Silence Read Online Free PDF

his two shovels and dug the snow out of his entrance.
    He greeted the married couple from the house next door, who were walking past him, in a clearly audible voice. They both looked surprised, presumably because Ketola sometimes forgot to say good day at all. The couple’s daughter, so Ketola thought, would be about the same age now as the dead girl had been back then.
    After finishing his work, Ketola put the shovel back in its place and went up to the house. Unlocked the door, knocked the snow off his shoes and went in. He headed straight for the kitchen and made coffee, adding a shot of cognac.
    Then he sat down on the living-room sofa, switched on the TV set, put his cup on the table and, for the first time in a very long while, and with a sense of decided relief, began shedding tears.

8 J UNE

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    T imo Korvensuo felt the evening sun resting on him, warm and high overhead.
    He quickened his pace, took the three wooden steps up to the front door in a single stride, and gave the woman another smile before he opened it.
    ‘I thought you might like this,’ he said, and left the view to do its work.
    The woman stayed in the doorway, because even from here she could see the sun over the lake through the living-room window and Timo Korvensuo knew that during these weeks of the year, in this weather and at this time of day, it always stood at an unusual angle, flooding the lake with almost improbably beautiful light.
    He had shown the house to eight potential buyers so far and, although none of them had yet decided to clinch the deal, this image never failed to impress clients. Korvensuo stood beside the woman as she admired the view and thought that he liked this house, and in spite of its structural deficiencies might perhaps have wanted to buy it himself except that, as it happened, he already had a weekend house on this same lake, only a few minutes’ drive away. Later, after this last appointment of the day was over, he would go there at his leisure and have a little while to himself before Marjatta, the children and their guests arrived. He might even manage a sauna and a swim.
    ‘Shall we take a look inside this gem?’ he asked the woman.
    ‘Yes, let’s,’ she said. ‘I think I really like it.’
    Korvensuo nodded and took her round the rooms, which as usual he had had cleaned and furnished in a style that was bound to appeal to viewers.
    In the course of his guided tour he never failed to mention every single flaw in the house to interested parties, but at the same time he took care that the properties he was selling showed their best side. And if the owners of a house themselves were not in a position to make sure of that, he would lend a hand himself. No sellers had ever yet complained.
    ‘It’s … yes, attractive, in spite of the drawbacks. I’ll think about it,’ the woman finally said and Korvensuo nodded.
    They shook hands, and he waited for her to get into her car and drive away before seating himself in his own. He was satisfied. He lingered for a little while, looking at the house in the red glow of sunset. It would soon find a new owner.
    Then he started the car and drove round to his own place on the other side of the lake. As he had hoped, he still had a little time left before all the noise and racket started. The kids would be in high spirits today, the first day of the long summer holidays.
    He was looking forward to a family weekend together, the first in a long time – he’d been travelling a great deal these last few weeks. But yesterday he had finally found takers for two properties that were really beginning to feel like a burden on him, and now he felt liberated. He decided not even to go indoors first, or take a sauna, he would just jump straight into the lake.
    He got out of the car and went down to the landing stage, stripped off his clothes, put them all together in a neat rectangular pile, left his shoes at a right angle to it, put his watch in his left shoe, then decided on the