policeman, m
ore of an administrator than a policeman
really
. A
nd extremely slow at that.
E
ven if the chief wasn’t involved, he was still friends with Boeck and likely to pass on any seemingly absurd allegations. This applied to the two others too.

The risk was
simply
too great. Boeck would have pu
t all his contacts on red alert, so a
sking her colleagues for help really wasn’t an option. Under normal circumstances,
Eva
would have taken the risk, but Boeck
was a d
ifferent kettle of fish
–
h
e
wouldn’t hesitate to kill.
As they’d seen,
h
e didn’t do fa
ir trial
s, o
nly
proper
execution
s
. I suggested calling Dahl, but my father’s solicitor was also Boeck’s.
Even if
Dahl
might help, it would take too long to convince him.

‘
Why can’t we call the mainland police?
’

‘
Who do you think they’
ll listen to?
Boeck is best buddies with our
chief of police.
We don’t have the time to lose
. We need to get out. Every minute counts.

‘
I still think we should call.
If we’re caught no one will even know we’re in danger.
’

Eva gave in
and
rang
Helsinki
. She
told a police inspector
about the ice cage,
the resuscitations
and the kiln, but he was sceptical.
I followed the conversation on speaker phone.

‘
We have to talk t
o your
local police.
’

‘
I a
m the
local police and I’m telling you
,
you can’t trust the local police
.
’

‘Can you give me your location?’

‘
I’ve told you,
I’m on Åland.
’

‘Can
you be more precise?
’

‘
Why are you wasting time when I say it’s urgent?’

‘
These are
serious allegations. We can’t
override normal procedures and
send manpower without confirmation that something is actually happening.
’

‘The m
an’
s my
stepfa
ther. He’s a mass murderer for g
odssake! He’s
tried to kill me, what more proof do you want?
’

‘Just stay
put
. We’ll call the local police station and get back to you.’

The man hung up.
Eva
was
f
urious.

‘
They don’t believe me
.
’

It wasn’t surprising.
She hadn’t
believed me either. It was a lot to take in, e
ven for the most imagina
tive of police officers. It all seemed so
pointless.
M
y father had died for nothing and now
Anna. I
wanted to give up and g
o home but coul
dn’t, not if I wanted to live. W
e knew too much. Eva said we had to keep go
ing, because my father’s death would
be
completely
in vain if we could
n’t
make the truth come
out.
The only way we were going to do that was by getting to the mainland before Boeck got hold of us
.
There was no time to lose.

5
8

First w
e had to find a discreet way to the
safety of the
Swedish mainland. The
ferry was out of the question
,
as b
o
ard
ing incognito was impossible. T
he same we
nt for the airport and
with the Baltic covered in ice
,
a small boat wasn’t
an option
either
. The safest bet would be a combi
nation of skating and boating, b
ut we couldn’t d
rag a boat along while skating.

We may be able to skate all the way to
Sweden
–
Eva knew of a passag
e t
hat was frozen most winters
,
although
she
’d never used
it. It was hearsay and would depend
on the prevailing win
ds. I
f it didn’t work
, our chance
s of survival would be minimal and w
e would freez
e to death in a hole in the ice. I
f successful, it was the perfect way to disappear from Åland without a trace.

We could b
orrow
skates at the yacht club. W
e
also
neede
d provisions, waterproof clothing
and navigation equipment. We couldn’t return
to Eva’s place, but Boeck’s car
was full of winter gear.
She’d unloaded it before dumping
the car
in a forest far away from the house. I’d also asked her to retrieve the DVD with my father’s death from the brok
en DVD player in the
car
,
as it
was a tangib
le proof of Boeck’s activities.

We would pick up additional bits and bobs for the crossing at the yacht club. On second thought, Eva said it might be better to use an ice yacht than skates. The Black Pearl
would be faster. I asked again if she was sure there wasn’t anyone we
could trust on the island. Maybe Thor, but s
he really
didn’t want to take any risks
.
Boeck
simply
had too many friends.
Although
I told her
Thor didn’t seem to like Boeck, she
preferred to contact people once we were safe.
How could I be so sure Thor didn’t pretend to dislike Boeck?
It wouldn’t be his first lie.
No one was beyond suspicion and
Åland was too small
for hiding
.
Besides, Eva
wasn’t sure how Thor could help.
Involving
him
might endanger him more than anything else and sh
e didn’t want more innocent people to
get killed. Before leaving, Eva wanted to
talk
to her mother to
make sure she was OK and to
ask i
f she knew anything about Boeck’s plans.
If not, she needed to be warned and i
t might
be safer for her to stay in
Helsinki
. Eva rang
Riita again, but
the phone
went automatically to voicemail,
she tried
A
unt Lena
,
who told her that
h
er mum wa
sn’t there and wasn’t expected.
Lena
wondered why Eva was asking.