The Nightwalker: A Novel by Fitzek Sebastian

Author:Fitzek, Sebastian [Fitzek, Sebastian]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2017-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

24

Leon’s rage had subsided, and a tense, all-consuming anxiety had won back the upper hand in his emotions.

He stood in the living room in front of the mantelpiece, in exactly the spot where the detective had stood searching in vain for photos of Natalie, and heard Volwarth’s words replay in his mind: I just hope your fireplace starts working again soon . . .

Leon shook his head in a barely perceptible manner, like Ivana Helsing had done earlier while talking in her apartment. Then he kneeled on the protective brass fender in front of the fireplace. They hadn’t used the open fire once since they moved in, because the chimney didn’t work properly and there was a danger of carbon monoxide poisoning if they burned so much as a single log. It was an irritating problem that the building management had promised to deal with, but so far nothing had been done.

As a temporary measure, Leon and Natalie had installed a smoke-free ethanol heater. Artificial, plastic logs lay over a fuel chamber, creating an astonishingly genuine-looking and even warming light play.

‘Our Las Vegas fireplace,’ Natalie had joked. Like Leon, she tended to prefer more natural materials. ‘Kitsch, but kind of cool.’

Thinking back to that day made Leon sad. Only a few weeks later, Natalie’s laugh was just a memory of a time that was probably irrevocably lost.

And now?

After Volwarth had hung up, Leon had stood in his study as if nailed to the floor, wishing there were a lid on top of his skull so he could reach in and stop the carousel of his thoughts.

How does Volwarth know the fire’s not working? was no longer the most burning question in his mind.

Only Natalie could have told him, but that was of marginal importance right now. Much more decisive was the fact that the psychiatrist had rudely ended their conversation with this very refrain, and there could be only one explanation for that.

Volwarth wanted to .give me a clue without damaging his professional integrity.

‘Come on, then,’ said Leon to himself.

He removed the artificial pile of wood from the fireplace, then the pot with the fuel, and lit a match. The flame revealed the sooty, cracked inner wall of the fireplace, and as Leon poked his head into the opening, he couldn’t help but think about the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, when the evil witch burns in her own oven after Gretel deviously lures her in there. His nerves were stretched to breaking point, and he looked behind him to make sure he was alone and that no one was standing there watching him.

It has eyes, you know. The house, I mean. He thought back to the cryptic words of the old Helsing woman, who was probably sat in front of her fireplace right this second, one storey down, talking to herself.

Once the first, match had burned away between his fingers without him having seen anything, he lit another and tried to approach things in a more systematic way.

Thick,

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.