Arnaldur Indridason: Silence Of The Grave

"You mean someone who's kept an eye on the excavation knows what's been going on and sets off a chain of events?"

"We'll see," Erlendur said. "Let's wait for the pathologist. It's not a question of life or death. But see what you can do for us all the same. Take a look in your own good time. You might be able to remove the little skeleton without damaging any evidence."

The district medical officer nodded as if uncertain about his next move.

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

Erlendur decided to talk to Benjamin Knudsen's niece immediately instead of waiting until the next morning, and he went to see her with Sigurdur Oli that evening. Elsa answered the door and invited them into her sitting room. They all sat down. She looked more tired to Erlendur and he feared her reaction to the discovery of two skeletons; he imagined it must be a strain for her to have this old business dragged out again after so many years and find her uncle implicated in a murder.

He told her what the archaeologists had unearthed on the hill: it was probably Benjamin's fiancee. Elsa looked at each detective in turn while Erlendur was finishing his account, and she was unable to suppress her disbelief.

"I don't believe you," she cried. "Are you saying that Benjamin murdered his fiancee?"

"There's a probability. ."

"And buried her on the hill by their chalet? I don't believe it. I just don't understand where you're taking all this. There must be some other explanation. There simply has to be. Benjamin was no murderer, I can tell you that. You've been free to roam around this house and rummage in the cellar as you please, but this is going too far. Do you think I would have let you go through the cellar if I, if the family, had anything to hide? No, this is going too far. You ought to leave," she said and stood up. "Now!"

"It's not as if you're involved," Sigurdur Oli said. He and Erlendur sat tight. "It's not as if you knew something and concealed it from us. Or. .?"

"What are you implying?" Elsa said. "That I knew something? Are you accusing me of complicity? Are you going to arrest me? Do you want to put me in prison? What a way to conduct yourselves!" She stared at Erlendur.

"Calm down," Erlendur said. "We found a skeleton of a baby with the adult skeleton. It's been disclosed that Benjamin's fiancee was pregnant. The natural conclusion is that it's her. Don't you think so? We're not implying anything. We're just trying to solve the case. You've been exceptionally helpful and we appreciate that. Not everyone would have done all you have. However, the fact remains that your uncle Benjamin is the main suspect now that we've recovered the bones."

Elsa glared down at Erlendur as if he was an intruder in her house. Then she seemed to soften a little. She looked at Sigurdur Oli, back at Erlendur, and sat down again.

"It's a misunderstanding," she said. "And you'd realise that if you'd known Benjamin the way I did. He wouldn't have hurt a fly. Never."

"He found out his fiancee was pregnant," Sigurdur Oli said. "They were going to be married. He was obviously madly in love with her. His future revolved around his love, the family he was going to start, his business, his position in society. He cracked up. Maybe he went too far. Her body was never recovered. She was supposed to have thrown herself into the sea. She disappeared. Maybe we've found her."

"You told Sigurdur Oli that Benjamin didn't know who got his fiancee pregnant," Erlendur said guardedly. He wondered whether they may have jumped the gun and he cursed the pathologist in Spain. Perhaps they should have saved this visit for later. Waited for confirmation.

"That's right," Elsa said. "He didn't know." "We've heard that Solveig's mother went to see him later and told him the story. When everything had blown over. After Solveig went missing." Elsa's expression changed to one of surprise. "I didn't know that," she said. "When was that?" "Later," Erlendur said. "I don't know exactly. Solveig kept quiet about the father of the child. For some reason, she kept quiet. Didn't tell Benjamin what happened. Broke off their engagement and wouldn't say who the father was. Possibly to protect her family. Her own father's good name."

"What do you mean, her father's good name?" "His nephew raped Solveig when she was visiting his family in Fljot."

Elsa slumped into her seat and instinctively put her hand to her mouth in shock. "I can't believe it," she sighed.

At the same time, at the other end of the city, Elinborg was telling Bara what had been found in the grave and that the most likely hypothesis was that it was the body of Solveig, Benjamin's fiancee. That Benjamin had probably buried her there. Elinborg stressed that all the police had to go on was that he was the last person to see her alive and a child had been found with the skeleton on the hill. All further analysis of the bones was still pending.

Bara listened to Elinborg's account without blinking. As usual, she was alone in her huge house, surrounded by wealth, and showed no reaction.

"Our father wanted her to have an abortion," she said. "Our mother wanted to take her to the countryside, let her give the baby away and come back as if nothing had happened, then marry Benjamin. My parents talked it over for ages, then called Solveig in to see them."

Bara stood up.

"Mother told me this later."

She went over to an imposing oak sideboard, opened a drawer and took out a small white handkerchief which she dabbed against her nose.

"They presented the two options to her. The third option was never discussed. Namely, having the baby and making it part of our family. Solveig tried to persuade them, but they refused to hear a word of it. Didn't want to know about it. Wanted to kill the baby or give it away. No alternatives."

"And Solveig?"

"I don't know," Bara said. "The poor girl, I don't know. She wanted the child, she wouldn't think of doing anything else. She was just a child herself. She was no more than a child."

Erlendur looked at Elsa.

"Could Benjamin have interpreted it as an act of betrayal?" he asked. "If Solveig refused to name the father of the child?"

"No one knows what passed between them at their last meeting," Elsa said. "Benjamin told my mother the main points, but it's impossible to know whether he mentioned every important detail. Was she really raped? My Lord!"

Elsa looked at Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli in turn.

"Benjamin may well have taken it as betrayal," she said in a low voice.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Erlendur asked her.

"Benjamin may well have thought she betrayed him," Elsa repeated. "But that doesn't mean he murdered her and buried her body on the hill."

"Because she kept quiet," Erlendur said.

"Yes, because she kept quiet," Elsa said. "Refused to name the father. He didn't know about the rape. I think that's quite certain."

"Could he have had an accomplice?" Erlendur asked. "Maybe got someone to do the job for him?"

"I don't follow."

"He rented his chalet in Grafarholt to a wife-beater and a thief. That tells us nothing in itself, but it's a fact all the same."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Wife-beater?"

"No, that's probably plenty for now. Maybe we're jumping to conclusions, Elsa. It's probably best to wait for the pathologist's report. Please excuse us if we. ."

"No, by no means, no, thank you for keeping me informed. I appreciate that."

"We'll let you know how the case proceeds," Sigurdur Oli said.

"And you have the lock of hair," Elsa said. "For identification."

Elinborg stood up. It had been a long day and she wanted to go home. She thanked Bara and apologised for disturbing her so late in the evening. Bara told her not to worry. She followed Elinborg to the door and closed it behind her. A moment later the bell rang and Bara opened it again.