‘I would like to request that these photos be made available in the High Court,’ said Thóra doggedly. ‘This is preposterous, and you know it.’
Stefán’s expression made it clear that he was seeing the photographs for the first time and was far from happy with the selection. ‘This is effectively an open and shut case,’ he snapped. ‘The boy’s description alone is enough. These photos were simply dotting the “i”s and crossing the“t”s.’
Thóra said nothing, but she did not agree. She had read the boy’s description, which was rather vague, and in addition had been made many days after he had Distributedthe flyers. She very much doubted he could remember minute details of a man whom he had passed on the street. ‘Do you have the phone log?’ she asked.
‘Part of it,’ said Stefán, but gave no indication that he was about to fetch the list for her. He straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Markus is guilty,’ he said, when he thought he appeared sufficiently grave.‘I can promise you that.’
Thóra smiled at him. ‘I don’t doubt your conviction, but I cannot agree with you.’ She stopped smiling. ‘Have you found out where the Botox came from? Markus doesn’t walk around with it on him, that’s for certain.’
Stefán unfolded his arms.‘We’re working on it. As it is, we’re going by the assumption that the drug was already in the house, since she was a registered nurse. But as I said, we’re actually still investigating this specific detail.’
‘I could have told you what her career was and spared you the time that went into investigating that,’Thóra said sarcastically, then added: ‘One of the doctors in the office where Alda worked told me that you haven’t even gone to them for information about the drug. They say she didn’t have access to it except within the confines of the office.’ She clicked her tongue.‘I’m going to look into that later today. You’re not going to help your reputation by focusing so intently on one man that you blind yourself to other possibilities.’
‘We’re not “blinding ourselves” to anyone or anything,’ said Stefán crossly.‘There are only a few of us here and it takes time. Both of the doctors are coming down later to make statements.’ He smiled coldly at her.‘So we’ll be looking into that later today, too. Also, we still haven’t managed to find a single soul who saw your client heading east at the time that he claimed to be travelling. We’re not just looking for something that proves Markus guilty. Although I’m personally convinced of his guilt, I need to be certain. Conviction alone isn’t enough, and it can sometimes let you down – although I don’t think that’s the case this time.’
‘Do you have the log or not?’asked Thóra tetchily. ‘I want to go over it before the hearing begins.’ She frowned. ‘Could it be that you’re reluctant to give it to me because it shows that Markus spoke to Alda, just as he claimed?’
‘It doesn’t prove anything,’ said Stefán, thereby confirming Thóra’s suspicion. ‘Of course you can have the log; it’s being photocopied for you right now. I didn’t expect you here so soon.’
‘So Markus did speak to Alda?’she asked, trying to keep the triumph out of her voice.
Stefán’s expression was unreadable. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not necessarily. A call was made from Alda’s phone to his. It’s not the same thing. Anyone could have answered his phone, and I suspect that he came up with this to create an alibi. We still don’t know who helped him, but it’ll become clear. In other words, I suspect Markus of having placed a call from Alda’s home phone to his own mobile.’
‘Did you check where Markus’s phone was located when the call was made?’ asked Thóra, happily. This was all going much better than she had dared hope, despite Stefán’s attempts to downplay this good news and turn it to his own advantage.
‘Yes,’ Stefán said reluctantly. ‘The phone was just outside Hella.’ He cleared his throat. ‘But that doesn’t mean anything, as I said. Any fool knows it’s possible to trace the location of mobile phones. Markus would have done himself a great disservice if he had answered his own phone at Alda’s house. That’s why he got someone to answer it for him, that party need not have known it was for a criminal purpose.’
‘This is mind-boggling,’ she replied. ‘Markus’s photo has been in the papers, and everyone knows he’s suspected of murder. Do you honestly believe that if someone had taken it upon himself to answer Markus’s phone without any knowledge of this magnificent plot, that this very same person wouldn’t have contacted you?’
‘I said the accomplice might not have been party to the plot. If he was, then he would hardly draw attention to himself like that,’ said Stefán immediately. ‘Maybe Markus paid him for it, and now he’s too scared to report it for fear of being considered an accessory to the crime.’
‘If you’re planning to use this in court, you’d better hope you can find this mystery accomplice. You know as well as I do that it’s easy to come up with theories, but without evidence they’re not worth anything.’ Stefán’s certainty that Markus was guilty was getting on Thóra’s nerves. It didn’t bode well, since it meant other possibilities were no doubt being thrown out in the meantime. There was no time to quarrel over this, though.‘How are you getting on with identifying the men in the basement?’ she asked. ‘I assume you’re in contact with the authorities in Britain?’
‘We haven’t been able to identify them yet,’ replied Stefán, without answering her second question.‘However, we do have some specific clues that are promising. I actually can’t say anything more about them at this point.’
‘How do these things work?’ asked Thóra, but only out of curiosity – she was getting to know Stefán well enough to realize that he wouldn’t give in if she badgered him about clues. ‘Does Interpol have a list of people who vanished without a trace?’
‘We’ve contacted them, among others,’ replied Stefán, keeping his cards close to his chest.
‘It was suggested to me that there were a lot of men from the Defence Force helping out in the rescue operation during the eruption,’ she persisted. ‘Could these men have been from the base?’
‘No,’ he replied.‘We’ve already checked, and it’s out of the question. As I said, we’re hoping this will be cleared up soon, but until then it’s not up for discussion.’
Thóra could understand his discretion; she wouldn’t preach Stefán’s own job to him any more than necessary. ‘Speaking of foreign countries,’ she said, ‘has anything been heard from the lab where the cardboard box the head came from was sent for testing?’
Judging by Stefán’s face the results of the tests had been received, and were not to his liking. He admitted this reluctantly.
‘And?’ asked Thóra.‘What came out?’
‘A rather large quantity of old fingerprints were found on the box,’ said Stefán. ‘Most of them were from individuals unknown, since such a box can travel widely.’He cleared his throat. ‘All the fingerprints were compared with Markus’s and Alda’s and it turned out they had both touched the box at one time.’
Thóra grinned broadly. ‘Which provides strong support for Markus’s testimony, as I’m sure you realize.’
‘The presence of Alda’s fingerprints on the box doesn’t necessarily mean she touched it while the head was in it. Maybe she simply lent Markus the box when he needed it for something.’
‘And maybe the moon is made of cheese after all,’ said Thóra, still cheerful about this latest news.‘Well,’ she said, and pushed her chair back. ‘I hope I can get all this information more easily from now on. It’s a bit of a pain to have to wait for the judge to order you to hand over whatever you’ve got.’ The district court judge had reprimanded the police for not having handed over all the case files to her, and Thóra enjoyed reminding him of it. ‘Is what I received yesterday absolutely everything?’ she asked.