‘From unrequited love?’
‘What she says is true. Halldora was honest in what she did. I wasn’t.’
Erlendur poured two cups of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table.
‘ “The greatest pain is to love, but love in vain,” ’ Valgerdur quoted.
Erlendur raised his eyes to her.
‘Yes, I suppose that’s true,’ he said, then changed the subject. ‘I’m investigating another relationship and I don’t really know what to do about it. Something that happened years ago. A woman called Solveig started having an affair with her best friend’s husband. The relationship ended in disaster.’
‘Dare I ask what happened?’
‘I don’t know if we’ll ever uncover the full story,’ Erlendur said.
‘I’m sorry – of course you can’t discuss it with every Tom, Dick and Harry.’
‘No, it’s all right. The man died; drowned in Lake Thingvallavatn. The question is how far his wife was implicated in his death. And to what extent their little daughter blamed herself.’
‘Oh?’
‘It might have been a great deal,’ Erlendur continued. ‘The little girl got mixed up in her parents’ quarrel.’
‘Do you have to do anything about it?’ Valgerdur asked.
‘I don’t think it’ll achieve anything.’
Erlendur fell silent.
‘What about all your leave, don’t you want to do something with that?’ Valgerdur asked.
‘I should try and use it.’
‘What have you got in mind?’
‘I could try to lose myself for a few days.’
‘Lose yourself?’ Valgerdur asked. ‘I was thinking maybe the Canary Islands or something like that.’
‘Mm, I’ve no experience of that sort of thing.’
‘What? You mean you’ve never left Iceland? Never been abroad?’
‘No.’
‘Don’t you want to go?’
‘Not particularly.’
‘The Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Empire State Building, the Vatican, the pyramids…?’
‘I’ve sometimes felt a curiosity to see the cathedral in Cologne.’
‘Why don’t you go, then?’
‘My interest doesn’t amount to any more than that.’
‘What do you mean when you talk about losing yourself?’
‘I want to go out east,’ Erlendur said. ‘Vanish for a few days. It’s something I do from time to time. Mount Hardskafi…’
‘Yes?’
‘That’s my Eiffel Tower.’
Karolina did not seem surprised to see Erlendur on her doorstep in Kopavogur again and she invited him in straight away. He had been keeping her under casual observation for several days and had established that she lived a fairly monotonous existence, going to work at nine and coming home around six, stopping off on the way at the local corner shop to buy her supper. Her evenings were spent at home, watching television or reading. One evening a woman friend came round. Karolina drew the curtains. Erlendur sat tight in his car and saw the woman leave shortly before midnight. She walked down the road in her long red coat and disappeared round the corner.
‘Still snooping for information about Baldvin’s wife?’ Karolina asked bluntly as she showed Erlendur into the sitting room. The question was posed without any apparent interest in an answer. Karolina seemed determined to behave as if she wasn’t unnerved by receiving two visits in short succession from the police. Erlendur couldn’t tell if she was acting.
‘Have you and Baldvin been talking?’ he asked.
‘Of course. We find it funny. Are you seriously trying to suggest that we did something to Maria?’
Again the question was posed as if the answer hardly mattered, as if Erlendur’s believing such a thing was too bizarre to be taken seriously.
‘Would it be absurd to think that?’
‘Ludicrous,’ Karolina confirmed.
‘There’s money at stake,’ Erlendur pointed out, his eyes wandering around the sitting room.
‘Are you seriously investigating this as a murder?’
‘Have you ever wondered about life after death?’ Erlendur asked, taking a seat.
‘No – why?’
‘Maria did,’ he said. ‘Almost all the time. You could say she didn’t think about anything else in the weeks before she died. She tried to find answers by going to mediums. Does that sound familiar at all?’
‘I know what a medium is,’ Karolina said.
‘We know about one she visited. His name’s Andersen. He gave her a recording to take home with her. We know about another medium she went to see, too; a woman I haven’t been able to trace yet. She’s called – or calls herself – Magdalena. Ring any bells?’
‘No.’
‘I’d quite like to meet her,’ Erlendur said.
‘I’ve never been to a medium in my life,’ Karolina said.
Erlendur gave her a long look, wondering if he should disclose what he thought had happened instead of continuing to pussyfoot around the subject. He had a theory but couldn’t prove it. He had gone back and forth over the possibilities without reaching any conclusion. He knew it was time to take action, set the case in motion, but had been dithering because he had so little to go on, not much more than suspicions, based on frail foundations that would inevitably be easy to deny. There was a possibility that he might be able to dig up some evidence, given time, but he was fed up with the whole case and wanted to finish it so that he could turn to other things.
‘Have you ever played a medium?’ he asked.
‘You mean on stage? No, I haven’t,’ Karolina replied.
‘And you say that you don’t know a medium who goes by the name of Magdalena?’
‘No.’
‘The same name as the character you played on stage?’
‘No, I don’t know any Magdalena.’
‘I had my people check up on it,’ Erlendur said. ‘There is no medium with that name in the whole Reykjavik area.’
‘Why don’t you just say what you’re going to say?’
Erlendur smiled.
‘Maybe I should.’
‘Please do.’
‘I’ll tell you what I think happened,’ Erlendur said. ‘I think you and Baldvin pushed Maria into suicide.’
‘Oh?’
‘She was in a terrible state after her mother died. Maria had watched Leonora fighting the cancer for two years, watched her endure dreadful pain and suffering before the end. She started imagining all sorts of things and began looking for signs that her mother had intended to give her as proof that she was safe or that there was some kind of life after this one that might even be better than this vale of tears. It didn’t take much to push Maria over the edge. She was absolutely terrified of the dark – in fact, she was a bundle of nerves after her mother died, desperate for reassurance that Leonora was feeling better in some better world. She might have been an academic but this was not a question of rationalism, rather it was one of deeply rooted faith and hope and love. She started imagining all kinds of things. Leonora appeared to her at their house in Grafarvogur. Maria turned to psychics. I expect you had some part in that? In tipping her over the edge?’
‘What do you mean? Have you any proof?’
‘None,’ Erlendur said. ‘You both planned it well.’
‘Why on earth should we have done something like that?’
