Yrsa Sigurdardóttir - The Day Is Dark

Suddenly Friðrikka’s heavy sobs filled the office. She grabbed the curtains and tried to pull them shut. The rings on the curtain rod were stuck and only one of them gave in to her efforts, since she was pulling more downwards than to the side. ‘Close the curtains. Close the curtains,’ begged Friðrikka hoarsely. ‘I can’t watch this.’

‘Then do as Thóra says and get away from the window. We want to watch,’ said Bella, spying her chance to move to a better spot. Eyjólfur, who had leaned closer to the window, was now muttering repeatedly: ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Matthew grabbed the young man’s shoulder and pulled him away from the window. ‘It’s not Arnar. His hair isn’t that long, and it’s blond.’ Eyjólfur exhaled heavily – he seemed to have an endless supply of air in his lungs. Thóra remembered that the Greenlandic policeman had been very surprised when Thóra and Matthew had informed him that Arnar lay dead behind the office building, asking her to repeat the name and enquiring whether Berg might have two employees named Arnar Jóhannesson. When Thóra said no, the officer had replied that it seemed unlikely the body was Arnar’s, since he had received information that the engineer was undergoing treatment for alcoholism in Iceland, as Thóra had mentioned. He said he hadn’t actually managed to talk to the man but had been assured nevertheless that he was there. Thóra had received a similar response when she’d called him from the hotel, after concluding her conversation with the final employee on her list, although the answer she’d received was more vague and did not actually confirm that Arnar was at Vogur Hospital.

Friðrikka gave a short scream, then sounded oddly calm when she whispered, ‘It’s Oddný Hildur,’ before breaking into uncontrollable sobs.

‘Please excuse the inconvenience, but unfortunately it was imperative that we detain you here in light of the circumstances.’ The Greenlandic police officer who was leading the investigation addressed the group. ‘I see no reason to keep you any longer, and you have been extremely helpful in keeping the investigation afloat as far as possible.’ They had all been questioned and made to recount again and again the order in which things had happened.

‘When can we leave?’ Friðrikka had stopped crying now that several hours had passed since she had recognized the corpse in the snow. In the meantime they had been given food and drink, although Friðrikka hadn’t been able to swallow a single morsel. The doctor had urged her to drink as much as she could since she was draining her body’s water supply with her floods of tears, and fortunately she had heeded him, since she would be shedding more tears by the end of the meal. ‘I can’t bear to be here any longer.’

‘I understand,’ said the police officer almost gently, before continuing in an entirely more commanding tone. ‘Unfortunately the helicopter can’t fly in the dark, so you can’t leave before dawn tomorrow. But the helicopter is here, and as soon as conditions are favourable you can leave.’

‘Do you have any idea what happened? I mean, to the woman you just found. Oddný Hildur.’ Eyjólfur was subdued and lethargic, and appeared distracted. It was as if this peculiar case had finally become too much for him. ‘It looked to us as if she’d been in an accident.’

‘I can’t tell for certain at the moment but it appears that the woman received a head injury, perhaps more than one. Hopefully we’ll figure it out.’

‘Where was she?’ asked Alvar. ‘I mean, it’s been several months since she disappeared and there’s no way she was behind the building the whole time.’ As usual, he blushed as he spoke. ‘I’m a rescuer and I know a bit about these things.’

At first the police officer refrained from speaking, as if he were trying to contain his desire to say something inappropriate. Then he said, with a hint of sarcasm, ‘I’ll tell you. At first glance it appeared the woman had been dead for quite some time. You can stop worrying about the search you conducted for her. It’s my understanding that although you did all you could to find her, things wouldn’t have turned out any differently even if you had searched for longer or in larger groups.’

‘So we could have saved her if we hadn’t given up?’ Friðrikka appeared to be completely disconnected from everything that was happening around her. ‘I knew it. I always said that.’ Eyjólfur started to say something in reply, but then decided against it. Even he felt sorry for her in this puffy-eyed, broken-down state. He pressed his lips shut and closed his eyes.

‘You’ve misunderstood me, madam. You could not have done anything to save the life of your friend. I just wanted to point that out to you in the hope that maybe you would feel a little bit better. As difficult as it is.’

‘Where did she come from?’ Matthew acted as if he didn’t notice when Thóra pinched him on the thigh. She had told him in private how the body had come to be behind the building and he had promised to keep quiet about it. ‘I’m wondering where her body has been all this time.’ Thóra felt relieved – the plan was working.

‘We don’t know,’ replied the policeman. ‘Probably outdoors, but somewhere sheltered from animals. She wasn’t out on the island; we searched there today and it’s out of the question that we missed her.’

‘The most pressing question is obviously who you believe is responsible for the woman’s death, if we presume that it wasn’t an accident.’ Like all of them, Finnbogi was looking tired, with bags starting to show beneath his eyes.

‘It isn’t possible to presume any such thing. But for the body to suddenly appear like this does raise certain suspicions.’

‘It seems pretty unlikely that a person could receive a gash like that to their neck by falling, especially on level ground; and if she had stumbled on a mountainside or a steep slope you would think more injuries would be visible on her body, even in a snow-suit. It looked to me as if all her limbs were as they should be, at least.’ Thóra found the doctor’s reasoning convincing.

‘As I said, all of this will be revealed, and it’s useless to be making guesses. If something unnatural occurred, we’ll get to the bottom of it, and there’s no need for you to spend time speculating about it.’

‘Changing the subject, I have a question.’ Thóra had to honour her promise about Usinna’s remains. ‘Will the bones that were found in the office definitely be returned to the family? It would be so sad if the woman were not allowed a permanent resting place.’

The police officer seemed not to find the question all that odd. ‘Yes, that’s almost certain. We have to confirm that the body is that particular woman and once that’s done there’ll be no reason to hold on to the bones. It shouldn’t take very long to do, since I expect we’ll be able to find her dentist, and then the x-rays should be sufficient to identify her. Things will be different if it turns out not to be her, however.’

‘Let’s hope that’s not the case. We’ve had enough dead people.’ Thóra leaned back in her chair.

‘I would examine the bones thoroughly. I’m certain that this woman was killed, just like Oddný Hildur. And that the villagers are the culprits. I’ve always said that and I’ve always known it.’ Friðrikka spoke without looking the policeman in the eye – perhaps because of his race. The officer did not seem to take it personally.

‘We’ve already started questioning people from this area, especially those Arnar was in touch with, and we’ll see what comes out of that. We’ll find the guilty party; it will just take some time to clarify who he is and what he did. Maybe he was just guilty of moving bodies from one place to another.’