Yrsa Sigurdardóttir - The Day Is Dark

‘It’s the notebook belonging to the woman who went missing. Do you recognize the number?’ Thóra took the book back and handed it to Matthew once more, so that he could keep trying.

‘Yes.’ The woman’s trust in Thóra seemed to evaporate before her eyes. ‘It’s my number.’

‘Still busy,’ said Matthew, who had cheered up quite remarkably.

‘That’s not surprising. You’re calling the same number that you’re phoning from.’

Matthew was dumbfounded. ‘You’re kidding.’ He hung up, closed his eyes and leaned back his head. Then he appeared to recover and wrote the number from the notebook on the slip of paper containing the number of the police. When he had finished he picked up the receiver again and kept trying to reach the authorities.

Thóra couldn’t help but smile at him, but instead of responding she turned back to Oqqapia. ‘How did your number find its way into this book? Did you meet her, perhaps?’

‘Maybe. I don’t know.’ Oqqapia looked sheepish and avoided Thóra’s gaze as she spoke. ‘I don’t even know what she looked like. The one who went missing.’

‘So you met a woman from the camp?’ Thóra tried to suppress the irritation that suddenly washed over her. The sofa was uncomfortable and her legs were boiling hot in the coverall. Her patience with Oqqapia’s vague responses was at an end as well.

‘Yes, but I can’t remember what she was called. I only met her once.’ Oqqapia’s face brightened. ‘I remember the name of the man who brought her here. He can probably tell you who she was.’

‘Man? What man?’

‘The AA man. Arnar.’ The woman pronounced the name incredibly well considering that she knew no Icelandic. ‘He often visited Naruana. He was going to help him stop drinking. He brought books and pamphlets that were supposed to make it easier. Once a woman came with him, maybe the one who disappeared. It was maybe six months ago? They didn’t just talk about alcohol, because their conversation was partly about Usinna, I remember. I’m not quite sure how she came up but I remember that the woman had asked about a girl who was on board an ambulance flight. She wanted to know how she was doing, and from that the conversation led on to the subject of only girls being born here. The woman said she was planning to have children herself; maybe she thought that she would be infected by this strange phenomenon. No one wants just girls. Not Greenlanders, and obviously not strangers either.’

Thóra felt it likely that Oddný Hildur would have been concerned about more than just the gender of the foetus. If Thóra were planning to have another child she was sure she’d be interested in anything unusual about births in her immediate vicinity. ‘And Naruana discussed his sister with those two without losing it like he did with us?’

‘Naruana considered this Arnar to be his friend. He enjoyed his visits and he trusted him. I think he wanted to spend time with Arnar, even if he had no plans to stop drinking. He just felt comfortable talking to him, since he was friendly and seemed not to judge us for our lifestyle.’ She shifted in her seat and took a folded piece of paper from her back pocket. ‘I’m still thinking of trying it. I want to make something of myself, like Usinna did. I’m sure I could do it if I stopped drinking. I’m clever too.’ She looked at the brochure as if it contained a magic spell that would change everything. Thóra couldn’t help but hope this were the case. Oqqapia looked from the brochure to Thóra and seemed to notice the doubt in her eyes. ‘I can learn, absolutely. I’ve looked at Usinna’s books and I understand a lot in them.’

Thóra spoke slowly, although her excitement was growing; finally things were starting to become clear. ‘Of course you can learn. If you know how to read and you can retain information, then all roads are open to you.’ She was careful about what she said next. ‘Which books are you talking about? Did Usinna leave behind something connected to her research?’

‘Yes, not here, but Naruana brought them with him when he moved in. He also brought all kinds of junk that he had at his mother’s.’ She pointed at the polar bear pelt on the floor. ‘He shot this polar bear when he was just twelve years old. He would have been a great hunter if he hadn’t-’ Her words died out.

‘Finally!’ Matthew stood up from the couch triumphantly. ‘It’s ringing!’ He clamped the phone against his ear with his shoulder and stuck the slip of paper with the numbers on back into his wallet.

Thóra was happy for him but didn’t want to miss the opportunity to go over Usinna’s research files if they were part of the book collection the woman was describing. There was only a small chance that they contained any information about the area, but she could always hope. ‘May I perhaps see these books? And did she leave behind any notes?’

Thóra found it incredibly cold in the office building but Friðrikka had told her that it took the electric heating system more time than the hot water supply to heat the buildings when the temperature dropped so abruptly outside. Thóra hoped that they would be gone before it grew warm inside, and now she wrapped a far-too-large fleece jacket more tightly around her. She had borrowed it from the back of a chair in one of the offices, first checking carefully to see whom it belonged to. She was disgusted at the thought of wearing any more clothing from people who were almost certainly dead. It wasn’t cold enough for that.

‘When are they coming, then?’ They were all gathered in the meeting room, where Friðrikka sat at a window, staring out. ‘It shouldn’t take them this long to get here from Angmagssalik in an emergency. You’d think they would have priority access to the helicopter.’ Like the others, Thóra was impatient for the police to arrive, but unlike the others, she made no attempt to disguise the fact. After Matthew had managed to contact a policeman who spoke decent English he had been ordered to go back to the camp and gather the team in the office building in order to ensure the minimum possible disturbance of the scene. They were to wait there. That had been more than three hours ago.

‘It takes them some time to prepare for departure.’ Matthew had grown tired of Friðrikka’s endless grumbling about how late it was and how the weather could change at any moment.

‘What will we eat if they don’t come today? All the food is over on the other side of the site,’ scowled Bella. ‘I’m not going to starve on top of everything else.’

‘Then I’ll go over and get us something to eat.’ Matthew sat at the meeting table and watched Finnbogi examine Usinna’s files, which Thóra had managed to prise from Oqqapia earlier in the day. At first he and Thóra had tried to go over the data themselves, but gave up quickly on the biology and asked the doctor to take over. Bella would photocopy the documents later, since Thóra had promised on her honour that they would be returned at the first opportunity. Oqqapia did not want Naruana to discover that she had let the files leave the house and the longer Thóra had the box, the more likely he was to notice that it was gone.

‘But we can’t go to the kitchen; the police have prohibited it. You said so yourself.’ Friðrikka’s voice was on the verge of cracking as she glanced back from the window to Matthew.

He sighed. ‘Everything’s going to be fine. They’ll be here before you know it.’ Friðrikka opened her mouth as if to object, but Thóra decided to pre-empt her. ‘Tell me, Friðrikka. How is it that you never mentioned that Arnar had acquaintances in the village? You insisted you hadn’t had any interaction with the villagers besides the kind of brief contact that we’ve experienced on this trip.’ She looked accusingly at Eyjólfur, who was absorbed in his laptop. ‘And that goes for you, too.’