Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Someone to Watch Over Me

‘It’s untrue that no one was aware of it, although it was never discussed, out of consideration for her family. You could easily have found out about it, but since you failed to do so, everyone was able to breathe easier.’

Ari was quick to recover his composure. He shut his mouth again with an audible snap and spread out his hands dramatically. His shirt cuffs were threadbare and the pinstripe material of his suit shiny with wear at the elbows. He clearly wasn’t raking it in defending burglars.

‘Well now. I doubt that it would have changed anything. Who would kill a whole lot of people just to hide such a thing? I can see it must have been awkward and all that, but I mean…’ He let his hands drop. ‘Why not just kill her ? Cram a pill or two into her mouth, end of story.’

Thóra thought she might cram a thing or two into him if he went on like this much longer. ‘Of course it’s impossible to understand how or why it happened; I’m just pointing out that something was going on that someone wanted to keep hidden, and there might be more to the case that I’m not aware of. Might you not have come across something but maybe considered it irrelevant to the defence case?’

‘No, I swear I don’t remember anything. I would tell you if I did.’ His chair creaked as he leaned back. ‘I should tell you that I was swamped with work when this case was handed to me. Looking back on it, I might not have taken the time to go over every small detail. But that’s another matter; what’s more important is that it wouldn’t have made a difference. All the evidence indicated that Jakob started the fire, and the court would hardly have been receptive to vague theories about other culprits.’ He turned to the slightly sloping bookshelf behind him. ‘I can do one thing, of course, which is lend you the files. I still have them here somewhere.’ He looked around and smiled mischievously at Thóra. ‘I’m not one for throwing things out, as you might have guessed.’ She didn’t return the smile.

‘I’ve already had most of the material from Jakob’s mother. She saved everything she got her hands on.’

‘That’s just a small proportion of it. She can have this if she wants it.’ He pulled one file after another from the shelf. ‘She was an old woman who wouldn’t have benefited from seeing it. In case you’re easily shocked, before you read it you should know that there are aspects of this case that are a little… unsavoury. Another reason why I couldn’t get properly involved in it. There was far too much going on; it was too weird and fucked-up to get my head round.’

‘How so?’ Thóra didn’t understand where the man was going with this. Considering his previous statements, it could well be that he’d been so repelled by the descriptions of the disabled residents and the work of the residence that he’d had to put aside the case.

‘These people were all weirdoes – the residents, of course, but the staff too. These so-called professionals testified in court one after another and the stuff they were coming out with was so mental that I wasn’t the only one who’d had enough by the end of it. According to them we should all leave our jobs and start doing something noble, like caring for the disabled. People may say the work they do is incredible, but I don’t think it was all done out of the kindness of their hearts, if you catch my drift. There was something funny going on.’

Thóra cleared her throat loudly, mostly to stop herself from shouting. Ari was saying something about these people only being fit to go in a meat grinder, but she wasn’t really listening now. Had someone who felt the same way as Ari burned down the home, out of hatred towards those less fortunate than himself? A lot had gone on since the nation’s money evaporated, and some people must have resented the fact that funding was being allocated to these causes. Though admittedly it did take more than a foul mouth and a narrow mind to do something as drastic as killing five people. ‘Was there anything else, besides the specialist carers, that pissed you off about the case?’

‘Plenty.’ The look of outrage over the arrangements at the unit faded slowly from Ari’s face and was replaced by a more serious expression. His eyes flicked to the side and he stared at the rubbish on the floor by his desk instead of meeting Thóra’s gaze, as he had done until now. ‘I think what frustrated me most is that it seemed like money had been poured into the construction of this centre, but not into other comparable enterprises. I looked briefly into whether this was normal, to throw equipment and employees at an establishment as if we were a wealthy oil empire, and it wasn’t. The only reason that place had as much put into it as it did was because one of the prospective residents had connections in high places. He was accepted instead of others on the waiting list, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Corruption is everywhere, as you no doubt know.’ The sudden look of horror on Ari’s face, which he immediately tried to hide, suggested that he’d accidentally said something he’d been trying not to mention.

‘Who do you mean? Which of the residents?’ asked Thóra.

Ari threw up his hands. ‘Sorry, I don’t remember. I’ll look it up later and send you an e-mail.’ He didn’t ask her for her e-mail address, so clearly this e-mail would never be sent. She would have to find out by other means.

‘Could this corruption, or whatever it was, have been the reason behind the fire?’ Thóra had no idea how that might be the case, but who knew, maybe someone whose child hadn’t been admitted had lost it when it turned out that the offspring of someone better-connected had queue-jumped the waiting list.

‘No.’ Ari shook his head. ‘I’ve told you that Jakob is the guilty party. He started the fire and that’s the end of it. Maybe he didn’t realize the consequences it would have but he did it nonetheless. Isn’t he doing OK at Sogn? It can’t be all that different to living at the residence.’

The image of Jakob’s face as he’d pressed up against the window when Thóra visited the Secure Psychiatric Unit flashed across her mind. ‘I think he’s having a terrible time there. Really terrible.’

‘Aw…’ Ari’s expression of sympathy was entirely devoid of sincerity. ‘Well, at least the people there are more like him. That care home was a bag of mixed nuts, get it? Those poor fuckers had nothing in common. Another shitty idea dreamed up by the bureaucrats.’

‘Oh?’

‘Someone had the genius idea of trying to run an institution for individuals who have totally different disabilities. It was supposed to be a great master-plan for some reason, though I’ll never understand why. It was because they put so much pressure on Jakob’s mother that he moved in. They needed a mongoloid; they’re generally all aborted these days, which meant there weren’t many of them in his age group to choose from when the admissions selections were made.’

‘Down’s syndrome.’ Thóra had to correct him. He was clearly unaware of the proper terms when it came to discussing people outside his narrow definition of normality. And to think she’d been worried about her own use of language.

‘Whatever.’

‘But didn’t the person he leapfrogged at the top of the waiting list also meet a requirement for a particular type of disability, one that others didn’t have?’

Ari waved his hands as if he were being pestered by an invisible fly. ‘What’s that? No – he was autistic and they’re a dime a dozen. It doesn’t show up on the ultrasound, you see.’ He winked at Thóra conspiratorially.

‘Right.’ Thóra tried hard not to frown; she had no desire to encourage any more of these comments, but she also didn’t want to shock the man into refusing to lend her the files. This whole encounter was excruciating, but she would have to put up with it until he handed her the stack of papers that was on the verge of falling over onto the rubbish on his desk. One thing was clear, at least: the person who had jumped the queue must have been Tryggvi, the autistic resident.