‘Where did she come from?’ Matthew acted as if he didn’t notice when Thóra pinched him on the thigh. She had told him in private how the body had come to be behind the building and he had promised to keep quiet about it. ‘I’m wondering where her body has been all this time.’ Thóra felt relieved – the plan was working.
‘We don’t know,’ replied the policeman. ‘Probably outdoors, but somewhere sheltered from animals. She wasn’t out on the island; we searched there today and it’s out of the question that we missed her.’
‘The most pressing question is obviously who you believe is responsible for the woman’s death, if we presume that it wasn’t an accident.’ Like all of them, Finnbogi was looking tired, with bags starting to show beneath his eyes.
‘It isn’t possible to presume any such thing. But for the body to suddenly appear like this does raise certain suspicions.’
‘It seems pretty unlikely that a person could receive a gash like that to their neck by falling, especially on level ground; and if she had stumbled on a mountainside or a steep slope you would think more injuries would be visible on her body, even in a snow-suit. It looked to me as if all her limbs were as they should be, at least.’ Thóra found the doctor’s reasoning convincing.
‘As I said, all of this will be revealed, and it’s useless to be making guesses. If something unnatural occurred, we’ll get to the bottom of it, and there’s no need for you to spend time speculating about it.’
‘Changing the subject, I have a question.’ Thóra had to honour her promise about Usinna’s remains. ‘Will the bones that were found in the office definitely be returned to the family? It would be so sad if the woman were not allowed a permanent resting place.’
The police officer seemed not to find the question all that odd. ‘Yes, that’s almost certain. We have to confirm that the body is that particular woman and once that’s done there’ll be no reason to hold on to the bones. It shouldn’t take very long to do, since I expect we’ll be able to find her dentist, and then the x-rays should be sufficient to identify her. Things will be different if it turns out not to be her, however.’
‘Let’s hope that’s not the case. We’ve had enough dead people.’ Thóra leaned back in her chair.
‘I would examine the bones thoroughly. I’m certain that this woman was killed, just like Oddný Hildur. And that the villagers are the culprits. I’ve always said that and I’ve always known it.’ Friðrikka spoke without looking the policeman in the eye – perhaps because of his race. The officer did not seem to take it personally.
‘We’ve already started questioning people from this area, especially those Arnar was in touch with, and we’ll see what comes out of that. We’ll find the guilty party; it will just take some time to clarify who he is and what he did. Maybe he was just guilty of moving bodies from one place to another.’
‘And of cutting them up,’ added Matthew. ‘Somebody took it upon himself to do that and I think it’s fairly clear that none of us was involved.’
The policeman shrugged. ‘It will all be explained. We have a lot of evidence, partly due to your initiative, and although much of it appears incomprehensible, these cases are usually solved when everything is put together and people start talking.’ He didn’t specify which people he meant. Instead, he clapped his hands and tried to smile good-naturedly, though the result looked more like a facial cramp. ‘I’ll have more mattresses brought over and you can decide whether you’ll all sleep here in the meeting room or in different places, but I have locked the offices. If you want something to eat or drink it would be good for me to know about that now, but otherwise one of my men will be posted here tonight and he can help you if anything comes up.’
‘What could come up?’ As ever, it didn’t take much to upset Friðrikka. She would doubtless worry about this until she fell asleep and unfortunately everyone near her would hear all about it.
The police officer spoke soothingly. ‘Hopefully nothing, but in the unlikely event that it does, the officer will be on guard.’
‘Are you implying that the person who did this will return?’ Friðrikka would not be persuaded. She clutched at her chest and stared, terrified, at the police officer.
‘Will you just shut up for once,’ hissed Eyjólfur. Whether it was down to his words or to the policeman’s obvious exhaustion, Friðrikka fell silent and wiped away the tears that still streamed down her cheeks.
When Thóra finally fell asleep Friðrikka was still weeping and her soft sobs, which had bothered Thóra for so long, had now started to have a soothing effect. It had been decided that Thóra and Matthew would move from the meeting room along with Friðrikka and sleep in the records storage room that was a bit further down the corridor. They thought it might be a bad idea to leave Friðrikka and Eyjólfur in the same room overnight.
When the sound of cars driving into the camp and the glare of the floodlights filled the room a short time later, Matthew was the only one still awake. Only the sound of heavy breathing came from Friðrikka’s mattress. Matthew did not have the heart to wake Thóra and get her to come with him to see what was happening. Thus he was the only witness to the police dragging Naruana, the hunter’s son, out of the car and over to the cafeteria.
Chapter 32
‘My God – is daylight never going to come?’ Eyjólfur looked once more in the direction of the window. None of them had needed an alarm clock to wake up in the morning, since they were all desperate to go home. Thóra, Matthew and Friðrikka had moved back into the meeting room with the others and waited with them for the sun to rise. A policeman brought them bread, yoghurt and a pot of coffee, which was emptied surprisingly quickly. After all the food was finished the wait began again and they took turns asking what time it was.
‘Here it comes.’ Alvar looked happy, but it was probably the thought of beer at the airport in Kulusuk that cheered him so much. ‘You can see a big difference in the sky now from just a moment ago.’
Bella yawned. ‘It’s just as dark as it was before. Maybe time has stopped.’
‘What nonsense. You need your eyesight checked if you can’t see the difference,’ spat Alvar, before turning back to the window again and staring up at the sky. It was indeed as plain as day that the darkness was slowly starting to vanish. Friðrikka did not take part in the discussion about the colour of the sky. She was in a much better state than the night before. Admittedly, she wasn’t laughing and joking, but she was a great deal calmer. Crying was said to be cathartic, and it seemed to have done Friðrikka some good at least. ‘I can’t believe we’re finally going home.’ She looked at Thóra, who was starting to slump in her chair. ‘I only made arrangements for my cat until today. I haven’t been able to call or send a message to my neighbour, so I would have been in deep trouble if we’d had to stay here any longer.’ She looked embarrassed. ‘I know a hungry cat is hardly a big deal compared to what we’ve seen here, but I’m still worried about it.’
‘Bless you, of course you are.’ Thóra smiled encouragingly at her. She had worried about having the bawling woman sitting next to her on the flight home, but those worries seemed redundant now. ‘If we always had to compare everything with the worst thing we can imagine we’d never get to the end of it, you can’t ask that of anyone. Your cat will be happy to have you home.’ Thóra decided not to mention her children, who had hopefully missed their mother just a little bit.
‘I’m going to celebrate by going downtown and getting completely pissed.’ Eyjólfur stopped chewing his fingernails and shook himself as if he felt a sudden chill. ‘But first I’m going to take a two-hour shower.’