The Forsaken Fjord: A Constable Petra Jensen 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: 2023-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

9

Eqilat tapped her fingers on her thigh as I tugged my boots on. And then, laces still untied, she grabbed my arm and tugged me out of the Hvid-Müllers’ house. John came to the door, and I glimpsed him over my shoulder as we jogged down to the beach, where Eqilat said she had someone watching Saamaq.

“Maariu is keeping an eye on him,” she said. “I told him he couldn’t leave.” Eqilat caught her breath as we ran, then grinned as she said, “I told him he could make a citizen’s arrest if Saamaq got into his boat.”

I could just imagine how empowered the eighteen-year-old father of one, soon two, might feel. But as we reached the beach, I would have been surprised if Saamaq Jensen had the strength to stand up, let alone sail into the fjord to continue searching for his daughter.

Also, as we slowed to climb down the rocks to the sand below, I had to shake my head to convince myself it was Saamaq Jensen, not David Maratse slumped on the sand with his back against a boulder of ice. If he had been wearing a dirty police jacket, it would have been even harder to tell the two men apart. His boots were dark and wet, and his jeans were ringed with circles of salt. The fishing smock he wore was equally stained and the pocket at the front bulged with what I guessed were the essentials Saamaq needed to sustain him at sea, and, with a glance at the stains on his fingers, I guessed the pocket contained at least one packet of cigarettes. His black unruly hair was flecked with grey and more salt. He had blue eyes, revealing some European blood in his genes, but his face was that of an Inuit and his eyes, however tired, were the eyes of a hunter, ever vigilant.

Saamaq lifted his head as we approached, and Eqilat nodded to Maariu that he could go back to Kaaliina, but to listen out for her in case she needed him again. Maariu nodded, smiled at me, and then climbed up the rocks to walk the short distance back to Serfaq. I waited for Eqilat to introduce me to Saamaq, and then listened as she talked to him in Greenlandic, translating for me, until Saamaq switched to Danish.

“I’ve looked everywhere,” he said. “There is no sign. I don’t know where they might be, where they might have gone.”

“Saamaq,” Eqilat said gently. “Have you considered that…”

“Naamik.” He shook his head, refusing to look Eqilat in the eye. He turned to me instead and said, “She’s not dead. She has not drowned. Miiku is alive. I know it. I just can’t…” He paused, the last of his strength sapped as the weight of what Eqilat tried to help him come to terms with pressed down upon him, pushing him deeper into the sand. The boulder of ice would melt over time, leaving a depression in the sand where it once stood,

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