a glance, he deduced that the body had been there a long time. It could well be from the Viking period. He has no clue about these things. But the historians might come along, and if turns out to be a protected burial ground or something of an archeological nature, they could have their building permit ripped up for good.
Clive watches Tom progress through the full spectrum of oh, bollocks. He lights another cigarette and speaks his next words carefully, and in a low voice.
“This will destroy all our work. You know that, don’t you?”
Tom nods.
“I’m not sure I’m ready for another house to be destroyed. Are you?”
Tom shakes his head.
“So, what I’m going to propose isn’t sensitive. It’s not even ethical. But . . .”
“No,” Tom says, not quite sure what Clive is going to suggest, but it probably involves dumping the body in the fjord. Again, Aurelia’s corpse on the table washes up on his mind. Her swollen face, the missing toenails. He squeezes his eyes shut and pinches his nose, which has started to bleed.
Clive hands him a tissue in case he stands up to get one from the worktop and decides to run out of the house while he’s at it.
“We need to tackle this quickly,” he says. A noise at the door cuts him off. Erik walks in, his hard hat clutched by both hands in front of him like a man come to pay his last respects. “Forgive me,” he begins.
“We’re having a meeting,” Clive says tersely, to which Tom lifts his head with the bloodied tissue poking out of his nose and signals for Erik to join them.
Erik feels awkward, but he’s been petitioned by the other workers to speak up. “The men,” he says. “They are worried.”
“I’m sure they are,” Clive says.
“In Norway, we honor the dead,” he says simply. “We need to make sure the body is treated with care. Otherwise, it could be very bad . . .”
Clive sniffs the superstitious mumbo jumbo buried in that statement. “You’re right, mate. This could be very bad.”
“There are laws,” Erik says, changing tack. “The body is protected by law.”
Clive feels a tempest of frustration sweep across him. How hard is it to build a damn house? First storms, then an overenthusiastic moose, now a body protected by law.
Tom nods to show he has understood, but is not yet fully able to use actual words. His mind flicks rapidly to that morning in the land registry office in Ålesund, when the clerk showed him a screen of microfiche documents bearing the details of Granhus’s previous owners. Only two: Henrik Skjærvik, who built the house in 1899, and then a man named Snorre something who did some renovations in 1980 before moving to Denmark. Henrik had apparently gone missing, and the clerk had made a big fuss about how the death date was unrecorded and there was no mention of a burial. It was likely that the body was his. Murdered, perhaps, given that he’d been buried without a coffin or headstone. Yes, forensics would be all over that.
“Tell the men to take the rest of the day off,” Clive tells Erik, who flicks his eyes to Tom, not sure this is the answer he wanted. Tom still doesn’t speak. Erik gets up, hard hat still in his hands, and nods.
Once the cars and vans begin to pull off the site, Clive gets up suddenly and stalks purposefully toward the door.
“What are you doing?” Tom calls after him. No reply.
Outside, Clive looks down at the pit. At the body lying there. For a moment he sees Aurelia. He tells himself to get a grip. Then he heaves the concrete mixer over, tips it on its side, and watches as the concrete pours down on top of the corpse.
“What are you doing?” Tom yells. He races for Clive, slamming into his chest with his shoulder, but Clive shoves him off. He finds the second mixer, pours it on its side. The body is covered now. Good. It’ll dry by morning and they can cover it up with another layer of soil.
Tom sinks to his knees and stares down into the pit in horror. There’s no way back from this. The body is desecrated. He looks up at Clive. “What have you done?”
Clive wipes his nose on his shirtsleeve. “I’ve saved the build.” He winks and grins. “You’re welcome.”
* * *
—
Tom doesn’t sleep all night. He hears Gaia calling him from her bedroom to read her