Dead of Winter

Chapter 7

Carmichael hauled Jumper’s body out into the snow and stood over it. The wind and snow swirled around him, as if he stood inside a Christmas paperweight that someone had shaken. Sophie had had one in her stocking. It was plastic with a reindeer inside. She had been so excited about Christmas. She came into their bed that last Christmas morning and hugged his neck and he had breathed in her sleepy smell and knowing there would never be a more perfect love. Like the first day he’d held her in his arms, wet from the womb, and he’d vowed to protect her forever.

‘Come on then.’ He had picked her up in his arms and carried her to the window and held her tightly as he opened the curtain very gradually. Sophie had held her breath for a few seconds as she pressed her palms to the cold glass and then gasped. Outside the snow was falling.

Now the sky and the ground merged as the blizzard swirled around him and the dead sheep. He knelt beside Jumper and picked up handfuls of snow, his bloody hand leaving red prints on the white ground. He took out the knife from his belt and began skinning her.