Page 22 of The Fighter
“Of course. Didn’t you hear her? She’s on a mission to spread her love by feeding the hungry Nmen, and you definitely qualify. Anyone can see that you’re love deprived.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It would explain why you’re always so serious.” Raven’s voice rose a little, as she crossed her arms and turned to face the other way. “You know what, on second thought, why don’t you take Gennie up on her generous offer and bang her brains out? Maybe then I won’t have to deal with you being grumpy all the time.”
For some reason her little outburst made my day. “Sorry, Raven, but I’m pretty sure your threats ruined my chances with Gennie.”
“And now you want me to apologize?”
“Nah, it’s fine, she wasn’t my type anyway.”
In a slow movement Raven turned to look at me. “She wasn’t?”
“No.” I was waiting for her to ask me what my type was, but Raven chose to swallow her endless curiosity and change the subject to the husband and wife. “What’s going to happen to her?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to discuss this with Magni after we have talked with the couple. If the husband refuses to press charges, there’s not much I can do. We’ve never had a situation like this before.”
“Another ‘first’ in the Northlands.”
“Yup, they seem to be standing in line these days.
CHAPTER 7
Treasure Hunting
Raven
Mila enlisted both her dad, Magni, and her uncle, Khan, to go searching with us for Dina’s belongings in the basement.
So much for my secret investigation!
I had wanted it to be just Mila and me, but she made a good point that Magni and Khan might be able to recognize Dina’s possessions, and that the more sets of eyes, the better our chance of success.
To be honest I was surprised that the two most powerful men in the country took time out of their day to do this with us. It strengthened my feeling that Dina might be gone, but not forgotten. Finding answers to how their sister died was important.
Jonah came with us as well, and when I asked why, Mila gave me no other reason than his being a good friend who enjoyed the sense of adventure.
It was like my murder mystery had been overtaken by the four people walking down the long corridor in front of me. With his long steps, Magni led the way and spoke in his deep voice “Don’t be disappointed when we don’t find anything. I remember searching this room when I was a kid and there was nothing.”
Jonah gave me and Mila a wide smile. “I’m excited. This feels like going treasure hunting.”
“Hmm, more like trash hunting.” Magni walked another ten steps before he stopped in front of an old wooden door that screeched on its hinges when he pushed it open. “Prepare for half a century of unwanted things.”
Once the light flickered on, my eyes took in a room much larger than I had expected. This wasn’t some small storage room, this was the size of the upstairs library and then some.
Khan stepped into the room and groaned. “Holy crap, I had no idea we had this much shit down here.”
“It’s not all rubbish, look at this.” Mila stood next to a painting of wild horses on a beach.
Khan didn’t look impressed but let his gaze wander over the stacks of boxes, piles of books, picture frames, rolled-up rugs, and furniture of different kinds.
Jonah craned his head to get an overview. “Do you remember anything specific from Dina’s room that we can look for? If we can find one thing, we might be lucky in that the rest of her stuff is next to it.”
“Good thinking.” Magni turned to Khan. “You were thirteen, so maybe you remember her room better than me.”
Khan drew his eyebrows close together and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, she had an… ehm… bed that was purple, I think. Or maybe it was blue.”
We were all looking at him waiting for more details, but he threw up his hands. “I don’t know, I can’t even remember how my own room looked back then.”
