Yrsa Sigurðardóttir - The Silence of the Sea

‘Not directly.’ Out of the corner of her eye, Thóra noticed that Karítas’s mother was looking embarrassed; presumably she had already told her daughter this. ‘I’m acting for the parents of one of the men who went missing. So my case is only indirectly linked to the yacht.’

‘Have you been on board?’ Karítas stretched, then tucked her legs under her as Thóra nodded. ‘Isn’t she to die for?’

‘Well, my reason for going on board was rather grim, so I didn’t really stop to think about it.’ A shadow fell over Karítas’s face and Thóra saw that she had better praise the boat quickly if she wanted to stay on the right side of her. ‘But, of course, she’s… to die for.’ She tried to sound enthusiastic. ‘Amazing.’

‘Yes, well.’ Karítas had apparently seen through her pretence. ‘Obviously you’ve never been on board a yacht before but believe me, Lady K is totally fabulous.’ If Karítas realised how boastful she sounded, she didn’t seem to care. ‘She’s the reason I wanted to see you. The thing is, I need to go on board. You could fix that for me, couldn’t you? I don’t want to bother the police.’

‘The police wouldn’t be able to help you anyway. They’ve concluded their examination, so I don’t even know if they have the keys any more. The resolution committee is responsible for her now, so you should really talk to them.’

‘That’s too much hassle.’ Angry red spots formed on Karítas’s cheeks. ‘It would be much better if you could let me in. It’s not as if I’m going to do any damage.’

‘May I ask why you want to go on board?’

‘I’ve still got a lot of personal belongings there and I want them back. Clothes and so on. I didn’t manage to fetch them before the yacht left Europe, though I had a perfect right to. I just didn’t have time.’

Thóra resisted the impulse to point out that Iceland was part of Europe. ‘I thought you’d gone to Lisbon to do precisely that. To remove your personal property. Was that a misunderstanding?’

‘Yes. I mean no. I was going to but I didn’t have a chance.’

‘You mean you didn’t have a chance to fetch your stuff or you didn’t make it to Lisbon?’

‘You know, I really can’t remember. I travel so much.’ Karítas avoided Thóra’s eye. Her words hung in the air during the ensuing silence. The lie was so blatant that in the end she added awkwardly: ‘Actually, I think I did. I went there but the yacht had already left or something. At least, I didn’t manage to get on board.’

‘Oh?’ Thóra felt as if she were negotiating a minefield. If she put a foot wrong there was a risk they would be shown the door. It wasn’t the choice of words that was difficult so much as the effort to make one’s questions and comments sound innocuous. ‘I must have misunderstood, because when I looked in the closets I thought one of the dresses had been removed. At least, there was an empty hanger. I know so little about this whole business that I just assumed you must have taken it and left the rest because they’d gone out of fashion.’

‘Clothes like that never go out of fashion. They’re haute couture .’ Karítas’s pronunciation owed more to Akureyri than to France. ‘But the fact is, I haven’t had a chance to fetch anything and that’s why I wanted to speak to you. To get you to help me gain access. I won’t need long.’ She spoke like a woman used to having her slightest whim obeyed.

‘Is it possible that your PA, Aldís, went on board, either at your request or on her own initiative? When the crew arrived to bring the yacht home the seal over the door had been broken. The person who did it must have had keys as there was no sign of a break-in. And if it had been an ordinary burglar, you’d have thought something would have been stolen. There were enough valuables on board.’

‘I haven’t a clue what Aldís did or didn’t get up to. She doesn’t work for me any more.’

‘Did you give her the sack or was it just that you couldn’t afford to pay her any longer?’ Bella’s sudden entry into the conversation came as a relief to Thóra. She could be a loose cannon but it was good to have a moment’s respite from her thinly disguised interrogation.

Karítas rounded on Bella. ‘I can afford staff perfectly well.’ She flicked her hair back with a quick movement of her head. ‘If you really want to know, I fired her.’

‘Why?’ Bella certainly didn’t beat about the bush.

‘ Why ?’ said Karítas. ‘Why wouldn’t I? She was lazy and she was nicking my stuff.’ She was beginning to look distinctly tight-lipped.

‘One question, Karítas.’ Thóra smiled pleasantly. ‘Were you by any chance in contact with a man called Ægir, from the resolution committee? Your phone number was found among his papers. Did you approach him about granting you access to the yacht, as you’re approaching me?’

‘Ægir, you say?’ Karítas was a terrible actress; it was plain to everyone in the room that she wasn’t racking her brains to remember. ‘Yes, that sounds vaguely familiar.’

‘He was on board the yacht with his family. I’m representing his parents. His wife and two small daughters are missing as well. It could be significant if you spoke to him. The police will probably be in touch to discuss it. I know they want to talk to you.’

‘The police?’ Karítas finally sat up properly. ‘What do they want? I haven’t done anything.’

‘Perhaps because there’s a possibility that the body of a woman was found on board the yacht. In the freezer, to be precise. At first people thought it must have been you.’

‘Shit, why would they think that?’ Interesting that she seemed less worked up about the presence of a dead woman in the freezer than the fact that the woman had been wrongly identified. ‘Anyway, what are you talking about? A woman? In the freezer?’

‘There was no body in the freezer when I was there.’ Karítas’s mother looked outraged. ‘What’s this nonsense?’

‘All I know is that the police are investigating the matter. As I explained, my involvement is indirect, so I may have got it wrong. But what were you saying about Ægir? Did he speak to you before going on board? Or meet up with you in Lisbon? You must have been there at the same time.’

Karítas scratched her neck, leaving red marks. ‘No, I didn’t see him. But I did talk to him on the phone. That’s not a crime. In fact, he rang me.’

‘Really?’ Thóra was trying hard to keep her voice friendly. ‘Was that when he was in Portugal?’

‘No, here in Iceland. I rang that bloody resolution committee and the woman who answered the phone told me he was dealing with the yacht. He wasn’t there, though, so I asked if he could call me back and gave her my number. He rang. Big deal.’

‘What did you want from him?’

‘I wanted to go on board. Like I do now. He had the keys.’

‘What happened? Did he agree to help you?’

‘Sort of. At first he was really unhelpful.’ She gave Thóra a dirty look. ‘Like you. But I talked him round and he agreed to arrange it.’

‘What did you promise in return?’ Bella opened her mouth to add a further comment that Thóra feared would be highly inflammatory, but she didn’t get a chance.

‘I said I’d make it worth his while.’ Karítas flushed a little when she saw Bella’s grin. ‘Not in the way you’re insinuating. I was going to pay him. Pay him well.’

‘Just to get your dresses back?’ Thóra couldn’t imagine promising a hefty reward for the return of any of her own clothes.

‘Not just them. I need to pick up a few other items too.’ Karítas’s lips thinned until they almost disappeared.

‘And what happened?’