Free The Ice Queen: A Novel by Nele Neuhaus Page A

steadfastly determined to maintain the facade of harmonious family life.
    After Marcus had left for the athletic field half an hour later, she went in the house, tied a scarf around her head, grabbed her dark windbreaker and a flashlight, and took the key to Marcus’s office from its hook. Although he kept telling her not to, she cleaned his office regularly. She hated to be idle, and work kept a person young. Her eyes fell on the mirror next to the front door. Auguste Nowak knew what the years had done to her face, yet she was sometimes surprised to see the wrinkles, her mouth caving in because of missing teeth, and the heavy-hooded eyelids. Almost eighty-five, she thought. Unbelievable that she could be old so soon! To be honest, she never felt any older than fifty. She was tough and strong and a lot more agile than many thirty-year-olds. At sixty, she had gotten her driver’s license, and at seventy, she’d taken her first vacation. She found joy in small things and never quarreled with her fate. Besides, she still had something she needed to do, something of immense importance. Death, which she had looked in the eye for the first time over sixty years ago, would have to be patient until she had put everything in order. Auguste winked at her reflection in the mirror and left the house. She crossed the courtyard, opened the door to the office building, and went into Marcus’s office, which was in the annex to the workshop that he’d had built in the meadow down the hill from Auguste’s little cottage a few years back. The clock above the desk said 11:30. She would have to hurry if she didn’t want anyone to know about her little outing.
    *   *   *
    He could hear the throbbing bass of the music as soon as he walked across the jammed parking lot. The DJ was playing all the silly pop hits back to back, and the people were drunker than Marcus Nowak would have believed possible at this hour. A few kids, including his own, were playing soccer on the grass, and about three hundred people were crammed into the festival tent. Most of the adults had withdrawn to the bar at the clubhouse. Marcus was sickened by the sight of the two obviously tipsy men from the board of directors who were leering at the young girls.
    “Hey, Nowak!” A hand slapped him on the back, and somebody breathed foul schnapps fumes in his face. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
    “Hi, Stefan,” replied Marcus. “Have you seen Tina?”
    “Nope, sorry. But come on over to our table and have a cold one with us, man.”
    The man grabbed his arm as he followed reluctantly through the sweating, boisterous crowd in the rear of the festival tent.
    “Hey, people!” Stefan yelled. “Look who I brought!”
    Everybody turned to look at them, yelling and smirking. He was looking into familiar faces with glassy eyes, which told him the alcohol had already been flowing freely. Earlier, he’d been one of them: They were buddies from school or sports, guys from the annual fair, and had played their way from the junior league in soccer up to the first-string team. They had served with the volunteer fire department and partied at a lot of celebrations like this one. He’d known them all since they were kids, but suddenly they seemed like strangers. They shoved together to make room for him. He sat down, determined to grin and bear it. Somebody stuck a glass of May wine in his hand and gave a toast, so he drank. When had he stopped enjoying this sort of thing? Why didn’t he have as much fun as his old pals with simple pleasures like this? While the others downed their drinks within five minutes, he was still holding his glass of May wine. At that moment, he felt his cell vibrating in his pants pocket. He pulled out the phone, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw who had sent him a text. The contents made his face turn crimson.
    “Hey, Marcus, I wanna give you some advice, as a good friend,” Chris Wiethölter babbled in his ear. He was one of the