‘I know him,’ replied Súsanna.
‘He told me you’d always got on well. He didn’t go into details about your relationship at school but said you two always had a laugh when you met up at reunions.’
‘That’s right.’
‘He said you’d once come to him for a favour in connection with a friend of yours, or with her daughter, rather.’
‘Perhaps it would be better if Patrekur was here,’ she said.
‘Of course,’ said Sigurdur Óli. ‘We can call him. I’m in no hurry. There’s no need to rush this.’
‘You must think I …’
‘I don’t think anything, Súsanna.’
She looked out of the window.
‘It was three years ago,’ she said at last. ‘My friend was in trouble. She had a daughter at sixth-form college, who kept being threatened by a gang and forced to give them money that she didn’t owe them. The girl was so afraid of them that she wanted to drop out of school, so I asked Höddi if there was anything he could do. I knew he took on various, well, jobs like that — I knew he sometimes called in debts. He stepped in and after that the girl was left alone. My friend was extremely grateful. But I never asked Höddi what he did.’
‘So he helped you out,’ Sigurdur Óli said.
‘Yes, or rather my friend.’
‘Have you met him since? Or heard from him at all?’
Súsanna hesitated.
‘Have you asked him for another favour?’
She did not answer.
‘I’ve just come from him,’ Sigurdur Óli said. ‘He said to say hello and that I was to tell you he had kept his mouth shut for as long as he could. He claimed that you got in touch with him.’
‘You must think I’m insane,’ said Súsanna after a long pause.
‘I think you’ve made a mistake,’ said Sigurdur Óli. ‘Did you get in touch with him?’
‘Yes,’ said Súsanna. ‘When those people started threatening my sister it occurred to me that Höddi could have a word with them.’
‘And attack Lína?’
‘No, just talk to her.’
‘Did you know he would beat her up?’
‘No.’
‘So you didn’t ask him to?’
Súsanna could sit still no longer. Getting up, she walked over to the picture window and stared blankly out over the city, then wiped her eyes on her shirtsleeve.
‘Did you ask him to hit Lína?’
‘I asked him to get them off our backs. I didn’t go into any specifics. She was blackmailing my sister. She slept with Patrekur — I thought she was going to take him away from me. I just wanted to get them off our backs.’
‘Súsanna, your sister is involved in the sort of sex that carries the risk of running into people like Lína. And it was Patrekur who fell for her. You can hardly blame her for that.’
‘She wasn’t supposed to die,’ said Súsanna. Tears were pricking at her eyes.
He saw that she was fighting a losing battle to stop herself breaking down.
‘I didn’t ask them to do that. I was, I was so angry. With Patrekur of course, but with her too. She was destroying us — she was going to put the photos on the Internet.’
‘Was it your sister’s idea?’ asked Sigurdur Óli.
Súsanna took a deep breath. She was holding back the sobs now.
‘Are you trying to protect her?’ asked Sigurdur Óli.
‘She knew about Höddi too — about what he did for my friend. She asked if I could talk to him, persuade him to retrieve the photos since she couldn’t do it herself. Höddi has always been very kind and sweet and nice to me and the rest of my class, so I’ve tried to ignore what he does, or what people say he does. I didn’t want to know.’
‘So she’s involved too?’
‘Yes.’
‘The man Höddi sent to do the job claimed that he’d received veiled instructions to give Lína a beating; to retrieve the pictures and give her something to remember him by. In the event, he hit her too hard. Do you think Höddi got the message wrong?’
‘I don’t know. I should never have talked to him. You can’t imagine how terrible I’ve been feeling.’
‘No, I don’t suppose I can.’
‘What am I to do? What can I do? My life is over. And my sister’s too. You have to help us. And all because of those shits!’
Sigurdur Óli said nothing. He had been devastated about losing Súsanna, though he had never admitted it, either to her or to his friend. Only once had the subject of their cinema date come up in conversation after she and Patrekur had started going out. This was several weeks afterwards, during a party at Patrekur’s house, when Súsanna had told him that she had not been aware that he and Patrekur were friends. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he replied. ‘Is everything OK between us, then?’ she asked. He nodded. ‘Forget it,’ he said.
‘I can’t give you any advice, Súsanna,’ he said now. ‘Except for the obvious: don’t try to kid yourself that the situation is better than it is, either for you or for Patrekur or Höddi or Lína. That’s the way it was and is and always will be. The sooner you face up to that, the better.’
‘It was an accident. She wasn’t supposed to die. She was never supposed to go and die.’
Neither of them spoke. Súsanna looked out of the window at the city stretching out to the sea.
‘You had your reasons,’ said Sigurdur Óli finally.
‘Which don’t impress you.’
‘Some are easier to understand than others. The other day I was sent some old film footage of a boy of maybe ten or twelve who’s suffered all his life. The footage only lasts around twelve seconds but it says it all, his whole life in a nutshelclass="underline" how he suffered neglect and violent abuse, and maybe it provides all the explanations necessary for why he ended up the way he did and what he has turned into, thirty years later.’
Sigurdur Óli stood up.
‘I’ve always avoided joining in with the chorus of hand-wringers, but the fact is that you can’t help being affected by horror stories like that. I would understand if he wanted revenge …’
‘But not me?’ said Súsanna.
At that moment the door opened and Patrekur walked in. He had recognised Sigurdur Óli’s car in the drive and could not hide his anxiety.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked. Immediately detecting that something was wrong, he tried to put his arms round Súsanna but she would not let him and backed away, holding up her hands as if to prevent him from touching her.
‘What?’ asked Patrekur.
‘Súsanna?’ said Sigurdur Óli.
She started to cry.
‘Súsanna knows — ’
‘I’ll do it, let me do it,’ she interrupted.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll wait outside.’
A little over an hour later he accompanied them both to the police station on Hverfisgata. Patrekur was allowed no further than the entrance, where they said their goodbyes. He had not fully grasped the sequence of events yet and it seemed as if he would never be able to tear himself away from his wife.
Sigurdur Óli tracked down Finnur and, after informing him of the latest developments, formally resigned from the investigation. He appreciated the fact that Finnur spared him any reprimand. He learned that Alain Sörensen had been arrested in Luxembourg on suspicion of money laundering and that the three Icelandic bankers would be critical witnesses in the case against him.
Given the way the two cases were linked, Sigurdur Óli could have no further involvement with the investigation into Thorfinnur’s death, but before going home he decided to have one more conversation with Sverrir, who was waiting to be transferred from his cell at Hverfisgata into custody at Litla-Hraun.
‘Why did you go to Snaefellsnes?’ he asked once the steel door had closed behind him.
Sverrir was sitting on the blue mattress. After a sleepless night, he had spent the morning with his lawyer. The formal interview process would begin that afternoon, at Litla-Hraun.