The meanest Flood

Norwegian phrasebook. ‘Kan de fortelle Meg hvor tog stasjonen er?’
    ‘The railway station?’ the Norwegian said. ‘Yeah. Take the escalator down and keep walking. You can’t miss it.’
    Geordie had brought a novel to read but hadn’t got very far with it. Le Carré’s The Constant Gardener, about the murder of a woman in northern Kenya. Janet had given him it at York station when he’d got on the train to Newcastle. He’d kissed Echo and then he’d held Janet and kissed her for a long time. She’d whispered love to him and the old words started an echo that lasted more than a thousand kilometres.
    He watched Norway go by through the windows of the train. Red barns and wooden houses. Seemed like whichever way you framed the view through the window you’d end up with something like a postcard. Geordie would have liked to watch the view, see how this new landscape was different from England or Holland, the only other country he’d visited. Either that or he’d have liked to read more of the le Carre, try to understand how Lake Turkana, where the woman in the story was killed, was the birthplace of mankind. Far as Geordie could remember, the birthplace of mankind was somewhere in India. But who was he to argue with le Carre?
    But he couldn’t do either of those things because he didn’t know why he was here and he didn’t understand the events that had led him here. Geordie was disoriented. Not only that, he was probably alienated as well because events in the outer world were spinning in directions he had never envisaged. One, Sam’s ex-wife Katherine had been killed in Nottingham when Sam just happened to be visiting the city. Two, another woman, one of Sam’s old girlfriends, Nicole Day, and her husband Rolf, had been killed in Leeds when Sam was knocking on the doors of houses in the same street. Three, Sam had split. He had packed a bag well quick and disappeared without trace. Four, the police were after him. There was a manhunt on, with pictures in the newspapers and captions telling people not to approach this man because he was dangerous. And the man was Sam Turner.
    No word for three days, then last night the telephone rang. Geordie was sitting by the window looking out at the dark and he could hear Janet singing upstairs, trying to settle Echo for the night. Barney was curled in front of the wood-burning stove, sleeping as usual. Geordie was worried that Barney was getting near the end of his life. Well, worried wasn’t the right word. Barney and Geordie had been together since the dog was a pup. They’d been on the street together, looked after each other when there was nobody else to care, before Sam came along and offered them a job. And if Barney gave up the ghost some day soon it would be the end of a friendship. More than that, it would mark the end of a whole stage in Geordie’s life.
    Yeah, worrying about Barney and the phone rang. Geordie moved quickly, not wanting the ringing to disturb Echo who was descending into that whimpering stage which would soon be deep breathing and sleep. And as he picked up the handset he knew it was Sam. ‘Where are you?’ he asked.
    ‘Oslo. Can you come over?’
    ‘Oslo? That’s in Finland, right?’
    ‘Norway,’ Sam said.
    ‘Right, Norway. Just testing. When?’
    ‘Tomorrow.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘You know those puzzles psychologists use, where there’s a sequence and you have to find what comes next?’
    ‘There’s a two and a four,’ Geordie said, ‘and you have to decide if the next number is six or eight.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Sam said. ‘When the marriage to Katherine hit the dust I got myself mixed up with Nicole. And they’ve both been killed in that order.’
    ‘That’s not much of a link, Sam.’
    ‘It’s all I’ve got.’
    ‘So how does that lead to Oslo?’
    ‘After Nicole dumped me I fell into the arms of Holly.’
    ‘Holly? What kind of name’s that?’
    ‘If my bet’s right it’s the third name in the sequence.’
    ‘But why Oslo, Sam?’
    ‘Because that’s where Holly lives.’
    ‘Jesus. Then that’s the place you shouldn’t be. If she’s lulled in Oslo while you’re there you’re never gonna be able to explain it.’
    ‘Geordie, I’m here to make sure she doesn’t get killed.’
    ‘You’re the kiss of death to these women, Sam. Why do you want me there?’
    ‘To help, of course. And...’
    ‘And? And what?’
    ‘If it goes wrong and we can’t save Holly, you’ll be my witness.’
    ‘Why