The Search
The call on the radio ends. Leif remains crouched on the mountain ledge, harness cutting into his thighs, staring at the radio. His heart thunders. His skin is cloaked in sweat.
He glances down at Karin, scared now. She is still, skin as pale as cloud.
Tension grinds through his jaw.
Erik, he thinks. Oh no. Erik.
He pictures their mother, alone at the lodge, in poor health, waiting for her sons to return.
He tips his head back, teeth bared, wanting to yell until the mountain shakes. But there is no space for emotion here.
He drags in a breath, then he carefully maneuvers himself closer to Karin. He places his hands beneath Karin’s body, sliding one beneath her shoulders, the other beneath her thighs.
He tries not to breathe in the smell of her hair or notice the softness of her skin.
His heart is pounding. His thoughts race and scream, but the one that cuts through is: There’s no choice.
Then, with a surge of force, he heaves. His muscles strain, his core locks, he hears the grunt of exertion as he rolls Karin off the ledge, until there is nothing beneath his arms, except air.
He watches as her body falls. Tendrils of auburn hair flying in the wind.
Arms opening as if she is waving a last good-bye.
It is so long, and time has slowed, and he sees every detail acutely—the awful weightlessness of her body, the way she drops and drops.
The silver river that lies below. He watches as her body hits the water and is swallowed whole.
It is so far down that there is no sound. No splash. No ripple.
Leif stays very still, wind licking at his neck.
He could take a step away to safety, but he remains on the edge, wind flattening his T-shirt against his chest.
The thoughts are slow to come. He’s all body. Heart rate erratic, beating at the cage of his ribs. Hands trembling. Skin pulsing with energy and a strange cold heat.
He keeps staring, eyes wide and dry. There is nothing to see. She is gone.
He wants to cut the last sixty seconds out of his life, make a clean incision like a surgeon might to remove a tumor.
But the thoughts start to rush in. Bj?rn and Brit at home, glancing to the clock above their farmhouse table, wondering when Karin will be back.
Knut’s team arriving on the mountainside soon.
The search beginning.
Every footstep to come, a lie.