Tainted Blood

14

When Ellidi saw the warders he went berserk. He leapt over the table, ran at the four men, screaming, and threw himself at them. He landed on top of Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli and they were both slammed to the ground before they could do a thing. He headbutted Sigurdur Oli, the blood spurted from both men's noses and his fist was raised to punch Erlendur's defenceless face when one of the warders took out a little black device and gave him an electric shock in his side. This slowed Ellidi down, but it didn't stop him. He raised his arm again. It was only when the other warder gave him a second electric shock that he slumped down and fell on top of Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli.

They crawled out from underneath him. Sigurdur Oli held a handkerchief to his nose to try to stop the bleeding. Ellidi was given a third electric shock and was finally still. The warders handcuffed him and, with great difficulty, lifted him up. They were going to take him out but Erlendur asked them to wait a moment. He went up to Ellidi.

"Which other one?" he asked.

Ellidi showed no reaction.

"Which other one that he raped?" Erlendur repeated.

Ellidi tried to smile, dazed by the electric shock, and a grimace moved across his face. Blood had run from his nose down into his mouth and his false teeth were bloody. Erlendur tried to conceal the eagerness in his voice, as if he couldn't care less what Ellidi knew. He tried not to make himself vulnerable. Tried not to show any expression. He knew that the slightest weakness made the heart of men like Ellidi pound, turned them into real men, gave them a purpose in their pitiful illusion of life. The slightest deviation would be enough. An eager tone in his voice, a sign in his eyes, a movement of his hands, a hint of impatience. Ellidi had managed to throw him off balance when he mentioned Eva Lind. Erlendur wasn't going to give him the pleasure of grovelling now.

They looked each other in the eye.

"Take him out," Erlendur said and turned away from Ellidi. The warders were about to lead the prisoner away but he stiffened and wouldn't budge when they tried to move him. He took a good, long look at Erlendur as if mulling something over, but eventually he gave in and allowed himself to be led from the room. Sigurdur Oli was still trying to stop the bleeding. His nose was swollen and his handkerchief was dripping with blood.

"That's a nasty nosebleed," Erlendur said and examined Sigurdur Oli's nose. "Nothing else though, nothing serious. There are no cuts and your nose isn't broken." He pinched it tight and Sigurdur Oli let out a shriek of pain.

"Oh, maybe it is broken, I'm no doctor," Erlendur said.

"That fucking bastard," Sigurdur Oli said. "That fucking bastard."

"Is he playing around with us or does he really know about another woman?" Erlendur said as they left the hall. "If there was one more perhaps there were others that Holberg raped who never came forward."

"There's no way to talk sense to that man," Sigurdur Oli said. "He was doing it for his own amusement, winding us up. He was playing with us. You can't trust a word he says. That jerk. That fucking jerk."

They went to the governor's office and gave him a brief report of what had happened. In their opinion, they said, the only place for Ellidi was a padded cell at a psychiatric ward. The governor agreed wearily, but said the only recourse available to the authorities was to keep him at Litla-Hraun. This wasn't the first time Ellidi had been confined to solitary for violence in the prison and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

They went out into the open air. As they were driving away from the prison and waiting for the big blue gate to the car park to open, Sigurdur Oli noticed a warder racing after them, waving to them to stop. They waited until he caught up with the car. Erlendur wound down the window. "He wants to talk to you," the warder said, panting from running.

"Who?" Erlendur asked.

"Ellidi. Ellidi wants to talk to you."

"We've talked to Ellidi," Erlendur said. "Tell him to forget it."

"He says he's going to give you the information you want."

"He's lying."

"That's what he said."

Erlendur looked at Sigurdur Oli, who shrugged. He thought about it for a moment.

"Okay. We'll come then," he said eventually.

"He just wants you, not him," said the warder, looking at Sigurdur Oli.

Ellidi wasn't let out of his solitary cell again, so Erlendur had to talk to him through a small hole in the door. It was opened by sliding a panel to one side. The cell was dark, so Erlendur could not see in. He could only hear Ellidi's voice, hoarse and gurgling. The warder had led Erlendur to the door and then left him alone.

"How's the poofter?" was the first thing Ellidi asked. Instead of standing up at the hole in the door, he had retreated inside. Maybe he was lying on the bed. Maybe he was sitting up against a wall. Erlendur felt as if the voice was coming from deep inside the darkness. He had obviously calmed down.

"This isn't a tea party," Erlendur replied. "You wanted to talk to me."

"Who do you reckon killed Holberg?"

"We don't know. What about Holberg?"

"Her name was Kolbrun, the chick he did in Keflavik. He often talked about it. Talked about how close he was to getting caught when that pussy was stupid enough to press charges. He described all the details. Do you want to hear what he said?"

"No," said Erlendur. "What was your relationship with him?"

"We met up now and again. I sold him booze and bought porn for him while I was on the ships. We met when we were working together for the Harbour and Lighthouse Authority. Before he started lorry driving. We went into the towns together. You never get a lost fuck back. That was the first thing he taught me. He knew how to talk. Impressive. Good at talking women round. A fun bloke."

"You went into the towns?"

"That's why we were in Keflavik. We were painting the Reykjanes lighthouse. Fucking awful ghosts there. Ever been there? Screeching and howling all night. Worse than this shithole. Holberg wasn't scared of ghosts. He wasn't scared of anything."

"And he told you straightaway how he'd assaulted Kolbrun, when he'd only just met you?"

"He winked at me when he followed her out of the party. I knew what that meant. He could be a charmer. He thought it was funny to get away with it. Laughed a lot at some cop the girl went to and ruined her case for her."

"Did they know each other, Holberg and this cop?"

"I don't know."

"Did he ever talk about the daughter Kolbrun gave birth to after the rape?"

"Daughter? No. Did he get her pregnant?"

"You know about another rape," Erlendur said without answering him. "Another woman he raped. Who was it? What was her name?"

"I don't know."

"So why did you call me back?"

"I don't know who it was but I know when it was and where she lived. More or less. That's enough for you to find her."

"When? And where?

"Yeah, right, what do I get?"

"You?"

"What can you do for me?"

"I can't do anything for you and I don't want to do anything for you."

"Sure you do. Then I'll tell you what I know."

Erlendur pondered.

"I can't promise anything," he said.

"I can't stand being in solitary."

"Was that why you called me back?"

"You don't know what it does to you. I'm going mad in this cell. They never put the light on. I don't know what day it is. You're kept here like an animal in a cage. They treat you like a beast."

"And what, you're the Count of Monte Cristo!" Erlendur said sarcastically. "You're a sadist, Ellidi.

The worst sort of psychopath and sadist there is. A dumb idiot who likes violence. A homophobe and a racist. You're the worst type of retard I know. I don't care if they keep you locked up in here for the rest of your life. I'm going upstairs to recommend just that."

"I'll tell you where she lived if you get me out of here."

"I can't get you out of here, you idiot. I don't have the authority to and, even if I did, I wouldn't. If you want to cut your solitary short perhaps you should stop attacking people."

"You could do a deal on it. Say you wound me up. Say that poofter started it. I was cooperative, but he was making smart-arse remarks. And I helped you with your enquiries. They'll listen to you. I know who you are. They'll listen to you."

"Did Holberg talk about any others apart from those two?"

"Are you going to do that for me?"

Erlendur thought about it. "I'll see what I can do. Did he talk about any others?"

"No. Never. I only knew about those two."

"Are you lying?"

"I'm not lying. The other one never pressed charges. It was in the early '60s. He never went back to that place."

"What place?"

"Are you going to get me out of here?"

"What place?"

"Promise!"

"I can't promise anything," Erlendur said. "I'll talk to them. What place was it?"

"Husavik."

"How old was she?"

"It was the same sort of job as the one in Keflavik, only more ferocious," Ellidi said.

"Ferocious?"

"Don't you want to hear it?" Ellidi said, unable to conceal his eagerness. "Do you want to hear what he did?"

Ellidi didn't wait for an answer. His voice poured out through the hole in the door and Erlendur stood there, listening to the hoarse confession coming from the darkness.

Sigurdur Oli was waiting for him in the car. As they drove away from the prison Erlendur gave a short account of his conversation with Ellidi but kept quiet about the monologue at the end. They decided to look at the register of people who lived in Husavik in the years around 1960. If the woman was a similar age to Kolbrun, as Ellidi had implied, it was just possible she could be found.

"And what about Ellidi?" Sigurdur Oli asked when they were back in the Threngslin Pass on their way to Reykjavik.

"I asked if they'd reduce his solitary confinement and they refused. There was nothing else I could do."

"You kept your promise at least," Sigurdur Oli smiled. "If Holberg raped those two, couldn't there have been more?"

"There could have been," Erlendur said vacantly.

"What are you thinking about now?"

"There are two things that bother me," Erlendur said. "I'd like to know precisely what it was that the little girl died of." He could hear Sigurdur Oli heave a sigh beside him. "And I'd like to know if she was definitely Holberg's child."

"So what's puzzling you about that?"

"Ellidi told me Holberg had a sister."

"A sister?"

"Who died young. We need to find her medical records. Look for them at the hospitals. See what you can come up with."

"What did she die of? Holberg's sister?"

"Possibly something similar to Audur. Holberg mentioned something about her head once. Or that was how Ellidi described it. I asked if it could have been a brain tumour, but Ellidi didn't know."

"And how does that help our case?" Sigurdur Oli asked.

"I think there could be a kinship connection," Erlendur said.

"Kinship? What, because of the message we found?"

"Yes," Erlendur said, "because of the message. Maybe it's a question of kinship and heredity."