The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

song of pain of a woman giving birth. But by then Harry had seen everything and knew why. She
was screaming because after twelve years the freezer was still functioning perfectly and its internal
light revealed something crammed inside, its arms to the fore, its knees bent and the head forced
against one side. The body was covered with white ice crystals, as if a layer of white fungus had
been feeding on it; and the distorted form was the visual representation of Katrine’s screams. But
that was not what had made Harry’s stomach turn. Moments after the freezer broke open the body
fell forward and the forehead hit the edge of the door, causing ice crystals to fall from the face and
shower the cellar floor. That was how Harry could tell it was Gert Rafto grinning at them. However,
the grin was not formed by the mouth, which was sewn up with coarse, hemp-like thread zigzagging
in and out of the lips. The grin traversed the chin and arced up to the cheeks and was drawn with a
line of black nails that could only have been hammered in. What caught Harry’s attention was the
nose. He forced down the rising bile out of sheer defiance. The nasal bone and cartilage would have
been removed first. The cold had sucked all the colour from the carrot. The snowman was complete.
Part Three
15
DAY 9.
Number Eight.
IT WAS EIGHT O’CLOCK IN THE EVENING, YET PEOPLE WALKING down Grønlandsleiret
could see that lights were burning on the whole of the sixth floor of Police HQ.
In K1, Holm, Skarre, Espen Lepsvik, Gunnar Hagen and the Chief Superintendent sat in front of
Harry. Six and a half hours had passed since they had found Gert Rafto on Finnøy, and four since
Harry had rung from Bergen to call a meeting before he was driven to the airport.
Harry had reported back on the discovery of the body, and even the Chief Superintendent had
quailed in his chair when Harry showed the crime scene photos that Bergen Police had emailed
over.
‘The autopsy report isn’t ready yet,’ Harry said. ‘But the cause of death is fairly obvious. A firearm
in the mouth and a bullet through the palate and out of the back of the head. That happened at the
crime scene; the Bergen boys found the bullet in the storeroom wall.’
‘Blood and cerebral matter?’ Skarre asked.
‘No,’ Harry said.
‘Not after so many years,’ Lepsvik said. ‘Rats, insects ’
‘There might have been residual traces,’ Harry said. ‘But I spoke to the pathologist and we were
agreed. Rafto probably helped so that it wouldn’t be so messy.’
‘Eh?’ Skarre said.
‘Ugh,’ Lepsvik said with feeling.