The Ice Cage — A Scandinavian Crime Thriller set in the Nordic Winter (The Baltic Trilogy) (31 page)

‘
Is there a problem?
’

‘
No,
a misunderstanding.
’

Eva hung up.
There was a problem
, but
she
didn’t think telling her aunt
would be a good idea. Boeck had li
ed. Rii
ta hadn’t visited her sister in
Helsinki
. Eva was
tormented
. What had Boeck done to he
r mother?
We needed to find Riita.

59

Boeck’s vi
lla was the last place we should go
,
but we had no choice
,
as we needed
to make sur
e Riita was safe. After what Boeck had
done to my father and Anna, he
was likely to
hurt her too if s
he’d found out about his cause
. We would head straight to the yacht club afterwards.
It was early and i
f we left within the next couple of hours, we could make th
e crossing before darkness. We arrived there
on two kick
sleds
–
that pan
-
Scandinavian winter vehicle. Most Londoners would probably have called them dog sleds, except that the kicksl
eds were propelled by us, not
dogs.
They were slow
er than sn
owmobiles, but more silent.

We’d been wa
tching the house for
a good
20 minutes and there hadn’t been a single s
i
gn of life. Boeck must be out looking for us, unless
it
was a trap, but w
e couldn’t wait
any longer.
Eva knew where they kept the spare key. I followed her as she went in gun in hand
.

‘Mum?’

No reply.

‘
MUM!
’

We heard banging from the basement. The stairs were immed
iately on the right
as we came
in
through
the hall and
w
e rushed down to find Riita chained to a radiator. Eva
got
a
spanner
and used it
to dis
connect the pipe and free Riita
.
I heard a car and ran
back upstairs to look
out the window.
By the time I got to a window
,
Boeck
was already
marching towards the front door.
There was no time to warn
Eva. I had to hide in
the wardrobe
in the hall
.
A
fter what seemed like an eternity, he app
eared in front
of
it in profile,
gun in hand,
taking c
autious
steps
and
briefly
looki
ng down the stairs to his right
before stopping and
–
sensing my presence
–
turning to face the wardrobe
.

I don’t know where it came from, but
I acted on impulse, flung the door open and
lunged to push
him down the basement stairs before he could react
.
He crash-landed on the landing halfway down the stairs and
I threw myself after him
before he got up.
In spite of being paralysed with fear
,
I’d never moved so fast. I
t must have been
primeval instinct
,
or the Viking in me
taking control.
Boeck had
dropped his gun and was reaching
for it, but Eva beat him to it
as she shot up from the basement,
whacking his hand with the spanner.
It
sounded like she broke it
and he screamed in
agony as she
snatched
his gun.

‘
Don’t hurt him!
’

Riita was in tears.
I couldn’t understand how she could live with a freak without realising
it
.
Eva kept her head clear.

‘
Get up
.
Do as
say or I’ll kill you.
’

Boeck looked at
the gun
aimed at his head and
slowly stood up to
face Eva
.

‘
We can sort this out.
’

Eva pushed him down the stairs and into the room where we’d found her mother. I took over the gun while she
cuffed him to the radiator
, making
sure the pipe was properly tightened.
Boeck grabbed her wrist and
yanked
her until they stood
face to f
ace. He was shaking with anger.

‘
Don’t do this.
’

‘
Let go!
’

‘
I’m warning you.
’

When he squeezed harder, s
he hit him on the
temple
with the spanner
, making him
let g
o
of her wrist
. She raised the spanner again, r
eady to strike.

‘
I should…
’

Riita grabbed Eva’s arm from behind
, holding back a second strike.

‘
I’ll kill you
if you go near my mother again
.
’

She meant it.

‘
You can’t leave me here.
’

‘
Why did you lock her up?
’

‘
Riita
called the police about Henrik’s death.
’

Eva turned to her mother.

‘
You knew!
’

‘
I overheard a
phone
conversation about
Henrik
being killed
. I had to do something.
’

‘
Why didn’t you call me?
’

‘
I told
Ernst.
’

Eva’s heart sank.
I
t
meant that he was one of Boeck’s men.

‘
Not Ernst…
’

‘
Listen, Eva.
The radi
ator was a temporary solution t
o stop her from doing anything stupid.
It was t
o protect her
from herself
. Please Eva..
.
This is important.
’

Eva
r
oared.
She
swung the spanner with all h
er might
to evacuate the anger
. Boeck ducked, holding
up h
is free arm to protect himself. T
he spanner made a big dent in the w
all where his head had been. Eva was about to hit again and
not miss this time.

I helped Riita
to
drag Eva out of the basement. We took the
pliers and the spanner with us
,
while
Boeck w
as left simmering by the radiator
. Once she’d calmed down, E
va went back in to snatch hi
s new mobile and crush
ed
it with her boot.
This was the second of his phones she destroyed
. S
he searched his pockets to make sure there wasn’t a third one.

We had to move fast
–
Boeck’s men would
be
look
ing
for him.
We
separated outside the house.
Riita went
to the dog lady on one
of the
kick
sled
s
. No one knew of
Eva’s connection with the lady and
Riita would be safer and draw less attention without us. Besides, she
couldn’t
possibly
cross the ice to
Sweden
. Eva and I took
the other
kick
sled.
As we were leaving
,
Riita held Eva in her arms for a lo
ng time before
turning to me to take my hands and look
me in the eye.

‘
Henrik was a good man.
’

It wasn’t much
,
but a few good words I could use, a
nother piece in the puzzle that was my father. I w
atched Riita leave on her sled
,
wondering what
she’
d endured with Boeck.

6
0

Eva didn’t worry
because t
here was no point
–
t
he situation was so hopeless there was nothing to worry about.
Of course, s
he was afraid too
, but her way of
deal
ing
with t
he fear was to face it
. Worrying wouldn’t achieve anyth
ing. In this we were different and
I admired her guts. Was i
t because of the circumstances
,
b
ecause I wouldn’t have surv
ived without her
,
or w
ould I have been a fan
regardless
?

We worked away on the kick
sled. It was a matter of rhythm. I
was standing right behind her, m
y lef
t foot on the thin metal blade and t
he right leg kicking away. Our movements had to be perfectly synchro
nized or our legs would crash and t
he sled would come to a halt. I
t was the ultimate in team effort
and a
good feeling to work together so well, considering where we were going. If escaping Boeck was difficult, crossing the ice would be hell. I hoped tha
t Boeck was definitely history and t
hat we would be able to
focus on the physical challenge
ahead
, but
I wouldn’t feel safe from him
unti
l the island
was out of
sight. I expected one of his
men to appear on
a s
nowmobile around every bend, a
clear
sign that i
t wasn’t o
ver yet, although I suspected that even in the unlikely event that we did get out of this alive, Boeck’s men would still be haunting me for a long time.
We kicked and kicked, going f
aster and faster.

By now,
Eva was
definitely
sure t
he ice yacht was a better bet than the skates. On skates, we would be caught in n
o time if they found our trail
,
whereas w
ith favourable winds, an ice yacht could outrun a snowmob
ile. I thought she made sense, e
specially as I hadn’t done much
endurance
skating in recent years. But what if Boeck’s gang used ice yachts as wel
l? It was time to stop thinking, time for action
. When we
arrived at the yacht club,
e
very
second counted
–
Boeck
’s men
wouldn’t be far behind.

61

Boeck
was furious with himself
for letting them catch him in his own house
, but nothing was lost
as long as t
hey were still on the island. He
started kicking the radiator, yanki
ng it with
the full weight of his 100 kilo
s
, but it wouldn’t budge, which made him go
even more
berserk
.
He shook and kicked it until it started loosening, eventually breaking off and cr
ashing onto the floor with him
on top.