finishing replying to e-mails that had arrived the previous day, most of which she had passed on to Thor. Bragi was all smiles when he greeted her that morning. He was still toying with the idea that this German job would be their passport to the worlda source of endless business for their practice. Thora made no attempt to bring him back to earth, relieved at being able to concentrate on the murder riddle without being torn between petty jobs as well.
She e-mailed Harald's mysterious friend Mal with a brief account of Harald's death and how she and Matthew were involved in the case on the Guntliebs' behalf. She ended her message with a polite request for Mal to contact her, since he might have crucial information. When Bella phoned to announce Matthew's arrival, Thora said she needed five minutes to finish and asked the girl to tell him to take a seat and wait in the reception area. She was determined to clear her desk so that she would not have to return to the office in the afternoon. She managed to finish in just over five minutes and switched off her computer, pleased with her morning's achievements. She wondered if she should start coming in earlier. Although it would be tough at home, this hour was exceptionally productive, free from the harassment of the telephone before normal office opening hours.
She took a small tape recorder from one of her desk drawers to record their interview with Hugi. While she was checking if the batteries worked her thoughts returned to her son, who had been terribly down in the dumps that morning. Whatever the problem was, it had not gone away overnight as Thora had hoped. The boy had sat there vacantly with no appetite and she managed to drag only a few words out of him. Soley, on the other hand, talked nonstop as she always did in the mornings, so Thora had no time alone with her son. She decided to probe the matter calmly that evening after Soley had gone to bed. Then she drove these thoughts out of her mind, put the recorder in her handbag, and left the office.
Thora was taken aback when she entered reception. Matthew was sitting on the edge of Bella's desk talking excitedly to the secretary, who glowed like the midday sun. They did not even notice Thora's presence and she had to clear her throat to get their attention.
Matthew looked around. 'Oh, you, I was hoping you'd be busy a bit longer.' He smiled at Thora and gave her a wink.
Thora could hardly take her eyes off Bella's face, which had been transformed by simply smiling. She looked almost pretty. 'Well, shouldn't we get a move on?' Thora said, fetching her coat. 'Nice to see you so cheerful, Bella,' she added, beaming at the secretary.
Bella's smile vanished instantly. Matthew's charm offensive clearly benefited him alone. 'When are you coming back?' she asked grumpily.
Thora tried not to sound disappointed at being cut out. 'I don't expect to be back today but I'll phone if anything changes.'
'Right, whatever,' Bella said huffily, her tone implying that Thora made a habit of not letting people know her whereabouts, which was absurd.
'You heard what I said.' Thora could not let it pass without comment although she immediately regretted it. 'Come on, Matthew.'
'Yes, madam,' Matthew said with a smile at Bella. Much to Thora's chagrin, it was reciprocated.
When they got into the car Thora fastened her belt and turned to Matthew. 'Do you know how to drive on icy roads?'
'We'll find out,' said Matthew as they left the parking spot. Seeing Thora's expression he added: 'Don't worry, I'm a good driver.'
'Just don't slam on the brakes if the car goes into a skid,' Thora said, by no means convinced that Matthew was aware of this.
'Do you want to drive?'
'No, thanks,' she answered. 'I can't handle that no-brakes rule, if I start to skid I instinctively put my foot downagainst my better judgment. I'm very limited when it comes to driving.'
They headed straight out of the city and were up on the moor when Thora's curiosity about Matthew's conversation with Bella finally got the best of her. 'What were you two talking about?'
'Us two?' Matthew repeated, all innocence.
'Yes, you and Bella, my secretary. She's normally such a sourpuss.'
'Oh, her. We were talking about horses. I'd like to try horse riding while I'm here; you hear so much about Icelandic horses. She was giving me some tips.'
'What does she know about horses?' Thora was flabbergasted.
'She's a horse lover, didn't you know?'
'No, actually I didn't.' She could only pity the horse that had to bear Bella's weight. 'What kind of horses does she have? Cart horses?'
Matthew took his eyes off the road and looked at Thora. 'Are you jealous?' he asked, smirking.
'Are you drunk?' she fired back.
They drove in silence across the lava field toward the mountain pass. Thora admired the landscape through the car windowperhaps few people would agree with her, but she thought this was one of the most beautiful places in Iceland, especially in summer when the moss blazed green, its soft outlines in total contrast with the rough and jagged lava. Now the land was covered with snow and seemed two-dimensional. It lacked the majesty of summer. Still, a calmness reigned that appealed to Thora. She broke the silence. 'Don't you think the scenery's beautiful?'
Matthew flicked his eyes off the road to admire the surroundings. There was hardly any traffic. 'Well.' He smiled at her as if declaring a truce. 'It is different, I'll give it that much, but 'bleak' is the word that springs to mind.' He pointed at two thick pillars of smoke that stretched up into the sky ahead of them. 'What's that?' he asked. 'An eruption?'
'Oh, that's steam from boreholes,' Thora replied. 'Up ahead there's a geothermal power plant, which produces electricity from steam piped from underground. It also supplies hot water to heat houses in Reykjavik.'
Matthew nodded, impressed. 'Lucky you, no pollution.'
'Yup,' said Thora. 'Clean air, clean water. Not bad.'
'Your offices could actually be cleaner, as long as we're on the subject of hygiene,' said Matthew.
'Oh, please,' snapped Thora. 'They're clean enough. We're lawyers, not surgeons.' She turned to look at Matthew. 'We don't exactly make a good team,' she said, referring to their repeated skirmishes. 'Maybe we should change tactics.'
He smiled at her again. 'You think so? I'm delighted. You're much more fun than my normal company at work. All the old men and the few women I deal with are so poker-faced they'd fall apart if they took off their frowns.'
Now it was Thora's turn to smile. 'Actually, you're not half as bad as Bella. I'll give you that.' She paused for a while. 'Tell me one thing. In the folder was a German newspaper clipping about a young man who died performing that erotic asphyxiation stuff. What was that included for?'
'Ahhh.' Matthew drew out the exclamation. 'That bloody thing. One of the people in the article was a good friend of Harald's. They met at university in Munich and must have been the same kind of searching souls, so they made a good pair in all the outrageous stunts they got up to. I don't know which of them introduced the other to that peculiar practice but Harald swore it was his friend who started. Harald was present when the man died, so he ended up being interrogated and got into a nasty mess. It's a shameful thing to say, but I think he bought his way out of the situationyou noticed the large bank withdrawal I marked from then?' Thora said she had. 'I included it because Harald was strangled. It may be important. Who knowspossibly he met the same death as his friend, although it seems very doubtful.'
They parked in the lot outside the fence of Litla-Hraun prison and walked over to the visitors' gate. A warden showed them into a small lounge on the second floor. 'We thought you could stay in here; you should be quite comfortable, it's much nicer than the interrogation room,' he said. 'Hugi's calm and shouldn't cause any trouble. He'll be here any minute.'
'Thank you, that's fine,' Thora said, and walked inside. She perched herself on the edge of a brown sofa and Matthew sat down close by her side. She was surprised by his choice of seat, because there were plenty of chairs.
He looked at her. 'If Hugi sits facing us it's better for us to sit like this. I want to look him straight in the face.'
