Arctic Caveat: A Constable Maratse Stand Alone novella by Christoffer Petersen

Author:Christoffer Petersen [Petersen, Christoffer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aarluuk Press for Arctic Noir, Action Thrillers and Greenland Crime
Published: 2024-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

9

Shopping was, Kamiila decided, perhaps the best thing about living in the city. Sure, she missed the busy quiet of the settlements, a perfect juxtaposition of kids and sledge dog puppies tearing around a big hunk of nothing under brilliant blue skies, surrounded by the even deeper blues in the fjords. Then, of course, beyond the settlements, Kamiila Sorsuttartoq would have to admit that she missed the mountain cabins and radio shacks. She missed those quiet moments on the side of one mountain or another, giggling when a passing helicopter caught the constable off guard when taking a piss and she shouted at him to hurry into the shadow of a boulder. They shot and cooked their own food. They moved through the winter night, and beneath the bright midnight skies of summer. They were constantly on the move, though. And that, Kamiila would also admit, to anyone who asked, was a huge downside. They could never settle, could barely rest. And, in between moving, they would fight.

“Just like you, babe,” Kamiila said as she found a seat in the department store and pressed her hand to her belly as her baby kicked. “If you keep this up, I’m going to give you a name you’re going to wish you never had. You hear me?”

Bruiser.

It would be her nickname if she – it had to be a she – kept up the barrage of heels through the last three weeks of her third trimester.

“I just don’t know if I can…”

Kamiila stopped talking.

She dipped her head forward, wincing, and then cried out as a sharp pain lanced through her body.

“Are you okay?”

Someone’s voice asked the question.

Kamiila didn’t see her, couldn’t see anything but a spot on the floor in front of her. It was dark. It grew bigger as she watched it.

She might have heard that same voice shout for help.

She might have known the spot on the floor was blood.

But it couldn’t be her blood.

And then the kicking stopped, and Kamiila cried out, pressing both hands to her belly, willing her baby to kick and kick and kick, only to cry out again as another bout of pain seemed to riddle her body with hot coals, like the blast from a shotgun at close range.

Kamiila knew all about shotguns. Had even felt the pain of a gunshot wound.

This was not that.

She didn’t know what it was, only that she had never experienced such pain before, and that when help came, she took it. When the paramedics told her she was going to be okay, she believed them. She had to believe them.

“My baby…”

“Aap,” they said. “We’re going to take care of you, miss…?”

“Her name is Kamiila,” said that same voice Kamiila had heard when the pain began. “She’s Kamiila Sorsuttartoq.”

“Holy shit,” said one of the paramedics. “It really is.”

Head down, eyes closed, tears streaming down her cheeks, Kamiila couldn’t see them. She couldn’t know she got the celebrity treatment, couldn’t know the driver exceeded the suggested speed limit for emergency vehicles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.