Part 71 (2/2)

'Yes,' he agrees and follows her along the path through the nettles.

'And I'll make something nice to eat.'

They go up the steps to the little veranda. There are grimy bags of rubbish leaning against the outside wall, next to a plastic tub filled with bottles and rainwater. Nelly turns the key in the lock, opens the front door and walks into the hall ahead of him. There's a click but nothing more when she tries to turn the light on.

'Need to check the fuse-box,' she giggles.

A set of blue overalls covered in oil-stains is suspended from a hanger beside a silver-coloured padded jacket. In the shoe-rack are a pair of worn wooden clogs and some rough boots with black stains on them. Above a small sofa hangs an embroidered sampler with a biblical quotation: For love is strong as death, Song of Solomon 8:6.

A sweet smell of raw chicken and overripe fruit hangs in the air.

'It's an old house,' she says softly.

'Yes,' he says, thinking that he'd really prefer to get away from here.

Nelly stands and looks at him with a smile, so close that he can see that her face-powder has settled in rings around her eyes.

'Do you want a shower before we eat?' she asks without taking her eyes off him.

'Do I look like I need one?' he jokes.

'You're the best judge of how unclean you are,' she replies seriously, and her bright eyes s.h.i.+ne like gla.s.s.

'Nelly, I'm incredibly grateful for everything you've-'

'Anyway, here's the kitchen,' she interrupts.

As she pushes at the heavy door beside the sofa Erik hears a creaking metallic sound.

The noise rises a couple of notes, then stops abruptly.

He follows her hesitantly into the gloomy kitchen. A stench of rotten food hits him. Weak light filters through the closed venetian blinds. It's hard to see anything. Nelly has gone in and is turning the tap on.

Erik stands inside the door and feels a s.h.i.+ver run down his spine. The whole kitchen is full of rusty tools and engine parts, blocks of firewood, crumpled plastic bags, shoes and pans of old food.

'Nelly, what's happened here?'

'What do you mean?' she says lightly as she fills a gla.s.s with water for him.

'The whole kitchen,' he says.

She follows his gaze to the worktop and closed blinds. Three dark paraffin lamps are sticking up from an open kitchen drawer.

'We must have had a break-in,' she says, holding out the gla.s.s.

He walks in and barely reaches her when the kitchen door shuts behind him with a loud slam.

Erik spins round with his heart pounding in his chest. The powerful spring of an oversized self-closing mechanism is singing metallically.

'G.o.d, that gave me a fright,' he sighs.

'Sorry,' Nelly says, unconcerned.

124.

Nelly switches on a torch and puts it down haphazardly on the worktop. The light s.h.i.+nes at the layers of cobwebs on the venetian blinds.

Erik stands still and tries to take in what he's seeing. A large fly buzzes around the kitchen and lands on the door to the cellar. From one door-post hangs an iron bar that seems to function as a barrier across the door.

'A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised,' Nelly whispers.

'Nelly, I don't really understand what all this is about.'

There are two knives lying on the floor next to a rolled-up rag-rug, the gearbox of a car and a dirty hymnbook.

'You're home,' she says with a smile.

'Thanks, but I-'

'There's the door,' she points.

'There's the door?' he repeats, uncomprehendingly.

'It's better if you go down on your own,' she says, holding out the gla.s.s of water.

'Down where?' Erik asks.

'Now don't argue,' she giggles.

'You think I ought to hide in the cellar?'

She nods eagerly.

'Isn't that a bit over the top? I don't think-'

'Be quiet!' she yells, and throws the gla.s.s of water at him.

The gla.s.s. .h.i.ts the wall behind him, falls to the floor and shatters. He feels the water splash his legs and feet.

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