Rites of Spring

79

Thea is finding it hard to breathe. It’s as if she can hear her heartbeat bouncing off the stone walls. Hubert has removed all the religious trappings and staged his own version of the spring sacrifice.

She moves closer to the figures. On a table beside them is a record player with a black LP on the turntable, and propped up against one speaker is something she recognises only too well.

A Polaroid, virtually identical to the ones she found inside the Gallows Oak and at Arne’s house.

Hubert was also invited to the stone circle.

She picks up the photograph, compares the animal masks with the ones on the saints. They’re the same. So how did they end up here, inside the Gordon family’s private chapel?

She walks around the back of the tableau. There is something on the floor behind the figure representing Elita.

A blue suitcase.

Her heart begins to race. She sits down and opens the case. It contains two pairs of shoes, and neatly folded items of clothing. Two dresses, two pairs of jeans, a blouse, several tops, a passport. Right at the bottom is a soft toy, a little rabbit.

There is something very moving about it all. Elita Svart’s most treasured possessions, the things she wanted to take with her as she floated high above Tornaby, never to return.

Can you see me, dear readers?

I can see you.

She flicks through the passport. It was issued in March 1986, only a month or so before Elita was killed. In the picture she looks happy. Expectant. As if she is waiting to take off. Instead she was beaten to death and left on a cold block of stone. With a child in her belly that no one must find out about.

Because no secret is greater than mine.

Thea gets to her feet, takes a few photos with her phone: the figures, the masks, Elita’s suitcase.

More pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place, but the overall picture is still not clear.

The most logical conclusion is that Hubert must have been there that night, even though he claims to have been in England, and neither the children nor Arne mentioned him. Maybe he was hiding, watching everything from a distance, just like Arne. Waiting to see what would happen.

Why did Hubert take the masks and the suitcase, remove clear proof that Elita wasn’t planning to die, as the police investigation assumed, but to run away? Leave Tornaby, possibly with the one she loved.

The strongest love is unrequited love.

As I said, the Gordons are terrible people.

Could a broken heart be reason enough for Hubert to commit murder?

A distant sound interrupts her train of thought, a door opening and closing somewhere in the building, followed by faint footsteps.

Thea tiptoes over to the door and puts her ear against it. The footsteps are coming closer. Someone is on their way up the stairs.

It must be Hubert. What will happen if he comes in? Catches her here, at the heart of a secret he’s kept for over thirty years?

She has no intention of staying around to find out. Quickly she lifts the record player off the table. The album sleeve behind it falls on the floor – Stravinsky.

The table is heavy, it scrapes along the concrete as she drags it to the right spot. Whoever is outside must be able to hear the noise. She scrambles up and stretches her arms. There’s a half-metre gap. She’s going to have to jump.

Another sound, a bolt being drawn back, a key turning in a lock.

Thea takes a deep breath, bends her knees and pushes off with all her strength. Her fingers grip the edge of the hatch. For a second she thinks she won’t be able to hold on, but then she manages to swing her body and press one foot against the ceiling, enabling her to crawl back into the loft.

Just as she draws her legs in, she hears the chapel door open.