Oblivion

27

Joan stepped out of the car next to the back entrance of the PX without saying goodbye, leaving Caroline and Erlendur sitting in her stale smoke. As she headed for the store she turned and gave them the finger, then flounced inside, slamming the door behind her. Erlendur assumed the gesture was aimed at Caroline, who now moved up to join him in the front seat. She seemed to think so too.

‘Screw you too, bitch,’ she said.

‘Was she wearing a wig?’ asked Erlendur, thinking of Kristvin’s sister.

‘Yeah, she looks like some kind of Dolly Parton freak.’

‘Do you think she could be ill?’

‘With that on her head? Must be.’

‘You should keep an eye on her,’ said Erlendur. ‘I doubt you can believe a word she says.’

‘Not a word,’ agreed Caroline, ‘and she’s probably the last person who saw your man alive. Apart from... I’ll check up on her husband, see if she was lying about him.’

‘We’re not going to arrest her, then?’

‘No, let’s leave her to sweat a little,’ said Caroline. ‘I’ll keep an eye on her. You’re right — she can’t be trusted. Who knows what to believe.’

‘So you sometimes go to this place, the Animal Locker, yourself?’

‘Now and then,’ said Caroline. ‘I’ve seen Joan there a couple times, coming on to the customers. She’s a slut.’

‘You don’t recall seeing Kristvin there?’

Caroline shot Erlendur a look.

‘I’d have told you — you showed me a picture of him, remember?’

‘What about “W”?’

‘No,’ said Caroline crossly.

‘Marion told me you didn’t want to help us,’ said Erlendur.

‘That’s right.’

‘What made you change your mind?’

‘I don’t know. At first I thought Marion was asking me to spy on my friends, but when I stopped to think about it, I realised I was wrong. Anyhow, things are so quiet around here, it makes a nice change. And I had a hunch about that dumbass.’

‘Joan?’

‘I had an instinct that she was stressed and hiding something that time we visited her in the barracks. After Marion talked to me I remembered her and thought I’d pay her another visit, put the thumbscrews on her, and she just caved in. I don’t know if I was helping you exactly. I just wanted to find out if she was lying to us.’

‘Are you aware of other cases — of soldiers’ wives going after Icelandic men?’

‘Usually it’s the other way around,’ said Caroline. ‘Joan’s a bit of a surprise, in that respect.’

‘But not in other respects?’

‘No,’ said Caroline, laughing with a flash of white teeth. ‘The rest is exactly what you’d expect.’

‘If she’s telling the truth, Kristvin left her place that evening, found his car with the tyres slashed but didn’t go back to her. And then what...?’

‘I’m guessing he met somebody.’

‘By chance? Or was it planned? Where was he going? Was someone lying in wait for him when he left Joan’s? The same person who vandalised his tyres?’

Caroline stared out of the window.

‘Could you track down this “W” for us?’ asked Erlendur. ‘Is there any way of finding out who he is?’

‘I can try. I never heard of anyone called “W” round here, but that doesn’t mean anything. It should be possible to look up the names of base personnel starting with that letter.’

‘I hope you won’t compromise yourself,’ said Erlendur, after a pause.

‘No, I should be OK. The guys stationed here are a peace-loving bunch, whatever you may think.’

‘I’ve never said they weren’t.’

‘Marion told me you were opposed to the army being here.’

‘That’s quite different. It’s nothing personal against the people themselves.’

‘Then I must have misunderstood,’ said Caroline. ‘You see, here I was thinking we were fighting a common enemy.’

‘Who’s that supposed to be?’

‘Oh, right, so you don’t regard the Russians as an enemy? And what about the fishing dispute a few years back? Wasn’t the sea around here swarming with British warships? Weren’t they the enemy? The way I understood it, the American government had to step in and persuade the British to back down. You people don’t even have your own army.’

‘That’s what I mean,’ said Erlendur.

‘Excuse me?’

‘In my opinion it would be better if we dealt with our own problems instead of sucking up to military powers like you Americans. That’s what I think.’

‘Then you need your own army.’

‘No, we don’t need an army. We’ve never needed an army. We’ll lose all our wars but at least we’ll lose them with honour.’

‘You’re weird,’ said Caroline. ‘With all due respect.’

‘You’re probably right,’ said Erlendur.

‘You think you’re better than us?’

‘Better? No — where did you get that idea?’

‘You people are no angels, you know,’ said Caroline. ‘You’re just as busy smuggling drugs onto the base as the soldiers are smuggling them off. You swap dope for beer, liquor and cigarettes. Even turkey and ham, for Christ’s sake! We’ve known about that for a long time.’

‘Yes, so have we. I’m not judging anybody.’

‘Are you sure you want me to help you?’

‘Of course. My personal attitude to the base doesn’t matter.’

‘Well, maybe it matters to me,’ said Caroline, and Erlendur realised he had made her angry. ‘Maybe I have something to say about that. I’m not sure I want to get in any deeper than I already have, and let me tell you I’ve totally had it with all this underhand shit. Totally had it! I don’t know why I let you talk me into this. I just can’t understand it.’

Caroline opened the passenger door, stepped out onto the pavement, slammed the door so the whole car shook, and stormed off.

Erlendur drove back to Reykjavík deep in thought, debating with himself whether it would be better at this stage to alert the base authorities to what the investigation had uncovered and request their assistance again. In retrospect, it was hardly fair to expect Caroline to bear the brunt of an inquiry by the Icelandic police. But then she had already made considerable progress and brought to light information that the Icelanders would no doubt have found it much harder, if not impossible, to obtain. She was a vital intermediary. Erlendur’s main concern was that they might put her at risk. He had no conception of what sort of danger she might face since he had no criteria by which to judge. He was completely in the dark about what went on behind the wire on Midnesheidi. All he knew was that most, if not all, of the personnel were armed, whereas Icelandic police officers like him were not even licensed to carry a gun.

Turning on the radio news, he found himself instantly transported to a different, more familiar, world. Volunteers were still waiting to mount a search for the two missing men on the Eyvindarstadir Moors. A ferocious blizzard was raging in the area. There was an interview with an old farmer who knew the moors and he made no attempt to paint an optimistic picture. In severe conditions like these, he explained, the men’s only chance lay in seeking refuge in one of the shepherds’ huts that dotted the highlands.

Erlendur switched off the radio and a familiar shiver ran down his spine as he thought of the two men fighting for their lives on the moors.