Frozen Tracks Read Online Free

and into the bushes, where the lad was
busy hitting the railings with his plastic spade. He turned
round as Winter approached and gave him a sheepish
grin, like a prisoner who'd been caught trying to escape.
    Winter shepherded the little lad back to the fold,
listening to some story he couldn't quite understand but
nodding approvingly even so. One of the ladies in charge
was standing halfway up the slope.
    'I didn't know there was a fence there,' said Winter.
    'It's a good job there is,' she said. 'We'd never be
able to keep them on the premises otherwise.'
    He caught sight of Elsa on her way out into the
grounds: she'd clearly decided it was time to take a rest
from all that paperwork.
    'Hard to keep an eye on all of them at the same time,
I suppose?' he said.
    'Yes, it is now.' He detected a sort of sigh. 'I shouldn't
stand here complaining, but since you ask, well, it's a
case of more and more children and fewer and fewer
staff.' She made a gesture. 'But at least we've got them
fenced in here.'
    Winter watched Elsa playing on the swings. She
shouted out when she saw him, and he waved back.
    'How do you manage when you take them out for
excursions? Or take the whole lot of them to the park,
or to a bigger playground?'
    'We try not to,' she said.
    Ringmar was with the student, Jakob Stillman. The latter
had been living up to his name, but now he seemed able
to move his head slowly, and with some difficulty he
could focus on Ringmar from his sick-bed. Ringmar had
introduced himself.
    'I'd just like to ask you a few questions,' he said. 'I
suggest you blink once if your answer is yes, and twice
in succession if it's no. OK?'
    Stillman blinked once.
    'Right.' Ringmar moved the chair a bit closer. 'Did
you see anybody behind you before you were hit?
    One blink.
    'Ah, so you did see something?' Ringmar asked.
    One blink again. Yes.
    'Was it far away?'
    Two blinks. No.
    'Were you alone when you started walking across the
square?'
    Yes.
    'But you were able to see somebody coming towards
you?'
    No.
    'So somebody was behind you?'
    Yes.
    'Could you make anything out?'
    Yes.
    'Did you see a face?'
    No.
    'A body?'
    Yes.
    'Big?'
    No blinking at all. This lad is smarter than I am,
thought Ringmar.
    'Medium-sized?'
    Yes.
    'A man?'
    Yes.
    'Would you recognise him again?'
    No.
    'Was he very close when you saw him?'
    Yes.
    'Did you hear anything?'
    Yes.
    'Did you hear the sound before you saw him?'
    Yes.
    'Was that why you turned round?'
    Yes.
    'Was it the sound of his footsteps?'
    No.
    'Was it the sound of some implement or other scraping
the ground?'
    No.
    'Was it a noise that had nothing to do with him?'
    No.
    'Was it something he said?'
    Yes.
    'Did it sound like Swedish?'
    No.
    'Did it sound like some other language?'
    No.
    'Was it more like a shriek?'
    No.
    'More like a grunt?'
    Yes.
    'Something deeper?'
    Yes.
    'A human sound?'
    No.
    'But it came from him?'
    Yes.

3
    He drove through the tunnels, which were filled with
a darkness denser than the night outside. The naked
lamps on the walls made the darkness all the more
noticeable. The cars coming towards him made no
noise.
    He had the window down, letting in some air and a
cold glow. There was no light at the end of the tunnel,
only darkness.
    It was like driving through hell, tunnel after tunnel.
He was familiar with them all. He would drive round
and round the city through the tunnels. Is there a name
for this? he wondered. A term?
    Music on the radio. Or had he put a CD in? He
couldn't remember. A beautiful voice he liked to listen
to when he was driving under the ground. Soon the
whole of the city would be buried. The whole of the
road alongside the water was being dug down into hell.
    He sat down in front of the television and watched his
film. The playground, the climbing frame, the slide the
children slid down, and one of the children laughed out
loud and he laughed as well because it looked such fun.
He pressed rewind, watched the fun bit once again and
made a note on the sheet of