The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘Oh?’
She waved a DVD box. ‘It wouldn’t go in the slot.’
He was going to say something, wanted to say something. But he had already thrust out his arm,
caught her, pulled her to him, heard her gasp as he held her tight, saw her mouth opening and her
tongue moving towards his, taunting and red. And basically there was nothing to say.
She snuggled up to him; soft and warm.
‘Goodness,’ she whispered.
He kissed her on the forehead.
The sweat was a thin layer that both separated and glued them together.
It had been exactly as he knew it would be. It had been like the first time, though without the
nerves, the fumbling and the unspoken questions. It had been like the last time, without the sadness,
without her sobbing afterwards. You can leave someone with whom you have good sex. But
Katrine was right; you always go back. But Harry knew this was different, too. For Rakel this was
an essential, final visit to old pastures, a goodbye to what they had both called the great love of their
lives. Before she entered a new era. To a lesser love? Maybe, but to an endurable love.
She was making purring sounds as she stroked his stomach. He could still feel the tension in her
body. He could make it difficult or easy for her. He decided on the latter.
‘Bad conscience?’ he asked and felt her flinch.
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ she said.
He didn’t want to talk about it, either. He wanted to lie quite still, listen to her breathing and feel her
hand on his stomach. But he knew what she had to do, and he didn’t want any more postponements.
‘He’s waiting for you, Rakel.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘He and the technician are preparing a body for an Anatomy Department lecture
early tomorrow morning. And I told him he wasn’t coming near me after touching a corpse. He’ll
sleep at his place.’
‘What about me?’ Harry smiled in the dark, thinking that she had planned this, known it would
happen. ‘How do you know I haven’t touched a corpse?’
‘Have you?’
‘No,’ Harry said, thinking about the packet of cigarettes in the bedside-table drawer. ‘We don’t
have any corpses.’
They fell silent. Her hand described ever larger circles on his stomach.
‘I have a feeling I’ve been infiltrated,’ he said out of the blue.
‘What do you mean?’