Viktor Ingolfsson - The Flatey Enigma

Fridrik looked at his watch and stood up, but Dagbjartur remained seated. “How do you suppose Bjorn Snorri reacted when Gaston Lund showed up in Flatey?” he asked.

“To be honest, I haven’t the faintest idea,” Fridrik shrugged. “He might have treated him with disdain, he could do that, or maybe they were both delighted to have found each other again. I’d say that’s more likely.”

“Is it possible that Bjorn Snorri would have wanted to harm Lund in some way?”

Fridrik sat again at stared at Dagbjartur in bewilderment. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe by dispatching Lund to that island.”

“Bjorn Snorri had been too ill to travel over the past years,” said Fridrik.

“But his daughter?”

“Are you asking me if Johanna Thorvald could have harmed Professor Lund?”

“Yes.”

Fridrik suddenly rose to his feet. “Johanna was like a daughter to me when she was my son’s girlfriend. I won’t tolerate that kind of talk about her,” he said, walking toward the door.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, my wife is waiting,” he said.

Dagbjartur stood up and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you, and I won’t delay you any longer. But could you direct me to someone who knew them well?”

“Thorgerdur, my daughter, studied medicine at the same time as Johanna. They’ve been in regular contact ever since. Thorgerdur is a doctor at the National Hospital. Try to find her.”

Dagbjartur was on the way out, when he turned at the door and apologetically asked, “But what about the mother of Gaston Lund’s child? Any ideas on where I might find some information about her?”

Fridrik looked at him gravely. “Have you spoken to Arni Sakarias about the Flatey enigma?”

“Yes.”

“Did you ask him about Gaston Lund?”

“No.”

“Then you better.”

Question sixteen: Drowned in a deep bog. Second letter. He told her that when she got there, he would give her a wedding with all the honors. Gunnhild liked this arrangement and traveled to Denmark with a fine retinue. But when King Harald heard of her arrival, he sent slaves and guests to her. They grabbed Gunnhild with a lot of commotion and jeering and drowned the wretched queen in a terribly deep bog. This brought an end to the cruelty and crimes of Gunnhild, the king’s mother. The answer is “Gunnhild,” and the second letter is u.

After the Whitsunday mass, the congregation drank coffee on the slope below the Flatey church. The weather was still fine so everyone sat outside, but otherwise the community center would have been opened for the after-mass coffee. The guests from the various isles took out their picnics, and little clusters of different ages and genders soon formed. District Officer Grimur found himself grouped with the old farmers of the islands. The first topic for discussion was the Dane who had been found out on Ketilsey. One of the inner isle farmers was convinced that foreign pirates had left the man there. And maybe also a treasure. Had anyone looked into that? Grimur confirmed that their investigation had revealed that there was no treasure to be found on Ketilsey. It was then prophesized that the island would be haunted for generations to come and it would yield very little while the curse lasted. Most of them agreed and glanced at the Ystakot clan, Valdi and Jon Ferdinand, who had exclusive rights on that skerry. The two men kept to themselves, drinking coffee and nibbling on the pieces of cake that someone had handed them, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

Grimur told the farmers that a reporter from Reykjavik had arrived on Flatey and that he was here to dig up a story about it. The district officer asked the men to be careful about what they said to this guest. There was no need to implicate the locals on the islands in this unfortunate event. There had been enough damage done as it was.

The conversation then shifted to farming and forecasts. There was good news on the pricing front. The head of the co-op had heard that they could get eight hundred kronur for a good seal pup fur and at least fourteen hundred kronur for a kilo of cleaned eiderdown. This could be one of the islands’ best farming years if the weather stayed good.

Question seventeen: King Harald’s meal. Fifth letter. King Olaf walked out to the pond where the children were playing. Then the king called the boys over and asked Guttormur, “What would you most like to own?”

“Fields,” the boy answered.

“How vast would you want the fields to be?”

Guttormur answered, “I would want the ness to be completely sown every summer. There would be ten farms on it.”

Next the king asked Halfdan, “What would you most want to own?”

“Cows,” he answered.

“How many?” the king asked.

“So many that it would be tight for them to drink together if they were to stand all round the lake side by side.”

The king answered, “That would be a big herd. And what would you want, Harald?”

“Soldiers,” he answered.

“How many?”

“I’m not very good at counting,” he said, “but I think it would be good if there were enough of them to eat all of my brother Halfdan’s cows in one meal.”

The king laughed and said, “You are bringing up a king here, Mother!”

The answer is therefore “Halfdan’s cows,” and the fifth letter is d.

Dagbjartur spent the rest of Whitsunday tracking down Arni Sakarias. He wasn’t at home in Raudararstig, nor at the swimming pool or the diner in Austurbaer. “Try Cafe Hresso,” said the lifeguard at the municipal swimming pool, “or 11 Laugavegur.” It was in the cafe on Laugavegur that Dagbjartur finally found the author in the company of a group of good friends. Arni Sakarias was slightly tipsy and introduced the detective to his buddies.

“This good man here works for the detective division of the police force and is specialized in liaising with poets and writers. Salute him.”

Dagbjartur nodded to them and got straight to the point with Arni Sakarias: “Did you know Gaston Lund, and did you know that he was connected to a child in Iceland?”

“Those are big questions,” Arni Sakarias answered. “That can’t be answered on an empty stomach. Let’s just go to Hotel Borg and have some dinner, beef patties and fried eggs, courtesy of the police department.”

Dagbjartur wasn’t sure he’d be able to get a reimbursement on these bills but didn’t want to run the risk of insulting Arni Sakarias. After all, the man was under no obligation whatsoever to answer these questions, and it was therefore best to keep him happy. One cheap meal wouldn’t go to waste if he got some good information out of it in return.

Arni Sakarias wasn’t open to questions as they walked down Laugavegur, but instead launched into a lecture on contemporary poetry. It was not until he had received his payment in food at Hotel Borg that he finally came to the detective’s question:

“You’re asking about events that took place during the royal visit of June 1936, when King Christian the tenth came over. The king was still a bit wary after his previous visit for the celebration of the Althing in 1930. Everywhere he went, conversations seemed to veer toward the Icelandic sagas, as if he was supposed to know them inside out, and he never knew what answers to give. So this time he decided to bring along a Danish scholar who was an absolute expert in the field, Gaston Lund. His job was to follow the king every step of the way and answer on his behalf if the topic of the sagas cropped up. As soon as the Icelandic government got wind of this, they were dead scared that the Danish expert would wipe the floor with the Icelanders, so they called in an Icelandic expert of their own to follow the conversations and join in if the need arose. The person they appointed for the job was me. Already on the banks of the harbor, one could see that Lund had done his homework because the king delivered a short speech in Icelandic. The day after that, we went on this dreadful trip east to the waterfall of Gullfoss and Geysir and stayed in Laugarvatn. Gaston Lund and I were like two roosters in a cock fight, although as in most cock fights, most of the energy went into strutting about and flapping our wings, but there was little actual pecking. Then we started to relax a bit, and it all ended in a wonderful booze-up.”