‘Yes, she did,’ Eyvor replied. ‘About her mother and also about an incident from her childhood that I don’t know if you’re aware of.’
‘You mean when her father drowned?’ Erlendur asked.
‘That’s right. Maria was in a dreadful state after losing her mother. I officiated at that funeral too, in fact. I got to know mother and daughter quite well, especially after Leonora fell ill. She was a brave woman, a remarkable woman – nothing ever daunted her.’
‘What did she do?’
‘Do you mean her job? She was a professor at the university, a professor of French.’
‘And her daughter was a historian,’ Erlendur said. ‘That explains the large number of books in the house. Was Maria depressed?’
‘Let’s just say she was very low. I do hope you won’t repeat this. I really shouldn’t be discussing it with you. She didn’t exactly turn to me in her grief, but I got the impression that she was under a great deal of strain. She used to come to church but never opened up to me. I tried to console her but it was actually quite difficult. She was very angry – angry that her mother should have had to die like that. Angry with the powers that be. I think she might have lost a little of her faith, the childlike faith she’d always had, after watching her mother waste away and die.’
‘But God moves in mysterious ways, doesn’t he?’ Erlendur said. ‘He alone knows the point of all this suffering?’
‘I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t believe that faith can help us. If we didn’t have faith, where would we be?’
‘Were you aware at all of her interest in the supernatural?’
‘No, I can’t say that I was. But, as I say, she was quite reticent and guarded when it came to her private life. Or certain aspects of it.’
‘Such as?’
‘She believed in dreams, that they could give her an insight into things we can’t see in our waking life. Her belief grew stronger over time until I got the impression that she believed dreams were some kind of door into another world.’
‘The afterlife?’
‘I don’t know exactly what she meant.’
‘And what did you say to her?’
‘What we preach in church. We believe in the resurrection on the Day of Judgement and in eternal life. The reunion of loved ones is the essence of the Easter message.’
‘Did she believe in that sort of reunion?’
‘I felt that she derived a certain consolation from the idea, yes.’
Elinborg was again in tow when Erlendur paid another short visit to Maria’s husband, Baldvin. It was the day after he had spoken to the vicar. He invented some pretext involving a notebook that he had mislaid. Elinborg stood at his side in the sitting room of the house in Grafarvogur, watching him explain his visit. Erlendur had never in his life owned a notebook.
‘I haven’t seen anything of the kind here,’ Baldvin said, after a cursory glance round the room. ‘I’ll let you know if I find it.’
‘Thank you,’ Erlendur said, ‘I’m sorry to bother you.’
Elinborg smiled awkwardly.
‘Tell me: I know it’s none of my business, but did Maria regard death as the end of it all?’ Erlendur asked.
‘The end of it all?’ Baldvin repeated, surprised.
‘I mean, did she believe in life after death?’ Erlendur asked.
Elinborg stared at him. She had never heard him ask such questions before.
‘I think so,’ Baldvin said. ‘I think she believed in the resurrection, like other Christians.’
‘When people are having a hard time or experience the loss of a loved one, they often search for answers, sometimes even from mediums or psychics.’
‘I wouldn’t know about that,’ Baldvin said. ‘Why are you asking?’
Erlendur was on the verge of telling him about the recording that Karen had given him but changed his mind. Another time. He suddenly felt it would be unwise to drag Karen into this and mention her concerns. He ought to keep faith with her.
‘Just thinking aloud,’ he said. ‘We’ve inconvenienced you enough, I’m sorry for the intrusion.’
Smiling, Elinborg took the man’s hand and said goodbye with a few words of condolence.
‘What was that all about?’ she asked angrily once they were seated in the car and Erlendur was driving away slowly. ‘The woman committed suicide and you start talking some crap about life after death! Have you no sense of decency?’
‘She went to see a medium,’ Erlendur said.
‘How do you know?’
Erlendur took out Karen’s tape and handed it to her. ‘It’s the recording of a seance that his wife attended.’
‘A seance?’ Elinborg said in astonishment. ‘She went to a seance?’
‘I haven’t listened to the whole tape. I was going to let him hear what’s on it, but…’
‘But what?’
‘I want to track down the medium,’ Erlendur said. ‘I suddenly wanted to know what game the medium was playing and whether he might have done something to trigger this tragedy.’
‘You think he was playing with her?’
‘I do. He pretended to see a boat on a lake, to smell cigar smoke. That sort of rubbish.’
‘Was he alluding to her father’s drowning?’
‘Yes.’
‘You don’t believe in mediums?’ Elinborg asked.
‘No more than I believe in fairies,’ Erlendur said, turning out of the cul-de-sac.
7
When Erlendur got home that evening he buttered himself a flat-cake and topped it with smoked lamb, turned on the coffee-maker, then put Karen’s cassette back in the machine.
He thought about Maria’s suicide, about the despair required to precipitate such an act and the sheer mental torment that must have lain behind it. Erlendur had read notes from people who had taken their own lives, some consisting of only a few lines, maybe only a sentence, a single word; others longer, with a detailed enumeration of the reasons for the act, an apology of sorts. Sometimes the letter would be left on the pillow in the bedroom. Sometimes on the floor of the garage. Fathers, mothers, adolescents, pensioners, people who were alone in the world.
He was about to press ‘play’ when he heard a knock at the door. He went and opened it. Eva Lind slipped past him and came inside.
‘Is it a bad moment?’ she asked, taking off her knee-length black leather coat. Under it she was wearing jeans and a thick jumper. ‘It’s bloody cold outside,’ she said. ‘Isn’t this gale ever going to let up?’
‘I doubt it,’ Erlendur replied. ‘It’s forecast to last the week.’
‘Did Sindri come round?’ Eva Lind asked.
‘Yes. Do you want some coffee?’
‘Yes, please. What did he say?’
Erlendur went into the kitchen and fetched the coffee. He had tried to cut down on his caffeine intake in the evenings because he sometimes had trouble sleeping if he drank more than two cups. Not that he minded wakeful nights; they were the best time for grappling with problems.
‘He didn’t really say much, though he did mention that you’d had a row with your mother,’ Erlendur said when
