everything. However, their graves were never discovered, despite extensive searches. The majority of those lying dead around the village were women and children, suggesting that the men had gone out farther and farther to hunt as their prey became scarcer, and one after another had perished in the unforgiving wilderness. Then, when the women and children were left almost entirely alone, starvation set in. Stories of the ugly sight awakened dread and lived on in the memories of the natives, not least due to the photographs that were taken to document the horror. The natives’ explanation of events was completely different to the Danes’, in that the Inuits believed that something called a Tupilak had killed them all. A definition for this word was not provided, but Thora thought it might be a storm or something else related to violent weather. In addition, the book mentioned stories circulating among the natives about the spirits of people that roamed the area, hungry, and ate anyone they met. The one constant in the history of the region was fear of starvation, and when a new village arose on the same site, the effects of the old events were still being felt and the village was named Kaanneq, or
‘Well, now,’ muttered Thora, feeling somewhat depressed after what she had read. ‘Is there anywhere harder to survive than here?’
Bella shrugged and stood up. ‘Maybe in a burning desert. But at least you can get a bit of a suntan there.’ She took her plate and stood up from the table. ‘I just hope we get out of here as soon as possible.’
Thora was unable to agree with Bella out loud and further destroy her morale. It was better to roll up their sleeves and get to work – then they could go home all the faster. She closed the book and found herself face-to- face with a young Greenlander, staring at her from the cover. The man smiled sincerely at the photographer and deep laughter lines framed his slanted eyes. He was a splendid sight to behold, and from his expression the circumstances described in the book certainly didn’t seem to have diminished his happiness. She finished her coffee and listened to the wind growing stronger outside.
It was only a short distance to the office building, but Thora was glad when she shut the door behind her. Outside gusts had stirred up the snow, in the worst moments making it seem as if she and Bella were in a sandstorm. As they put on their coats the weather had deteriorated instantaneously. Naturally, the wind was against them, and Thora would have bet everything she owned that when she went back over to her sleeping quarters the wind would have completely changed direction and would again be blowing in her face. She had come to know the vagaries of the winds well, living on the peninsula of Seltjarnarnes just outside of Reykjavik. However, it had never been this cold there, and she had never needed to protect her face against stinging frost and biting horizontal snow.
It sounded like Matthew was alone in the office. Finnbogi, Fri?rikka, Alvar and Eyjolfur were probably still sleeping, or else had gone out either to try to find the men or check on the status of the project. Given the weather, Thora hoped this was not the case. She was not happy about the thought of having to form an ad hoc rescue team with Matthew and Bella. She took off her shoes and hung up her coat. ‘Matthew,’ she called into the corridor. ‘We’re here.’
‘Who’s with you?’ he called back from one of the office’s rooms.
‘Bella,’ replied Thora, following his voice. What a funny question, she thought. ‘Are you naked or something?’ She smiled.
‘Do you know where the doctor is?’ called Matthew, ignoring her joke. He spoke unnecessarily loudly, given that Thora was standing in the doorway.
‘No.’ Thora leaned against the doorpost. ‘He’s either sleeping or he’s gone out. But you would have noticed it if he had driven away. He could hardly have walked away.’ Matthew said nothing and continued to stoop over one of the desk drawers. ‘Why are you asking about him? Did you find something?’
Matthew straightened up. ‘I’m no expert on bones but these are clearly from a person,’ he said, pointing down into the deep drawer. ‘Whether this is connected in any way with the two men who disappeared I couldn’t say, but hopefully the doctor can tell us.’
Thora drew closer out of curiosity. ‘I see,’ she said when she saw what was in the drawer, and turned quickly from the desk. ‘I guess we’d better wake him.’
Chapter 7
‘The bones aren’t from either man.’ The doctor took off his glasses and straightened up. He had examined the skull as Thora and Matthew watched. ‘In fact, they’re probably female.’
‘Why do you say that?’ asked Thora. There didn’t seem much that looked female about the skull and jawbone. ‘Are our heads smaller?’
‘Yes, but without knowing what race this individual belonged to it’s impossible to determine anything from its size.’ He put his glasses back on and showed them the jaw. ‘I base my opinion on the fact that women’s jawbones are much rounder than men’s. If this had been a male, the front element, or the chin, would be squarer than this.’ He put down the jawbone and picked up the skull, running his index finger above the eye sockets. The skull creaked slightly when his latex gloves touched it. ‘The brow bone is not protrusive enough for it to be a man’s. It’s more pointed, so more likely to have been a woman.’ He put the skull down carefully and took his glasses back off. ‘Of course, bones are not my speciality; I’m simply recalling what I learned at medical school. An expert might come to an entirely different conclusion.’ He smiled and added: ‘Although I doubt it. I was first in my graduating class.’
That was good enough for Thora. Until more evidence proved otherwise, she would consider this skull to have belonged to a female. ‘Then aren’t these the bones of the woman who disappeared from the camp? The geologist?’
The doctor looked surprised, so it was obviously the first he’d heard of her. ‘Well, I don’t know about that. Who was she, and when did she disappear?’
‘She was here working for Berg Technology,’ said Thora. ‘It’s thought that she wandered off, got lost and died in a storm. That was about six months ago, and since she was never found it just occurred to me that these bones might be hers.’ Thora stared into the lifeless shadows of the eye sockets. ‘Of course, now I’m wondering how her skull made its way into one of her co-worker’s desk drawers.’
‘You don’t have to wonder about that,’ said the doctor confidently. ‘This skull can’t belong to someone who died of exposure six months ago. Under these conditions the bones wouldn’t have been stripped clean in such a short time, and the woman’s co-workers would hardly have gone to the trouble of cleaning the skull. That would be pretty cold. I also think the bones would be whiter if they were from someone who died recently.’
‘Where did the skull come from, then?’ asked Matthew. He was regarding the remains warily, and Thora noticed that his lips were pursed.
‘Well, I think it could have come from a grave, or from open ground. The surface is covered with little scratches and impurities that couldn’t have occurred while the individual was alive. They could be marks made by the teeth or claws of small animals.’ The doctor shrugged. ‘I don’t know whether whoever left it here found the skull outside somewhere or simply bought it on the Internet. As unbelievable as it sounds, there’s a market for such things. The first theory is somewhat negated by the fact that the jawbone is here as well. If the corpse had been lying somewhere out in the wilderness, large animals would have got to it and scattered the bones. I would guess that the skull was either exhumed or purchased online.’
‘You mean they might have accidentally disturbed someone’s grave?’ asked Thora sceptically. ‘I highly doubt there was a cemetery in this area, and if there was it would have been a very long way from the beaten path. There was nothing here before the project started, and the documents that I’ve looked at say nothing about the company doing anything in the vicinity of the village, where you’d expect there to be a graveyard. Who would want to be buried here, far from everything?’
‘In these parts people aren’t actually buried in the ground, even in the graveyards – there’s no soil.’ The doctor crossed his arms and nodded at the skull. ‘Here they bury their dead under cairns; I don’t know how they prepare the bodies, although I imagine they’re either wrapped in something or placed in coffins. If they’d been wrapped in cloth, the bones would show more damage, which means that this skull probably wasn’t directly
