Someone to Watch Over Me

CHAPTER 21 Saturday, 16 January 2010

For once, the weather was glorious. Nevertheless, Thóra was thankful to be wearing a coat long enough to protect her bottom from the cold plastic benches in the stands. Out on the AstroTurf, Sóley ran around with the rest of the team, none of them showing any sign of following either the rules or the ball, which as a result was nearly always on their half of the pitch. This practice match had been set up at short notice and Thóra thought the coach had probably decided the cold conditions might benefit his team, allowing them to lose by fewer points than usual or even to manage a draw. This was rather optimistic, particularly in light of the fact that there was no risk of the team’s opponents mixing up the goals or losing sight of the ball in a flurry of snow.

‘Turn around, Sóley! Wrong way!’ called Matthew, cupping his hands around his mouth. Sóley stopped, turned to them and waved, smiling. As she did so, a group of girls ran past her after the ball. ‘She’s getting better,’ he said to Thóra, somewhat unconvincingly.

‘Isn’t it bad for the pitch to let them play in winter?’ Thóra knew less about football than Sóley, but she did know the pitch was new and she didn’t want the 6th Girls’ Division damaging it if they were only going to lose.

‘They’re so light it hardly makes any difference,’ Matthew replied. To further emphasize their minuscule stature, they were playing against a backdrop of the magnificent sparkling sea on the other side of the pitch and the Reykjanes mountain range. ‘Go on, Sóley! Go on!’ Again Thóra’s daughter stopped to wave; the game was forgotten, and had been lost long ago.

‘It might not be a good idea to encourage her.’ Thóra glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes left. ‘It looks to me like her concentration can’t handle it.’ Her phone rang in her coat pocket and Thóra took it out. She didn’t recognize the number but the voice was familiar. It was Grímheiður, Jakob’s mother. At first Thóra seriously regretted answering, preferring not to let work interrupt her on the weekends, but after she’d spoken to the woman, she felt differently. She thanked Grímheiður and said goodbye.

‘What is it?’ Matthew was startled when he saw Thóra’s expression.

‘Jakob is being moved from Sogn. He was taken to the National Hospital with serious injuries last night, and underwent surgery on his eye.’

Matthew turned back to the match. ‘What happened?’

‘Jósteinn attacked him. With a knife and fork in the middle of their meal. He’ll be lucky to keep his eye, and he has multiple other wounds, so I’m told.’

This was enough to draw Matthew’s attention away from the ball. ‘What? I thought Jósteinn was his benefactor or something? Isn’t he paying for the investigation because he likes Jakob so much? Were they fighting about something?’

‘No, not as far as I understand. The attack was completely unprovoked, according to Jakob’s mother.’ Thóra put the phone back in her pocket. It was clear that this attack would have a decisive effect on the issue of reopening the case; surely Jósteinn was unlikely to continue paying for the investigation after what had just happened. ‘I really don’t know why I’m surprised. The man is ill, capable of anything, and I should probably be grateful that I didn’t leave my meeting with him with a fork in my temple or something.’

Matthew wasn’t amused. ‘That’s enough of that kind of talk.’

Thóra ignored him. She had no desire for any further communication with Jósteinn, but it was an interesting development nonetheless, and her desire to get Jakob out of Sogn was now quite strong. She knew it was dangerous to think this way; she mustn’t become emotionally attached to the case. That would increase the risk of her missing something, or simply ignoring anything that didn’t suit her. But unfortunately it wasn’t always possible to control one’s emotions, and it was simply impossible not to care at all about Jakob. ‘I don’t know, maybe I should go and see him in hospital. Take him some flowers or chocolates.’

Matthew shrugged and turned back to the match again. ‘Would you be allowed? Won’t he be under police supervision?’

‘I think I would, given my involvement in his case.’

‘Then you’d better hurry up, because you won’t be in that position for much longer. Surely Jósteinn will stop paying for the investigation, now that their friendship has soured.’ Matthew suddenly sounded rather angry. ‘I don’t understand why you’re taking on cases like this, anyway. There’s loads of work around for lawyers; masses of it, dealing with money – nice, harmless paper-based transactions, even if their origins might be ugly.’

‘That kind of work is all allocated through nepotism; and in any case, we can barely compete with the big firms, who have loads of specialized lawyers on their payrolls.’ She neglected to add the most important reason: that she found financial claims and business law indescribably boring, and even Bragi, who generally managed to find something interesting in all his cases, was unlikely to be persuaded away from the divorce cases he loved so much. ‘I’m continuing with this case, unless Jósteinn stops paying. It’s caught my attention, and it’s not as though we’re suddenly drowning in work. We could use the income, even though the case might turn out to be less weighty than it seems.’

‘The bank got in touch and offered me my job back.’ Matthew didn’t look away from the pitch as he said this. ‘Albeit at lower wages, since the scope of the role is only a fraction of what it used to be.’

‘That’s great!’ Thóra leaned into him. ‘Aren’t you happy?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘When did they ask you?’

‘The day before yesterday.’

‘And you waited to tell me because…?’ Thóra moved away from him again, glad she hadn’t yet made an appointment for that wax.

‘I don’t know exactly. I needed time to think about it and I had to do that alone. On the surface it might look like a good offer, but I need to think it over carefully.’ He turned and looked her in the eye. ‘It would have confused me to discuss it with you. It’s nothing to do with you personally, it’s me. I’ve never found these sorts of things easy. I feel better when the answers are clear in my mind – yes or no – and when I don’t need to think about it any further.’

Thóra nodded slowly. ‘I understand.’ She felt bad about how put out she sounded; it wasn’t as if he were confessing to an affair or telling her he’d squandered their money on slot machines or Icelandic stocks. ‘So what have you decided, since you’ve now told me about it?’

‘Nothing. I’m still thinking.’ Sóley and her team were still running around on the pitch, apparently entirely unconcerned that their opponents’ score made it look more like a volleyball match. They celebrated enthusiastically when they managed, coincidentally, to kick the ball in the direction of their opponents’ goal. The ball rolled slowly into the penalty area and the other team watched this unexpected development in amazement until the goalkeeper strolled out onto the pitch and grabbed it. The few spectators applauded as if a goal had actually been scored. Matthew clapped along loudly, and when the applause died out he added: ‘I probably will take the job, even though I really don’t want to go back to that office.’

‘That sounds sensible.’ Thóra smiled. Another salary wouldn’t hurt. ‘You can always change jobs later. It’s not like they’re hiring you for life.’

‘No, that’s true.’ He was obviously making an effort to be upbeat. ‘Which of course is all this job has going for it, apart from the fact that I’m finding it incredibly difficult just sitting about doing nothing.’

‘And it hasn’t exactly made things easier having Mum and Dad hanging around…’ There was no need for Matthew to respond to this. ‘Well, anyway, you’ll figure something out. It’s not as if we’re broke.’

Matthew smiled at her. ‘Don’t you need an assistant?’

She smiled back. ‘Get rid of Bella for me and you can apply to be our receptionist.’

The match ended with Sóley’s team being thrashed as usual; in fact the winners even seemed a bit shamefaced, as if they’d been playing against a team of younger girls and had got too carried away by the game to keep their victory to a modest level. But Sóley and her teammates didn’t take the loss to heart and came off the pitch with their heads held high, in the true spirit of sportsmanship.

Jakob wasn’t handcuffed to the bed or restrained in any other way. Nor were there any guards posted at his door. The hospital room was securely locked, though, so he couldn’t have got far if he had made a run for it – which seemed unlikely in any case, considering his injuries. The nurse who had opened the door for Thóra had called for authorisation to let her in, which didn’t appear to be a problem. Not knowing the full story behind the attack, Thóra had brought Matthew with her just to be safe; it was entirely possible that Jakob had started the fight and she knew she might be in for a thrashing similar to the one that Sóley’s team had suffered if he felt like turning his anger on her. Matthew’s presence didn’t seem to bother anyone, which reinforced the impression that people weren’t particularly worried about Jakob. Thóra didn’t quite know how to interpret this, but in the end she decided it probably wasn’t a good thing: they weren’t even considering that they might need to keep an eye on him. Of course there could be an entirely different, quite practical explanation; perhaps it was simply yet another manifestation of savings and cutbacks.

Jakob was lying in a hospital bed with the blanket pulled up to his chin. His right eye was covered with thick white bandages and he had made an attempt to put his glasses neatly over them. The large, clumsy frames were crooked, since one arm did not reach his ear, which had also been damaged – it too was covered with bandages, and taped to his head. The result was rather comical; even more so as Jakob turned his head quickly away from the television to see who had come, which meant the glasses dropped and ended up so crooked that they lay almost at right angles to his face. He hurried to straighten them with his chubby fingers. ‘Hello, Jakob,’ said Thóra. She held out the box she’d bought on the way. ‘We’ve brought you some chocolates. You remember Matthew, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’ Jakob stared at the colourful box. ‘Can I have some now?’

‘Of course.’ Thóra immediately regretted saying this. He might well be nil by mouth. ‘Are you allowed to eat? Has anyone told you you shouldn’t?’

‘No. No one.’ Jakob shook his head to emphasize his words. ‘But I’m still hungry. I couldn’t finish my supper last night.’ He didn’t need to explain any further what had disturbed his supper. ‘I got food before but I should have had two meals because I’m owed one from yesterday.’

‘Of course.’ Thóra smiled. She opened the box and placed it on the table next to him as Matthew pulled two chairs up to the bed. ‘Watch out for the cracknel.’

Jakob took Thóra at her word and chose carefully. With his mouth full of chocolate he muttered politely, ‘Thank you very much.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Matthew took the empty wrappers from him and threw them in a rubbish bin by the sink, then sat back down. ‘How are you feeling, apart from hungry?’

‘Bad. I’m itchy but I can’t scratch because there are ban-dages in the way.’

Thóra pointed to the television remote. ‘Would you mind turning down the volume or turning it off, just while we’re here? Then we can hear you better.’ The actors in the film had suddenly burst into song.

Jakob looked at the screen and spent a few moments making up his mind. In the end he reached for the remote and turned off the TV. ‘I’ve seen this movie anyway.’

‘Thanks, that’s much better.’ Thóra smiled at him again. ‘Has your mother been able to visit you?’

‘Yes. She was here before.’ Jakob selected another chocolate. ‘She’s going to come back later. I can see our house from here, so she can see me too. We live on the third floor and if I’m not home, Mummy needs to carry the food all the way up the stairs on her own.’ He pointed towards the window with his right hand, which was also wrapped in bandages.

‘I’m sure you’ve been a great help to her.’ Thóra looked out of the window but couldn’t see the house he meant. ‘Hopefully you’ll be able to go and help her again. But first you’ve got to get better, and then a few other things have to happen. But let’s not worry about those things now.’

‘No.’ Jakob closed the box. ‘We can talk about all sorts of other things. Like my eye.’ He placed his hand on the part of his glasses that lay over the bandages.

‘How did this happen? Do you think you’re up to telling us about the attack?’ said Matthew.

‘It was bad. I was eating and then all of a sudden… just really bad.’

Matthew nodded sympathetically. ‘Was he sitting next to you?’

‘Yeah. He was having some fish and then he suddenly stood up and just… just really bad.’

‘So you didn’t punch him, even as a joke, or anything like that?’ asked Thóra.

‘Nah. I was eating my fish. We were supposed to get rice pudding if we finished it all.’ His expression turned sad. ‘I never got any.’

‘I’m sure they’ll give you some.’ Thóra resolved to remember to ask the nurse in reception whether it would be possible to bring Jakob a bowl of rice pudding. ‘Has he ever tried to hurt you before? Maybe he was stopped by the staff?’

‘No, never. He’s always good. Except now. Maybe he didn’t like the fish.’

‘Maybe. Did he say anything when he attacked you, or just before?’

Jakob stared at Matthew thoughtfully, his mouth wide open. ‘Yes, he did. It was really strange.’

‘Do you remember what it was?’ Thóra leaned closer.

‘He said that it would be better for me to be in Reykjavík. I remember because I was so happy and I was going to say that I thought that too but I couldn’t say anything because… all of a sudden everything hurt so much and I couldn’t see anything.’

Thóra’s stomach lurched at the thought of someone with a fork in their eye, and she felt like she had to interrupt Jakob in order to block out the image. ‘Maybe we should talk about something else, something more fun. I’m sure you’ll have to discuss this with the police and various other people, which is why it’s probably not a good idea to be talking about it too much now.’ Suddenly her recent conversation with Jósteinn popped into her mind. Again she interrupted Jakob, who looked as if he were about to say something. ‘Did he say better? That it would be better if you were in Reykjavík?’

‘Yes.’ Jakob nodded so eagerly that his glasses slipped again. ‘That’s what he said.’

Thóra tried not to seem surprised. ‘He didn’t say anything else?’

‘He did, he said one more thing. He said that I should be good and talk to you. But then he started to cut my ear and jab my eye so I screamed and I didn’t hear him after that. Maybe he said something else.’

Thóra doubted it. What Jósteinn had said completely explained the attack. He believed Thóra’s investigation would make better progress if she had easier access to Jakob.

Thóra didn’t tell Matthew about her suspicions until they’d left the hospital. ‘Are you serious?’ Matthew stopped, seeming upset. He was always direct and to the point about everything, and for him not to have told her about the bank’s offer was the closest he’d ever come to scheming. To manipulate events in the way Thóra believed Jósteinn had done was so alien to him that all he could do was gawp at her.

‘I can’t prove anything, or confirm it without asking him directly, but it completely fits with what we discussed.’

Matthew shook his head irritably. ‘I don’t know which is crazier – to attack someone like that unprovoked, or to injure them for a specific purpose.’

‘No question – it’s crazier to do it for a purpose.’ Thóra breathed in the cool air. ‘He’s not a normal man, remember. He’s capable of anything.’ She looked up along the building and saw Jakob’s face in the window. He wasn’t watching them leave, he was just peering out over the hospital grounds, in the direction of his mother’s house. She turned back to Matthew. ‘If I’m right, there’s no question that Jósteinn wants to keep the case going.’ She pointed at the sad sight framed in the window. ‘If so, then I’ll keep investigating. That’s all there is to it.’

Matthew said nothing.