Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Ashes To Dust

Gudni stood up. ‘Yes, I think that’s all for now. There’s a plane on its way from Reykjavik to fetch you, Markus, and I doubt very much you’ll be back here in the Islands any time soon. You might want to take the opportunity to admire the view of the cliffs from my window, before you leave.’

Thóra walked out without looking back at Gudni and Markus. Thanking the card-playing police officer for his patience, she helped her daughter to her feet. Orri was still sleeping soundly in the pushchair, and she was able to pull up his hood without waking him. The three of them then headed out into the August night in search of a tourist truck to drive them back to their apartment.

‘Did the police catch the bad guy?’ asked Sóley sleepily, as they walked down the spotless street. They could hear the noise from the festival at Herjolfsdalur, carried on the breeze.

‘Yes, sweetheart,’ said Thóra, trying to look pleased that the case was solved. She still felt she’d been made a fool of.

‘And who was the bad guy?’ her daughter asked eagerly. In her simple, childish world criminals were easy to spot, like Robbie Rotten or the Beagle Boys in the books Thóra read to her.

‘It was the one that I thought was the good guy,’ replied Thóra, smiling down at her. ‘People sometimes make mistakes.’ They waved down a truck and sat on a bench among a group of festival-goers, who were all smiles. She wondered if she could get a babysitter for the following night and allow herself some fun. Maybe she, like Bella, could find herself a handsome sailor and forget everything for a while.

It sounded nice, but Thóra knew it would never happen.

Yrsa Sigurdardottiris an award-winning author of five children's novels who is also a leading Icelandic civil engineer directing one of the largest hydro construction projects in European unusual assignment for an Icelandic woman. When she is not working on-site (about six months of every year), she lives with her family in Reykjavik. Her second novel featuring Thora Gudmundsdottir, My Soul to Take , will be published next year. To learn more about her, please visit www.verold.is/yrsa.asp.