ICEHOTEL (42 page)

A thud came from upstairs, followed by squabbling which
eventually died down.

‘I really wasn’t prepared to risk anything in the Excelsior.
I’m not stupid. So I sat in the lounge, hoping coffee would give me
inspiration. After a while, Harry came down. He told me he needed fresh air,
and was going to take a look inside the Chapel, and did I want to come. I was
so excited, Mags, you wouldn’t believe. The problem was, how to do it exactly.’

She leant forward, her arms over her stomach as though
nursing an acute pain. ‘I said no, I didn’t want to go out. He went into the
Activities Room. I waited ages, my eyes glued to the door. Then I saw him at
the reception. His hat was still in his hand, I would have missed him
otherwise. Hundreds of people were coming into the foyer from one of those
ice-climbing trips. When I saw what they were holding, I knew what to do. I ran
to the Activities Room. There were only a couple of people there. No-one saw me
put on a ski mask and two suits. I made sure they were both red.’

‘No, Liz,’ I whispered. ‘Please, no.’

‘I took an ice-axe, one of those big ones. I had to push
through the crowd to get to the front door. It was deserted outside. I slipped
into the Chapel.’ She was rocking back and forth. ‘He was there, at the back,
looking up at the big window. I crept over. He turned and saw me. We stared at
one another. My hood was up and he didn’t recognise me under the mask.’

‘Liz, I’m begging you – ’

She was staring into space, oblivious. ‘I thought I should
speak to him. Let him know who I was, you see, and why I was going to kill him.
But I couldn’t. Then he saw the axe in my hand, and I knew I’d have to do it. I
swung as hard as I could – God knows where I found the strength – but I missed
his head and the axe ripped through his shoulder. He screamed, and threw his
arms in front of his face. I swung again and the axe went into his chest. He
fell back, dragging me with him. And then I just kept going till he went down.
After a while, he stopped thrashing.’

My breath was coming in short gasps. With a sudden wrench,
my stomach convulsed.

She turned her head slowly, and looked at me. Her face was
flushed, her lips wet. ‘You know, when I saw Harry lying there, his body
twitching and his blood spraying onto the walls, God forgive me, Mags, it felt
better than sex.’

I threw up then, over Liz’s living room carpet.

I continued to retch, leaning over
the floor, spewing up the contents of my stomach till there was nothing left.

The phone rang. After six rings, the answer-machine whirred
into life with a loud click and Liz’s recorded message came on. The caller rang
off before it had finished.

I lifted my head in a daze. My stomach felt as though it had
been tied in knots. My ears were buzzing and objects in my field of view were
ringed with dark bands. Gasping with the effort, I drew my legs up slowly and
curled into a ball.

The smell of vomit pricked my nostrils. With a rapid
movement, Liz tore the blanket from the clotheshorse and flung it over the
pizza-like splash.

‘There’s more to tell, Mags,’ she said softly.

I knew what had happened next, I was there. ‘I don’t want to
hear it,’ I groaned. ‘Please, Liz, please.’

‘I had to get out of the Chapel quickly. The screams could
have carried.
And anyone could have walked in. I
stripped off the mask and the suit, trying not to get blood over myself. I was
less concerned about the inner suit because it was red.’

A part of me had to hear it. I struggled to a sitting
position.

‘I ran into you outside, when I least expected it.’ She
smiled crookedly. ‘Sorry and all that, Mags, but I had to have an alibi, and
you provided the perfect one. It wasn’t difficult to get you into the Chapel,
and have you be the one to discover Harry’s body. I told Hallengren I was
napping, then got up and saw you outside the Excelsior.’ She paused. ‘And, in
case you’re wondering, it’s awfully easy to induce vomiting when adrenaline is
pumping through your body. It just needed a couple of fingers down my throat.’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘And that smell – ’

The memory returned and I started to gag. She watched me,
sympathy on her face.

‘I saw someone in the Chapel, Liz, behind a column,’ I
gasped, wiping my mouth. ‘I assumed it was the person who’d killed Harry.’

She played with her hands. ‘You know, that really was the
worst possible luck. I’d tried to avoid the reporters by keeping to my room,
but it wasn’t always possible. I was afraid one of them might have covered
Dick’s trial, you see. None of them would have heard of Liz Hallam, but Harry
was with us, and he’s such a flamboyant character that anyone at that trial
would remember him.’ She looked away. ‘It was a one in a million chance, but
Denny Hinckley had seen my photograph in the papers. I didn’t know it at the
time, but he was spying on me and Harry. He watched Harry go into the Chapel
and followed him. He saw everything. Including my face as I removed the mask.’

Denny had witnessed a murder and said nothing? What had he
been playing at? ‘Why didn’t he go to Hallengren?’ I said.

‘He made a fatal mistake in not doing so,’ she said quietly.
‘But I’ll come to Denny later.’ She was watching me thoughtfully. ‘
Your
big mistake, Mags, was that you tried to work everything out. Starting with the
snowmobiles. You were way off track there, though. You thought it was Mike, or
Jonas, who’d loosened those brakes. Well, it wasn’t.’

‘You?’ I said, my voice faltering.

‘I went to join Mike, do you remember? He and Jonas were so
busy arguing about whether the Danes or the Belgians made better beer, that
they didn’t see me sidle past the machines. It needed a mere flick of the
finger under each handle.’ She smiled. ‘That funny
snowmobile
guide had even shown me how to do it.’

‘What were you thinking, Liz?’ I said, confused. ‘Harry was
nowhere near those machines.’

‘Ah, but I’d intended to entice him onto that path. The
promise of the stupendous vista would have done it – you know what he’s like
when it comes to views – but the deer provided a brilliant excuse.’

‘You thought Harry would stand still while the machines fell
towards him?’

‘His reactions are slower than you might imagine. And he’d
drunk more than his share of beer. But I agree, it was always going to be a
long shot. I wasn’t even sure the machines would slip. Or at the right time.’

‘I don’t know why you bothered. Your Plan A was perfect.’

‘Things can go wrong, you know, even with a perfect plan. It
did – I killed the wrong man. I’d be a fool not to take any opportunity that
presented itself. But I hadn’t expected the
guide
to examine his machines so closely. It’s really just as well Hallengren didn’t
take his story terribly seriously.’

After a silence, she continued, ‘The morning after Harry’s
death, Mike and I came to see you, do you remember? You told us there was
something wrong and you’d eventually work it out. I saw that you couldn’t let it
go, you kept trying, I suppose chess players do that. So, in the end, I really
couldn’t take the risk.’

‘What do you mean?’ I said faintly, my fear returning in a
rush.

‘I was supposed to be in Kiruna, you see, dealing with the
paperwork over Harry’s death – you wouldn’t believe how complicated it is when
someone dies abroad – but I persuaded Mike to go instead. He’d been telling me
how concerned he was about you. I was awfully glad to get him out of my hair.’
She ran her hands over her knees. ‘I overheard the receptionist talking to you
about the rehearsal. I put on two suits, I don’t know why, I had no plan.’ Her
eyes refused to meet mine. ‘I arrived at the Ice Theatre and saw you climb to
the back. I waited till the play was over and everyone had gone. Except there
was a group who rather didn’t seem to want to. And neither did you. In the end,
I gave up and left.’

And I thought it had been Jonas. And then Mike, Mike who’d
been so worried about me. Dear God, I’d been such a fool.

‘You didn’t have a clue, you know,’ she was saying, ‘even
though that brain of yours was working overtime. But it didn’t weaken my
resolve. You see, I was so close, Mags, so close, and I couldn’t take any
chances.’ Her eyes were steady. ‘There was really only one loose end left to
tie up.’

A loose end which was still dangling, I realised in horror.
I flexed my muscles experimentally. Life was returning. But I’d never make it
to the door.

‘I had another chance after dinner,’ she was saying. ‘You’d
gone to bed early. A decent interval later, I excused myself and crept
upstairs. I saw you leave your room.’

Saturday night: the night Denny had gone to the Icehotel.

‘I followed you to the Activities Room. I thought of killing
you there, you know, the way I’d killed Harry. Although it was dark, I knew
where you were. But it was really too dangerous. You’d have screamed like
Harry.’

I swung my legs painfully over the side. Dizziness overcame
me, and I sank back into the sofa.

Her voice reached me over the ringing in my ears. ‘I heard the
door swing, but I knew I was still in with a chance if I moved quickly.’

‘So you followed me out,’ I said dully.

‘The Activities Room has a back door, Mags, a fire door. I’d
taken a good look at it when I conducted my little exploration of the Excelsior.
You can get out that way, but there’s no outside handle. I left it propped
open. And I took an ice-axe.’

I felt a deathly chill in the room. Upstairs, all was silent
apart from the faint sound of the television.

‘I ran round the side and saw you disappear into the Locker
Room. You know, a minute later and I’d have lost you. It simply never occurred
to me that you were going to the Icehotel, I thought you were off to watch the
aurora. You’d take the path beside the Chapel. And that’s where I was going to do
it. But, gosh, when I realised you were going back to the Icehotel. Which was
deserted – ’ She left the consequences unspoken.

‘You were the figure in the black suit,’ I said half to
myself.

‘The police thought it was a man, too.’ H
er
voice throbbed with excitement
. ‘It was just brilliant. After all, who
would believe a woman would kill with an ice-axe?’

Would she have split my skull? I looked into her eyes,
unable to read the answer. But surely our friendship went too deep. No, she’d
have come to her senses.

‘At first, I couldn’t see you,’ she went on. ‘I came to the
conclusion you must have gone to your room for something. I mean, why else
would you be there? I’d memorised the layout so I could find Harry’s room
easily. That’s how I was able to get to your room so quickly in the dark.’

I lay back, staring at the ceiling. Why had I followed
Denny? I could no longer remember.

‘You know the rest, Mags, you were there. I wouldn’t have
thought you could outrun me, though. But then, it is rather difficult to run
with two suits on.’ There was a new respect in her voice. ‘And you were running
as though your life depended on it.’ She paused. ‘When I realised I couldn’t
catch you up, I hung back and dropped the axe. I heard a shout, then an
almighty crash. It was terribly dark, I didn’t see anyone else, and I thought
you’d either drown or freeze to death in the water. I crept back in through the
fire door.’

Anger bubbled up inside me and boiled over. ‘You murdering
bitch. You would have killed me in cold blood.’

‘You know, I’ve never understood that expression. Blood
isn’t cold, Mags.’ She looked away. ‘Harry’s was surprisingly warm.’

I pictured the scene in the Chapel: Harry, butchered, lying
before the altar like a sacrificial animal, his blood melting the snow. In an
instant, my anger drained away, leaving an overwhelming sadness.

‘I’ve thought about it non-stop,’ she said. ‘I wish to God
now that he’d frozen to death painlessly, unknowing.’ The words came out in a
gasp. ‘The way he screamed – ’

I closed my eyes, tears spilling down my cheeks. Oh, Harry .
. .

She played with the lighter, flicking it on and off. ‘I left
you in the water and went back up to my room. As I was turning the corner, I
heard someone call my name. My married name, Mrs Kellett. Denny was leaning
against the wall, a smirk on his face. He said he wanted to speak to me. I was
terrified. I simply couldn’t think, I had to stall for time. I told him it
wasn’t safe to talk there, we’d have to find a spot where we couldn’t be
overheard. He suggested behind the Chapel, early the next morning. I agreed. I
spent much of the night wondering what to do.’

She got to her feet, and poured herself a stiff gin from the
drinks cabinet. I calculated the distance between the sofa and the door,
shifting my weight as silently as I could.

‘I wouldn’t bother if I were you,’ she said softly. ‘You’ll
never make it. Your legs won’t carry you.’ She flopped back in the armchair,
determined to finish her story. ‘The following morning, I slipped out of the
Excelsior through the fire door. I got to the river bank well before Denny. I
wanted to do a quick recce, you see. He was so late in arriving, I thought he’d
given up and gone to the police. But then I saw him, sauntering down the path,
whistling. Silly of me, of course he was going to come. He didn’t bother with
pleasantries, just came straight out and told me he knew who I was, and who
Harry was, and that he’d seen everything in the Chapel. I nearly fainted when
he told me he’d taken pictures.’ She mimicked Denny’s cockney accent. ‘Got a
nice one of you removing your ski mask at the scene of the crime, I’m going to
write a big fat article and make my fortune, I’ve even got snaps of Harry’s
room in the Icehotel.’ She sipped at the gin. ‘He waved his camera at me, and
said he wanted money. And lots of it. I asked if the pictures were his only
evidence. Yes, he said, but they’re enough to put a noose around that lovely
neck, if you catch my drift. They’re still in the camera, safe and sound. I’ve
told my editor nothing because I’m sure you’ll make me a better offer.’