She told them where she had found every single garment, but when this was translated, it met with no interest. Hargel went out again and walked along the shore to the quay, remembered something, turned and shouted. Lensmann Henriksen turned to Ingrid and said she could keep the harpoon gun, but they would have to take the Krag and the shotgun with them, and the ammunition.

Ingrid nodded and asked if there had only been P.O.W.s on the ship. Henriksen asked if she was stupid or what. The soldier came up and gave her two pieces of paper, one the Verordnung für Zivilisten in der Besatzungszone, regulations for civilians in occupied territory . . . she hadn’t seen the other one before. She folded them and accompanied the men to the quay, was about to lift the ropes off the bollards, but was stopped by a Warte mal. Hargel was standing amidst the bodies on the deck and called up to her:

“Haben Sie keine Tiere?” Haven’t you got any livestock?

“Nein.”

He nodded.

“Und wie viele Boote?” And how many boats?

“Four,” Ingrid said.

He nodded again and signalled with a finger. She lifted the loops and stood at attention as before, until they had backed out of the sound and set a course for the village, she wondered why she hadn’t moved the body in the barn down to the quay house with the others and burned the uniform, why they hadn’t asked whether she had found a boat, or searched for one, no-one makes it here alive without a boat. She reflected on the con-versation and the tracks in the snow she still couldn’t find and wondered whether she had heard Gewalt, force, or keine Gewalt, no force, or ertrunken, drowned, or nicht ertrunken, not drowned, and eventually decided that whatever they had said or she had understood, they would be back, it had something to do with a feeling she had about Henriksen.

That evening she didn’t dare go to Gjesøya, the sea was too calm and the darkness too light. She lay in the South Chamber with the telescope scanning the islands, thinking now nothing is visible, now I can row, but she stayed put, for she was asleep.

12

They had left behind the tank of white powder. Ingrid filled a bucket and sprinkled it over the hayloft floor. When the tide was almost out she walked over to Karvika and began to stare into the sea where the boat had sunk. She couldn’t see anything, she waited until the tide was at its lowest, and still she couldn’t see anything.

But today it was too light to row and it remained so.