Free The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum

standing, holding the handset, sloping over his desk.
    "Gunder," said Kalle. "I just wanted to know."
    His voice was timid. Gunder said nothing. He had nothing to say. He thought of lying and saying: Yes, she's sitting here now. Had gotten lost, of course. A taxi driver from town who didn't know his way around out here in the countryside.
    "How did it go?" Kalle said.
    Gunder still did not answer. The news he had heard on the radio was still buzzing in his head. Perhaps Kalle had heard it, too, and now the poor fool had put two and two together and made five. Some people were like that, of course: always imagining the worst. And Kalle was a worrier.
    "Are you there, Gunder?"
    "I'm on my way to the hospital."
    Kalle cleared his throat. "How is your sister?"
    "I haven't heard anything, so I suppose she hasn't woken up yet. I don't know."
    There was silence once more. It was as if Kalle was holding something back. Gunder was definitely not coming to his rescue.
    "No," said Kalle, "I just started to worry. I don't know if you've heard the news, but they've found a woman out at Hvitemoen."
    Gunder held his breath, and then he said, "Yes?"
    "They don't know who she is," Kalle said. "But they're saying she's foreign. And she is, well, I mean—they've found a woman's body, that's what I meant to say. That's why I started to worry. You know me. Not that I supposed there was any connection, but it's not very far from your place. I was scared that it could be the woman I was looking for yesterday. But she arrived all right, didn't she?"
    "She'll be here later today," said Gunder with conviction.
    "You got hold of her?"
    Gunder cleared his throat. "I have to go now—should be at the hospital."
    "Of course."
    He sensed Kalle's uneasiness at the other end.
    "And I need to pay you for the trip," said Gunder hurriedly. "I'll catch you later!"
    He put the telephone down. For a while he stood, hesitating. A note for Poona, that's what he was going to do.
    He could leave the key outside. Did they put the key under the mat in India? He found pen and paper, but then he realized that he didn't know how to write in English. Could only speak it a bit. It will be fine, he thought, as he left the house with the door unlocked and got into his car.
    Hvitemoen was less than a mile out of Elvestad toward Randskog. It was not on his way to the hospital and he was relieved about that. It seemed to him that there were more people about than normal. He passed two white broadcast vans and two police cars. Parked in front of Einar's café was a whole row of cars. And bikes and people. He looked at all of it as he accelerated past, frightened.
    Once he was safely at the hospital he took the elevator. He went straight to Marie's room. A nurse was leaning over her. She drew up when he entered the room.
    "Who are you?" she said.
    "Gunder Jomann," he said. "I'm her brother."
    She bent over Marie once more. "All visitors must report to the duty office before they come onto the ward," she said. Gunder said nothing. He stood at the foot of the bed, bewildered and feeling guilty. Why was she like that? Were they not glad that he had finally arrived?
    "I did sit here all of yesterday," he said, still ashamed. "So I thought it would be all right."
    "Well, I wasn't to know that," she said, smiling halfheartedly. "I was off duty yesterday."
    He did not answer her. The words were all tangled up in a hairball, which stuck in his throat. He wanted to ask her if there was any change. But he could feel his lips trembling and he did not want her to see him cry. Carefully he sat down at the edge of the chair and folded his hands in his lap. My wife has disappeared, he thought frantically. He wanted to shout out to the woman standing by the bed regulating a drip feed just how difficult it all was. Marie, his only sister, in a coma, her husband in
Hamburg. And Poona, who had vanished into thin air. He did not have anyone else. He wanted the nurse to leave. And not return. He would