Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals

Thora shrugged. "He'll probably be convicted of failing to report a dead body and mutilating a corpse, and he'll do some time in prison. Presumably they won't let him back into the faculty of medicine at the university. I have a hunch that he'll take the rap to spare his other friends from being implicatedbut you never can tell. In fact I think Harald mentioned him in his will. That's some compensation."

"Did he prove to be a good friend to Harald, in your opinion?" the other woman asked, looking at Thora.

"Yes, I think so. At least, he kept his promise to Haraldhowever repellent and stupid it may have been. Your son didn't exactly choose his friends on the basis of how normal they were."

"I'll take care of him," whispered Amelia. "That's the least I can do. He can enroll in medicine abroad. We would have no problems arranging that, even if he does get sentenced for what he did." She stretched out her fingers and then clenched her fists as if feeling a twinge of arthritis. "It would make me feel better to be able to do something. It would ease my suffering a little."

"Matthew can arrange that, if the offer's sincere." Thora got ready to stand up. "I suppose there's nothing else," she said, sincerely hoping that there wasn't. She had had enough.

Amelia took her handbag from the back of the chair and put it over her shoulder. She stood up and buttoned her coat, then shook Thora's hand. "Thank you," she said, and seemed to mean it. "Send us the billit will be paid the moment it arrives." They exchanged farewells and Thora walked rapidly toward the exit. She could not wait to get out into the fresh air.

On her way she walked past the hall where the map of Iceland was on display. She stopped and watched Matthew and Elisa strolling around the horizontal relief map. When he saw her out of the corner of his eye, Matthew looked up, took Elisa lightly by the arm and pointed at Thora. They exchanged a few words and Matthew hurried up the steps to her.

"How did it go?" he asked as they walked past the foyer window with the poem etched into the glass.

"Finebadly," replied Thora. "I honestly don't know."

"You owe me lunch," he said, opening the door for her. "But since I'm a fair person and not at all hungry I'm quite prepared to accept it in kind."

"How do you mean?" Thora asked, although she was well aware of the scenario that was unfolding.

They walked off in the direction of Hotel Borg.

Thora slipped out of the bed two hours later and got dressed. Matthew did not stir. She found paper and a pen on the desk, wrote a brief note to him and placed it on the bedside table.

She left the room without waking him, hurried out to the street and walked toward Skolavordustigur to fetch the car marked "Bibbi's Garage." She deserved the rest of the day off.

Her phone rang in her coat pocket and she answered it.

"Hello, Mom," her son said cheerfully.

"Hello, darling," replied Thora. "How are you doing? Are you back home?"

"Yes, I'm here with Sigga," he answered awkwardly. "We're discussing names, like you told me to. Is Pepsi a girl's name or a boy's name?"

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.