sat or lay flat on the floor in jeans, his or her legs splayed in either direction. Thora had the feeling that it was a man, without being able to explain why, since it was impossible to determine the size of the feet or shoes.
In the three minutes and twenty-two seconds that the video played, the legs jerked weirdly four times. Just before each time a whistling sound momentarily rose above the buzzing, ending with a muffled thud. Then the legs would jerk, and a dark liquid sprayed across the middle of the frame. Over the years Thora had found herself forced to watch numerous horror films with her son Gylfi, which is probably why she imagined the worst possible scenario. To her it seemed as if a body were being dismembered, or someone was being killed with an axe or a heavy club. But it couldn’t be the latter, since there was no screaming or any other sound of anguish. There was only the whistling, a thump – and what sounded like the strange crooning of a child. Thora could distinguish a melody, but could make nothing of the words. Either the child was babbling nonsense or its language was totally alien to her. She reached for her phone and rang Bragi’s extension. ‘Come here for a second,’ she said, squinting as she watched the video for the third time. ‘I need to get your opinion on something.’ She stopped the video and leaned back in her chair, thinking it over. It had clearly been a mistake to say that she would go along, even though she could always change her mind. She looked askance at the paperwork on her desk and glanced at the documents for the name-change case at the top of a thick stack of other papers. She looked back at the computer screen. Judging from the video, this Greenlandic case would certainly be different.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Bragi curiously as he appeared in the doorway. He was a large man with a teddy bear-ish manner who wore his age well. He was wearing a dark suit with a tie, since he was one of the generation of lawyers who thought it brought shame to the profession to dress in comfortable clothes. His orthodoxy, however, was not strong enough to prevent him from loosening the knot of his tie and leaving the top button of his shirt undone, which slightly diminished his respectability.
‘Take a look at this,’ said Thora, pointing to the screen. ‘And tell me what you think is going on there.’ She started the video and pushed the desk chair aside to allow him to come closer for a better view. Bragi enjoyed anything strange, so this should be right up his alley. She waited until it was over and the peculiar chanting had stopped. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘let’s hear it.’
Bragi’s eyes flashed. ‘If this is related to a divorce, then I have dibs on the case, as the kids say.’ He fumbled for the mouse to replay the video. ‘This is great.’
Thora interrupted him and told him the basics about Matthew’s offer and the origin of the video. She watched his smile fade as he realized this probably had nothing to do with a marriage at death’s door. ‘But what do you think this is?’ she asked.
‘Best case scenario, assault. Worst, murder,’ replied Bragi, making no attempt to hide his disappointment that this wasn’t a divorce case.
‘That’s what I thought,’ said Thora, exhaling. ‘I don’t know, maybe I should pull out of this one. It’s more than a little bit strange, and much more serious than a loss of insurance money.’
‘Well, that depends on how high the insurance is,’ said Bragi. ‘There are tables showing individuals’ monetary worth, so if the poor fellow has been called from this life, we could certainly set the nominal value placed on loss of life against the amount of insurance lost, and measure which is considered more severe.’ He thought for a moment and then added: ‘We would certainly need additional information, like gender, age and education, to make more precise calculations.’
Thora grimaced. ‘I know that,’ she said, irritated at Bragi’s bad taste. ‘I’m mainly wondering now whether it would be safe for me to make this trip. What if the video was shot at the camp?’
‘I wouldn’t read too much into it,’ said Bragi, patting her shoulder. ‘This could have been anything, and shot anywhere. Even at a fitness centre.’
‘I doubt many people wear woolly socks at the gym,’ said Thora. ‘And what kind of exercise do you call that?’
‘God only knows,’ said Bragi. ‘From what I know, all sorts of things go on at those places. I have a divorce case that all started at a fitness centre. The husband became obsessed with his body and completely forgot about his wife and children. It wouldn’t surprise me if this loser put up with that treatment in the hope of increasing his muscle quantity.’
‘Muscle mass,’ corrected Thora, without thinking.
‘That’s what I mean,’ said Bragi. He looked Thora in the eye. ‘I’m getting mixed up with all these digressions. The main point of all this is that for us it opens a door to the banks. Up until now they’ve had their own lawyers, or looked to the big firms. This could be the start of some excellent business opportunities for us. Not to mention the changes that you’re longing for so much.’
Thora nodded thoughtfully. Naturally, this could be of advantage to the firm and the bank could possibly become a great source of income for them in the future, but she thought it more probable that the bank had simply opted out of the Greenland trip and that this would be a one-off. When it came to other cases that could be handled at a normal pace, there would be no reason for the bank to seek their assistance. On the other hand, clouds had been gathering over the nation’s economy, and even though Thora didn’t follow the financial sector that closely she hadn’t missed hearing about the attacks of foreign hedge funds on the Icelandic krona and the dubious position of various large Icelandic enterprises. Concepts no one had understood, much less used, a month ago were now on everyone’s lips, most noticeably terms like ‘short selling’ and ‘cross-ownership’. Thora suspected that her eight-year-old daughter could explain these concepts now. This trend also suggested strongly that more hardship lay ahead, which often meant increased work for lawyers, particularly in debt collection. No matter how dismal she found collecting, it was more than likely that they would happily accept such cases if the economy froze. Chances were that this video was just some nonsense from the Internet, completely irrelevant to the employees of Berg Technology. ‘I’ll think about it,’ said Thora. ‘It’s best if I look into this a little further, and if this video turns out to be showing what we both think it might, then this is definitely out of my sphere. We’d need to call the police.’
‘The Greenlandic police?’ said Bragi. ‘You might as well ask your neighbourhood sports’ association to undertake research on fundraising.’
‘What do you mean?’ Thora exclaimed. ‘Is something wrong with them?’ She interrupted herself. ‘And anyway, what would you know about the police, or anything else in Greenland? You’ve never even been there.’
‘No, maybe not, but everyone knows the situation there is absolutely dreadful. The police aren’t immune to it, no more than anyone.’
‘Dreadful’ was a word Thora’s mother used frequently when she was fretting over something, and Thora couldn’t help but smile. ‘In any case the police here in Iceland need to be informed about this. Then they can put themselves in touch with their colleagues over in that dreadful Greenland.’
Suddenly Bragi’s eyes widened. ‘Listen,’ he said heartily, ‘you should take Bella with you! She’ll look after you, and besides, she’s completely expendable for that short amount of time. There are a lot of different traditions and customs in Greenland and I’m sure it will be good to have her along under those circumstances.’
Bella was more likely to trip Thora up straight into the jaws of a polar bear than come to her rescue. ‘Matthew will be there, so I’m sure I’ll be safe. I don’t need her,’ said Thora, grinning. Then she hurriedly added: ‘If in fact I go.’
‘Yes, my dear, you should go, and it won’t do you any harm to take Bella along,’ said Bragi, clearly enthralled with his own idea. ‘It would even help me out if she weren’t here for the next few days, since I have to take care of so many cases. It would be a great relief to be free of her.’
‘There’s no room for Bella on the plane,’ Thora lied. ‘Just do what you were thinking the other day, and put up a partition so you don’t have to see or hear her.’ She stood up. ‘I’m going to go and talk to the head of the bank about this,’ she said, to put an end to the conversation about Bella. ‘I’ll make my final decision afterwards.’
‘And?’ asked Matthew curiously as he followed her out of the bank. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I’m inclined to take the job. But still… oh, I don’t know,’ replied Thora. The head of the bank had turned out to have several years, if not decades, to go before he could live up to his job title. He was in fact a slender young man who smelled so strongly of aftershave that it had taken all Thora’s willpower not to pinch her nose shut as they spoke. She suspected the overapplication was deliberate; his palms were sweaty and he appeared nervous. It was easy to read between the lines and guess that his future at the bank hung on the same thread as the insurance. If the bank had to pay the insurance, he would be handed his marching orders. It seemed there was much more to this case than just the insurance money; there were great expectations for the mine in Greenland, even though there hadn’t been much public discussion about it. It was hoped that it would be serviced from
