Bella relaxed with a cigarette as they stood outside Café Kró, a little harbourside restaurant they had come across in their search for supper. Thóra stood next to her, which was against her natural instincts, but the weather was so good that being in a bad mood seemed impossible. She felt completely relaxed after the meal, and the sea breeze had perked her up. The air had grown colder in the evening, even though the sun was still in the sky as if nothing were more normal. Even Bella’s smoke, which drifted over Thóra’s face every now and then, could not ruin the beautiful evening. A small boat sailed out of the harbour, several seagulls following it from the jetty. Otherwise the wharf was calm, except for two men who were repairing the pilothouse on a small fishing boat tied to the pier just below where they stood. The repairs were proceeding at a leisurely pace since the men spent more time chatting than working, and Thóra admired their relaxed attitude. Perhaps it was the extreme beauty of the surroundings that had this effect on people. As Thóra watched the lively bird life around the steep sides of Heimaklettur Peak she could feel her stress dissolving, and she thought she could have sat there sipping her drink for the rest of the evening.
‘So, how many bodies were there?’said Bella, rudely interrupting her reverie.
‘In the basement?’ said Thóra, even though Bella could hardly have meant anything else.‘Four. Or more correctly, three and a quarter.One of the corpses was just a head. Haven’t you followed the story in the news?’ she asked, astounded.
‘No, I don’t read that rubbish.’ Bella put her cigarette in one corner of her mouth and exhaled a great cloud of smoke. She watched thoughtfully as it floated upwards, spread out and disappeared. ‘Who kills four people at once?’ she asked, frowning. ‘One I can understand, maybe two. But four is too many. Is it possible that this wasn’t murder?’
Thóra had to admit to herself that they were thinking along the same lines. ‘I haven’t got the results of the autopsy yet; maybe it isn’t finished. It could well be that three of them died by accident, or poisoning, or by some means other than human hand.’
Thóra breathed in the scent of the sea, which still overpowered the smell of her secretary’s cigarette.‘The head, on the other hand, is harder to explain. If the men weren’t murdered – what about this head? Who would decapitate a corpse, and why?’
Bella shrugged. ‘Maybe he was in an accident and the body was separated from the head. It does happen.’
‘But how did the head end up in the box? And the box, along with three bodies, down in Markus’s basement?’ Thóra was surprised to find that she was enjoying talking this through with Bella. She had no way of knowing where the case was heading, and she wondered how to make the most of her trip to the Islands. She might as well head back to Reykjavik if there was no useful information to be gained here.
Bella frowned, and Thóra was relieved to realize that it was a sign of deep thought rather than anything Thóra had said to insult her. ‘This woman who gave your client the box,’she said, taking a drag on her cigarette, ‘do you think she killed those people?’
‘No, I can’t see it,’replied Thóra. ‘She was a teenager, hardly capable of killing four men. Not alone, anyway.’ She leaned against the wall and basked in the mild evening sun. ‘I’ve got to find a way to meet her mother, because she’s the one most likely to know something about where the head came from – if not more. It’s rotten luck that her father’s dead. I imagine that he’s probably involved somehow. But whether Alda’s family is connected to the case or not, they must know something. Teenage girls are good at hiding all sorts of things from their parents, but I don’t see Alda strolling casually around town with a man’s head in a box. If nothing else, her mother could tell me who she spent time with after the disaster. Maybe she confessed to a friend, or friends, later on? Markus lost all contact with her after they came to the mainland, so he’s no use.’
‘Her mother still lives in the Islands, remember,’ said Bella, looking around as if she expected the woman to be living in one of the warehouses at the docks. ‘That old man today said so, anyway. You should phone her, or go and see her.’
‘She may be living here,’ said Thóra. ‘Still, I don’t think it’sright to visit her on this trip, in light of the circumstances.’
‘Isn’t it exactly the right time to do it?’ asked Bella, flicking her cigarette into a barrel a short distance away. ‘She’s sure to be vulnerable after losing her daughter, and ready to open up.’
Thóra shook her head. ‘No, that’s no use. If she’s in shock she might refuse to speak to me. I’ll ask Markus’s brother about Alda’s family tomorrow evening, and if he knows anything he can maybe tell me how I ought to proceed. Hopefully he’ll know how her mother is holding up.’
Bella didn’t seem to be listening to her. ‘Do you remember the cemetery we drove past?’ she asked suddenly. ‘With the arched gate?’
‘Yes,’ replied Thóra, wondering where Bella was going with this. Did she want to go and look around the graveyard?
‘Could the bodies be from there?’the other woman asked. ‘Maybe a relative or someone else had been trying to save the bodies from disappearing in the eruption? The cemetery was buried and dug up later. Maybe whoever disinterred the bodies wasn’t sure that would happen?’
Thóra looked at her secretary in surprise. ‘Digging up corpses just to put them in the basement of a house that was going to go the same way as the cemetery? I highly doubt it.’
Bella shrugged. ‘Maybe whoever did it regretted it, or didn’t have a chance to move the bodies again.’
Thóra wanted to put a stop to this idle speculation, but couldn’t think of any clever way, so she just said,‘Shouldn’t we get going? I’m happy to get an early night, so that we can get plenty done tomorrow.’
Bella looked at her watch, thenregarded Thóra quizzically. ‘Are you kidding? I haven’t gone to bed this early since I was three years old.’
Thóra’s cheeks reddened slightly. ‘I’m not necessarily talking about going to sleep right away. I need to phone my children and a few other people first.’
Bella shrugged again. ‘Suit yourself.’ She looked around. ‘I’m going to go for a wander and see if I can’t find a bar or two.’
Thóra thought this was a bad idea, but knew perfectly well that she had no say in how her employees spent their free time. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ she said with false cheer. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to visit the archaeologists overseeing the excavations, and then we should stop by the archive. And then you never know what might come up. In other words, we’ve got a busy day.’
‘Don’t worry about me,’said Bella, as she set off in the opposite direction from their hotel.‘I’m not the one who’s always late.’
Thóra couldn’t help letting Bella’s retort get under her skin. You could say what you liked about her secretary, but she always got to work on time. Thóra, in contrast, was usually late because it took so long to get herselfand the children ready in the mornings. Although the situation was far from ideal when she only had her own children at home, it was a sight worse when her grandson and future daughter-in-law were added to the mix. ‘You realize that you can’t count this pub crawl as a company expense,’ she called after the girl. ‘The accountant will refuse to pay it.’ No sooner were the words out than she regretted them deeply. Could she have thought of a more ridiculous comeback?
Bella did not turn around, but as she walked away she lifted one hand in the air and gave Thóra the finger.