Arnaldur Indridason - Silence Of The Grave

Robert shook his head. No.

"Was it a big family?"

Robert shook his head again. No.

"A couple with two, three children, more?"

Robert nodded and held out three anaemic fingers.

"A couple with three children. Did you ever meet these people? Did you have any contact with them or not know them at all?" Elinborg had forgotten her rule about yes and no and Robert took off his mask.

"Didn't know them." Mask up again. The nurse was growing restless as she stood behind the wheelchair glaring at Elinborg as if she ought to stop immediately and looking ready to intervene at any second. Robert took off his mask.

". . die."

"Who? Those people? Who died?" Elinborg leaned over closer to him, waiting for him to take the mask off again. Yet again he put a trembling hand to the oxygen mask and took it off.

"Useless. ."

Elinborg could tell that he was having trouble speaking and she strained with all her might to urge him on. She stared at him and waited for him to say more.

Mask down.

". . vegetable."

Robert dropped his mask, his eyes closed and his head sank onto his chest.

"Ah," the nurse said curtly, "So now you've finished him off for good." She picked up the mask and stuck it over Robert's nose and mouth with unnecessary force as he sat with his head on his chest and his old eyes closed as if he had fallen asleep. Maybe he really was dying for all Elinborg knew. She stood up and watched the nurse push Robert over to his bed, lift him like a feather out of the wheelchair and lay him down there.

"Are you trying to kill the poor man with this nonsense?" the nurse said, a strapping woman aged about 50 with her hair in a bun, wearing a white coat, white trousers and white clogs. She glared ferociously at Elinborg. "I should never have allowed this," she muttered in self-reproach. "He'll hardly live until the morning," she said in a loud voice directed back at Elinborg, with an obvious tone of accusation.

"Sorry," Elinborg said, without being completely aware why she was apologising. "We thought he could help us about some old bones. I hope he's not feeling too bad."

Lying flat out now, Robert suddenly opened his eyes. He looked around as if gradually realising where he was, and took off his oxygen mask despite the nurse's protests.

"Often came," he panted, ". . later. Green. . lady. . bushes. ."

"Bushes?" Elinborg said. She thought for a moment. "Do you mean the redcurrants?"

The nurse put the mask back on Robert, but Elinborg thought she detected a nod towards her.

"Who was it? Do you mean yourself? Do you remember the redcurrant bushes? Did you go there? Did you go to the bushes?"

Robert slowly shook his head.

"Get out and leave him alone," the nurse ordered Elinborg, who had stood up to lean over to Robert, but not too closely so as not to provoke her more than she already had.

"Can you tell me about it?" Elinborg went on. "Did you know who it was? Who used to go to the redcurrant bushes?"

Robert had closed his eyes.

"Later?" Elinborg continued. "What do you mean later?"

Robert opened his eyes and lifted up his old, bony hands to indicate that he wanted a pencil and piece of paper. The nurse shook her head and told him to rest, he had been through enough. He clutched her hand and looked imploringly at her.

"Out of the question," the nurse said. "Would you please get out of here," she said to Elinborg.

"Shouldn't we let him decide? If he dies tonight. ."

"We?" the nurse said. "Who's we? Have you been looking after these patients for 30 years?" she snorted. "Will you get out before I have you removed."

Elinborg glanced down at Robert who had closed his eyes again and seemed to be asleep. She looked at the nurse and reluctantly started moving towards the door. The nurse followed her and shut the door behind her the moment Elinborg was out in the corridor. Elinborg thought of calling in Sigurdur Oli to argue with the nurse and inform her how important it was for Robert to tell them what he wanted to say. She dropped the idea. Sigurdur Oli was certain to enrage her even more.

Elinborg walked down the corridor and could see Sigurdur Oli in the canteen devouring a banana with an apish look on his face. On her way to join him, she stopped. There was an alcove or TV den at the end of the corridor and she retreated into it and hid behind a tree that was planted in a huge pot and stretched all the way up to the ceiling. She waited there, watching the door, like a lioness hiding in the grass.

Before long the nurse came out of Robert's room, breezed down the corridor and through the canteen for the next ward. She did not notice Sigurdur Oli, nor he her as he chomped on his banana.

Elinborg sneaked out of her hiding place behind the tree and tiptoed back to Robert's room. He was lying asleep in the bed with the mask over his face just as when she had left him. The curtain was closed, but the dim glow of a lamp shed light into the gloom. She went over to him, hesitated for a moment and looked around furtively before bracing herself to prod the old man.

Robert did not budge. She tried again but he was sleeping like a log. Elinborg assumed he must be in a very deep sleep, if not simply dead, and she bit her nails while she wondered whether to prod him harder or disappear and forget the whole business. He had not said much. Only that someone had been hanging around the bushes on the hill. A green lady.

She was turning to leave when Robert suddenly opened his eyes and stared at her. Elinborg was unsure whether he recognised her, but he nodded and she felt sure she detected a grin behind his oxygen mask. He made the same sign as before to ask for a paper and pencil and she searched in her coat for her notebook and pen. She put them in his hands and he started writing in big capitals with a shaky hand. It took him a long time and Elinborg cast a terrified look towards the door, expecting the nurse to enter at any moment and start shouting curses. She wanted to tell Robert to hurry, but did not dare to pressure him.

When he had finished writing, his pallid hands slumped onto the quilt, and the book and pen with them, and he closed his eyes. Elinborg picked up the book and was about to read what the old man had written when the cardiac monitor that he was connected to suddenly started to beep. The noise was ear-piercing when it broke out in the silent room and Elinborg was so startled that she jumped back. She looked down at Robert for a moment, unsure of what to do, then rushed straight out of the room, down the corridor and into the canteen where Sigurdur Oli was still sitting, his banana finished. An alarm rang somewhere.

"Did you get anything out of the old sod?" Sigurdur Oli asked Elinborg when she sat down beside him, gasping for breath. "Hey, are you okay?" he added when he noticed her puffing and panting.

"Yes, I'm fine," Elinborg said.

A team of doctors, nurses and paramedics came running through the canteen and into the corridor in the direction of Robert's room. Soon afterwards a man in a white gown appeared, pushing in front of him a piece of equipment that Elinborg thought was a cardiac massage device, and went down the corridor as well. Sigurdur Oli watched the crowd disappear around the corner.

"What the hell have you been up to now?" Sigurdur Oli said, turning to Elinborg.

"Me?" Elinborg muttered. "Nothing. Me! What do you mean?"

"What are you sweating like that for?" Sigurdur Oli asked.

"I'm not sweating."

"What happened? Why is everyone running?"

"No idea."

"Did you get anything out of him? Is he the one who's dying?"

"Come on, try to show a bit of respect," Elinborg said, looking all around.

"What did you get out of him?"

"I haven't checked yet," Elinborg said. "Shouldn't we get away from here?"