At the reception desk an agitated middle-aged man was telling the duty officer that his car had been vandalised. The man ranted at the police for their indifference, as if there were nothing criminal about causing damage worth tens of thousands of kronur. In his haste, Erlendur did not quite catch what the crime was, but he thought it sounded as if the man’s car had been badly scratched.
Elias’s father was sitting in Erlendur’s office, head bowed. He was a skinny man in his forties, with a bald patch, wisps of straggly hair over his forehead and several days” growth of beard. He had a very small mouth but large, projecting teeth, which gave him a rather coarse look. He stood up when Erlendur entered and they exchanged greetings.
“Odinn,” the man introduced himself in a low voice. His eyes were red from weeping.
Erlendur put his overcoat on a hanger and sat down behind the desk.
“My condolences about your son,” he said. “Of course, this is too horrific for words.”
He allowed a short pause to follow his words as he looked the man over. Odinn was wearing scruffy jeans and a thin, light-coloured windcheater with an old red scarf round his neck bearing the logo of a foreign football club. He lived alone in the flat on Snorrabraut, according to what he had told the police. On the way to his office, Erlendur was told that Odinn had been very upset by the visit from the police and the news about Elias.
“Do you have any idea where your stepson might be?” Erlendur asked.
“Niran? What about him?”
“We can’t find him. He hasn’t been home.”
“I have no idea,” the man said. “I have-‘ He stopped.
“Yes?” Erlendur said.
“Nothing,” the man said.
“When were you last in touch with your family?”
“It’s always an on-and-off thing. We got divorced. You probably know that.”
“You’ve no idea what happened to the boys today?”
“I. . . it’s terrible, absolutely terrible … I would never have believed this kind of thing could happen in this country. Attacking a child like that!”
“What do you think happened?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Isn’t it racism? Is there any other reason for attacking a child? What can a child do to anyone?”
“We still don’t know what happened,” Erlendur said. “You haven’t phoned the boys recently or seen them?”
“No. I took Elias to the cinema a while back. I never had much contact with Niran.”
“And you can’t imagine what could have happened?”
Odinn shook his head.
“Do you think something’s happened to Niran as well?”
“We don’t know. There’s a search under way for him. Do you have any ideas?”
“About his whereabouts? No, none. I have no idea.”
“Sunee moved out when you got divorced,” Erlendur said. “The boys don’t appear to have adjusted particularly well to their new neighbourhood. Did you take an interest in that at all?”
Odinn did not answer immediately.
“Did you never hear about any trouble?”
“I wasn’t in touch with Sunee much,” Odinn said eventually. “It was over.”
“I’m really asking more about the two boys,” Erlendur said. “Your son in particular, perhaps.”
Odinn did not reply.
“Elias was always more attached to his mother,” he said at last. “We often argued about his upbringing. She had her own way entirely in bringing him up. She even called him by a Thai name. She rarely called him Elias.”
“She’s a long way from home. She wants to hold on to something connected with her past in a new country,” Erlendur said.
Odinn looked at him without saying a word.
“Your mother speaks highly of her,” Erlendur said. “I gather that they’re good friends. She hurried over to Sunee’s flat as soon as she heard the news.”
“They’ve always got on well together.”
“I understand Sunee’s your second wife from Thailand.”
“Yes,” Odinn said.
“I also understand you were not very pleased when Sunee told you she had an older son and wanted to send for him,” Erlendur said.
“I suspected as much,” Odinn said. “It was nothing new. She’d told me she was single, then she wanted to bring Niran over.”
“What did you think about that?”
“I wasn’t pleased about having the boy. But I stayed out of the matter, left it entirely up to her. I had no say in it.”
“So you didn’t want to divorce her immediately then?”
“Sunee was okay,” Odinn said.
“She hasn’t learned much Icelandic in the time she’s lived here,” Erlendur said.
“No,” Odinn said.
“Did you help her with it at all?”
“What are you asking about that for? What’s that got to do with anything? Shouldn’t you be catching the person who did this instead of asking me stupid irrelevant questions? What kind of questions are these anyway?”
“Your son was probably attacked in the afternoon,” Erlendur said. “Where were you then?”
“At work,” Odinn said. “I was at work when you lot came. Do you think I killed my son? Are you mad?”
He said this without raising his voice and without becoming worked up, as if the notion were simply too ludicrous to get angry about.
“We know from experience that such matters are often family-related,” Erlendur said without changing his expression. “There’s nothing unnatural about me asking where you spent the day.”
Odinn remained silent.
“Is there anyone at work who could confirm your whereabouts?”
“Yes, a couple of blokes. I can’t believe you think I’m implicated in this!”
“It’s part of the job,” Erlendur said. A lot of what I get involved with is more far-fetched than that.”
Are you telling me that I attacked the boy to get my own back on Sunee?”
Erlendur shrugged.
Are you out of your mind?”
“Stay where you are,” Erlendur said when Odinn rose to his feet. “What we need to do is to examine all the possibilities. Why should you want to get your own back on Sunee?”
“What do you mean? I don’t want to get my own back on her!”
“I didn’t mention any reason,” Erlendur said. “You yourself did. Those were your own words.”
“I didn’t say a thing.”
Erlendur sat in silence.
“You’re confusing me,” Odinn said, agitated by now. “You’re trying to make me say something I shouldn’t. You’re playing with me!”
“It was what you said.”
“Fucking hell!” Odinn shouted, kicking the desk. Erlendur sat in his chair and looked up at him without moving. He leaned back, arms folded over his chest. The man looked as if he was about to attack him.
“I would never do anything to my son!” he yelled. “Never!”
Erlendur remained unruffled.
“Have you talked to her boyfriend?” Odinn asked.
“Her boyfriend?”
“Hasn’t she told you about him?”
“Who is he? Who is Sunee’s boyfriend?”
Odinn did not reply. He stared at Erlendur, who was leaning forward in his chair.
“Is he the reason you got divorced?” Erlendur asked cautiously.
“No. I only heard recently.”
“What?”
“That she was seeing someone.”
7
Elinborg was standing in the home of one of Elias’s classmates. She had not been offered a seat. They were in the kitchen and the boy’s father was sitting beside him. His sister and younger brother were also sitting at the table. It was a small town house not far from the block of flats where Elias and Niran lived. Elinborg had disturbed them at dinnertime. Other police officers were simultaneously in the same position, visiting the homes of children who might conceivably be linked to Elias.