The music reverberated off the dark brick walls of the Kjelleren beer hall. The wooden boarded floor, sticky with spilt beer, vibrated with the deep bass line. A thin mist of blue cigarette smoke drifted beneath the low, roughly plastered, nicotine-yellowed ceiling as the scent of stale beer filled the air.
Half a dozen exposed bulbs hung down from frayed wires, providing a dim light to the small cellar bar.
The bar was busy that night. The crowd was an odd, eclectic mixture of people, from leather-clad rock fans to university students to scruffy drunks. Hiding themselves away in the darker nook of the bar, a group of underage drinkers, who had somehow managed to get past the doormen, argued over which of them looked the oldest and should go to buy the drinks. Those who had got in early enough sat around worn, scratched tables. The others stood, jostling and bumping shoulders, muttering angrily as a stranger accidentally knocked their beer. All had their eyes fixed on the low platform in the corner of the bar, where a red spotlight illuminated the duo that performed upon it.
Lela’s head tossed back and forth, her hair swinging with every note while her mesmerising vocals sliced through the thick, hazy atmosphere of the Kjelleren. Asmund’s fingers danced nimbly on the fretboard of his guitar. His long hair hung down over his face, his body hunched over the instrument as he strummed out powerful, blistering chords, which melded perfectly with his partner’s voice.
The pair smiled warmly at each other as they brought their song, one of Lela’s own compositions and one that she was especially proud of, to a final, crashing crescendo and then silence.
The crowd roared with applause as Lela and Asmund embraced each other briefly before, hand in hand, they turned to bow.
A wide smile split Lela’s face as she looked out over the crowd, their eyes fixed on her and Asmund. From a table directly in front of the stage, Ingrid beamed up at them. Other faces, some she recognised and others that she didn’t, cheered and clapped.
She had always loved the Kjelleren. Admittedly, it could be rough at times, but the atmosphere there was something special. There was nowhere else quite like it in Oslo. She had no idea how many times she’d been out on that floor dancing to whatever band had been playing. Tonight, it was different. Tonight, for the first time, it had been her performing. Arctic Howl’s first gig at the Kjelleren and it had been an amazing success.
Carefully propping her guitar up against the wall, Lela stepped down off the stage and began to make her way through the throng of bodies, towards the bar. Slaps on the shoulder and muttered words of appreciation seemed to greet her at every turn.
Lela stepped up to the bar, slipping in beside a large, scruffy looking man. His blonde hair was tangled, and several days’ worth of stubble covered his rough face. One of the local drunks that the Kjelleren’s cheap beer had a habit of attracting, no doubt. As long as they caused no trouble, men like him were generally tolerated by the management. She felt a sudden shiver run through her body as his bloodshot eyes locked onto her.
Lela gave the barman a warm smile and a friendly nod. The barman, a balding man in his 50s, was carefully pouring a beer from one of the polished brass pumps that lined the bar. His Rolling Stones T-shirt was faded and worn.
“You guys were amazing out there tonight. They can be a tough crowd to please at times, but I’ve already had a bunch of inquiries about buying your T-shirts and EPs. You really do need to sort something out. They would sell well.” The barman said, looking up as he spoke.
“Thank you, Gunnar! We’re looking into getting some tapes recorded and hopefully a few T-shirts printed up, ready for next time. That is, if you’ll have us again?” Lela didn’t even attempt to hide the excitement that she could feel bubbling up inside of her as the adrenaline from the night flooded through her veins.
“Have you again? We’ve just had a cancellation, so I have an empty slot next Friday. I was going to ask you two if you would mind stepping in?” Gunnar handed the beer he’d been pouring to the scruffy man as he spoke.
“Of course, Gunnar. Count us in!” They had played in a lot of the smaller pubs, but a return gig at the Kjelleren was an enormous step up, and Lela couldn’t keep the grin from her face.
“Excellent, I’ll put you on the calendar. The twelfth of October, you’re booked in. Can I get you a beer?”
“That would be great, thank you.”
Lela jumped as she felt a rough hand land on her shoulder. Turning to politely ask the drunkard next to her to take his hand off her, stale beer and the stench of an unwashed body stung her nostrils. Her words died in her throat, and a shocked gasp escaped her mouth as her eyes met his. The face that looked at her was a face that she instantly recognised. She didn’t just recognise it, it was a face that she had known since she had been a small girl.
“Lars?”
She gazed up, looking her best friend’s brother in the eyes, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. The Lars that she had always known had never been a drinker. She couldn’t remember a time when she had ever seen him drink more than a couple of beers. Even on his and Heidi’s joint eighteenth birthday party, he had remained perfectly sober while his twin sister stumbled around the bar draping herself over every man that she could find.
Lela struggled to believe that the glazed-eyed drunk in front of her could be the same man. But of course, things must have been incredibly hard for him lately, first with Heidi running off and then the shocking news about his parents. A wave of deep sympathy washed over Lela as she looked up at him.
“Hello, Lela.” Lars’ voice came out as a slow slur, his eyes struggling to focus on her. They would lock on for a moment, drift away before snapping back into focus.
“How are you holding up? I’m so sorry to hear about your parents.” Lela’s voice was soft, laced with sympathy.
Lela had been in shock when she first saw the headlines in the paper. The initial report was bad enough. Heidi and Lars’ parents’ car had been found abandoned and burnt out in the forest, with the police investigating the case as a possible abduction or murder. The really crushing blow had come a few weeks ago when a news report confirmed the discovery of their father’s body, a victim of murder.
“It’s been hard, Lela. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Having to deal with this all on my own. The police, the fact that someone wanted to kill my mum and dad… But I’m doing okay. I’m holding up alright.” Lars swayed as he spoke, his sunken eyes and unwashed clothes giving away the fact that he was most certainly not holding up well at all.
Lela placed a comforting hand on his arm. It had been a long time since she had really spent any time with Lars. They had all been good friends as children, Heidi, Lars and herself. But even though the friendship between them had cooled since his relationship with her best friend soured, Lela still felt a certain amount of responsibility towards him.
“Have the police got any idea of what happened?” As she spoke, Lars wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“They seem to think that someone ambushed them on the way home from the airport, but how or why is a mystery. They say that they’re following a few leads, but I don’t think they know anything.”
“What about your sister? Has she not been in touch? I assume that she knows?”
Lela felt a warm bubble of anger stir inside her slightly as Lars slowly shook his head. How could Heidi be so selfish? How could she abandon her own twin brother, leaving him to deal with all of this on his own while she was gallivanting off, who knows where, with some boyfriend? She did have to admit to herself, however, that a significant part of the anger that she felt stemmed from the hurt that her best friend had caused her. It had been four and a half months since Heidi had run off to Copenhagen with a man Lela didn’t even know, and there had not been a single word from her, not a letter, not a postcard, not a telephone call, nothing.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Heidi had run off with a man. In fact, she had earned herself a bit of a reputation. Lela tried not to judge her friend too harshly on that. She understood why Heidi acted the way that she did, even if her logic for doing so was twisted. Heidi had her secrets, her demons. The pair had never spoken about it directly, but there are some things that you just can’t keep from your best friend. Besides, it wasn’t as if Lela herself had been totally honest, she had been keeping her own secret from Heidi for the last five years.
“Have you heard anything from her at all?” Lela’s voice was soft as she spoke.
“I received a letter from her a month or so ago saying that she was thinking of Mum and Dad but that she didn’t have any plans to come home anytime soon. Has she been in touch with you at all?”
Lela shook her head. “No, I haven’t heard anything from her.”