Thread by @lavietidhar

She came into my office and I knew she was trouble as soon as I laid eyes on her. She was cold - winter-cold.
"You are Snufkin, the detective?" she said.
"What's it to you?"
When she moved she left a trail of frost behind her. She said, 'I am the Groke.'

The Groke's been running snow into Moominvalley for as long as I'd been alive. They said she had half the hattifatteners working for her and the other half were dead.

One year they found the Hobgoblin's hat and, the year after, they found the Hobgoblin - what was left of him, at least. Now the Groke could magic weapons out of that hat enough to arm an army.

You didn't cross the Groke. Her head enforcer was Little My and no one wanted to get a visit from Little My or it'd be the last visit they'd ever receive.

"How can I help you?" I said.
"It's the Dweller Under the Sink," she said. "He'd disappeared."
"So?"
"He has something of mine. I want it back."

No one knew what the Dweller Under the Sink looked like. I supposed now if he was no longer Under the Sink that made him just a Dweller. Either way he was best left alone. I said, 'What's in it for me?'

"Your little friend," she said. "What was his name again?"
"Moomintroll."
"Ah, yes. One moomin looks so much like another, don't you find?"
"Not really," I said.
I thought of Moomintroll, and the last time I'd seen him. The massacre on Hattifattener Island.

I'd never picked my harmonica up again after that night.

"What about him?" I said. "He's dead."
I felt so very tired.
The Groke said, "Are you sure?"
"I saw him die. The lightning - there was so much lightning!"
"He's still alive," she said. "I can give him back to you. If you take the job."

I said, "How do I know I can trust you?"
The Groke said, "You don't."

I thought of that summer, long ago, when we were all together in the Moomin house, before Moominpappa had to murder Sniff, before the battle of Hattifattener Island, when Moomintroll and I were friends, when there was still music.

Now it was always winter, there was always snow, and there was ice, both outside and the ice that settles and stays in your soul.
I couldn't trust the Groke, but I had nothing left to lose, not anymore.

"I'll take the job," I said.