The Shadow Killer

42

Thorson drove up to the laundry. White sheets were flapping on the lines behind the house, and there was an empty tub lying in the grass. He got out of the jeep and walked over to the washing, taking in the view over Faxaflói Bay, the white summer clouds over the sea, remembering how captivated he had been by the scenery and the light when he first came to Iceland. But it was the silence that really drew him, the tranquillity; you could feel it as soon as you left town, even here on the outskirts, where the sheets fluttered under a blue sky.

There was no movement near the house. He knocked at the door, then went inside and called out, but there was no answer. He stood there at a loss, surveying the piles of dirty washing and thinking that Vera had her work cut out. Presumably she wouldn’t be gone for long. Just then he heard a noise overhead and saw her descending the steep ladder, pausing halfway to peer down at him.

‘You again?’

‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘Is this a bad time?’

‘Yes... no. I was just so tired all of a sudden that I went for a nap.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...’

‘It’s all right,’ she said, glancing back up towards the attic before continuing her descent. ‘What do you want? I thought I’d answered your questions. I don’t know anything about what happened to Eyvindur, so there’s no point asking me.’

‘I realise that,’ said Thorson. ‘I came to tell you that you can plan the funeral if you like. The doctor has finished his examination. I know you’d left him but...’

‘Oh, I see. I don’t know... perhaps his uncle could...’

‘Yes, well, I guess you’ll be hearing from him.’

‘Yes, I suppose so.’

‘Have you heard from your friend Billy Wiggins at all?’ Thorson asked, looking around the laundry.

‘Billy? Why? What about him?’

‘May I ask if you two are close?’

‘Close?’

‘Would that be a fair description of your relationship? And that you’re engaged to be married?’

Vera gave him a long look, as if trying to work out why he was really here, why he was asking about her relationship with Billy.

‘Billy and I are very good friends,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what you want me to say. We haven’t discussed marriage. Was that what you wanted to know? Why are you asking about Billy anyway?’

‘Of course, you haven’t known each other very long. A few months, maybe? It would be a little premature to talk about marriage.’

Vera dug out a packet of cigarettes from among the piles of washing, lit one and blew out smoke. They were an American brand, though that wasn’t necessarily significant.

‘Why don’t you just get to the point?’ she said. ‘What are you doing here? I’ve told you everything I know.’

‘Have you?’

Vera stared at Thorson, smoking her cigarette, not saying a word.

‘Did you know that Billy has been sent up to Hvalfjördur for a few days?’ he asked.

Thorson had learnt that Billy’s unit had been sent with two others to work on the construction of barracks and harbour facilities at the naval base in Hvalfjördur. He hadn’t yet made up his mind whether to send for Sergeant Wiggins.

‘Yes, he told me,’ Vera replied.

‘Did Billy also tell you that he recently got into a fight at Hótel Ísland because of you?’

‘Because of me? No. It’s the first I’ve heard of it. What happened?’

‘He met some young soldiers — a couple of them walk past your house every day. And he took offence on your behalf. You see, they said you were friendly with a GI.’

‘That’s a lie,’ said Vera. ‘People will say anything. You shouldn’t listen to gossip. I don’t know any GIs. People are forever spreading rumours in this town. You don’t mean you actually took it seriously?’

‘Well, the fact is that Eyvindur was shot with an American military pistol. Of course, anyone could get hold of a gun like that if he wanted to. There’s a black market in that kind of thing around the defence force. All the same, I wanted to ask you if it’s true — if you’ve started a relationship with one of the new arrivals.’

‘Of course not,’ said Vera. ‘What a load of rubbish.’

He saw that it took her a moment or two to work out the connection. Work out what he was insinuating. Her reaction appeared genuine. Yet he had gone out east to her old stamping ground and learnt that there was nothing particularly genuine about her.

They locked gazes and he could tell the instant it dawned on her.

‘What... You’re not seriously suggesting Eyvindur was killed by some American soldier that I’m supposed to know?’

Thorson didn’t immediately answer. He thought of the blacksmith and his encounters with her in the smithy, and although his own interests didn’t lie that way, he could see why the man had fallen for her. How she’d got Billy eating out of her hand. Why it wouldn’t take her long to hook a GI, fresh off the boat, if she had a mind to. Everything she did was on her own terms. The only question in Thorson’s mind was how far she’d be willing to go to get what she wanted.

‘Isn’t that what happened?’ he asked at last.

‘Are you crazy?’ said Vera. ‘Are you completely off your rocker?’

‘What about Eyvindur?’

‘What about him?’

‘Wasn’t he holding you back?’

‘I left him,’ said Vera. ‘He wasn’t holding me back. I don’t understand what you mean. I got tired of him. That’s all. I left him. There’s nothing more to say.’

‘Like a thief in the night,’ said Thorson. ‘Didn’t say a word to him. You’d found yourself a British soldier and had been seeing him while Eyvindur was away. Wouldn’t it have been more honourable to come clean?’

‘No doubt. Look, I just couldn’t live with him any longer. And I’m not... I didn’t know what to say. What was I supposed to say? That he was never going to amount to anything and it took me a while to work it out? That it had been a mistake — the whole thing between him and me? That I’d regretted it from the moment I moved in with him? Eyvindur couldn’t bear to hear the truth — never could bear the truth — so I decided not to tell him.’

‘But he tracked you down anyway?’

‘Yes.’

‘Came to see you here?’

‘He wouldn’t let it drop, though he knew perfectly well it was over. That it never really meant anything. Because I told him as much.’

‘Then what? Did he leave you in peace?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You wanted to get rid of him.’

‘Get rid of him? No. I was rid of him. I’d left him.’

‘How did Wiggins take it?’

‘What?’

‘His coming here? Harassing you? Begging you to move back in with him?’

‘He didn’t know.’

‘Maybe it was Billy’s idea,’ Thorson suggested.

‘What?’

‘Did you talk Billy Wiggins into going after Eyvindur?’

‘What are you on about?’

‘Or did he come up with the idea all by himself? I hear he’s a jealous man. Hot-headed. What did you tell him about Eyvindur? How did you describe your relationship? Did you tell him that Eyvindur wasn’t going to let you go? That Billy would need to get him out of the way first, before you and Wiggins could be together?’

‘Where did you get all that? I don’t know who you’ve been talking to. What do you take me for? A moment ago you were saying I’d got some Yank to shoot him! Why don’t you make up your mind? You’ve got some nerve, coming round here accusing me of this rubbish.’

‘I know a man who’s suffered thanks to you,’ said Thorson. ‘He lives in the countryside. Alone with his dogs. He warned me about you. How you twist men around your little finger. He told me not to believe a word you say.’

Vera stared at Thorson. ‘Who are you talking about?’

‘Oh, I think you know. You’re familiar with his little smithy.’

‘You went to see him?’ she asked, dumbfounded.

‘He says he still thinks of you sometimes,’ said Thorson. ‘In spite of everything.’