The Mist

kind of terrible misunderstanding.’
‘What have you done to Anna?’ Erla cried, feeling the tears sliding down her cheeks. ‘What have you done to her?’
‘I’ve never met Anna, I swear to you…’
‘My wife tells me you were snooping around in our bedroom yesterday,’ Einar said, keeping up the relentless inquisition. ‘Is that true?’
Leó was visibly thrown by the accusation. ‘No. No, I don’t know why she’d think that.’
‘I saw you when I came in. I’m positive,’ Erla said flatly.
‘You saw me in the corridor, you mean. You must be imagining things,’ Leó shot back.
‘Let’s just watch what we say here,’ Einar said steadily, but still with that steel in his voice. ‘It’s possible my wife made a mistake, but it seems to me there are a number of things that need explaining.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ their visitor protested with a sigh. ‘I haven’t lied about anything and I don’t understand why you’re accusing me like this. If you don’t want me here, I’ll leave right now.’
‘Just hold your horses. No one’s saying that,’ Einar told him. ‘We just want you to be straight with us.’
‘But I have been straight with –’
Erla jumped in again: ‘What about last night? What were you doing prowling around?’ Even as she said it, she experienced a momentary doubt, wondering if it had been a dream. Maybe she hadn’t actually heard the stealthy noises or the squeaking of the door in the attic. But when she saw the faint twitch of a muscle in Leó’s cheek, the infinitesimal widening of his eyes, she knew it hadn’t been her imagination. She threw a quick glance at her husband and saw that he had caught it as well, the betraying signs of guilt.
Leó sat there in silence.
‘I heard you, you went up to the attic.’
‘How on earth –?’
‘… do I know that? Because I know this house.’
‘So, yet more questions for you to answer, Leó.’
‘I…’ their visitor said, and stalled. Erla sensed that he was trying to make up his mind whether to keep lying to them or to admit the truth. ‘All right,’ he went on, ‘as a matter of fact I was up and about last night. I couldn’t sleep. I was feeling a bit claustrophobic, to be honest. I’m not used to being snowed in like this. I put my head out of the door for a breath of air, but it didn’t help, just made me even more aware than before of how … well, how isolated this place is.’
‘And the attic? What were you doing up there? And don’t bother lying to me, Leó – I heard you open the door up there.’ She added for good measure: ‘And so did my husband.’
‘Oh, I don’t really know what I wanted. I just thought I’d try the bed up there, see if I’d feel any less claustrophobic upstairs…’
Einar walked over to the sofa and laid a heavy hand on Leó’s shoulder. ‘And how did that work out, mate? Did you go back to the spare room after that?’ There was a warning note in his voice.
Leó lowered his eyes, answering after a moment or two: ‘Yes, I managed to get to sleep in the end. I’m sorry if I kept you two awake.’
‘Come along,’ Einar said. It was an order, but a polite one. His hand was still resting on the guest’s shoulder.
‘Where? What do you mean?’
‘Come upstairs.’
‘Up … to the attic?’
‘Yes, come with me. I just want to make sure nothing’s been damaged or stolen,’ Einar said firmly, adding, when Leó didn’t react: ‘Unless you’d rather I didn’t check?’
‘No, of course not. I’ve nothing to hide.’
‘Right, then, let’s go upstairs. You lead – after all, you already know the way.’
Erla saw the confusion in Leó’s eyes, but he obeyed and walked slowly up the stairs in front of Einar. The door to the attic room was locked from the outside and, when Erla heard the squeak of the key, she realized that this had almost certainly been the noise she had picked up on last night.
‘Ah, it’s dark up here, of course,’ she heard Einar say. ‘The window’s covered with snow. Hang on a minute. I’m going to fetch a candle.’
Erla jumped when she heard the sound of the door shutting and the key turning in the lock. The seconds seemed to pass as slowly as minutes while it gradually dawned on her that her husband had locked their guest in.
Then she heard the first shouts. ‘What the fuck’s going on?’ Leó’s voice carried clearly down to where she was standing. He shook the handle, then started banging on the door, but Erla knew it wouldn’t give way that easily. This was a solid old house and most of the doors were correspondingly thick and sturdy. ‘Let me out, for fuck’s sake! Let me out! This is against the law. Let me out!’ He started pounding on the door again.
Einar came downstairs, looking unperturbed.
‘Right, love, let’s take a quick look through his things. I’m not quite sure about this fellow. I think you might have been right about him all along.’
He called back over his shoulder: ‘Just be patient a minute, mate. I’ll be back shortly.’
Erla could hardly believe what had just happened, relieved though she was that Einar had apparently decided to take her fears seriously. ‘What are you doing?’ she whispered, going over to him.
‘There’s something fishy about all this, love. Let’s find out if he’s telling the truth.’
‘But what … what are you going to do? Are you planning to keep him locked up … right through Christmas?’
‘No, of course not,’ Einar replied, as Leó kept up his violent assault on the door upstairs. ‘That wouldn’t do. Besides, this may all turn out to be a big misunderstanding, in which case we’ll let him out at once. But we need to be careful. I’m not putting you at risk from some stranger.’
‘But what –?’
‘I’m just going to take a look through his things. I’ll soon see if he’s been lying to us.’