She heaved a sigh. ‘I hope I can get something out of Magnus.’
‘Do you really think he’ll tell you anything?’
‘I don’t know. But I do know he’s one of the only people left alive who know what happened, although it’s clearly impossible to tell how much of it is still in his memory.’
‘If I’d murdered four people, I’d forget everything but that,’ said Bella. ‘I’d forget everything about work, everyone at the office, but never that.’
Thora smiled. ‘Hopefully you’re right,’ she said, crossing her fingers. ‘We’ll see.’
Magnus was staring fixedly at the compass Thora had brought with her. The old books lay in a little pile on a table next to him, but he’d showed no interest in them. His veiny hands gripped the arms of the easy chair tightly. ‘Why?’ he asked suddenly. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the compass, so it was unclear who should answer the question. Thora glanced sideways at Maria, who simply shrugged her shoulders. Thora placed her hand on Magnus’s grey paw and was startled at how cold and bony it was. ‘Aren’t you happy to have the compass back? I found it in the basement.’
The man jerked his head up and glowered at Thora. ‘Why?’
She didn’t know what to say. ‘As far as I knew, you regretted having left it behind during the eruption,’she said, avoiding his glare. ‘Isn’t that good?’
The old man looked down into his lap and shook his head, his expression melancholy. ‘You’ve grown old, Sigridur,’ he said. ‘You were just a little girl.’
‘Like Alda?’ asked Thora. She doubted the name Sigridur was significant, since Leifur had told her his father was confusing her with his sister.
‘Poor Alda,’ said Magnus, still shaking his head. ‘That was ugly.’
‘What was ugly?’ asked Thora. ‘I’ve forgotten what happened.’ As soon as she’d said it she realized it was a mistake. The man squinted at her and appeared to become confused. Maria came to the rescue. ‘Are you cold, Maggi dear?’ she said good-naturedly, and he calmed down at the sound of her voice. ‘I’ll fix your blanket,’ she said, standing up to pull it over his legs. ‘There now.’ She patted his knee. ‘Be good for Thora now. She’s helping your son, Markus.’
‘Markus loves Alda,’ said the old man, nodding happily. ‘She’s a good girl.’ Then his face darkened. ‘Ruined.’
‘Ruined?’ exclaimed Thora. She added, more calmly: ‘What happened to her? Did she hurt herself?’
‘Ruined,’ he repeated. ‘The sacrifice.’ He stared hard at the compass and frowned. ‘Disgusting. Take it away.’
Thora had to refrain from shaking the man by the shoulders as she put the compass away. Damn it, he had the information she needed. She wondered if it were possible to hypnotize an Alzheimer’s patient. ‘Alda is dead, Magnus,’ she said.‘If I’m going to help Markus, I need to know what happened to her.’
‘Markus,’ said Magnus, turning to look out of the window. ‘Markus loves Alda.’ He dropped his head again.
‘I know,’ said Thora, reaching for the roughly made purse Bella had found, full of coins that appeared to be gold. ‘You see what I’ve got here?’ she asked, showing him the purse. ‘The coins you were looking for.’ He tried to turn his head away, clearly reluctant to look at it. She opened the purse and showed him the contents. ‘Gold, Magnus,’ she said. ‘Gold coins.’ Suddenly he lashed out at the purse, making Thora lose her grip. The coins scattered everywhere. Several landed in his lap and he reacted as if they were made of burning lava, trembling all over, crying out and trying to shake them off.
Maria jumped to her feet and tried her best to calm him down. Together they managed to remove the coins. Magnus relaxed a little. ‘Blood,’ he said. ‘Blood money.’
‘Blood?’ asked Thora, knowing her time here was running out. ‘Did someone die, Magnus? Did four men die?’
He sat still and looked at her, his expression cruel. ‘They were evil men, Sigridur.’
‘Evil men,’ he said again, trying to stand. ‘The falcon is a beautiful bird,’ he added. ‘Not like the cuckoo.’ His face had softened and the dullness seemed to be returning to his eyes. ‘It doesn’t hatch its own eggs,’ he said. ‘Other birds do. Remember that.’
Thora promised she would. First a falcon, now a cuckoo. Perfect. Still, at least it seemed clear that Magnus had some connection to the old murders. One step forward, two steps back.
Chapter Thirty-two
Time was going by faster than Thora would have liked. As usual she was worried that she wouldn’t make it home in time to prepare dinner. Her stress was exacerbated by the conviction that each passing minute increased the likelihood of Markus’s custody period being prolonged by police request. She was in her office waiting for a call from Detective Stefan, who would inform her of their decision about tomorrow’s hearing. She should have had the call by now. She hoped the decision had been delayed because the police were still scrutinizing the evidence that had come to light since Markus was locked up, and had found something that implicated others besides him. Of course, it could be exactly the opposite scenario; the police couldn’t call her because they were too busy putting together all the evidence against Markus. The uncertainty made her uncomfortable, and Thora didn’t know how to occupy her time. She was reluctant to use the time for phone calls, in case Stefan called then didn’t have time to call back. She knew she was being silly, but she didn’t want to use her phone. So she sat restlessly at her computer. She knew she should be going over the countless details of the case, but she couldn’t concentrate on any of them. The minutes ticked by. To make matters worse, she hadn’t been able to make use of her time aboard the ferry from the Islands. Her mobile phone had cut out several miles from shore and didn’t regain a signal until just outside Thorlakshofn. So she had been unable to continue her quest to tie up this case’s innumerable loose ends. Instead, she’d been forced to listen to Bella talk about the guy she’d met the night before. If Thora hadn’t known Matthew would soon be on his way to Iceland, she would have thrown herself overboard from the shame of Bella having a better sex life than hers.
The familiar opening notes of ‘Happy Birthday’ rang out from her mobile, and Thora quickly answered. Soley had changed the ring tone on her birthday, and although she found it a bit cheesy she couldn’t bring herself to change it, since Soley was so pleased with it. Thora didn’t recognize the number and she crossed her fingers that it would be Stefan. It turned out to be Markus’s son, eager for an update. She ran through recent developments for him, and promised to get in touch as soon as she knew more. The boy sounded nervous and mumbled something about his father probably having to stay in prison. Thora repeated that she would have to let him know, and felt bad for disappointing the poor boy. Things weren’t going well for him, and she hoped for his sake that next time she called him it would be with good news.
Thora went online to check whether anything was being reported on the news websites. You never knew, perhaps the media would get the news before her. This turned out not to be the case. The only report she found stated briefly that it was still unclear whether an extension of Markus Magnusson’s custody period would be requested before it expired tomorrow. Thora gave up and decided to call Stefan, so that she could stop wondering when he would call her and get on with something else.
‘We’re going to request two more weeks of confinement based on his being party to the murders of the men in the basement,’ replied Stefan brusquely. ‘The decision will be made before two p.m. tomorrow.’
Thora stifled a sigh, not wanting to betray her disappointment. ‘But is he no longer a suspect in Alda’s death?’ she asked hopefully. Even that would be some progress.
‘Given the estate agent’s statement and the evidence that backs him up, not to
