Yrsa Sigurðardóttir - The Silence of the Sea

‘He may not have noticed or the canvas may have concealed the lower half of the body. We have photos from the scene, so I can easily check. But that’s not the issue. What I wanted to know was whether you remember hearing a splash as they were hauling the bundle on board.’ He drew a deep breath and fiddled with his shirt collar, apparently feeling the heat as well.

‘No. Should I have done?’ Confused, she couldn’t grasp what he was driving at.

‘It appears that someone intended to dismember the body but was either disturbed in the act or abandoned the attempt for some other reason. At any rate, he or she managed to sever the legs at the knee and they’re missing. I suppose they could have been amputated accidentally, though it’s hard to see how. At present we’re assuming human agency, but it would be easier to establish the cause if we had the legs. We’ve had divers out dragging the sea around the yacht but with no success. I was trying to find out if you remembered hearing anything that might indicate that the legs had fallen out of the tarpaulin. It’s not crucial, but if they were thrown overboard separately, it begs the question: why not the whole body? It seems illogical but hopefully we’ll find an explanation. We had forensics inspect the boat again for traces of this… procedure. Even if Halldór was already dead, there would have been a considerable amount of blood, and we believe we’ve found the place, though the perpetrator cleaned up afterwards. It’s pretty clear that the dismemberment was carried out on board.’

Thóra tried weakly to imagine the sequence of events. ‘Where?’

‘Below decks, in an out-of-the-way corner between the water tanks. Which suggests that the culprit was at pains to hide the fact.’

‘Implying that one or more of the others were still alive at the time?’

‘Exactly.’ His gaze was almost hypnotic. Perhaps he did wear lenses, just to achieve this effect. ‘That’s the theory we’re going with for now. But as I said, we’re not a hundred per cent positive; the blood may have resulted from a completely different incident. We’ve also found traces elsewhere, but it had been more carefully cleaned up, so it’s harder to work out what was going on. We’re currently running tests.’

‘Where was this?’

He drummed his fingers on the desk. ‘All over the place, to be honest. On the bridge, by the exit to one of the staircases and in the saloon. Although we can’t find any sign of it now, chances are that the deck was running with blood too. But the sea would wash away the evidence pretty fast. The yacht hit bad weather and there would have been a great deal of spray, not to mention rain. The man’s legs may have been cut off on deck, for that matter. If you think about it, that would be by far the most logical place.’

Thóra remembered that most of the deck was overlooked by one or more of the yacht’s windows. ‘Wouldn’t the others have noticed?’ She corrected herself before he could reply. ‘Ah, not if it was night, of course, when most people would have been asleep. But why do it in the first place? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to throw the body overboard? Out in the middle of the ocean like that, surely it would have sunk without trace or been eaten?’

‘You would have thought so.’

‘One more question. Is it possible that the captain was referring to Halldór’s body when he contacted the British vessel? Could he or one of the others have surprised the murderer in the act, meaning he didn’t have a chance to finish the job?’

‘It’s conceivable. But the message referred to a woman – unless that was a misunderstanding. The connection was poor and when you factor in the language difficulties it wouldn’t be surprising if the sense had been muddled.’

‘I have to confess I’m totally mystified.’

He gave her a friendly smile. ‘If it’s any comfort, we’re having just as much trouble getting our heads round all this. Why was the body hung overboard? There are any number of places on board where it could have been hidden without being spotted or given away by the smell.’

Thóra couldn’t immediately think of anywhere that a man’s body could have been concealed, though she recalled from the plans that there were storage spaces and tanks on the bottom deck where they had found the blood stains. ‘Could it have been hidden in one of the water or oil tanks in the keel?’

‘We’re examining the water tanks. But I gather the oil tank’s out of the question.’ He tapped his pen on the file. ‘Perhaps I should share one more bizarre detail with you.’

‘I doubt I’ll faint, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Nothing would surprise me now.’

He ceased his tapping. ‘The postmortem revealed that the body had suffered frost damage.’

‘Frost damage?’ Thóra had to admit that in spite of what she had just said, she was nonplussed. ‘Did the temperature drop below freezing at any point during the voyage?’

He shook his head. ‘No. There was a storm but no really cold weather. A more likely explanation is that the body was stored in one of the freezers on board. But since we’ve found no traces of DNA or fibres from the tarpaulin, there may be some other explanation. Alternatively, the body may have been wrapped in plastic. Since I’ve told you this much, I may as well add that the woman’s body was apparently found in a freezer – if the captain’s message was understood correctly. But forensics can’t find any evidence of that either.’

Thóra would have given a great deal to see her own dumbfounded expression in a mirror. ‘I don’t know what to say. Nothing I’ve discovered has suggested anything like this.’ She longed for some sensible, concrete information. ‘Do you know when Halldór died?’

The detective shook his head again. ‘I’m afraid not. Most if not all of the methods used to establish time of death take account of conditions after the person has died. In this case the body seems to have been stored in a variety of environments, so we don’t have much to go on. It’s been submerged in the sea, kept in a freezer and maybe in a crate as well, so unfortunately the time of death is very imprecise. He could have died at any point on the voyage, though it’s obvious he can’t have been murdered after the yacht reached harbour. The postmortem showed too advanced a breakdown of various biological compounds that I’m not qualified to explain. So it can’t have been submerged there for long, at least not while the yacht was moving, or it would have been in a much worse state. In fact, it would be a miracle if it had still been there when the yacht reached the harbour.’

‘I’m afraid this is outside my area of expertise.’ Thóra was boiling by now and experiencing a desperate desire to fling off her coat.

‘Of course.’ He studied her as she sat there, her face scarlet, dreaming of the cold air outside. ‘Well. That just about wraps up what I have to say, so now I can get on with reprimanding the officers who conducted the original inspection. I try to do so at least once a day.’ His eyes gleamed. ‘It beggars belief that not one of them noticed the rope or realised it didn’t belong there. Of course, they should have taken along an experienced sailor or at least someone who was remotely acquainted with boats, but I don’t tell them that because I enjoy giving them a bollocking. It’s good for the circulation.’ He stood up and escorted Thóra to the door.

She drove up Skólavördustígur in a daze, then went into her office and sat there for a while deep in thought. Eventually, she leant over her desk and shouted: ‘Bella! Could you pop in here a minute?’ It was time to abandon all conventional approaches. Since common sense had proved nothing but a hindrance in this case, it was time for some muddled, left-field thinking, and when it came to that Bella was an expert.