The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘Not really. Bit of skating. And you?’
Mathias shook his head. ‘But I’ve decided that the day my life’s work is done and I’m so ill I no
longer want to live, I’ll take the lift up to the top of the ski-jump tower on that hill there.’
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and Harry did not need to turn. Holmenkollen, Oslo’s dearest
monument and worst ski jump, could be seen from everywhere in town.
‘And then I’ll jump. Not on skis but from the tower.’
‘Dramatic,’ Harry said.
Mathias smiled. ‘Forty metres free fall. Over in seconds.’
‘Not imminent, I trust.’
‘With the level of anti-Scl 70 in my blood, you never know,’ Mathias laughed grimly.
‘Anti-Scl 70?’
‘Yes, antibodies are a good thing, but you should always be suspicious when they appear. They’re
there for a reason.’
‘Mm. I thought suicide was a heretical notion for a doctor.’
‘No one knows better than doctors what diseases involve. I agree with the stoic Zenon who
considered suicide a worthy action when death was more attractive than life. When he was ninetyeight
years old he dislocated his big toe. This upset him so much that he went home and hanged
himself.’
‘So why not hang yourself instead of going to all the trouble of climbing to the top of Holmenkollen
ski jump?’
‘Well, death should be a sort of homage to life. Anyway, I have to confess that I like the idea of the
publicity that would come in its wake. My research attracts very little attention, I’m afraid.’
Mathias’s jolly laughter was slashed to pieces by the sound of swift-moving skate blades. ‘By the
way, I’m sorry I bought new speed skates for Oleg. Rakel didn’t tell me hat you had planned to buy
a pair for his birthday until afterwards.’
‘No problem.’
‘He would have preferred to have them off you, you know.’
Harry didn’t answer.
‘I envy you, Harry. You can sit here and read the paper, make a call on your phone, talk to other
people, for him it’s good enough that you’re just here. When I cheer and shout and encourage him
and do everything the manual says a good father should do, he just gets irritated. Did you know that
he polishes his skates every day because he knows that you used to do that? And until Rakel
demanded that skates had to be kept indoors, he insisted on leaving them outside on the steps
because you once said that skate steel should always be kept cold. You’re his role model, Harry.’