Icy truculent thumbWould you mind shutting your damned mouths? Hei?ur exclaims. What the hell is this ruckus supposed to mean? It’s like being with a bunch of lunatics. “That’s my grandmother.” Every man but Duncan and the Iroquois looked away. As the others hurried past, Tanaqua turned their canoe into the shallow water around the rising ledge. Without a word he leapt out into knee-deep water and splashed to the dead man. For a moment he examined the man’s bare forearm, then his other hand, before lifting the hand trailing in the water. There was in fact nothing in it, but a piece of twine was looped around his thumb, extending into a pocket. Duncan, having trouble keeping the canoe in place, whistled. Tanaqua emptied the pocket, then ran back and leapt into the canoe just as it drifted out of the shallows. It’s a Gothic Viking cat. “I told you. I am not trusted with the details,” Rush replied in a self-pitying tone. “Apparently all I do is lure people to their deaths.” This is a godsend. The man’s thrown off balance and can’t continue with his interrogation. I hope he’ll just go home. When we got back to the dining nook, Lana was there wearing her faded blue jeans and a pale violet T-shirt from my dresser drawer. When she saw Perry with me she got up and set another place at the table. He stuck it back in his pocket.“No, that’s all right,” he said. He didn’t find out the first name. “Second floor, on the right, then?” he said. “Thanks.” And he adjusted his cap and left. He noticed she was staring at him as he closed the door. She had become curious and went to the door of the flat. He thereforepretended he was going to deliver the letter. He walked to the stairwell, mounted a couple of steps and stopped. It occurred to him that he really could walk up. He ascended a few more steps. On the second floor, on the right-hand door he saw a brass plate with the name “D?newald”. icy truculent thumb He, Sponer, was now Jack Mortimer, the living. And that’s how he would have to stay, right up to Mortimer’s death. I tear open the envelope addressed to Ing?lfur, and inside it find another smaller one, addressed to HARPA EIR AXELSD?TTIR, in familiar letters made by Gabriel Axel’s pen. His writing looks almost like typescript, each individual letter clearly shaped, the ink sea-green, appropriate for the person who owns a shop called The Art of Sailing. Thank God, says Hei?ur. What’s that? asks Edda. I don’t have what you could call a sex life, and the risk is none, because I’ve taken the utmost care ever since I accidentally had Edda. It’s you who have no excuse. I know that there were fully reliable contraceptives on the market thirty years ago. You were a full-fledged adult, and you cheatedon a true Icelander with some southern oaf. The man saw my fear and its source with a glance and moved his chair so that his body blocked me from being seen. My key did not fit in the lock. That was a kick in the teeth.. |