Arnaldur Indriðason - Hypothermia

‘What did she say about me?’

‘Actually, it was about you and Magnús,’ Erlendur replied.

A long pause followed his words.

‘I suppose you’d better come round,’ the woman said at last. Her name was Sólveig and she was married with two grown-up children. ‘I’m home during the day all this week,’ she added.

When he visited her, Erlendur found Sólveig extremely wary and eager to get the matter out of the way as quickly as possible. She seemed in something of a state. They stood in her entrance hall; she did not invite him in.

‘I don’t know what I can tell you,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why you’ve come here. What new information are you talking about?’

‘It concerns you and Magnús.’

‘Yes, you told me that on the phone.’

‘And your affair.’

‘Did Kristín tell you about that?’

Erlendur nodded.

‘Magnús’s daughter recently committed suicide,’ he said.

‘So I heard.’

Sólveig fell silent. She was kind-looking, with a pretty face and tasteful clothes, and she lived in a small terraced house in the suburb of Fossvogur. She worked as a nurse and was on the evening shift this week.

‘Perhaps you ought to come in for a moment,’ she said at last and led the way into the sitting room. Erlendur sat down on the sofa without removing his coat.

‘I don’t know what I can tell you,’ she said, with a sigh. ‘In all these years no one’s ever asked what happened. Then the poor child resorts to this and you start asking questions that no one has ever asked before and no one ever should have asked.’

‘Perhaps that was the problem,’ Erlendur said. ‘María’s problem. Has that ever occurred to you?’

‘Has it occurred to me? What do you think? Leonóra took care of María. No one else was allowed near her.’

‘They went out in the boat together: Magnús, Leonóra and María.’

‘You’ve found out, then?’

‘Yes.’

‘All three of them were in the boat,’ Sólveig confirmed.

‘What happened?’

‘I’ve spent so much time thinking about the whole thing. My relationship with Magnús. We were going to tell Leonóra about it at Thingvellir. We were going to break it to her as gently as we could. Magnús wanted me to come along. But Leonóra and I were close friends and I couldn’t bring myself to. Maybe things would have turned out differently if I’d been there.’

Sólveig looked at Erlendur.

‘Of course, you think I’m completely despicable,’ she said.

‘I don’t think anything.’

‘Leonóra was always very bossy. Really overbearing. She completely dominated Magnús. Gave him hell if things didn’t go her way, even when other people were listening. Magnús turned to me. He was a good man. We started meeting in secret. I don’t know what happened but we fell in love. Maybe I felt sorry for him at first. We wanted to move in together, so we had to make Leonóra understand. I didn’t want to be involved in a clandestine affair, go behind her back, take part in some sort of conspiracy against her. I wanted things out in the open. I couldn’t stand… couldn’t stand the furtiveness. He wanted to delay telling her but I put pressure on him. We agreed that he would tell her the truth that weekend at Thingvellir.’

‘Didn’t Leonóra suspect anything?’

‘No. She was completely unsuspecting. Leonóra was like that. Trusting. She trusted people. I betrayed that trust. So did Magnús.’

‘Did you ever meet Leonóra after the accident?’

Sólveig closed her eyes.

‘Will you be any the better for knowing?’ she asked. ‘The case was investigated at the time. It was perfectly straightforward. No one has asked any questions since. If anyone should have done so it was me but I never did.’

‘Did you meet Leonóra?’

‘I did. Once. It was awful. Horrible. It was some time after Magnús’s funeral. I didn’t know if he had told her about us before he died and at the funeral I tried to pretend that nothing had happened. But I noticed immediately that Leonóra wouldn’t look at me. Wouldn’t speak to me. Pretended I didn’t exist. I knew then that Magnús had told her.’

‘Did she want to see you or…?’

‘Yes – she called and asked me to come and see her in Grafarvogur. She greeted me very coldly.’

Sólveig broke off. Erlendur waited patiently. He sensed her discomfort at reopening these old wounds.

‘Leonóra told me that María was at school and that she wanted me to know exactly what had happened at the lake. I told her I didn’t need to know anything but she laughed and said I wouldn’t escape so lightly. I didn’t know what she meant.’

‘Magnús told me about the two of you,’ Leonóra said. ‘He told me you were going to move in together and that he wanted to leave me.’

‘Leonóra,’ Sólveig said, ‘I-’

‘Shut up,’ Leonóra said, without raising her voice. ‘I’m going to tell you what happened. But there are two things you must understand. You must understand that I had to protect the girl and you must understand that it was your fault as well. Yours and Magnús’s. You brought this on us.’

Sólveig did not speak.

‘What were you thinking of?’ Leonóra asked.

‘I didn’t mean to hurt you,’ Sólveig said.

‘Hurt me? You have no idea what you’ve done.’

‘Magnús was unhappy,’ Sólveig said. ‘That’s why he turned to me. He was unhappy.’

‘That’s a lie. He wasn’t unhappy. You stole him from me – you lured him away.’

Sólveig was silent.

‘I don’t want to quarrel with you,’ she said at last, quietly.

‘No, what’s done is done,’ Leonóra said. ‘No one can change it now. But I don’t want to bear the burden alone. You’re responsible too. And so was Magnús. You both were.’

‘No one’s responsible for an accident like that. He fell overboard. It was an accident.’

Leonóra smiled a thin, unreadable smile. She looked to be in a strange state. The house was dark and cold and Leonóra didn’t seem herself. Sólveig wondered if she had been drinking or was on strong medication.

‘He didn’t fall in,’ Leonóra said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘He didn’t fall.’

‘But… I read it in the papers…’

‘Yes, that’s what it said in the papers. But it was a lie.’

‘A lie?’

‘For María’s sake.’

‘I don’t understand you.’

‘Why did you have to take him away from me? Why couldn’t you leave us alone?’

‘He came to me, Leonóra. What lie did you have to tell for María’s sake?’

‘Don’t you understand? We were with Magnús in the boat. María was with us.’

‘With you…? But…’

Sólveig stared at Leonóra.

‘Magnús was alone in the boat,’ she said. ‘It said so in all the news reports.’

‘It was a lie,’ Leonóra said. ‘My lie. I was with him and so was María.’

‘Why… why did you need to lie…? Why…?’

‘I’m telling you. Magnús didn’t fall off the boat.’

‘What, then?’

‘I pushed him,’ Leonóra said. ‘I pushed him and he lost his balance.’

A long time passed before Sólveig spoke again. Erlendur listened to her story in silence, sensing her distress at what had happened.

‘It was Leonóra who pushed Magnús so he fell in,’ she said. ‘They watched him drown. Magnús had told Leonóra about me. They’d quarrelled bitterly that morning. María didn’t know and asked them to come out in the boat with her. Magnús was really angry. They started quarrelling again. Then the engine suddenly broke down. They quarrelled even more violently. Then Magnús stood up to check on the engine. Leonóra shoved him away from her and it all happened in a flash… he went overboard.’