The Quiet Mother

55

On the phone was a colleague of Konrád’s who had once worked for the police in Keflavík. He’d left many years ago and worked now at the Keflavík town hall, but at one time had tried his hand in CID, where he worked alongside Konrád and they became good friends. Konrád knew the man had connections with all sorts of non-profit organisations and knew everything and everyone on the Suðurnes peninsula, and it had occurred to Konrád to ask him if he could look up information on the employees of contractors who did construction projects for the military at the Base in Keflavík decades ago. The man had been more than willing to help and found the information that Konrád was looking for, and which didn’t particularly surprise him.

‘Is this of use?’ his friend in Keflavík asked.

‘It may be,’ Konrád said.

‘You’re not going to tell me what it’s about?’

‘No. Not right now. I can’t. I’ll talk to you later.’

He said a hasty goodbye and walked back over to Regína, who was still standing by the tree, holding the branch.

‘Sorry,’ Konrád said. ‘I know this is hard for you to recount.’

‘I haven’t done so in years. No one should have to experience such a thing,’ Regína said. ‘Such loss.’

‘No, of course not.’

‘I’ve always been religious,’ said Regína, holding on to the branch as if it were her sole support in life. ‘And I’ve always believed in life after death. In those years, I was fairly involved in such matters and went to séances and the like and got a well-known psychic healer to come and see Emma. A young woman came with him, and she must have sensed something because she had us call an ambulance immediately. But it was just too late. Emma died that night. She had an infection in her organs and nothing could be done. I was too late to react. I should have already taken her to the hospital. I should have done something. I lost faith in myself. In life. In God. In everything. I was admitted to a psych ward and...’

‘Sunnefa took the boy back?’

Regína nodded.

‘She eventually placed him in a good home up north. I was in no condition to take care of him after Emma left, so the boy... was sort of passed from place to place for a time after he left me and until he moved north. That was around 1980. Sunnefa was always very concerned about the boy and I think she stayed in contact with the people there.’

‘Are you in touch with Daníel at all now?’ Konrád asked.

Regína hesitated.

‘I understand you met him at Sunnefa’s funeral, at least.’

‘I guess that was more than a decade ago. He didn’t look well, the poor thing. He’d moved back to Reykjavík quite some time before that, and it was my understanding that he wasn’t in much contact with the people up north. He’d gone astray and scrounged some money off me. I asked how he was doing and he said he had no complaints. We talked a little about Emma. He remembered her. I told him to come and see me if I could do anything for him, but he never came. He looked like a tramp, to tell you the truth.’

‘Do you know where I can find him?’

‘No,’ said Regína. ‘I can’t help you with that.’

‘This was the only child that Sunnefa delivered and made such arrangements for?’ Konrád asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. Yes, I’m sure of it. She told me that. Said it had been a mistake to take that route. She’d wanted to help the woman keep it a secret, and without terminating the pregnancy, but Sunnefa didn’t do it again. Not that I know of. If she did, she didn’t tell me. It was most unusual, what happened.’

‘Did you know why Valborg didn’t want to have the baby?’ Konrád asked. ‘Did she ever tell Sunnefa?’

‘I think it’s because she was raped. If I remember, she told Sunnefa that it happened at Glaumbær. Sunnefa said she’d tried to get her to press charges, but she refused, saying she couldn’t imagine meeting that man again in court and recounting what he did to her.’

‘And you...?’

‘I found it understandable, pretty much. That she should have chosen that path.’

‘Did she mention to Sunnefa who it was who raped her?’

‘I gather that she’d never seen him before in her life.’

‘Did the boy ever know the truth about his birth? About Valborg? Did you ever tell him?’

Regína shook her head.

‘I... I just couldn’t bring myself to,’ she whispered. ‘I felt like I’d done something to him and... it was all so hard and... no, I couldn’t, couldn’t do it.’