Depths - By Henning Mankell & Laurie Thompson Page 0,82

lady who lived on the skerry was in good health.

He did not seem to notice the signs, only slight as yet, that Sara Fredrika was pregnant. Tobiasson-Svartman gave him the letters, and money for the stamps.

'She wants a letter,' he said.

'Of course Sara would like a letter,' Olaus said. 'I'll post them in Valdemarsvik.'

He rowed back to his boat. When Tobiasson-Svartman got up the next day, it had already sailed. He had not asked any questions about the ice-free pools Sara Fredrika had spoken about.

CHAPTER 134

It was 9 May, warm weather, calm sea.

They got up early in order to bring in the nets that had been laid close to the little rocks that did not even have names. They rowed into the morning sun, she had unbuttoned her blouse and he was in his shirtsleeves. He rowed, she sat in the stern. He enjoyed the morning atmosphere, wanted for nothing, and just for now was liberated from all measurements and distances.

She reached for the cork float, stood up, braced herself and started pulling.

The net snagged immediately.

'Hang on,' she said. 'We've got snarled up in something.'

She tweaked and pulled. The net started to come in. But it was heavy.

'What is it?' he asked.

'If it's a fish, it's a big one. If it's crap from the seabed, it's pretty heavy.'

She hauled in most of the net, but it was almost empty, just the odd bullhead, an occasional cod. He leaned over the side to see better. Just then she let go of the net and screamed. She slumped down on the stern seat and buried her head in her hands. Caught up in the net were the skeletal remains of a human being and something that might have been a piece of leather from a jackboot. He didn't need to ask what it was. He knew without asking. She had caught her dead husband in her net.

PART VIII

Measuring Lighthouse Beams

CHAPTER 135

It sounded as if she was howling. An animal in distress.

The net with the bits of skeleton had been snagged by the rail. She stood up and tugged at it as if fighting with a big fish. But she didn't want to have it on board, she wanted the net to sink back down to the bottom of the sea.

He sat motionless, holding the oars. What was happening was beyond his control. The net came loose and started to sink down to the bottom.

'Row,' she screamed. 'Let's get away from here.'

She flung herself at him and started to row herself. He could see her fear, feel the power in the strokes.

They were a long way from the spot where they had caught the bones when she slumped back on to the stern seat.

'Turn,' she said.

'Turn to where?'

'I was wrong. I must bring him up. I must bury my husband.'

Her fear had now become despair.

'There's no sign of the net,' he said. 'But I know where the place is.'

'How can you know when there's nothing to see?'

'I know,' he said. 'That's my special skill. I can read the sea, see what isn't visible.'

He turned the boat round, rowed nineteen strokes, then changed direction slightly to port and rowed twenty-two more strokes.

They had a little drag anchor in the boat. He knew that the depth here was between fifty-five and sixty metres. The anchor rope was only thirty metres long.

'It's here,' he said. 'But the rope is too short. I can't reach the bottom.'

'I must get him up.'

'I know where it is. We can come back to this very spot. You have a length of rope in the inlet and we can tie it to the anchor rope. That would give another forty metres, which would make it long enough.'

He didn't wait for her to answer but started rowing back to Halsskär. She sat quietly on the stern seat, hunched up, as if she'd just been exerting herself.

When they got to the inlet he fetched the rope and put it in the dinghy.

'Let me do it,' he said. 'Let me bring the net up. You don't need to be there.'

She said nothing. When he rowed out again she stood watching him.

CHAPTER 136

He let the anchor sink to the seabed.

He felt something at the fourth attempt. He stood up and pulled in the rope. The net reappeared, and in it the bits of bone and the piece of leather. It was part of a jackboot, with a rusty stud still attached to it. He pulled the net on board. There were fish wriggling away in