The Redbreast(24)

blanket, and followed Edvard outside. The stars

twinkled above them, but the night sky was

growing paler in the east. Somewhere he could

hear terrible sobbing. Otherwise it was strangely

still.

‘New Dutch recruits,’ Edvard said. ‘They arrived

yesterday and are just back from their first trip to

no man’s land.’

Dale stood in the middle of the trench in an odd

pose, his head tilted to one side and his arms away

from his body. He had tied his scarf round his chin

and his emaciated face with closed eyes in deep

sockets made him look like a beggar.

‘Dale!’ came the sharp command from Edvard.

Dale woke up. ‘Show us.’

Dale led the way. Gudbrand could feel his heart

pumping faster. The cold bit into his cheeks; he

still hadn’t managed to freeze out the warm,

dreamlike feeling he had brought with him from his

bunk. The trench was so narrow that they had to

walk in single file, and he could feel Edvard’s

eyes in his back.

‘Here,’ Dale said, pointing.

The wind whistled a hoarse tune under the rim of

the helmet. On the ammunition boxes was a body

with its limbs splayed stiffly out to the sides. The

snow which had drifted into the trench had left a

thin layer on top of the uniform. Sacking was tied

round the head of the corpse.

‘Fucking hell,’ Dale said. He shook his head and

stamped his feet.

Edvard didn’t say a word. Gudbrand reckoned he

was waiting for him.

‘Why haven’t the corpse-bearers collected him?’

Gudbrand asked finally.

‘They did collect him,’ Edvard said. ‘They were

here yesterday afternoon.’

‘So why did they bring him back?’ Gudbrand

noticed that Edvard was eyeing him.

‘No one on the general staff knows of any orders

to bring him back.’

‘A misunderstanding?’ Gudbrand said. ‘Maybe.’

Edvard flicked a thin, half-smoked cigarette out of

a packet, turned away from the wind and lit it with

a cupped match. He passed it on after a couple of

drags.

‘The men who took him maintain he was put in

one of the mass graves in the Northern Sector.’

‘If that’s true, shouldn’t he be buried?’

Edvard shook his head.

‘They aren’t buried until they’ve been burned.

And they only burn during the day so that the

Russians can’t take advantage of the light. And at

night the new mass graves are open and unguarded.

Someone must have taken Daniel from there.’

‘Fucking hell,’ Dale said again, taking the

cigarette and inhaling greedily.

‘So it’s really true that they burn the bodies,’

Gudbrand said. ‘What for? In this cold?’

‘I know that,’ Dale said. ‘It’s because the ground

is frozen. When the temperature rises in

springtime, the earth pushes bodies upwards.’ He

reluctantly passed on the cigarette. ‘Last winter we

buried Vorpenes a long way behind our lines. In

the spring we stumbled across him again. Well,

what the foxes had left of him at any rate.’

‘The question is,’ Edvard said. ‘How did Daniel

end up here?’

Gudbrand shrugged.

‘You had the last watch, Gudbrand.’ Edvard had

screwed up one eye and turned the cyclops eye on

him. Gudbrand took his time with the cigarette.

Dale coughed.

‘I walked past here four times,’ Gudbrand said,

sending on the cigarette. ‘He wasn’t here then.’

‘You could have gone up to the Northern Sector

during your watch. And there are sledge tracks

over here in the snow.’

‘Could have been left by the corpse-bearers,’

Gudbrand said. ‘The tracks are over the last boot

prints. And you say you walked past here four

times.’

‘Hell, Edvard, I can see it’s Daniel over there

too!’ Gudbrand exploded. ‘Of course someone put

him there, and probably using a sledge. But if

you’re listening to what I’m saying you must be

able to see that someone brought him here after I

passed for the last time.’

Edvard didn’t answer; instead, visibly annoyed,

he ripped the final couple of centimetres of the

cigarette out of Dale’s pursed mouth and stared

disapprovingly at the wet marks on the cigarette

paper. Dale picked the shreds of tobacco off his

tongue and scowled.

‘Why in God’s name would I bother with

something like this?’ Gudbrand asked. ‘And how

could I possibly drag a body from the Northern

Sector over here without being stopped by

patrols?’

‘You could have gone through no man’s land.’

Gudbrand shook his head in disbelief. ‘Do you