‘So that streak could well be the same one that appeared in the video,’ said Matthew. ‘If you weren’t in the office building much, the smokers’ room would have been empty. And if the window is far from the paths between the buildings, as you were saying, then the streak couldn’t have been seen except from inside.’
Friðrikka paled. ‘Do you think that it’s blood from Oddný Hildur?’
‘Hardly, if the e-mail was sent before supper. Wasn’t she with you at supper?’ As far as Thóra could recall, Oddný Hildur had last been observed when she ate with the others. After that she’d either gone to her apartment or over to the office building and never been seen again.
‘Yes, but I couldn’t say whether the e-mail had come by then. It could just as well have gone out later in the evening. Sometimes people went over to the office building to work or surf the Internet in the evenings.’ Eyjólfur sat down at the computer and brought up some information about the video, including when it was created. ‘If you want, I can ask someone at my company to look at this and check whether the image can be sharpened. Then maybe we can see better what it is.’
‘Who would do that? We don’t really want to draw attention to this,’ said Matthew.
‘We’ve got dozens of programmers working for us and they’re not in the habit of running to the media with the work assigned to them.’ Eyjólfur shrugged. ‘It was just an idea; it would cost something, naturally, and it’s not one hundred per cent certain that it would work.’
Thóra looked at Matthew. ‘Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?’ Matthew agreed.
‘No problem, I’ll get someone on it tomorrow.’ Eyjólfur turned back to the screen and the information that he’d brought up about the video. ‘It was indeed made the day that Oddný Hildur disappeared, but before supper.’ He closed the window on the screen. ‘So this couldn’t be her blood unless someone was able to change the settings on the video camera to make it look as if it were an older file.’
‘That sounds like a stretch.’ Thóra couldn’t see why anyone would bother. It wasn’t as if this was spectacular evidence and if the intention was to cover up a foul deed it would be peculiar to smear the woman’s blood on the window.
‘What about the blood? Was it from a bird?’ Friðrikka was becoming more and more agitated. ‘And if not from a bird, then from whom? That’s no bird in the video. Maybe this person killed someone else. A villager or something, and then ambushed Oddný Hildur.’
‘We shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with us,’ Matthew said soothingly to her. ‘What we’ve seen is entirely unclear and there’s no reason for us to imagine the worst. It’s still most likely that Oddný Hildur got lost and that this clip has nothing to do with her disappearance. The natural environment at the work camp poses considerably more danger than anyone living there. By which I mean both you and the locals.’
‘I’ve always said that they were involved in this somehow. This is definitely one of them.’ Friðrikka pointed to the screen and her finger trembled. ‘What do we know of the strange reasons they might have for smearing blood everywhere? It could be anything. Maybe even a sacrifice, or something.’
‘The Inuits don’t offer sacrifices. In these kinds of cultures and communities people can’t afford to waste food or anything else on such nonsense.’ Alvar swayed slightly as he stood next to Bella, causing him to bump into her shoulder. She shoved him back irritably, making him rock on his feet even more. ‘This doesn’t have anything to do with sacrifices.’
Matthew cleared his throat. ‘How about you all go back to the bar and we postpone this discussion until tomorrow. We won’t come to any conclusions now and there’s no need for us to lose ourselves completely in speculation that has no basis in reality.’
‘You can refuse to discuss this as much as you want.’ Friðrikka was the only one who seemed to be completely sober, apart from Matthew. ‘It doesn’t change the fact that until Oddný Hildur is discovered and an explanation found for what happened to her, I will continue to express my opinions. You can’t forbid me from doing so.’ She looked as if she were going to storm off.
‘How is it,’ asked Thóra, who had had enough of her fellow travellers, ‘that on the blog we saw another video that appears to have been created only to make fun of Arnar? Was Oddný Hildur really the only one who stuck up for him? Did the rest of you find that kind of behaviour acceptable?’
‘No, of course not.’ Eyjólfur looked into her eyes. ‘I wasn’t there much, otherwise I might have done something. At least, I think I would.’
Or not. Thóra turned to Friðrikka but decided not to waste time asking her about it a second time. She was sure she would receive the same answer. ‘Could Oddný Hildur have had two dental implants in her lower jaw?’
The unexpectedness of the question seemed to disarm Friðrikka enough to make her reply quite mildly. Or perhaps she was just glad not to have to justify the blind eye she had turned to the harassment. ‘No. Definitely not. She had really nice teeth.’
Matthew looked at Thóra and raised his eyebrows. Then who did the bones belong to? They weren’t from any of the employees of Berg Technology and it was out of the question that the original villagers who had starved to death had been decades ahead of their contemporaries in dentistry. Perhaps they had been purchased online after all. Hopefully the police would find the answer. ‘Do you think the employees can be convinced to return to work at the camp?’ Thóra was almost afraid to hear the answer. ‘Supposing the police find explanations for the disappearance of Oddný Hildur and the drillers, would the crew be satisfied? You must have spoken to them. Especially you, Eyjólfur.’
The young man apparently had some difficulty making up his mind about whether he would be betraying the confidence of his colleagues by talking about them. Finally he spoke, but slowly, seeming to weigh up every word. ‘Of course, it depends what comes out of the investigation. If the findings are that all three of them vanished or died because of something that can be easily explained and sorted out, it’s likely that they’d return. Jobs like these are hard to come by, and people get used to having high wages.’ He had started speaking faster now. ‘If, however, it turns out that something horrible happened to them, then I don’t know what will happen. Most people value their own hides more than money in the bank. I’m sure the other employees scheduled to arrive in the summer aren’t thinking much about these issues, though; they’ll be laying the runway and doing other construction jobs necessary for the mine.’
‘Why didn’t they start sooner?’ Alvar had moved away from Bella a bit and could now sway around as much as he wanted. ‘You’d have thought it would be wiser to have the airport ready for use immediately, for the transportation of raw materials and things like that. Not to mention the added security it provides in case something serious happens.’
‘That wasn’t possible,’ said Friðrikka sullenly. ‘First we had to get the results from the core samples so that we could situate the mine in an appropriate place. What use would it be having an airport here if the mine was in a completely different location?’
Alvar’s drunken brain did its best to process the information. ‘Yes, but…’ He said nothing more, and instead just went bright red. For the first time Thóra felt sorry for the man, and she wondered what his idea of a nice evening might be. What sort of company made him feel comfortable, and what topics of conversation interested him? Probably stories about lost ptarmigan hunters. It would hardly surprise Thóra if their investigation turned up one of those.