Yours Until Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

seen him. I went on looking for a while longer, then I came back at five and the message was there in the letter box. I was terrified. Idon’t remember. I came straight up here. Beside myself. I didn’t know what to do. Who to ask for help. Then I thought of you. We had such a nice talk the other day. I thought maybe you could … But I didn’t mean … I mean, well, I’ll …’ She looked me in the eye. ‘I will pay you what you’re used to getting.’
    ‘We’ll talk about that later,’ I said. ‘We’d better find Roar first. You still don’t want me to call the police?’
    She shook her head.
    ‘Well. You stay here in case he turns up. And I’ll see if I can find him.’
    ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘I’ll begin with the hut,’ I said.
    Her eyes widened. They were so big and blue it almost hurt to look into them. ‘But it could be dangerous,’ she said. ‘You could be …’
    ‘I can be dangerous myself. Now and then,’ I said. I tried to look as if I could be. And then I left.

9
    When it gets dark on this side of the Lyderhorn, it’s darker than any other place I know. It’s as if that sheer mountainside makes the darkness twice as black. As if the mountain is night itself.
    I stopped a good way from the hut. Stood and listened. Nothing. Not a sound. I looked at each tree, but it was hard to make out anything in that heavy starless darkness.
    The woods could be teeming with life, but they could also be dead. A petrified forest.
    I walked up to the hut and stood by the wall just under the little window. It was too high to see through. I listened. Still nothing. But I had a definite, nasty feeling that I wasn’t alone. I checked out the trees. Was that a swelling on one of the trunks? Was that a broken branch or a head sticking out? Was that somebody breathing in the darkness?
    I inched along the wall. Peered around the corner. There wasn’t a door, just a piece of sacking in the opening. Impossible to see whether anybody was inside. I cautiously pulled the sacking to one side with my left hand and stared in. It was darker in the hut than it was out here and far quieter. Or did something move – there on the floor?
    Since nobody came storming through the doorway, there was only one way to find out. I stooped and ducked quickly through the opening, and then swung left with my back against the wall. Nothing happened. Nobody jumped me in the darkness . No fists. No knives. 
    I waited and caught my breath. Let my eyes get used to the dark.
    It was a small square room. Some sacking and old newspapers lay on the ground. Some empty plastic bags. An empty carton under the window. A stink of beer, sweat, and something which could have been semen.
    A bundle lay in one corner, partly against the wall. It was Roar.
    They’d tied his legs together and his arms behind his back. Stuffed a dirty handkerchief in his mouth. He stared at me. Tear stains on his cheeks. When he recognised me, fresh tears oozed from his eyes. His clothes and hair were filthy. Other than that, he was in fine shape.
    I flipped open my pocket-knife, squatted in front of him and cut the ropes. When I took the handkerchief out of his mouth something between a gasp and sob filled the hut. He tried holding back the tears, but couldn’t. I hugged him and tried to muffle his sobs against my jacket. Tried to calm him. But he cried. Shook almost convulsively. His crying changed the silence. I couldn’t tell if what I heard now was silence or sounds which shouldn’t have been there. I listened so intently my head ached. But I simply could not hear anything except his sobbing.
    Maybe we were alone. Maybe they’d gone home to drink Cokes and play Parchese. Maybe the fun and games were over for today.
    ‘We’ve got to get out of here, Roar,’ I said in his ear. ‘Your mum’s waiting.’
    He nodded against my chest. I heard a long sniff.
    ‘Do you know where the others are?’
    He shook his head. ‘Th-they left a long t-time ago,’ he