The Intrigue in the North: A Constable Petra Jensen Novella (Greenland Missing Persons Book 15) by Christoffer Petersen

Author:Christoffer Petersen [Petersen, Christoffer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aarluuk Press for Arctic Noir, Action Thrillers and Greenland Crime
Published: 2022-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

Part 9

We left Old Fleming at the Qaanaaq Hotel, which was, in truth, more of a semi-modern barracks, but with a good location almost in the centre of the village. I wondered how closely I was supposed to chaperone John, but agreed with Sakarias that the Englishman’s options to escape or evade me or the Americans were limited by terrain and a lack of transport. While it was possible John could hire a hunter or a fisherman to take him away from Qaanaaq by boat, something told me his interests were centred on Qaanaaq itself, and not the surrounding area. I arranged to meet him later in the evening, giving me the rest of the afternoon with Luui and her father.

“Everything is prepared,” she said, leading me by the hand with huge strides into Tuukula’s cabin on the beachfront as soon as Sakarias had dropped us off. “Fish in the refrigerator,” she said, opening it. “More fish in the roof.”

“In the roof?”

Luui pointed above her head, and I spotted thin strips of halibut skin with delicate wedges of dried flesh attached to them. They hung from the kitchen ceiling in racks of driftwood, with a space cleared on the floor below, covered with cardboard to catch the oil that might drip from the fish.

Luui lowered her voice to a whisper and said, “There’s even frozen narwhal liver, but… Shh!” She pressed a grubby finger to her lips. “I’m not supposed to know.”

I had to smile.

I couldn’t imagine many six-year-old girls getting excited about frozen whale liver, not even in Greenland. But Luui was in a category of her own, and I promised her secret was safe with me.

Luui left me in the kitchen to make tea for Tuukula when two boys knocked on the back door. She spun to a stop, slid across the floor to hug Tuukula, and then darted outside to play. Tuukula watched her leave and then sighed.

“She’s been like that ever since the hospital in Ilulissat. As if she knows there’s not much time left.”

Tuukula’s voice tailed off to a whisper as I melted jagged chunks of brash ice from the sea Luui had collected in a pan and then rummaged through the cupboards in search of packets of Christmas tea that Tuukula preferred. I wanted to ask how he was feeling, but Tuukula avoided each attempt with a shrug or a smile, and a pat of his wrinkled hand upon mine when we sat at the kitchen table.

“Tell me about the Englishman,” he said.

“I’ll tell you what I know,” I said, and I did.

Tuukula said nothing while I talked, and then drank half his tea in silence, eyes half closed. Just when I thought he might have fallen asleep, Tuukula spoke.

“Luui is right,” he said. “We should be looking for bones.”

“Bones?”

The tuft of grey, almost white, hair on the top of his head bobbed as he nodded. “Qaanaaq was more of a summer camp in the time of the English whalers. They mostly came to the east, but one ship did come as far north as Upernavik.

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.