The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

That was why she had put him in the bath. So that there wouldn’t be so much mess, so all the traces
could be quickly removed. Rubbish! You’re Arve Støp and she’s with the police. They know
nothing.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Lift up your head.’
The mask. At last. He did as she said, felt her hands touch his forehead and at the back, but she
didn’t loosen the mask. Something thin and strong tightened around his neck. What the fuck? A
noose!
‘Don’t ’ he began, but his voice died as the noose pressed against his windpipe. The handcuffs
rattled and scraped against the bottom of the bath.
‘You killed them all,’ she said and the noose was tightened a notch. ‘You’re the Snowman, Arve
Støp.’
There. She had said it out loud. The lack of blood to his brain was already making him dizzy. He
shook his head frantically.
‘Yes, you are,’ she said, and as she jerked it felt as if his head was being severed. ‘You’ve just been
appointed.’
The darkness came all of a sudden. He raised a leg and let it fall again, the heel of his foot banged
impotently against the bath. A hollow boom reverberated around.
‘Do you know that rushing sensation, Støp? It’s the brain not getting sufficient oxygen. Quite
wonderful, isn’t it? My ex-husband used to jerk himself off while I had him in a stranglehold.’
He tried to scream, tried to force the little air that was left in his body past the iron grip of the noose,
but it was impossible. Jesus, didn’t she even want a confession? Then he felt it. A slight swishing
sound in his brain, like the hiss of champagne bubbles. Was that how it would happen? So easy. He
didn’t want it to be easy.
‘I’m going to hang you in the living room,’ said the voice by his ear as a hand affectionately patted
his head. ‘Facing the fjord. So that you have a view.’
Then came a thin peeping sound, like the alarm on one of those heart monitors you see in films, he
thought. When the curve flattens out and the heart no longer beats.
26
DAY 20.
The Silence.
HARRY PRESSED A RVE S TØP’S DOORBELL AGAIN.
A night owl, minus prey, was walking over the canal bridge peering down at the black Amazon
parked in the middle of the car-free square in Aker Brygge.
‘Not gonna open up if he’s got a dame there, I s’pose,’ Bjørn Holm said, looking up at the three-