‘Aren’t we ever going to get out of here?’ Eyjólfur was sitting on his haunches against the wall, beneath an erasable message board. Written on it were a few words connected with arrows that doubtless meant a great deal to those in the know, but to Thóra they were meaningless. ‘I’m in deep shit if I can’t get back to work soon. I heard we were supposed to go home on the 24th. And that’s tomorrow.’
‘Don’t worry.’ Thóra stood up and walked to the window. Personally she was going crazy hanging around like this. ‘I’m sure they’ll understand. It’s not as though you’re bunking off or pretending to be ill.’ She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Bella, who caught a mysterious flu every month, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bella acted as if she didn’t notice and continued playing Solitaire at the table.
Dr Finnbogi walked into the room. It looked to Thóra as if he’d changed his clothes, and his hair appeared wet. He said hello to everyone but asked Thóra and Matthew to confer with him privately. Friðrikka watched them as they went off to the corridor, her expression suggesting that she had an inkling they were discussing something more sinister than water samples.
‘It’s two men.’ Finnbogi ran his fingers through his hair and shut his eyes momentarily. ‘I managed to put the parts together, more or less, although I could reassemble them more comprehensively if I was working in better conditions than on a bunch of cafeteria tables. As far as I could see, it was the two drillers. They weren’t Greenlanders, at least.’
‘Where were they found?’ Matthew seemed alarmed, just like Thóra. While the men had been missing there had still been hope, albeit weak, that they were alive somewhere. Now that illusion was unsustainable.
‘On a nearby island. It appears to be connected to the mainland, but that’s because the water level has gone down in the surrounding bay. The dogs found a trail that led there. At first the search party thought they had caught the scent of something else there, but the body parts soon came to light from beneath the snow.’
‘What scent?’ asked Matthew. ‘What else was there?’
‘A lot of bones. Animal bones, not human, thankfully. Throughout the summer and autumn sled dogs are kept there, while there’s no snow and ice. During those periods the dogs are just a burden and it’s better to have them running free on an island than chained up in the village. They come through the summer in much better shape that way. Their owners throw them meat from boats once or twice a week, which explains all the bones. Apparently it’s quite normal, since the police all appear to accept this explanation.’
‘And were the men just found lying among these bones?’ Thóra was still clinging to the idea that a polar bear had killed the drillers.
‘No, they’d been left by some rocks in the middle of the island. The police officer who assisted me said it was clear that the person who put them there had intended the dogs to erase all the evidence in the spring. They eat not just the flesh but all the bones too, when they’re hungry enough, and dogs that are only fed about once a week must get terribly hungry as the week goes by. Not to mention the fact that these creatures are much more wolf than dog.’
‘What about Oddný Hildur?’ asked Matthew. ‘Did they find any trace of her?’
Finnbogi shook his head. ‘No. But it’s not out of the question that she’s there. Some parts of the men’s bodies are still missing, so maybe she’ll turn up when they go back and investigate the scene again.’
‘Isn’t it most likely that they fell prey to predators?’ Thóra wished that this were the case; it would be easier for everyone to accept that conclusion, quite apart from the fact that it would strengthen the bank’s position in its contractual negotiations with Arctic Mining. ‘Maybe this place by the rocks was a kind of larder. I know many animals store food if they don’t eat everything they catch.’
‘No. Animals didn’t kill these men.’ The doctor seemed quite certain of this. ‘They were cut to pieces by an edged weapon; the wounds were far too clean for them to have been torn apart. My gut feeling is that the video we saw shows the crime being committed. I can’t for the life of me understand how someone could do such a thing.’
‘And what does that mean? That someone from the village killed them? There was no one else around here – not that we know of, anyway.’ Matthew was obviously as stunned by this news as Thóra. His brow was deeply furrowed.
‘No, I really don’t think so. I doubt that the villagers killed the men.’
‘Then who?’ Thóra couldn’t imagine who could have come here and found himself compelled to kill anyone who got in his way.
‘No one. My theory is that they died from some kind of disease or poisoning. It’ll be determined conclusively in the autopsy. There are no wounds visible on the whole body parts in places that could actually cause death. They didn’t suffer head wounds, or knife wounds in the lungs or other organs, and there are no bullet wounds or anything that could have caused internal bleeding. Nor are there any signs that the men bled to death. On the other hand, I found specific marks that suggest a serious infection of their respiratory tracts and mucous membranes, but like everything else revealed by such a hurried examination, these findings may well differ from the ultimate conclusion.’
‘Couldn’t there have been fatal wounds in the places where the bodies were cut apart?’ asked Matthew.
‘In theory, but these cuts are all at joints, where people can’t be fatally wounded, except when arteries are severed; but as I said, the men didn’t bleed to death.’
‘What disease could they have contracted?’ Matthew edged away from the sink in the corner, mindful of what the doctor had said about Legionnaires’ disease in the pipes.
‘I’m not exactly sure, but whatever it was it killed the men surprisingly quickly. It is extremely rare for an infection to cause a victim to succumb to death in the short time that appears to have passed between the others abandoning the camp and these two departing this world. I’m wondering whether it might have been poison, or perhaps a very serious case of food poisoning.’ He suddenly looked rather pleased with himself. ‘I assume you’re grateful to me now for having been so uncompromising about the food and drink here in the camp.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Thóra, annoyed; now was hardly the time to pat himself on the back. ‘But if bacteria or poison killed them, I don’t understand how the bodies ended up dismembered out on an island where dogs are kept.’
‘No, I have no idea about that, either. I just know that the bodies have been packed away and no one can come near them without putting on the appropriate protective clothing. We used masks and gloves that I’d brought with me in case something like this came up, but that won’t be enough if this is a deadly disease. For example, I threw away my clothing, and made the police officer do the same. I’m hoping the extreme cold saved the people who gathered up the body parts out on the island. Still, they’re being disinfected at the moment. If this was a virus, we’ve got serious problems. Of two evils, the lesser one would be for the men to have ingested poison accidentally.’
‘How would that have happened? Could we have been infected?’ Matthew moved even farther from the sink.