Ashes To Dust

Chapter Thirty-four

In front of Thóra sat the man from the picture in Alda’s desk, Adolf Dadason. He was older than he looked in the photo, and even better looking. There was something attractive about him, even though Thóra knew he was a waste of space. Svala hadn’t tried to make any excuses for his character; she had even offered the opinion that his behaviour was typical of the kind of man who put his own interests and desires before everything else. So his charisma didn’t come from his personality, only from his physical appearance. Adolf was the living incarnation of a one-night stand, a man who offered sex without emotion. He would no doubt have prospered in prehistoric times. Thóra could feel herself attracted to him in a way, but at the same time she pitied him for existing during the wrong time period. She hastily directed her gaze elsewhere when he suddenly looked up at her from beneath his heavy brow, as if he knew what she was thinking. Before she looked away, she saw one corner of his mouth lift in an ironic smile. She felt as if he were inviting her to go to some out of the way place and have a quickie before they went any further. Thóra was relieved when Svala broke the silence.

‘You realize, Adolf, that you owe a great debt to Thóra, and it’s only fair that you assist her in return. If she hadn’t contacted me, your case would be hard to win, but now it looks as though we may be able to clear your name.’ Svala hesitated a moment, but then added: ‘Almost, anyway. We don’t know how the judge will react to you having drugged the girl with emergency contraceptives.’

Thóra watched Adolf, whose face didn’t change as his lawyer spoke. Svala had arranged this meeting at Thóra’s request, after their phone conversation the night before. She had been so happy with the information about the date of Haldóra’s tattoo that Thóra suspected she would have done even more if Thóra had asked her to. ‘You do understand how important the tattoo is?’ pressed Svala, when Adolf showed no reaction.

He shrugged his shoulders, looking bored.‘Yes, yes. It’s all the same to me.’

Svala put her hands on the desk. They were sitting in her office at the legal firm where she worked. The furniture appeared to be brand new and very expensive, and even the computer on the table seemed to be from a different generation to the piece of junk Thóra used, with its clunky monitor. Freshly brewed espresso fitted perfectly with the whole image, and it didn’t hurt that it was accompanied by chocolates. Visitors to Thóra’s firm should be grateful if Bella had remembered to buy milk for their coffee, or the coffee itself, for that matter. This was one of the advantages of working for a large legal firm: decent coffee and better conditions. At the moment Thóra couldn’t see any disadvantages, although there must have been some. ‘No one goes and gets a tattoo that reads Sex, much less Love Sex, under forty-eight hours after they were raped. This strengthens your declaration that the sex with Halldora Dogg was consensual.’

Adolf sat there silently, expressionless, so Thóra decided to join in the discussion. ‘It would help me if I could ask you something about Alda’s role in this,’ she said.‘As Svala said before, Alda was interested in this tattoo.’

Adolf shifted in his seat. ‘I know nothing about that woman,’ he said, and glanced out of the window, which had a wonderful view of the city. ‘She was against me at first, and then all of a sudden on my side.’

Svala smiled warily. ‘That’s not entirely true. She told me she contacted you. You even planned to meet up.’

‘Yes,’ said Adolf, then added after a brief silence: ‘Alda did actually contact me. But I changed my mind about meeting her.’

‘Do you know why she wanted to talk to you?’ Thóra asked. ‘She could just as easily have contacted the police if she only wanted to give them information pertinent to the case.’

‘No, I don’t know why,’Adolf replied, still looking out of the window.

‘Didn’t she mention why, when she called – or did she come to visit you?’ asked Thóra, not knowing how Alda had contacted the man. When Adolf did not reply, she added:‘You realize that she knew your parents, don’t you?’

Adolf shifted again in his chair without saying anything. ‘How about you answer the lady?’ said Svala testily. ‘These aren’t complicated questions.’

‘I’m not sure I should say anything about it,’ said Adolf calmly, now looking at his lawyer.‘It’s not as simple as you think.’ Svala started to say something, but stopped. ‘As you know, I’m involved in more than one case right now.’

‘Do you mean the hospital case?’asked Svala. ‘Are the two cases connected?’

‘No,’ replied Adolf dryly.‘But I need to speak to you in private before we go any further.’

Thóra did not object. Adolf was Svala’s client and it was right that his interests had precedence over a favour for an old university classmate. She nodded consent as Adolf and Svala left the office together, leaving her with the view. She was happy not to have had to leave the room, as it would have been awkward to wait outside while they discussed things. It also gave her space to consider what this meant, and to try to understand Alda’s connection to the death of Adolf’s mother. She wanted to ask Adolf if he had any idea why Alda had got hold of his mother’s autopsy report. Given how long his corridor conversation with Svala was taking, she was sure he knew the answer. Had Alda also discovered something that could help Adolf get financial compensation for his mother’s accidental death? Where could such information have been found? Had Alda spotted something in the autopsy report that Thóra and others had overlooked? Thóra had barely been able to get through the document, so she wouldn’t have been capable of noticing anything unusual.

The door opened and Svala stuck her head through the gap. ‘Who is Alda’s next of kin?’ she asked.

Thóra looked at the woman in surprise. This seemed an odd and irrelevant question from someone she had always found very straightforward, but she replied without comment that she imagined Alda’s sister or parents must be her heirs, although she hadn’t ever checked.

‘Precisely, so no children, in other words,’ said Svala, and closed the door again. Thóra sat and stared at it. She hadn’t had time to form an opinion on any of this when the door reopened and Svala appeared in the gap once more. ‘Do you know anything about her estate?’ she asked. ‘What there is to be divided?’

Thóra raised her eyebrows. ‘Not in any detail. I know that she owned her house but it’s impossible to say how much she owed on the mortgage. It couldn’t have been very much, because she bought it long before the prices went up. I believe she’d lived there a long time.’ Thóra didn’t recall whether Alda had any other property. ‘May I ask why you’re discussing this?’

‘Give me two minutes,’ said Svala, and the door slammed shut again. Fifteen minutes later she and Adolf reappeared. Thóra had started to grow uncomfortable. She had a lot to do before going to the courtroom at two o’clock. Luckily she’d managed to get Svala to arrange the meeting for nine in the morning, but if it went on like this it would be almost eleven when Thóra finally made it back to her office. ‘Well,’ said Svala, taking a seat at her desk.‘It would appear that Adolf has a little story to tell you. It might improve your client’s position, but it also might make it worse. We’ll just have to wait and see. It’s up to you; do you want to hear it, or should we let it go?’

Thóra chose the former. As things stood, any new information could only help Markus. The limbo he was in now was unbearable for him. Even if the court didn’t rule against him, a large percentage of the Islands’ population would always be convinced of his guilt, particularly if the custody extension was granted.

‘Tell her what you told me, Adolf,’ said Svala. It was clear from her tone that she was not best pleased with him. ‘I stand by what I told you in the corridor. You’ll benefit more by telling your story than by keeping it to yourself.’

Adolf did not appear convinced, but began nevertheless. ‘Alda came to see me,’ he said slowly. ‘She rang first, but then came anyway after I refused to talk to her.’

‘Did she want to talk about the tattoo?’ asked Thóra.

He shook his head, his expression just as unreadable as when Thóra had first set eyes on him earlier that morning.‘She called me originally to shout at me,’ he said. ‘It was shortly after that silly bitch Halldora accused me of rape, and at first I didn’t have any idea who this woman was; I thought it must be her mother, or something.’

Thóra looked at Svala. ‘Did you know this?’ she asked. ‘That the nurse who treated the girl had phoned the suspect to give him a piece of her mind?’

Svala shook her head. ‘I heard most of this for the first time just now. It’ll become clear why he kept it secret.’ She gestured at Adolf to continue. ‘There’s more. Much more.’

Thóra turned back to him. ‘So she just called you and started yelling without introducing herself?’

‘No, she did introduce herself, but her name meant nothing to me,’ replied Adolf. After she’d called me several times, just as hysterical each time, I stopped answering the phone.‘ He straightened in his chair. ’You can’t blame me – who’d want some old fishwife hollering at them day and night?‘

‘How much time had passed from the date of the alleged rape before Alda first called you?’ asked Thóra.

Adolf thought for a moment. ‘About a month. No, a little longer. Maybe two.’

‘And did she say anything about why she was calling?’

‘No. She was completely crazy.’Adolf shrugged. ‘She probably believed Halldora, and thought I was a rapist. Maybe she was hoping that if she kept on at me long enough I’d confess to their trumped-up charges.’

Thóra knew this hadn’t been the first rape case Alda had been involved in, but had no idea whether her reaction was an isolated incident. Perhaps phone calls like these had been the reason Alda had been advised to take a leave of absence. ‘Do you think she was a friend of Halldora, or was it that she realized she knew your parents?’

‘She didn’t know that lying cow Halldora,’ said Adolf. ‘I actually called her to ask how she managed to get a nurse on her side in her smear campaign.’

Svala gasped. ‘You called the girl? She didn’t mention that in the police statement, and the prosecutor hasn’t said anything about it either.’

‘Maybe Halldora didn’t want anyone to know about the phone call. She actually wanted to talk to me, and she offered to drop the charges if I would go out with her.’ Adolf frowned.‘It’s like I’ve always said – her pride was hurt. 1 don’t know what I was thinking dragging her home with me that night, but I was drunk and high and didn’t realize what a dog she was. The next morning she clearly thought she’d hit the jackpot and kept going on about our “relationship” and God knows what else. I got rid of her as quickly as I could, but she came back the next night. I let her in by mistake and it was like she thought we’d become an item. Why couldn’t she see how badly we went together, her always talking, talking, talking and me…?’ He didn’t finish the sentence.

‘So when did she decide to press charges against you?’ asked Thóra. ‘You sleep together and the next evening she comes to visit. And after that, just under another twenty-four hours go by before she makes her allegation.’ Thóra knew she’d gone beyond the limits of what pertained directly to Alda’s murder, but she wanted to have everything clear before they discussed the woman. That way she could get a better feeling for Adolf’s reactions, and she might be able to tell if he was lying about anything important.

Adolf looked at Svala, who indicated that he should continue. ‘I gave her pills on her second visit, to stop her from getting pregnant. I thought I’d forgotten them the night before because I was so drunk. That’s the only reason I let her in.’ He didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed when he said this. ‘But it turns out I probably did remember on Saturday night, so she got a large enough-’

Svala interrupted him, either embarrassed by his insensitivity or in a hurry to conclude the meeting. ‘Anyway, the girl started bleeding heavily and went to A &E. That’s where we see what kind of person she is: she put two and two together and started coming after Adolf. After the thing with the morning-after pills came out, she said she’d been raped.’

‘She called me from the hospital, while she was waiting for the doctor or something,’ Adolf said suddenly.‘She asked whether I’d done this, and what was Ithinking since we were a couple. I laughed at her because it was so ridiculous. I probably shouldn’t have done that. She went completely nuts and said I would regret it. Then she went and shouted rape after I hung up on her. That’s what she’s like, she’s mental.’

Svala cleared her throat. ‘You didn’t tell me about this before,’ she said. ‘We could easily check out the phone call.’

‘I didn’t rape her. I thought at least I’d be considered innocent until proven guilty. I didn’t do anything.’ Adolf stared at each of them in turn, his eyes shining with the conviction of a simpleton. ‘I didn’t want to have to admit what I did with the drug. I’ll get a bad reputation on the scene.’

Thóra supposed the ‘scene’was picking up young women in bars. All the feelings this man had stirred in her before he opened his mouth had long since gone cold. She was glad she never went out on the town, and that it would be many years before Sóley would start doing so; she had heard enough about Adolf and Halldora’s‘relationship’. ‘You claim Halldora didn’t know Alda,’ she said. ‘But you haven’t told me whether Alda realized who your parents were. Was that what inspired the phone call?’

Adolf bared his teeth a little. He reminded Thóra uncomfortably of a snake. ‘I never said she didn’t know Alda; she knew her, but it wasn’t her that got Alda to call me. Halldora said Alda was her counsellor or something.’ He shrugged. ‘As far as my parents are concerned, you’ve got to remember that while all of this was going on I was tied up in a lawsuit with the hospital that murdered my mother.’

Thóra raised her eyebrows;‘murdered’ was a bit extreme for a medical error. ‘I do know about that, yes.’

‘You’ll remember that his mother died when she was given a large dose of penicillin, even though she was allergic to it,’ interjected Svala. ‘I’m about to reach a settlement with the hospital, compensating Adolf for their mistake.’

Thóra was already aware of all this.‘I understand that you brought a lawsuit against the hospital,’ she said patiently, ‘but why don’t you carry on telling me about Alda?’

‘The thing is, I didn’t want anything to get in the way of me getting the compensation, so that’s why I wasn’t pleased about Alda harassing me,’ said Adolf. ‘After the first phone call she seemed to give up, so I just stopped worrying about it. But then she started calling me again a few months later, and even though she didn’t sound quite as crazy this time she was basically spouting the same old rubbish underneath it all. I didn’t want to hear it, which is why I hung up on her. I stopped answering the phone even after she said she had information that could help me, and kept apologizing over and over for having wrongly accused me.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Once I humoured her and said I’d meet her at a cafe, but then I changed my mind. I have no idea if she showed up or not.’

‘Was that shortly before she was murdered?’ asked Thóra.

‘Yes. Something like that,’replied Adolf mysteriously. ‘I actually saw her several days before she died. She came to my house all smiles and apologies, like I said. I let her talk, then gave up and threw her out. She never called again, and I thought she had finally got the message that I didn’t want anything to do with her. Then I saw the obituary in the papers a few days later.’ He smiled nastily. ‘The phone calls stopped automatically, in other words.’

‘Have you ever been to Alda’s house?’ asked Svala anxiously. Then she added: ‘Don’tsay anything if you have.’

‘No, I’ve never been to her house and I have no idea where she lives,’ replied Adolf.

‘Lived,’ Thóra corrected him. ‘She’s dead, as we know.’ She took a deep breath before continuing. Hopefully this would lead to something useful rather than just ending up as a lesson in the psychology of self-obsessed individuals.‘Why was Alda so interested in you and this case?’ she asked again.‘Was it because of your parents?’

Adolf grinned at her. It was as if he suddenly realized that he alone had information that Thóra needed. He seemed determined to make the most of it. ‘You’re in luck,’he said, staring at her. ‘I wouldn’t be telling you this if Alda had died penniless.’

‘In that case, it’s certainly lucky that she didn’t,’ said Thóra, unsmiling. ‘And are you ever going to get round to telling me, or not?’ She wasn’t going to jump through hoops for him. The police would squeeze it out of him if necessary.

The corners of Adolf’s mouth drooped.‘Of course I’ve only got her word for it,’ he muttered.‘It might be bullshit.’

‘We’ll let others be the judge of that,’ said Svala. ‘Tell her what Alda said.’

‘Okay,’ said Adolf, shifting in his chair to face Thóra. ‘She said she was my mother.’ He looked away again. ‘I’m not the person I thought I was.’ Then he added nonchalantly: ‘If it is true then I’m her natural heir, of course, so I don’t care which of them was my mother. I can inherit from both of them.’ He shot a sideways glance at Svala.‘It’s a win-win situation,’ he said with a grin.

Thóra stared at his swarthy features and pictured Alda, blonde and fair-skinned. Two less similar people were hardly possible to imagine. Had Alda been out of her mind? She didn’t have any children: the autopsy report had even stated clearly that she’d never given birth. Thóra’s mind was racing, there were so many questions. Could Alda have donated her eggs to Valgerdur, making Adolf a test-tube baby? She couldn’t remember when such technology had first made it to Iceland, but it seemed doubtful that it had been available in the 1970s. If Alda were this man’s mother, who could the father be? Markus? Did this mean Valgerdur Bjolfsdottir did not raise Adolf? And if not, where was the son she raised?