Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Ashes To Dust

Thóra raised her eyebrows. ‘Not in any detail. I know that she owned her house but it’s impossible to say how much she owed on the mortgage. It couldn’t have been very much, because she bought it long before the prices went up. I believe she’d lived there a long time.’ Thóra didn’t recall whether Alda had any other property. ‘May I ask why you’re discussing this?’

‘Give me two minutes,’ said Svala, and the door slammed shut again. Fifteen minutes later she and Adolf reappeared. Thóra had started to grow uncomfortable. She had a lot to do before going to the courtroom at two o’clock. Luckily she’d managed to get Svala to arrange the meeting for nine in the morning, but if it went on like this it would be almost eleven when Thóra finally made it back to her office. ‘Well,’ said Svala, taking a seat at her desk.‘It would appear that Adolf has a little story to tell you. It might improve your client’s position, but it also might make it worse. We’ll just have to wait and see. It’s up to you; do you want to hear it, or should we let it go?’

Thóra chose the former. As things stood, any new information could only help Markus. The limbo he was in now was unbearable for him. Even if the court didn’t rule against him, a large percentage of the Islands’ population would always be convinced of his guilt, particularly if the custody extension was granted.

‘Tell her what you told me, Adolf,’ said Svala. It was clear from her tone that she was not best pleased with him. ‘I stand by what I told you in the corridor. You’ll benefit more by telling your story than by keeping it to yourself.’

Adolf did not appear convinced, but began nevertheless. ‘Alda came to see me,’ he said slowly. ‘She rang first, but then came anyway after I refused to talk to her.’

‘Did she want to talk about the tattoo?’ asked Thóra.

He shook his head, his expression just as unreadable as when Thóra had first set eyes on him earlier that morning.‘She called me originally to shout at me,’ he said. ‘It was shortly after that silly bitch Halldora accused me of rape, and at first I didn’t have any idea who this woman was; I thought it must be her mother, or something.’

Thóra looked at Svala. ‘Did you know this?’ she asked. ‘That the nurse who treated the girl had phoned the suspect to give him a piece of her mind?’

Svala shook her head. ‘I heard most of this for the first time just now. It’ll become clear why he kept it secret.’ She gestured at Adolf to continue. ‘There’s more. Much more.’

Thóra turned back to him. ‘So she just called you and started yelling without introducing herself?’

‘No, she did introduce herself, but her name meant nothing to me,’ replied Adolf. After she’d called me several times, just as hysterical each time, I stopped answering the phone.‘ He straightened in his chair. ’You can’t blame me – who’d want some old fishwife hollering at them day and night?‘

‘How much time had passed from the date of the alleged rape before Alda first called you?’ asked Thóra.

Adolf thought for a moment. ‘About a month. No, a little longer. Maybe two.’

‘And did she say anything about why she was calling?’

‘No. She was completely crazy.’Adolf shrugged. ‘She probably believed Halldora, and thought I was a rapist. Maybe she was hoping that if she kept on at me long enough I’d confess to their trumped-up charges.’

Thóra knew this hadn’t been the first rape case Alda had been involved in, but had no idea whether her reaction was an isolated incident. Perhaps phone calls like these had been the reason Alda had been advised to take a leave of absence. ‘Do you think she was a friend of Halldora, or was it that she realized she knew your parents?’

‘She didn’t know that lying cow Halldora,’ said Adolf. ‘I actually called her to ask how she managed to get a nurse on her side in her smear campaign.’

Svala gasped. ‘You called the girl? She didn’t mention that in the police statement, and the prosecutor hasn’t said anything about it either.’

‘Maybe Halldora didn’t want anyone to know about the phone call. She actually wanted to talk to me, and she offered to drop the charges if I would go out with her.’ Adolf frowned.‘It’s like I’ve always said – her pride was hurt. 1 don’t know what I was thinking dragging her home with me that night, but I was drunk and high and didn’t realize what a dog she was. The next morning she clearly thought she’d hit the jackpot and kept going on about our “relationship” and God knows what else. I got rid of her as quickly as I could, but she came back the next night. I let her in by mistake and it was like she thought we’d become an item. Why couldn’t she see how badly we went together, her always talking, talking, talking and me…?’ He didn’t finish the sentence.

‘So when did she decide to press charges against you?’ asked Thóra. ‘You sleep together and the next evening she comes to visit. And after that, just under another twenty-four hours go by before she makes her allegation.’ Thóra knew she’d gone beyond the limits of what pertained directly to Alda’s murder, but she wanted to have everything clear before they discussed the woman. That way she could get a better feeling for Adolf’s reactions, and she might be able to tell if he was lying about anything important.

Adolf looked at Svala, who indicated that he should continue. ‘I gave her pills on her second visit, to stop her from getting pregnant. I thought I’d forgotten them the night before because I was so drunk. That’s the only reason I let her in.’ He didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed when he said this. ‘But it turns out I probably did remember on Saturday night, so she got a large enough-’

Svala interrupted him, either embarrassed by his insensitivity or in a hurry to conclude the meeting. ‘Anyway, the girl started bleeding heavily and went to A &E. That’s where we see what kind of person she is: she put two and two together and started coming after Adolf. After the thing with the morning-after pills came out, she said she’d been raped.’

‘She called me from the hospital, while she was waiting for the doctor or something,’ Adolf said suddenly.‘She asked whether I’d done this, and what was Ithinking since we were a couple. I laughed at her because it was so ridiculous. I probably shouldn’t have done that. She went completely nuts and said I would regret it. Then she went and shouted rape after I hung up on her. That’s what she’s like, she’s mental.’

Svala cleared her throat. ‘You didn’t tell me about this before,’ she said. ‘We could easily check out the phone call.’

‘I didn’t rape her. I thought at least I’d be considered innocent until proven guilty. I didn’t do anything.’ Adolf stared at each of them in turn, his eyes shining with the conviction of a simpleton. ‘I didn’t want to have to admit what I did with the drug. I’ll get a bad reputation on the scene.’

Thóra supposed the ‘scene’was picking up young women in bars. All the feelings this man had stirred in her before he opened his mouth had long since gone cold. She was glad she never went out on the town, and that it would be many years before Sóley would start doing so; she had heard enough about Adolf and Halldora’s‘relationship’. ‘You claim Halldora didn’t know Alda,’ she said. ‘But you haven’t told me whether Alda realized who your parents were. Was that what inspired the phone call?’

Adolf bared his teeth a little. He reminded Thóra uncomfortably of a snake. ‘I never said she didn’t know Alda; she knew her, but it wasn’t her that got Alda to call me. Halldora said Alda was her counsellor or something.’ He shrugged. ‘As far as my parents are concerned, you’ve got to remember that while all of this was going on I was tied up in a lawsuit with the hospital that murdered my mother.’