‘I understand,’ said the police officer almost gently, before continuing in an entirely more commanding tone. ‘Unfortunately the helicopter can’t fly in the dark, so you can’t leave before dawn tomorrow. But the helicopter is here, and as soon as conditions are favourable you can leave.’
‘Do you have any idea what happened? I mean, to the woman you just found. Oddný Hildur.’ Eyjólfur was subdued and lethargic, and appeared distracted. It was as if this peculiar case had finally become too much for him. ‘It looked to us as if she’d been in an accident.’
‘I can’t tell for certain at the moment but it appears that the woman received a head injury, perhaps more than one. Hopefully we’ll figure it out.’
‘Where was she?’ asked Alvar. ‘I mean, it’s been several months since she disappeared and there’s no way she was behind the building the whole time.’ As usual, he blushed as he spoke. ‘I’m a rescuer and I know a bit about these things.’
At first the police officer refrained from speaking, as if he were trying to contain his desire to say something inappropriate. Then he said, with a hint of sarcasm, ‘I’ll tell you. At first glance it appeared the woman had been dead for quite some time. You can stop worrying about the search you conducted for her. It’s my understanding that although you did all you could to find her, things wouldn’t have turned out any differently even if you had searched for longer or in larger groups.’
‘So we could have saved her if we hadn’t given up?’ Friðrikka appeared to be completely disconnected from everything that was happening around her. ‘I knew it. I always said that.’ Eyjólfur started to say something in reply, but then decided against it. Even he felt sorry for her in this puffy-eyed, broken-down state. He pressed his lips shut and closed his eyes.
‘You’ve misunderstood me, madam. You could not have done anything to save the life of your friend. I just wanted to point that out to you in the hope that maybe you would feel a little bit better. As difficult as it is.’
‘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
24 March 2008
‘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.’
Although Thóra envied him in a way, her years of getting wasted downtown were behind her. She just wanted to see her children and pinch her grandson’s chubby cheek, but once she’d done that she would certainly be ready for a two-hour shower. With Matthew, and without the influence of alcohol. Until then she would try to keep her wits about her. It would have been unrealistic to hope that they would find the three missing people alive in an igloo, waiting to rescued. Friðrikka was perhaps the only one who had allowed herself to believe that. But their trip hadn’t been completely useless. As far as the bank was concerned, Thóra was quite content; the sudden deaths of the three employees, which appeared not to have had anything to do with Berg, were a big step towards a settlement with Arctic Mining. Thóra had already started writing a report for the bank but was finding it difficult to describe what had happened to the three employees without sounding like she was under the influence of illegal drugs. Bragi certainly wouldn’t appreciate her efforts if the bank came to that same conclusion.
‘The helicopter pilot has come out,’ said Alvar, excited. ‘It can’t be long now.’
Thóra saved her document and shut her laptop. In any case, she couldn’t finish the report; Matthew had told her about the arrival of the hunter’s son in the police car during the night and it still remained to be seen what role he had played in the case. Unfortunately what did seem clear was that his role would be an ugly one. Thóra felt sorry for poor Oqqapia. Their relationship had seemed quite unhealthy to her, and it could not have been pleasant for the woman to see the man she lived with dragged out of their home in handcuffs. Hopefully she would manage to stop drinking and get her life back on track. Unfortunately, statistics were not on her side. The police had taken Usinna’s files and books, the ones Oqqapia had lent them, promising to return them; Thóra hoped the delay in returning the box would not get Oqqapia into trouble.
Eyjólfur had got up and now stood next to Alvar, watching the helicopter pilot. ‘What are we waiting for?’ he said, turning around. ‘Shouldn’t we go out?’
‘They’ll come and get us when it’s time,’ replied Matthew. ‘They still have to load the helicopter and there’s no reason for us to wait out in the cold while they’re doing that.’
‘Are we taking Oddný Hildur’s body with us?’ asked Friðrikka in a weak voice. ‘She needs to get home.’
Thóra was quick to reply. ‘Almost certainly not today, but she’ll be sent back to Iceland soon. They still need to investigate a few things before that can happen.’ She didn’t want to use the word ‘autopsy’ for fear of upsetting Friðrikka. ‘The same goes for Bjarki and Dóri. They’ll be sent home so that they can be buried properly. You remember what the policeman said about the bones; they’ll be returned to the family as quickly as possible. The same goes for Oddný Hildur and those two.’
There was a knock at the door and in peeked the young policeman who had stayed with them during the night. ‘You can get ready to go. We estimate the helicopter will be ready to take off in just over half an hour.’
They didn’t need to be told twice, and within the promised half hour they were all hurrying out to the helicopter. Their bags had been brought out and when Thóra’s suitcase was thrown in rather roughly she suddenly felt overwhelmed by the longing to go home. She accepted Matthew’s help in getting into the helicopter and in a few moments they were all in their seats with their belts fastened. However, they had to sit that way for some time. ‘Don’t tell me something’s come up,’ muttered Eyjólfur, craning to look out of the window in the hope of seeing some activity. ‘If this helicopter doesn’t take off soon, I’ll go mad.’
He’d barely got the words out before the reason for the delay became clear. It wasn’t because the bodies of Oddný Hildur or the drillers were being sent on the same flight; instead two policemen appeared in the cafeteria doorway, half dragging between them Naruana, the son of the hunter Igimaq. The man was in handcuffs and walked with his head bent, hiding his face. The chief investigator took his shoulders and directed him towards the helicopter, while his partner followed close on their heels. The two helicopter pilots ran to assist them, then got on board, put on their headphones and started going over their instruments while the policemen tried with some difficulty to strap the prisoner into his seat. Thóra and the others bore silent witness to the young man’s unhappiness and desperation. They either had to shut their eyes or witness the man’s hopeless attempts to escape, his crazed, bloodshot eyes and swollen face as he fought against the police tooth and nail. Then he collapsed without warning and surrendered control to them. The policemen exchanged cautious glances as they put the seatbelt around Naruana’s waist.