The Quiet Mother

35

It had started raining again, heavily, when he went to pick up Eygló around noon the next day, and she hurried out to his car. She was unusually quiet, simply watching the windscreen wipers contend with the rain as Konrád drove up from Fossvogur. Konrád decided not to bother her and they drove westwards in silence, apart from the sound of the radio, which was tuned to an American rock station that Konrád liked. He’d turned down the volume when she got into the car and thought it best not to turn it up again.

‘Is everything all right?’ he asked at a red light.

Eygló sighed.

‘Is it the etheric realm?’ said Konrád.

‘Go on, make fun of it,’ said Eygló. ‘There’s some scruffy woman bothering me. One of the friends of old Málfríður, who died the other day, came to my house last night and claimed to have some message for me. It’s unbearable. Why do people whom I’ve never seen in my life think they know me?’

‘Incomprehensible.’

‘And my piano is behaving strangely, too.’

‘Your piano?’

‘Yes, there’s no point in talking to you about it,’ Eygló said curtly.

Soon afterwards, they arrived at the home of the man they were planning on meeting. Konrád had spoken to him on the phone that morning and explained his business with him, and the man, whose name was Henning, was receptive to it. Henning lived alone and took care of himself, in the main, but wore a medical alert bracelet on his wrist and had help cleaning his place. He walked slowly, taking barely more than baby steps, staggered slightly and dragged his soft felt slippers along the floor. He took Konrád’s measure, knowing that he was the son of the scumbag whom he’d once visited in the Shadow District with his friend, Stella’s nephew.

‘I’ve been recalling that visit since you rang,’ he said as he invited them in. ‘I’d forgotten it for the most part, and don’t remember you at all.’

‘No, it was a long time ago, of course,’ Konrád said.

‘I remember our visit to the Shadow District. I remember the man in the basement. I didn’t like the look of him. Your dad was a real piece of work. Treating the widow like he did. It took a special kind of man. Not a trace of remorse in him.’

Konrád didn’t know what to say. He’d long since grown tired of having to answer for his father’s actions. He looked closely at the old man, but didn’t know if he was one of the two who’d paid a visit to his father back in the day and threatened him; he hadn’t seen them well enough, besides the fact that time and age had done their work on him.

The man smiled at Eygló.

‘And you’re the daughter of the seer?’

Eygló smiled back awkwardly and nodded.

‘I never met him. Haukur — Stella’s nephew — went to see him alone, and said he wasn’t much of a man. He admitted his part in their game of deception, but pinned most of it on his partner. Said that they’d ratcheted up the drama when needed and had an easy time playing with her emotions. He regretted everything and had a great deal of remorse. He also said he’d genuinely tried to help the widow. He pretended to have some real ability as a medium. I have nothing else to offer you. Sorry.’

They told him not to worry about it, and Konrád added that they knew Haukur had been terribly angry at what the two men did to her.

‘Yeah, he was furious. Not least because he was never able to recover the money.’

‘And I understand he threatened my father. Said he was going to slit his throat like a mad dog’s, or something like that. Which is interesting in light of what happened to my father.’

‘Yes, but he would never have done that,’ said Henning.

‘Why not?’

‘Haukur was a kind man, even if he had a temper. He could say something like that in a fit of rage, but he could never have done anything to anyone. It’s out of the question. When photos of your dad appeared following the murder and we saw that it was the man who’d cheated money out of Stella, I asked if he had anything on his conscience. I asked him outright, because I knew what he thought of your father. I remember how surprised Haukur was that such a thought should ever have crossed my mind.’

‘But it did cross your mind?’ said Konrád.

‘Yes, but not in any really serious way. It was said half-heartedly. I apologised to him for it.’

‘Had he said anything that prompted you to ask him that?’

‘No, apart from what you heard, but that was long before that, so—’

‘We heard about the mental illness,’ said Eygló.

‘He had migraines. That’s all I know.’

‘Was he here in town at that time?’

‘He was. He also said that your father had of course deserved what happened to him. Haukur never really beat about the bush.’

‘Did he know much about knives?’ asked Eygló.

‘Not that I know of,’ said Henning. ‘On the other hand, he had a gun given to him by a friend of his in the British Army during the war.’

‘Was he familiar with the Butchers’ Association of the South?’ Konrád asked. ‘Its premises on Skúlagata? The people who worked there?’

‘I really don’t know. I don’t remember him being so. He may well have been, though.’

The man fiddled with the alert bracelet on his wrist and Konrád wondered if he’d ever had to use it.

‘Have you found out who that doctor was?’ the man asked out of the blue, continuing to fiddle with the bracelet.

‘What doctor?’ said Konrád.

‘Who owed him.’

‘Owed who?’

‘Your father. Haukur visited him again and then he was... more persuadable and promised to pay back some of what he took from Stella.’

‘He visited him again?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why was he more persuadable then?’

The man hesitated.

‘What happened?’

‘It was some time before your father died. Haukur asked me not to tell anyone. Because of what happened afterwards. He threatened to kill your father if he didn’t return the money. Your father took him seriously and he promised to get it. He told Haukur that he expected money from someone who owed him.’

‘What for?’ Konrád asked.

Henning continued to fiddle with the alert bracelet, then held the button up to his ear as if it were a watch.

‘Haukur never found out what it was. Naturally, he didn’t trust a thing your father said, but he mentioned a man here in town owing him money. I don’t know why Haukur thought the man was from the medical profession; your dad probably said something along those lines. Maybe you should check on that. Since you’re on this hunt.’

‘Check on what?’

‘Haukur thought your dad had something on the man. Perhaps he was even talking about blackmail, but then heard nothing more about it...’

‘Oh?’

‘Never got Stella’s money, of course.’

‘A doctor?’

‘Yes. A doctor.’