DukkeHus by Martin Houghton

Author:Martin Houghton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowanvale Books Ltd

SKUMRING

‘You with me on this, Lars?’

‘I’m just not sure, you know? Murder? Like, you and me? Killing? I mean that’s something else, really. You know? I mean, shit, Erik —’

‘We’ll be doing the world a favour.’

He knew Erik was doing drugs again. Opium. Ether. Anything he could steal or gain — often by violent, bloody means. Since leaving their home to come these few miles south for work he had gradually tried to give Erik a wide berth. But he kept on coming back.

‘You are just too out of it now, Erik. Let’s give it a while, eh?’

‘Out of it? What the hell you talking about? Out of what? I ain’t touched a thing, Lars, really I ain’t. I’m crystal clear in my mind. Clear, you hear? To search these fellas out we need to be level-headed. Really we do. And I am. Listen, if you’re out I’ll disappear. Do it on my own. Ok?’

Throughout their years together they had fought for each other and kept each other alive. This was something else.

‘Listen, Erik. You gotta cool off on this. For now, at least. We just got ourselves sorted, you know? A fucking roof over our heads, some money coming in. No trouble with the law? You ain’t thinking straight. About any of it.’

Yes, they had found somewhere, a real shithole of a base, to be sure, but Lars knew it was no different to any of their other shitholes. It was on a narrow street of mostly deserted derelict huts. Familiar territory. Their room, just large enough to accommodate two men of not inconsiderable size, was infested with cockroaches and silverfish and contaminated by the urine and hair of the roof rat, which was believed to be one of the many carriers of the deadly disease sweeping their immediate area. They slept on piss-stained rotten floorboards in clothes they rarely washed. Their toilet was simply a yard where rains tried in vain to wash away their excrement into blocked gutters.

They had struggled to keep any job down. They either grew bored with their roles or were sacked for simply failing to lift themselves out of their wanking pits. Their current work involved the loading and offloading of cargo at the docks, working alongside men who would never think twice of knifing anyone in the back if they thought it worth a meal. Lars, though, thought they had at last found something they were good at.

‘We still got no idea where Krister is, though. Have we, Lars? Eh? You know what I think?’

‘Shut it, Erik. I don’t wanna —’

‘No, you don’t wanna know because you know I might be right. It might just be the truth. We both know it might just be what’s happened to her, Lars. Murdered, eh? So, what we gonna do about it? You tell me. You come up with something better. Go on.’

They sat in silence, neither wanting to look at the other.

‘Look, they will find her, alright? Trust me. I am certain of it. Alive, too.

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