Yrsa Sigurdardóttir - The Day Is Dark

‘What about Friðrikka and Oddný Hildur? Did they try to claim the bones?’

‘Oddný Hildur had vanished and Friðrikka had left. It was last January. In the end it was decided that the bones would be divided through a game of chance. A game of bingo, to be precise.’

‘They played bone bingo ?’ Thóra exclaimed.

‘It was supposed to be one of the activities for the Midwinter Feast, which was being planned at the time. The bingo game was to be the highlight of the evening, as far as I could tell. I didn’t go, any more than I went to any of the other activities and events that passed for a social life there. I wasn’t usually invited, but I wouldn’t have been interested anyway.’

Thóra felt sorry for the man, but now was not the time to discuss the harassment he had experienced, or to sympathize with him. ‘So the bingo game decided who got what?’

‘Yes. The skull was the main prize, but the other bones were divided into several different lots. Not everyone won some. Far from it. Bjarki and Dóri, for example, didn’t win any, and they were rather upset. They’d been the most excited about getting some, preferably the entire skeleton.’

‘I understand.’ Thóra felt rather lost in this strange conversation. At least now she had an explanation for the little note found lying under the skull, G-57 . Was it that number that had granted the skull to its new owner? ‘But if your friend didn’t kill Oddný Hildur, then who did? Do you have any theories you’d like to share with me?’

‘No.’ Although the answer was curt, there was no anger in it. ‘I’ve only just found out that this is a murder case – I honestly thought she’d got lost and died of exposure. Thinking about it, most if not all of the Berg employees could be suspects. Everyone except for me and Friðrikka, of course. Oddný Hildur was the only one who was decent to me, so as you can imagine I was absolutely beside myself when she disappeared. Of course the others were shocked but I don’t know how deep their shock went. She’d fallen out of favour after drawing the CEO’s attention to the way they treated me. That didn’t make the men very happy, but instead of dropping it they started bullying Oddný Hildur as well. Idiots.’

‘So the group found out that Oddný Hildur had complained?’

‘Yes. Not from me, that’s for certain. I guess the owner hadn’t been very discreet about it, which is nothing new for him.’

Recalling the CEO’s awkward e-mail to Oddný Hildur, Thóra could well imagine. ‘Is it conceivable that someone was trying to play a prank on her in revenge, but that it got out of control and she died accidentally? Maybe the two drillers?’

Arnar thought it over. ‘I don’t know. It seems quite a stretch, but I’m damned if I know. Neither Bjarki, Dóri nor anyone else acted in a way that led me to suspect they might have done anything like that.’

Thóra tried not to feel too disappointed, but she had thought she’d get more out of him. ‘Who knows, maybe it was just an accident, even though the circumstances are very peculiar.’ She smiled ruefully and decided to tell Arnar what her clever theory had been. ‘I got a little ahead of myself there. I was starting to imagine that the drillers killed her by mistake, regretted it when they were left alone at the camp and killed themselves. With poison.’ However, her fantastic hypothesis did not explain how they wound up cut into pieces and dumped on an island.

‘Yes, well, no. They didn’t kill themselves.’ Arnar cleared his throat. ‘I killed them.’

After Thóra hung up she couldn’t bring herself to stand up from her seat in the farthest corner of the hall. She needed to digest what Arnar had told her at the end of their conversation. It was entirely possible that the man had completely lost his mind and that his story was total fabrication, but she doubted it. He was far too serious for that, and his descriptions too precise. It also explained so much that it was difficult to imagine any other explanation.

Thóra signalled to Matthew to follow her a short distance away from the group and told him everything she had learned, adding that Arnar wanted the Greenlandic police to be informed of his involvement in the case. It took Matthew a little while to absorb the story too, and he had to ask numerous questions before he could fully grasp what had occurred. They were forced to converse in low voices in the little waiting room so that their colleagues wouldn’t hear about any of this before the authorities did. The Greenlandic police were the only ones in any position to determine the validity of the story, and there could be grave consequences if the group went home with snippets of hearsay about such a serious matter.

It took them some time to convince the young policeman standing watch in the waiting room that they desperately needed to speak to his boss. The officer was supposed to ensure that none of the Icelanders left the terminal, and he obviously intended to carry out his task to the letter. In the end he saw that they would not give up and conceded to their demands. He said something incomprehensible into the radio and shortly afterwards they heard a car crunch to a stop in the gravel car park outside the terminal. The chief investigator strutted in and indicated that they should accompany him to the reception area. The others in the group watched in amazement, but none of them had asked yet what was going on. If they had, the answer would have been pretty succinct: None of your business . Dr Finnbogi did in fact call out after them and ask where they were going, but neither of them turned around or answered him.

They all sat down at a little table where Thóra informed the police officer what she wanted, choosing her words carefully so as to be taken seriously. She asked that the conversation take place in English, since she worried that her inexpert Danish could lead to misunderstandings.

‘So Arnar Jóhannesson says that he killed the two drillers?’ The policeman had pulled out a small notebook as soon as Thóra began speaking, and now he scribbled something in it as she continued her story. ‘But not the woman – is that right?’

‘Yes. He denies that, and he sounded very convincing. He thought she’d died of exposure. Just as everyone else seemed to believe.’

‘All except for one person, I expect. It’s almost certain that she was murdered. We’re transporting her body to Nuuk for an autopsy, but we sent photos of her injuries to the coroner and his conclusion was that she’d been struck with some sort of blunt instrument. Possibly even a hammer.’

‘Oh.’ Thóra tried not to let this throw her off-course. Oddný Hildur’s demise did not seem to be connected to those of Bjarki and Dóri, judging by what she’d learned from Arnar, so it was unnecessary to dwell on it now. So she began to tell the officer everything she knew about Arnar’s dealings with the drillers and the harassment that had taken place at the isolated work camp. She had only mentioned it to him in passing before, since she hadn’t realized how integral it was to the mystery of the drillers’ fate.

‘In other words, he lashed out in self-defence against their bullying and killed them?’ The officer did not seem overly surprised at this explanation, since no one reason for committing murder was better than any other.

‘Before I go on, I feel it’s only right to mention that I’m not entirely sure he can be directly connected with the men’s murder.’ Thóra smiled, feeling her cheeks flush in embarrassment. ‘In a legal sense, it’s not entirely clear, although Icelandic law may prove me wrong. Morally, there is no question of his involvement, although it’s difficult to know whether he has fully realized the consequences of his actions.’