Ashes To Dust

Chapter Thirty-three

Sóley was asleep, her head in her mother’s lap. Thóra stroked her daughter’s hair as she reached for the remote and turned off the television. The show that had sent the little girl to dreamland had also been well on its way to sending Thóra there. She yawned, placed a pillow beneath the girl’s head and spread a blanket over her. Sóley murmured a little in protest but did not wake up. Thóra took out the files that she’d brought with her from the office. After coming home from the tattoo parlour, Thóra had whipped up a meal – she boiled some water and poured it over a packet of ramen noodles. Afterwards Gylfi had disappeared to Sigga’s place, to spend the evening with her and their son Orri. So Thóra and Sóley had spent the evening alone together. They had made themselves comfy on the sofa when Sóley had finished her homework, but the television schedule was so dull that the little girl had fallen asleep during the first programme they watched.

Thóra settled into the easy chair next to the sofa and looked at the top page, where she had written the name of the girl who had offended the tattooist’s delicate artistic sensibilities: Halldora Dogg Einarsdottir, 26 February 2007. That was the day the girl had had her tattoo done, according to the man. This didn’t tell Thóra anything, so she tried looking the girl up in the electoral register. She was born in 1982, so had been twenty-five years old at the time. Her name sounded familiar, so Thóra tried to search for her on the Internet, but found nothing.

Why had Alda been interested in this girl? Thóra guessed it wasn’t because of the tattoo itself. For a moment she wondered if it could have been because of her job at the plastic surgeon’s office, or for some unfathomable personal reason. She couldn’t understand how the girl could be connected to Alda’s murder, even though something told her she must be. Of course, there was one easy way to discover whether and how the girl knew Alda. Perhaps she would turn out to be the one Thóra had searched high and low for – the one to whom Alda had entrusted the secret of the head in the box. Markus really needed that to be the case. Thóra looked at the clock and saw that it was nine thirty, not too late for a phone call. She found the number in the phone book and made the call.

‘Hi!’ The voice sounded young, in a rather false way, as if the girl were trying to appear childish.

‘Hello. Is this Halldora Dogg Einarsdottir?’ Thóra asked.

‘Speaking.’ The voice still sounded uncomfortably like a little girl’s.

Thóra introduced herself and asked whether she might be able to ask her several questions, since her name had come up in a case involving her client.

Nothing could be heard on the other end of the line, but when the girl started talking again her voice was much more mature. ‘What case?’ she asked, all her cheerfulness gone.

‘It’s a murder case,’replied Thóra. ‘As I said, your name has come up in connection with it, and I wanted to take the opportunity to ask you some questions that might hopefully explain your connection to the murdered woman.’

‘Who’s been murdered?’asked the girl. Her surprise was evident. Then she added, almost excitedly:‘I haven’t murdered anyone!’

‘Sorry for not being clear,’ said Thóra. ‘You’re not under any suspicion, and besides, I don’t work for the police. I’m simply trying to rule out whether you’re tied to the case indirectly. In other words, I’m in no way suggesting that you’re linked to the murder at all.’

‘Did you say you’re a lawyer?’ asked the girl, still sounding very suspicious. ‘Are you working for Adolf?’ Her voice turned shrill on the last word.

‘No, not at all,’ said Thóra, wondering whether to admit she knew his name. She didn’t take the risk. ‘The man I represent is named Markus.’

‘I don’t know any Markus,’said the girl angrily. ‘Are you sure you’re not working for Adolf?’

‘Absolutely sure,’ said Thóra. She decided to get to the point of the phone call. ‘Did you know a woman by the name of Alda Thórgeirsdóttir?’ There was a long silence punctuated only by the girl’s heavy breaths, and Thóra decided to repeat the question to be certain that the girl had understood her.

The girl drew a breath so sharp that a whistling sound could clearly be heard through the phone. Then she spoke again, her voice betraying her shock at the question. ‘How could you lie? Lawyers can’t lie.’

Thóra didn’t understand what she meant. ‘Isn’t it easier to answer this with a simple yes or no? I haven’t lied to you about anything, if that’s what you think.’

‘You are working for Adolf,’hissed the girl. ‘I know you are, I should press charges against you.’

‘Press charges against me?’ asked Thóra, flabbergasted. ‘I think there may have been a misunderstanding.’ She didn’t want the girl to think she was afraid of this threat. ‘The only thing I’m trying to clear up is whether you knew Alda Thórgeirsdóttir or have heard of her.’

A few moments passed before the girl replied. Thóra supposed that she was contemplating whether it would be better to deny this, confirm it or simply hang up. The name obviously rang some bells.‘I know who she is,’ said the girl suddenly, her voice harsh.

‘Could you tell me where or how you got to know her, or heard of her?’ asked Thóra, pleased finally to be making some headway in this peculiar conversation.

‘No,’ replied the girl. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

Thóra rolled her eyes. What now?‘Did it have something to do with your tattoo? Love Sex?’

There was silence on the other end, then the girl hung up.

Thóra put down the thick sheaf of papers. She had had enough of what seemed to be an endless reckoning of every item that could conceivably have been taken from the houses that had been excavated. She still hadn’t laid eyes on anything that could make a difference in Markus’s case, except perhaps the countless broken bottles that had been found in Kjartan’s garage and Dadi’s shed. Thóra thought it was obvious that they’d hurriedly tried to hide the evidence of their stash of grain alcohol when the police investigation had started to point towards them. The list did not include Markus’s home, since the house was still to be emptied when the list had been written, but Thóra hadn’t noticed any bottles there, intact or broken. That didn’t mean much; they could have been hidden in a part of the house that she hadn’t seen, although she doubted it. Kjartan had been extremely convincing when he told her Magnus hadn’t been involved in the smuggling operation. A flash of pain shot through her shoulders. She had to stand up and stretch.

She walked across her office and shook her hands to get the blood flowing better. She didn’t know if this actually did anything, but she hoped so. In any case she was tired of this work, and bored. She took her seat again and reached for a piece of paper lying on the coffee table. On it was scribbled the name and telephone number of the defence lawyer in Adolf’s rape case. The trial was imminent and Thóra had gone into the private offices of Reykjavik district Court to look up the defence counsel’s name. She had hoped it might be someone she knew, so she could ask them for help finding possible links between the rape and Alda’s murder. Even though Markus appeared no longer to be under suspicion of murdering his childhood crush, something told Thóra the cases were connected. Fortunately she recognized the name of the lawyer; they had studied together at university. Less fortunately, each time Thóra tried to call her the line was busy. She was starting to think the woman’s phone was not turned on, but decided to try one more time before it got too late.

This time the lawyer’s husband answered, and sighed heavily before he called her name. A thud indicated that the receiver had been dropped carelessly.

After a short pause Thóra heard the receiver being picked up again. ‘Svala speaking.’The woman sounded out of breath.

‘Hi, Svala, it’s Thóra,’ she said. She added, ‘From the law department?’

‘Oh, hi,’ said the woman, cheerful now. ‘Great to hear from you. How long has it been?’

‘God,’ said Thóra, trying unsuccessfully to recall. ‘Far too long.’They exchanged stories of what had happened in their lives, thenThóra got to the point. ‘Anyway, I have an ulterior motive,’ said Thóra. I’m sorry to be out of touch for so long then call on official business. I’m working on an unusual case, and the name of your client has come up.‘

‘Oh?’ said Svala. ‘Which one? I have plenty, let me tell you.’

‘Adolf Dadason,’ replied Thóra. ‘It’s a strange connection, like everything else in this case, and among other things it concerns a tattoo on a young woman by the name of Halldora Dogg Einarsdottir. She nearly threw a fit when I called her just a while ago, because she was convinced I was working for Adolf.’

‘What case is it actually that you’re working on?’ asked Svala quickly. ‘Not the one about the nurse?’

Thóra concurred. ‘My client is sitting in custody because of her murder, along with the discovery of some bodies on the Westmann Islands. The nurse, Alda, appears to have had some interest in Adolf and this particular tattoo. That led me to this girl, Halldora Dogg. Is there any chance you could explain this to me? I’m in quite a fix with this case and I’m starting to fear it won’t be solved, which would be inconvenient for my client.’

Svala clicked her tongue. ‘I don’t know anything about the tattoo,’ she said. ‘However, I do know a few things about this nurse and Halldora Dogg.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Halldora pressed charges against Adolf for rape. He maintains he didn’t do it, and even though I’ve met a lot of arseholes in cases like this, who always protest their innocence, I have a feeling he’s telling the truth. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no angel; far from it. He’s a nasty piece of work, in fact, but that doesn’t mean he’s broken the law. Still, everything points towards a guilty verdict, since the girl is so bloody convincing. On top of that, it seems she was drugged with contraceptive pills to prevent pregnancy, and a witness has come forward who says he bought these drugs for Adolf, and not for the first time either. It’ll be difficult to get the judge to believe the purchase was made with good intentions – the man is single.’

‘But how does Alda fit into this?’ asked Thóra. ‘Did she give him the drugs?’

‘No, no,’ said Svala. ‘She and Adolf didn’t know each other. She treated Halldora when she finally checked into the hospital. This Alda was a kind of therapist to her, providing her with trauma counselling among other things. Alda’s testimony looks very bad for Adolf. It deflates our argument that the girl’s credibility is questionable since so much time passed between the alleged rape and her reporting it. Alda actually gave the police a statement in which she emphasized how common it was for a rape victim not to come forward immediately. In other words, she wasn’t the witness I most looked forward to seeing on the stand.’

‘You got lucky,’ said Thóra. ‘She won’t be testifying in this case.’

‘No, that’s the problem. She actually changed her mind suddenly. She got in touch and asked to meet me, saying she had information that could clear Adolf of the charges.’

‘And what information was that?’

‘I’ll never know,’ said Svala sadly. ‘She died, or to be precise was murdered, before we were able to talk. She didn’t want to tell me on the phone, so we’d set up a meeting for the next day. She was being very mysterious and I didn’t get much sense out of her, I’m afraid.’

‘What did you ask her?’

‘I was so dumbstruck when she called that I actually didn’t know how to respond. At first I thought she’d lost her mind, and I wasn’t even sure if I should speak to her. Naturally, I tried to get the information out of her, and when that didn’t work I tried to find out the reason for her change of heart. It was a complete about-face, because the woman was really quite merciless about Adolf in her original police statement. Ruthless, even.’

‘She knew his parents,’ said Thóra. ‘Maybe she changed her opinion after she realized the rape suspect was her friends’ son. She even knew him as a child.’

‘If that’s the case, then the memory of Alda has completely disappeared from Adolf’s mind. He says he’s never heard of this woman, and would prefer to hear as little as possible about her.’

‘But he must have been disappointed that her testimony would never be heard,’ Thóra said. ‘There was a lot at stake for him.’

‘No,’ said Svala.‘It’s very strange – he simply shuts down if I try to talk about Alda or her testimony. I understood from Alda that she had tried repeatedly to speak to him, but hadn’t been able to persuade him to see her. He didn’t turn up when they arranged a meeting, and that’s why she contacted me. That same evening, she was dead.’

Thóra couldn’t work this out.‘But you’re convinced he didn’t know her? Could it be that the reason he’s being so stubborn has something to do with an old issue between them?’

‘No, I’m sure,’ replied Svala. ‘Maybe his parents knew her, but he didn’t. They’re both dead, so it’s too late to ask them about it.’

‘Here’s another strange thing,’ said Thóra. ‘Alda had a copy of the autopsy report on Adolf’s mother. I don’t know why; I wouldn’t have thought anyone would be that interested in that kind of information about their friends or relatives. I understand the woman died because of some kind of medical malpractice.’

‘What?’ gasped Svala.‘She had the autopsy report?’

‘Yes, in her desk at work. The doctors she worked for had no idea why. At least, she hadn’t discussed the report with them, even though they could have explained its contents to her. It’s not easy to understand at all. I had to get help figuring it out.’

‘You’re telling me,’ said Svala. ‘Listen: the report is actually the basis of another case that I’m working on for Adolf. He’s in litigation with the hospital where his mother died, and among other things, I’ve had to go through that same report. It was a medical error, as you said. The woman was given penicillin, but she had a severe allergy. The staff on duty didn’t realize it when she was admitted.’ Svala thought for a moment before continuing: ‘But I have to confess, I’m really confused. Why was this woman so obsessed with Adolf and his business?’

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Thóra. ‘But I’m starting to think it’s linked to her murder.’

‘Oh God, no,’ sighed Svala.‘It’s more than enough having to get involved in two cases for this man. For God’s sake, don’t add murder.’

Thóra smiled. ‘But what about this Halldora?’ she asked. ‘Could it be that she knew or had ties to Alda?’

‘That I don’t know,’ said Svala. ‘I think she’s a little cow, actually; not all that bright, and not good-looking at all.

So she’s got very little going for her. You know, she’s one of those girls who goesaround with a bare midriff even though she’s not exactly a supermodel. She doesn’t want to talk to me at all – I’ve tried to reach her but she always hangs up.‘

‘She hung up on me, too,’ said Thóra. ‘When I mentioned the tattoo, she ended the conversation.’

‘What is it about this tattoo? There’s been nothing about a tattoo in Adolf’s case.’

‘Alda had a picture of it in her desk drawer, a tattoo that says Love Sex. We found the tattoo parlour where it was done, and they told me Halldora Dogg had had it drawn on her back. But that’s all I know,’ said Thóra. ‘When I asked her about it, she responded by putting the phone down.’

‘Do you know when it was done?’asked Svala. ‘This hasn’t been mentioned in any of the files I’ve seen, and I think I have everything.’

Thóra reached for the piece of paper on which she’d written the information. ‘The twenty-sixth of February, 2007,’ she read. ‘The tattoo parlour is called Mirror of the Soul, if that helps at all.’

‘What?’ said Svala.‘What did you say?’

‘Mirror of the Soul,’ repeated Thóra, surprised at the woman’s interest in the name.

‘No,’ said Svala impatiently.‘When did she get this tattoo?’ Thóra repeated the date.‘And it says Love Sex?’ asked Svala, still sounding surprised.

‘Yes,’ answered Thóra.‘Not exactly a work of art.’

‘Maybe not,’ said Svala, obviously pleased. ‘But very good news for Adolf.’