The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘What are you doing?’
Harry shook harder.
Bjørn laid a hand on Harry’s shoulder. ‘But Harry, can’t you see ?’
Holm recoiled. Støp had opened his eyes. And now he was drawing breath – like a skin-diver
breaking the surface – deep, painful and with a rattle in his throat.
‘Where is she?’ Harry said.
Støp was unable to focus his eyes and short gasps were all that emerged from his mouth.
‘Wait here, Holm.’
Holm nodded and watched his colleague leave the bathroom.
Harry stood on the edge of Arve Støp’s roof terrace. Twenty-five metres below glittered the black
water of the canal. In the moonlight he could discern the sculpture of the woman on stilts in the
water and the deserted bridge. And there something shiny bobbing on the surface of the water,
like the belly of a dead fish. The back of a black leather coat. She had jumped. From the sixth floor.
Harry stepped up to the edge of the terrace, between the empty flower boxes. An image from the
past flashed through his brain. Østmarka, and Øystein who had dived from the mountain into Lake
Hauktjern. Harry and Tresko dragging him to the shore. Øystein in bed at Rikshospitalet with what
looked like scaffolding around his neck. What Harry had learned from this was that you should
jump from great heights, not dive. And remember to keep your arms into your body so that you
don’t break your collarbone. But above all you have to make up your mind before you look down,
and jump before terror has engaged your common sense. And that was why Harry’s jacket slid to
the terrace floor with a soft smack while Harry was already in the air listening to the roar in his ears.
The black water accelerated towards him. As black as tarmac.
He put his heels together and the next moment it was as if the air had been knocked out of him and
a large hand was trying to tear off his clothes, and all sound was gone. Then came the numbing
cold. He kicked and rose to the surface. Got his bearings, located the coat and began to swim. He
had already started losing sensation in his feet and knew he only had a few minutes before his body
would stop functioning in this temperature. But he also knew that if Katrine’s laryngeal reflex was
working and closed itself when it came into contact with water it would be the sudden cooling down
that could save her, it would stop the metabolism, send the body’s cells and organs into hibernation
mode and allow the vital functions to survive on a minimum of oxygen.
Harry lunged and glided through the thick, heavy water towards the glistening leather.
Then he was there and he grabbed her.
His first unconscious thought was that she was already heaven-bound, consumed by demons. For
only her coat was there.
Harry cursed, spun round in the water and stared up at the terrace. Followed the edge up to the
eaves, the metal pipework and the sloping roofs that led down the other side of the building, to other
buildings. Other terraces and the multitude of fire escapes and routes through the labyrinth of