began, so much as anything he may have told you about the rescue operation.’ Thora could see from the woman’s face that she didn’t really understand, so she continued, ‘The bodies showed signs of having been outside after the eruption started, later than the first night. So I wondered whether someone else could have brought the bodies to the basement without Magnus knowing. Maybe someone who helped him clear out the house, and therefore knew when it was safe to bring them in.’
‘I see,’ said Maria. ‘He mostly talked about how he evacuated residents to the mainland on his ship. I don’t remember how long he said he’d been awake at one point, but he talked a lot about it.’ She smiled. ‘Fifty, sixty hours, something like that. He was very proud of it. But that may have been a slight exaggeration on his part.’ She patted her hair before continuing.‘He didn’t say much about anything that happened while he was trying to salvage the household; he said he’d got out most of what mattered but was still worried about things that he’d forgotten to take: old books he’d inherited from his father, a compass, some coins and other things that it’s hard to imagine him missing. He could grumble to himself about this for hours at a time, but those things had been in a storeroom, and so they were lost.’
‘Was the storeroom in the basement?’ asked Thora. If Magnus never went down to the basement, someone could have put the bodies there at any point after the eruption.‘One would have expected him to have taken these things from there, since they were dear to him.’
Maria shrugged. ‘I have no idea where the storeroom is,’ she said. ‘It could be in the basement, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Maggi still might have gone down there, even if he didn’t manage to find everything. It would be impossible for me to remember what was in our storeroom if I had to remove the things I cared about most. None of the objects he mentioned was particularly large, so he could easily have gone down there without finding them.’
‘But he’s never spoken about the basement anxiously, or in any way other than his usual tone?’ asked Thora.
Maria snapped her fingers. ‘Yes, now I remember,’ she said triumphantly. ‘He did mention the basement in connection with the eruption, but not in the way you described. It was before he got ill so it wasn’t that bizarre, but if it’s true then he certainly went down there.’ Maria drummed her high heels on the floor as she thought back. ‘Let’s see… he said he was glad he hadn’t taken all the family’s possessions down into the basement as he’d first planned, and had even started to do. He was smiling when he said it, because he was laughing at himself for having thought the basement would be safe. So he did go down there – is that bad?’
‘No, not really,’ said Thora, who didn’t know whether this meant anything. So Magnus had gone down but probably only briefly, as he had missed things he wanted to salvage. Was that because he knew about the bodies and couldn’t bear to stay there very long, or because he thought there was nothing of interest down there? ‘Do you think it would make him happy to get his hands on those items he was looking for?’ asked Thora.
‘Yes, if it could happen soon,’replied Maria. ‘And if we managed to give them to him when he was in a good mood.’ Her eyes clouded and she let her hands fall into her lap. ‘Otherwise, I don’t know.’
Thora said nothing, thinking things over. The basement of the house hadn’t been emptied yet. If she and Bella went there and found these items, it was entirely possible they would help clear the old man’s head when he held them in his hands. Since he seemed to connect them to the eruption, there was a faint chance he would tell Thora something useful as a result. If they got on the case that evening, they could drop by again in the morning, before catching the boat home. Thora adjusted her little notebook on her knees and readied her pen. ‘What was it again that he was looking for?’ She wrote the things down and stood up to leave.
‘I have some papers for you, from Leifur,’ said Maria as they left the room. ‘I’m to tell you that he got them from the archaeologist.’ She grabbed a large pile of documents and handed them to Thora. ‘I’m also supposed to tell you that no one from the excavation team was aware of Alda having contacted them to try to prevent the house from being dug up.’Thora took the stack and saw that it was the log of everything found in the houses. It would take a while to go through it.
When Thora left Maria she realized that she hadn’t learned much of interest except that Magnus had sailed overnight to the mainland with refugees, returned immediately the next day and started to salvage what he could. First he had focused on his own house. In doing so he had had the help of several neighbours, who he helped in return, but unfortunately Maria hadn’t known whether this included Dadi from next door. Then Magnus had joined a group of men who went all over Heimaey performing salvage operations, but Maria didn’t know any of their names. After a month or so Magnus had started fishing again, by which time his house was completely buried. Over the following months he’d worked as hard as he could to keep his ship.
Thora’s phone rang, and she answered eagerly when she saw the number of the estate agent Markus said he’d spoken to on his way east. She had talked to him briefly before she’d visited Maria, but he’d been busy and had promised to ring as soon as his work day was finished, which was usually early on Saturdays. That was clearly not the case today, since it was nearly six o’clock. Thora got straight to the point after saying hello.
‘Okay,’ said the youngish voice at the other end of the phone, when she had finished explaining what she needed to know. ‘I understand.’
What did he understand? Icelandic?Thora tried not to let her irritation show, although she had spent longer than was healthy on the phone today. ‘So, did you have this phone conversation with Markus?’ she asked. ‘It matters a great deal that you tell the truth, and that you tell the story correctly. You won’t do Markus any favours by making something up, if he’s remembered this wrong. You also need to let me know what phone you called him from, so the police can verify it.’
‘Ummm,’ muttered the man.‘Yes, I called him. Wait a minute,’ he said, and Thora heard a rustling of papers. ‘It’s here somewhere,’ came the voice over the line, and then: ‘Ah. Here it is.’
‘Here what is?’ asked Thora.
‘I was looking for the offer we discussed. It expired at eight o’clock on the eighth of July, so that fits perfectly. I called him when it became clear that the sellers wouldn’t accept it. That’s not strange, because it was quite low. Markus didn’t particularly like the apartment, although I understand that his boy was excited about it.’
‘So you called him,’ said Thora, trying to direct the man back to what mattered. ‘You called him, on his mobile?’
‘Yes,’ said the agent.‘That’s the only number I have for him, I think.’
‘And you can confirm that he was the one you spoke to?’ she persevered.
‘Not someone else using his phone?’
‘Yes, I spoke to him. Absolutely,’ said the man resolutely. ‘We talked a bit about what would happen next, but he was driving, so he couldn’t talk for very long.’
Thora looked up at the sky, thrilled. He could not only confirm that Markus had had his phone, but also that he had been driving. ‘And what number did you call from?’ she asked.
‘My mobile,’ the agent replied.‘It was after work and I had come home. I have an unlisted number so it wouldn’t have shown up on Markus’s screen, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘That’s great,’ said Thora. She explained that he would have to confirm this with the police, and asked him to keep the offer paperwork somewhere safe, in case there was any need for it.
‘Do you know if Markus is still thinking of buying an apartment?’ asked the young man, sounding anxious.‘We weren’t able to close a deal that evening. I actually have a lot of new property for sale, damn good places, actually. He wouldn’t want to miss this opportunity. I know things are hard for him at the moment and I’ll try to keep things open for him, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold off other buyers.’
Thora smiled to herself.‘I’m pretty sure Markus has other things on his mind at the moment, but I expect he’ll be thinking about it again soon. You can try to reach him by phone after the weekend. Hopefully all this will be over by then.’
After saying goodbye she called Stefan, rather pleased with herself. The only
