Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Ashes To Dust

‘What, Alda?’ asked Dis. Thóra said nothing, allowing Dis to realize the stupidity of her question. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Alda didn’t have any Botox, to my knowledge. Of course she had access to it here, but we keep close track of all our supplies and it’s out of the question that she took drugs from this clinic. We’re particularly careful about all our work here and would never have let her take the substance for her own use. Where else she could have got it from, I couldn’t say. The A &E doesn’t keep a supply of it, I know that much.’

‘Where do you get the Botox you use in this office?’ asked Thóra.

‘We order it through the pharmacy that supplies us,’ replied

Dis. ‘We have a good deal there and get a decent enough Discount to allow us not to have to contract with wholesalers. Of course we buy far more goods and drugs than just Botox.’

‘Who was the clinic’s point of contact with the pharmacy?’ asked Thóra.

Dis looked at her. ‘I was. Agúst a couple of times.’ She pressed her lips together. ‘Alda never had anything to do with it,’ she added.

‘You realize that if Alda didn’t have Botox in her house, then whoever murdered her took it there?’ said Thóra. She allowed Dis to digest this for a moment before continuing.‘There aren’t that many people with access -to those kind of supplies. Certainly not my client.’

Dis’s foundation partially masked the blush that was spreading over her cheeks again, but it didn’t escape Thóra’s notice. ‘I should admit now that I haven’t taken an inventory since the end of last month. It may well be that there’s something missing from the drug cabinet, but if there is it would be the first time.’ She cleared her throat daintily. ‘Neither Agúst nor I had any reason to wish Alda harm. On the contrary, her death was a great blow to us. That’s no secret.’

The woman appeared to be sincere. ‘No doubt the police will be in touch with you,’ said Thóra.‘The results of the drug test have just come back, and I expect they have had more urgent matters to attend to in the light of this. But they will be here sooner or later. They’ll go over the inventory with you, which may clear a few things up.’

‘The police?’ repeated Dís. ‘Yes, of course. I gave a statement after I found the body. They thought it was suicide at the time, and didn’t really ask me anything.’ She shook her head. ‘Of all the crazy things.’ She closed her eyes and shuddered slightly.‘It’s unbelievable how self-centred one can be. When you said that, my first thought was how embarrassing it would be to have the police stampeding through here.’ She looked away. ‘Of course that doesn’t matter. We have nothing to hide and hopefully that will be proven as quickly as possible.’

Thóra saw Dís glance at a little clock on her desk. Her time would soon be up. ‘Until recently I’ve heard only good things about Alda, from her childhood friends, her sister, and others. Then I spoke to a woman who worked with her in the A &E and I started to see a different picture emerging. She didn’t actually say anything bad about Alda, but she did suggest that something had happened, although I couldn’t find out exactly what it was. Do you know what might have happened to make Alda resign?’

Dís shook her head. ‘No, I’m afraid not,’ she said. ‘I thought she didn’t want to talk about it, but that she might open up later. Now she’ll never have the chance. It’s easy to be wise in hindsight.’ She shrugged unhappily. ‘I’ve thought a lot about this and can’t say I’ve reached any conclusions. Plenty of wild theories, of course, but nothing more.’

Thóra had the feeling there was more behind this comment. ‘And do you find one theory more plausible than the rest?’

Dis bit her lip. ‘I don’t know if I should tell you this.’ She stared at Thóra, who could do little more than look back at her and wait. ‘I found an unbelievable amount of pornography on Alda’s computer. I was mortified. She didn’t strike me as that type – generally it’smen who get obsessed with it.’ She took a deep breath. ‘After I Discovered it I started putting two and two together and wondered if she’d had a sexual relationship with someone in the A &E, a doctor or one of the staff. These things do happen.’

‘Would that be reason enough for her job to have been at risk?’ asked Thóra, half wondering if it could have been her ex-husband. ‘Are workplace romances prohibited at the hospital?’

‘No,’ Dís replied.‘I don’t think so. Something like that might be kept under wraps, but it’s hardly forbidden. Anyway, the material on her computer could hardly be described as romantic. This was hardcorepornography, plain and simple. It crossed my mind that Alda might have had sex with someone on the hospital premises, which would be taken very seriously.’

Obviously Thóra would have to phone Hannes again. He wouldn’t have missed any gossip that followed in the wake of something like this. ‘You don’t have any idea about the person with whom such a thing might have happened? A doctor, or even a patient?’

‘No, I have no idea, this is all just guesswork,’ said Dís. ‘The only reason it occurred to me at all is that I also found emails between Alda and a sex therapist on her computer. It crossed my mind that she might have sought their help after her obsession got her into trouble.’

‘Did the email mention anything like that?’ said Thóra.

‘No, they were just confirmations of appointments, whether Alda could make it on this or that particular day and so forth.’

‘Do you remember the name of the therapist, by any chance?’ Yet another person Thóra would need to speak to.

Dís nodded. ‘Yes, she’s called Heida. I don’t remember her surname, but there can’t be many sex therapists with that name working in Reykjavik.’

‘Did Alda ever speak to you about a tattoo?’ Thóra asked as she wrote down the name. ‘She had wanted to tell her sister something, and it had to do with a tattoo, all a bit mysterious.’

‘A tattoo?’ asked Dís, looking puzzled. Then her face brightened. ‘Actually, yes,’she said. ‘Recently a young man came in who wanted to know if we could remove one, and I remember that Alda was particularly interested. She spoke to him for a long time, asking where he’d had it done, and it almost seemed as if she was thinking of getting one herself. But she just laughed when I asked her about it. Then she mentioned it to me and our secretary Kata over coffee, asking if we thought people ever got a tattoo in memory of a bad experience. We didn’t know what she was on about.’ Dís reached for one of her desk drawers. ‘Since you’re here, I may as well show you this,’ she said, pulling out several pages that were stapled together, as well as a single sheet. ‘I found these papers among the stuff in Alda’s desk after she died. One of the pages is actually a photocopy of a photograph, and it looks to me as though it’s of a tattoo.’She handed Thóra the single sheet.

‘Does it say “Love Sex” in English?’ asked Thóra, reading from the picture. The image was grainy, and hazy from the photocopier, but the tattoo could be seen quite clearly.

‘Don’t ask me,’ Dís said, peering at the page disdainfully. ‘This isn’t the tattoo the boy wanted to have removed. That was a Chinese word, as I recall. So I don’t have any idea who this came from or why Alda liked it so much. Maybe this man has the tattoo – his photograph was also in her desk drawer. I don’t recognize him at all. Is he your client?’

Thóra took the photo, but didn’t recognize the young man in it. Although he looked severe, he was very handsome.‘No, I don’t know who this is.’ She handed the photograph back to Dís.