The Dark by Emma Haughton

Author:Emma Haughton [Haughton, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 2020-12-03T17:00:00+00:00

21

22 June

I’m on a call to UNA for over an hour, giving a preliminary report. It’s obvious Sandrine has already filed it as a suicide; after all, no one strips off like that and sets off across the ice by accident.

By the time I return to my clinic, I’ve developed a thumping headache and a serious craving. I lock the door behind me and help myself to a hefty cocktail of medication from the supplies cupboard, then sit at my desk, feeling shaky, hyper-aware of Alex lying in the adjacent room. I need to write up a full report for UNA, but that means examining him more closely, and right now I can’t face it. Though I’ve seen plenty of dead bodies in my career, the fact that it’s someone I have spent so many months with is deeply unnerving.

As a chemical calmness slowly envelops me, I grab my notebook, turn on the camera on my phone, then get to work. I examine the body from head to foot, taking pictures and making notes of anything unusual. I’ve witnessed several post-mortems in medical school, but never performed one myself.

Stick to the facts, I tell myself. Record what you see.

Even so, I find myself avoiding the startled expression frozen on Alex’s face. There’s something so horrible about it, the confusion and fear in those rigid, frost-burnt features. My eyes flick towards them, then I have to look away.

What went through his mind in those last few moments of his life, as the cold bit deep through his skin and shut down all his internal organs? I give an involuntary shudder, imagining him out there, dying alone in the dark.

Enough, Kate. Just do your job.

I check over his body again, noting the temperature of his skin, the continuing rigor mortis. I study the patches of frost erythema on his knees and elbows, reddish purple to violet in tone, similar to bruises.

The ice that had encrusted Alex’s socks has now thawed, leaving two small puddles of water on the exam bed. I peel one off, dreading the sight of his foot. Sure enough, its covered in the livid purple and violet discolouration of frostbite.

Despite the soothing effect of the Valium, I wince again. How on earth did he endure the pain of walking almost to the tower in just a pair of socks? What level of desperation would induce someone to do that?

There are easier ways to kill yourself, after all.

Was it possible this was an accident? That Alex left wearing all his snow gear, then somehow got lost, unable to find his way back to the safety of the base? I’d heard of cases of ‘paradoxical undressing’ where people dying of exposure strip naked, possibly as the result of vasodilation inducing a feeling of overwhelming heat.

Was that what happened here? But surely Alice or Drew or Arne would have found his outdoor clothes somewhere nearby?

I peel off the other sock and inspect his foot, but it looks much like the first.

I close my eyes briefly, trying to ride out a wave of strain and exhaustion.

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