Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Someone to Watch Over Me

‘Lena, trust me, the last thing we want is to free Jakob by pinning the guilt on another innocent person, alive or dead. Between you and me, I don’t believe that your brother did start this fire – in fact, I strongly suspect one of Margeir and Friðleifur’s night-time visitors. But I have to follow up on all leads, even though on closer inspection they might turn out to go nowhere.’

Lena breathed deeply, looking very relieved. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘I understand. I’m just upset about this and about Mum and Dad. You touched a nerve. I hate my scar – I can never wear short dresses like other girls do and if I want to dress up it’s trousers or a long dress, which looks fucking lame. I do know it’s ridiculous to get so pissed off; I’ve seen enough serious injuries and disabilities to know that this is nothing.’

Thóra squeezed Lena’s shoulder gently before letting go. ‘Do you know how I can get in touch with Margeir? The police need to speak to him regarding at least two serious matters, and I’m hoping he can shed some light on the cause of the fire at the same time. I have a hunch that he knows who started it.’

‘I have no idea where he is. I used to run into him in town sometimes after the fire but I haven’t seen him out for months. Maybe he’s left the country. Otherwise, someone told me he had a radio show, but I don’t know if that’s true or whether it’s still going. I think it was on a talk-radio station that I never listen to.’

The police already had this information; she recalled them describing him as a radio host in their first enquiry. ‘I believe he did. OK, if you see him or hear from him, I advise you to behave as if everything is normal and then get away from him as quickly as possible. And you should inform the police about it immediately afterwards.’

Lena frowned. ‘Why are the police looking for him?’

‘I promise to tell you once the police have completed their preliminary investigation. For now I don’t want to connect him to a case that might not have anything to do with him at all.’ Despite saying this, Thóra was convinced that Margeir had ties both to the death of the man at Nauthólsvík Beach and to the violence against Lísa and Ragna. Maybe he wasn’t the perpetrator, but he probably knew considerably more about these things than many others.

During the news that same evening, Thóra’s mobile phone beeped. She grabbed it and saw that once again she’d received a message via ja.is. Instead of reading it immediately she called directory enquiries, requested the number at Sogn and then asked to be connected. Her call was answered on the fourth ring. Thóra asked the staff member to tell Jósteinn that she’d received his message. If he was uncertain about where Jósteinn might be, she considered it more than likely that he’d find him in the computer workshop. Then she hung up without giving the man an opportunity to ask any further questions about this peculiar errand. Thóra was pleased with herself, although her mother gave her a strange look, obviously feeling that she’d dealt rather rudely with a public institution. She read the message.

Vesturlandsvegur Road, 8 December 2007

‘I don’t need a scientific explanation for how it works, Hannes, I just need to know whether there’s anything in it.’ Thóra rolled her eyes, safe in the knowledge that her ex-husband couldn’t see her on the other end of the line. She’d turned to him in his capacity as a doctor for clarification as to whether it were possible to reduce the effects of intoxication and hangovers through oxygen inhalation and intravenous nourishment. She found it all rather dubious and didn’t want to include it in her report if Lena’s claims turned out to be complete nonsense.

‘It does work, yes.’ Hannes sounded disappointed at not being allowed to continue bestowing on her the gift of his great wisdom. ‘Medical students do it sometimes, and other people who work in places with access to oxygen tanks. I don’t recommend it, especially if people have no idea what they’re doing.’

‘You knew about this when you were at medical school?’ Thóra couldn’t conceal her shock. ‘And you never said anything?’ If she hadn’t already been divorced from Hannes, she would have started divorce proceedings immediately. In the early years of their marriage, when they were both at university, she’d spent countless mornings wishing her head could be wrapped in cotton wool to alleviate her terrible hangovers.

‘Of course not. It never crossed my mind to do it. I was hardly going to drag you to a hospital and hide you in a linen cupboard with an IV stuck in one of your veins, hooked up to an oxygen tank. Very few people actually do this, and then hopefully only in moderation. It’s much healthier for the body to wrestle with the effects of alcohol on its own, be it intoxication or a hangover.’

‘You forgot to say that the healthiest thing of all is to drink sensibly.’ Thóra stopped the discussion by thanking him for the information and then briefly asking him about what they would do with the children during the imminent winter holiday. Neither of them had anything planned, so the only conclusion they came to was that they’d both have a think about it and discuss it some more later.

Thóra was happy to have got her facts straight. It looked as if her report would be finished shortly and it would be so watertight that it would be difficult for the Supreme Court to reject the petition. But she was still going to wait until the results of the DNA test on Bjarki Emil, the man who had been found at Nauthólsvík Beach, were made available, since she was certain that they would show in black and white that he’d been the one who’d abused Lísa. Ragna’s testimony was strong, but it would have to be verified nonetheless. Thóra’s happiness was slightly diluted by this: even if she managed to prove Bjarki Emil’s crime, it was unclear whether it would have any influence on the outcome of Jakob’s case. The relationship between the rapes and the fire was unclear. In order to succeed she would need to be able to demonstrate that Bjarki Emil or someone else had set the residence on fire, and explain why. This was easier said than done, however. Even before she had to divine their possible motives for starting the fire, there were very few potential suspects. She’d gone over the main files in the case once more, weighed up which of the individuals she’d had contact with were most likely to be guilty, but the result was always the same: none of them had had the opportunity to start the fire, unless the various people providing each individual’s alibi for the night in question were all lying.

Einvarður and Fanndís had been at an annual ball in the countryside east of Reykjavík, along with a large crowd of fellow partygoers. Of course none of them had been questioned, but the idea that the couple could have lied about this had obviously been considered absurd. If it had transpired that nobody recalled seeing them during the relevant window of time, they could simply have claimed to have been in their hotel room. Could Einvarður’s peculiar behaviour be attributed to anxiety about concealing his part in the tragedy? For her part, Lena had been having a party at her place, and two stragglers – neither of whom had been named, but one male, one female – were both said to have been at Lena’s home when the police turned up later that night, and had verified the girl’s story.

The parents of the other residents had all been either asleep at home, away from the city, or at parties, and Thóra had no particular reason to doubt their stories. Glódís had also been home asleep, but shortly before the fire started an old school friend of hers had woken her by calling to ask whether she wanted to meet up with her downtown. She’d been rather abrupt when the police had called to inform her about the fire, because she’d thought it was her friend calling back to persuade her. Margeir, too, had been asleep and it had been verified that he’d taken a call from Friðleifur on his mobile shortly before the fire started, at which point the phone was located at his home address. Of course Margeir could have gone to the residence immediately and started the fire, but he would have had to move very quickly. Plus it was hard to imagine what might have prompted a seriously unwell man to suddenly jump into a car and go to set a fire that would burn five people to death. According to the case files there was no doubt that Margeir had been ill that night. Others Thóra had spoken to – Sveinn, the filmmaker; Linda, the friendly therapist; Ægir, Tryggvi’s therapist and Ari – were out of the question; it was simply absurd to think that any of these people would have had reason to want to kill either the residents or Friðleifur. Of course there was always a chance that Thóra had overlooked some possible motive in one of them, but it was an extremely slim one.