The Quiet Mother

61

After leaving Bernódus and his wife on their deck by the sea, Konrád drove as fast as he could to Regína’s home. He had told the couple that they could expect a visit from the police very soon, to answer questions about Bernódus’s interactions with Valborg in years past and again in the days leading up to her murder. He would have called Marta immediately if his phone hadn’t died.

About ten minutes after he got the call, he parked his car at Regína’s house but saw no light in any of its windows, no signs of life. He ran up to the house, rang the bell and knocked on the door, which he found to be locked. He called out to Regína but got no response, so he hurried behind the house and tried the garden door, which opened. He made his way slowly inside and called out to her again.

‘Regína! Are you here? The police are on their way,’ he lied. ‘They’ll be here soon. Are you all right?’

There was a crunching noise as he stepped on a piece of glass, and when his eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside, he saw that someone had trashed the place. Light bulbs had been broken, chairs knocked over, and books thrown on the floor.

He saw a shadowy figure emerge from the kitchen, and Regína came into view. She’d been crying and was clearly in shock.

‘Are you all right?’ Konrád asked, hurrying to her. Her forehead was cut and bleeding.

‘I think I was knocked out,’ she said.

‘I’m going to call for an ambulance,’ Konrád said, helping her sit down.

‘Daníel attacked me,’ Regína said. ‘He was so angry. I think my head hit the door frame over there,’ she said, pointing at the kitchen door. ‘I lost consciousness...’

‘Don’t move,’ Konrád said, before going to her phone and calling the Emergency Response number. ‘You have a nasty gash on your head and aren’t quite yourself at the moment. It’s best you keep still until they come.’

‘So angry...’

‘Why was he so angry?’ Konrád asked, after speaking with Emergency Response and requesting an ambulance.

‘He came here soon after you left,’ Regína said. ‘I looked out into the garden and saw him standing there looking lonely and forlorn, which gave me quite a surprise, of course, but I asked him in. He said he’d been standing there for a while, and was really quite calm, at first. He started talking about my daughter and said he thinks about her sometimes. Recalled how kind she’d been to him. He said he remembered it very clearly when she fell ill and went to the hospital and didn’t come back. He knew that was why he couldn’t have stayed with me any longer. He’s been drifting here and there ever since then, in fact all his life, and never known exactly who he was or where he came from.’

Regína rubbed her forehead and grimaced with pain. She was starting to recover a bit from the blow.

‘He wanted to ask me about his mother. That was why he came and I felt as if something had happened to him recently. He asked if I had any photos of her. He’d always known he was a foster child but hadn’t thought much about it, but now he’d seen a familiar face somewhere and couldn’t shake it...’

‘What did you tell him?’

‘The truth. The whole truth. I had no other choice. He has every right to know it, of course. He should have learned it long ago. I told him about the rape. I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t want any lies. I tried to break it to him as gently as possible, and said it wasn’t certain, but that you can’t rule it out.’

‘And?’

‘He just smiled.’

‘Smiled?’

‘As if life had stopped surprising him long ago. Then he broke down. I tried to console him but it had the opposite effect — he started swearing, and before I knew it he was in a rage. He turned his anger on me. Screamed at me, asking why I hadn’t told him anything. I should have contacted him years ago. I should have told him the truth at the church when Sunnefa died, and then this might not have happened. He wanted to know what had possessed us, and then he went on the rampage, smashing everything here and then... then he attacked me...’

‘Do you know where he’s gone?’

‘He felt so awful,’ Regína said. ‘I told him about you, what you were doing. That you were trying to track him down because Valborg had asked you to, and that you wanted to help him. He might want to talk to you.’

‘Where did he go?’

‘I don’t know, maybe... maybe he’s gone to see his father... I don’t know.’

‘Bernódus? Did you tell him who his father is?’

‘Yes,’ said Regína. ‘He felt so bad, the poor boy, so terribly bad... I really don’t understand how... how it could have happened that he, that it was him who...’

‘What?’

‘Dear God,’ Regína groaned, grabbing Konrád’s arm. ‘It’s no wonder he feels so awful, the poor boy.’