Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Someone to Watch Over Me

The young girl’s eyes sought out the therapist, who gripped Thóra’s shoulder. ‘Make sure you ask only one question at a time. That was two: whether he might have, and whether he could have, started the fire. It makes it much easier keeping it simple.’

Thóra nodded, embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, directing her statement at Ragna. ‘I’ll be more careful. What I want to know is whether you consider it possible for Jakob to have started the fire.’

Ragna looked again at the therapist, who raised one of the cards and started pointing at the symbols on it. Finally she looked at Thóra. ‘She doesn’t know, or has no opinion on it.’ As the woman spoke she looked at Ragna, who blinked once in approval at what the woman had said.

‘Very good.’ Thóra saw no reason to ask Ragna the first part of the original question, about whether Jakob might have had a reason for starting the fire. She probably wasn’t in any position to know. ‘I expect you never went into Natan’s apartment, but do you know of anything that might have been connected to a short hose there?’ The girl’s eyes flitted back and forth and she appeared to have been upset by the question, though perhaps Thóra wasn’t sufficiently qualified to judge. The therapist used her cards and finally asked Thóra to ask a different question, since the girl’s answers weren’t sufficiently clear; she was spelling out hose short in my room . These words told Thóra nothing, but she had no idea what she could ask that would help to clarify. In order not to waste time going down a dead end, she asked another question she felt more confident about. The therapist had warned her before they went in that they couldn’t spend much time with Ragna as patients tired easily during this kind of communication. ‘Was there much interaction between the residents?’

Again the two women communicated through the cards. ‘Her answer to this is both yes and no, which I interpret to mean that it varied, presumably depending on who was involved.’ Ragna blinked once, so the therapist’s understanding was apparently correct.

‘Did the other residents regularly come to visit you in your apartment?’ One blink, which allowed Thóra to continue along the same lines. She read the names of the residents one by one and received either one blink or two in return. The result was that two of them visited her with any frequency: the deaf-blind girl, Sigríður Herdís, and the epileptic Natan. Ragna’s reply concerning Tryggvi was difficult to understand and the therapist told Thóra she was indicating that she couldn’t answer the question with a simple yes or no. There was a short exchange between them, and finally the therapist put the cards down carefully in her lap and informed Thóra that Tryggvi had come to see Ragna only once. It was a similar situation with Jakob: he had only visited twice, which fitted in with his saying he’d felt uncomfortable in her presence. However, it was Tryggvi’s visit that interested Thóra, because here she had a witness who could confirm that he’d moved voluntarily around the centre, even if such a thing was rare. His involvement in the fire was starting to look more likely than she had thought, and this possibility was enhanced by the way his parents and Glódís had remained silent about so much that concerned him. Why did they seem to want to keep his progress secret, even though it had been relatively minimal? Perhaps the therapy sessions had not only improved Tryggvi’s social skills but also further opened up the horrified fascination with fire that his parents had also kept quiet about. Thóra had made contact with an employee of the summer camp, who had been only too happy to tell her about the incident when the sleeping bag had been set on fire. According to her, Tryggvi had got hold of some matches and lighter fluid that had been used to light a small bonfire the previous night, which had fascinated him. He had used them to set fire to a sleeping bag in one of the bunks, no doubt to relive the enjoyment he’d experienced during the bonfire the night before. Luckily he hadn’t been all that stealthy and they’d managed to extinguish the fire before it did much damage. The woman went on to tell Thóra that Tryggvi’s parents had been extremely upset and informed the camp organizers that the boy was obsessed with fire and that they should always be sure to lock away any firelighting materials so that he couldn’t get his hands on them. His parents had omitted to mention this when enrolling him in the camp; it had been so long since anything like that had happened that they had simply forgotten to mention it. It somehow hadn’t occurred to them that any fires would be lit at the camp. Tryggvi’s father had then decided to visit him immediately, and everyone had considered the matter closed, especially as it had been just one of many trying incidents during that difficult week.

‘Did Tryggvi visit you around the time that you left the residence for the hospital?’

One blink. Yes .

‘Did he say anything?’ Tryggvi had reportedly never spoken, but Thóra decided to ask nonetheless. It could be that he’d made more progress than people wanted to admit; similar things had been kept quiet.

Two blinks. No .

‘Did he get into bed with you?’ Thóra was looking straight at Ragna, but out of the corner of her eye she saw the therapist turn her head sharply in her direction.

Two blinks. No.

‘Did anyone else ever get into bed with you?’ The therapist gripped Thóra’s arm firmly, but Thóra shook her hand off and focused on the young woman’s reaction. For a long time nothing happened; they just stared into each other’s eyes. Then the girl blinked.

One slow, heavy blink. Yes .

Thóra sat outside in her car in the National Hospital’s crowded car park. The heater was trying to battle the hoarfrost on the window and Thóra put her hands under her thighs to protect them from the cold seat. But it wasn’t the frosty windscreen or her cold thighs that bothered her; her mind was in overdrive and it would be dangerous to launch herself out into the traffic before she’d tried to put her thoughts in order. This was serious stuff, and the conversation with Ragna had ended long before Thóra had received answers to all her questions. There had proved to be a limit to how long Ragna could keep up a conversation. Although it could have continued for some time after it emerged that someone had climbed into bed with the young woman, it came to a natural conclusion when she simply couldn’t go any further. Thóra didn’t know whether it was from agitation or fatigue, but it was difficult to understand how a person might feel who was only capable of expressing themselves one letter at a time. Ragna had made her feelings known very simply: she had shut her eyes and not opened them again until she was asked whether she wanted to conclude the conversation. Then she blinked once. Yes .

Thóra was startled by a brisk tapping on the window. Outside stood the therapist, insufficiently dressed for outdoors and shaking like a leaf. It took Thóra a moment to catch her breath and free her hands from beneath her thighs. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,’ said the woman after Thóra rolled down the window and wrapped her arms around herself to better preserve her body heat. ‘I simply must ask you about what happened in there.’ This came as no surprise to Thóra. Although the therapist had initially been totally opposed to discussing these sensitive matters, she had changed her mind almost immediately and quickly became just as eager as Thóra to know what had taken place. After leaving the girl in the care of the nurse, it was clear that the woman wanted Thóra to tell her everything about the investigation, but Thóra merely thanked her for her help and hurried away. ‘I must point out that the topics of these conversations are usually of no concern to me; I sort of put myself in the role of stenographer, but in this case I find it very difficult.’