The Silence of the Sea

Chapter 30

‘So you knew nothing about this? Your friend Halldór didn’t say a word about meeting Karítas in Lisbon?’ Thóra had to raise her voice to be heard over the music that was blasting from the sound system behind her. She didn’t know the band and had no wish to become any more closely acquainted with them. The bass was turned up so high that her body seemed to throb with it and she was almost afraid her heart would start beating in time to the insistent drumming.

As soon as she and Bella left Karítas and her mother, she had rung Snævar and asked to meet him. She had taken care to reveal nothing about their errand, merely hinting that she wanted his opinion on a few small things. He had agreed and suggested she come round to his place as his leg was particularly bad that day, which made it hard to leave the house. If she wanted to see him at her office, it would have to wait until tomorrow. Thóra felt it was too urgent for that, so she and Bella drove straight from Arnarnes up to the suburb of Grafarvogur where Snævar lived in a long block of flats that could have done with some exterior maintenance.

Inside, Snævar’s flat was little better. Thóra hoped for his sake that the squalor could be blamed on his broken leg. As it was, he was lucky not to have tripped over the piles of rubbish that littered the floor and broken the other one. He apologised casually for the mess. It was obvious that he was glad of the company; perhaps it was a sign of his loneliness that he should be willing to receive guests in the midst of all this noise and chaos. But his pleasure visibly faded when Thóra accused him of having held back information. ‘Though to tell the truth, I find the whole thing rather far-fetched,’ she added. ‘And I’m fairly sure the police will too.’

Snævar stared blindly into an empty mug with a congealing ring of coffee froth around the inside. ‘I didn’t want to tell anyone. I was so afraid people would suspect Halli. None of you knew him so you’re bound to believe the worst of him. Even if he did speak to her, he didn’t do anything. I can’t and won’t believe it.’

‘You obviously don’t have much faith in the police.’ Thóra pushed a robot vacuum cleaner away with her foot in order to make more legroom. The poor thing had obviously run out of power and been prevented from reaching its recharging point by the obstacle course on the floor. ‘You can trust them to find out the truth.’

‘How can they, when there’s no one left to tell the tale? Surely you must see that?’ Snævar shoved an embroidered cushion behind his back for support. It looked like an heirloom from his grandmother’s house. ‘Anyway, nothing happened. I broke my leg and Halli had his hands full coping with me and preparing the yacht for departure. There’s no way he would have had time to help Karítas, so I didn’t think it was relevant.’

‘It’s not up to you to decide what is or isn’t relevant. Not as far as the police are concerned, at any rate. But you don’t have to answer my questions unless you want to.’

‘I do want to.’ Snævar seemed agonised by this turn of events and kept glancing from Thóra to Bella in the hope of eliciting sympathy. ‘I can’t begin to describe how much I regret not having mentioned it before.’

‘You didn’t mention it now either.’ Far from being irritated by all the mess with which she was sharing her chair, Bella seemed extraordinarily at ease. ‘You’d have kept quiet about it if Karítas hadn’t said anything.’

‘Look, surely you can understand? Once you start telling lies or leaving things out, it’s difficult to stop. And I can’t see how it changes anything.’

‘Would you please just tell me what happened?’ Thóra had lost patience with his excuses. ‘The police are interviewing Karítas as we speak and I expect they’ll come on here straight afterwards. Then you’ll have to talk, so why not tell us first?’

Snævar turned pale and the dark shadows under his eyes became even more marked. ‘Of course I’ll talk to them but there’s no harm in telling you as well. It would be better to hear your questions before I meet them.’

‘You mean you want to practise your story on me?’

‘No. I didn’t mean that.’ He seemed wounded by this but continued nonetheless. ‘Karítas was in Lisbon all right, but there’s no way Halli knew that beforehand or that she went there because of him. He ran into her completely by chance.’

‘Were you there?’

‘Yes.’ The colour was slowly returning to his cheeks. ‘It was on our first evening. We went on a pub crawl and she was sitting in one of the smarter, more expensive bars. We’d have walked out again if Halli hadn’t spotted her and wanted to say hello. I didn’t mind; we weren’t having any luck pulling girls and I thought we might be more popular if we were seen in the company of a classy bird like her. She was friendly too. Very friendly. She seemed over the moon to see Halli again; she remembered him well.’

‘Did she know what had brought you to Lisbon?’

‘Yes, Halli told her before we sat down. I remember because I thought she’d be pissed off to be reminded of her husband’s bankruptcy but not a bit of it. She didn’t seem bothered. She just thought it was a funny coincidence.’

‘So when did she bring up her request and what exactly did she say?’

‘We’d just got our drinks, so it must have been pretty soon. She asked Halli if he could do her a little favour and he reckoned it shouldn’t be a problem.’ Snævar paused, as if searching his memory, then carried on: ‘She said she needed to get into the yacht to fetch some stuff and wanted to borrow the keys.’

‘So you lent them to her?’

‘Yes. I think so.’

‘Really?’ Bella exclaimed, earning a sharp look from Thóra, though she tried not to let Snævar see. She didn’t want him to find out straight away that his story was inconsistent with Karítas’s admittedly rather vague account. People were often caught out by the small flaws in their statements.

‘Yes, as far as I recall. Though I could be wrong.’ He gave Bella a questioning look. ‘Why, did she claim she never got them?’

‘She didn’t mention it,’ Thóra intervened hastily. ‘We were discussing the matter from a different angle. Let’s just assume that you’re right.’

Snævar seemed confused for a moment. ‘Well, we sat there for a bit, then we left. She took our phone numbers and said she’d be in touch the following day. Halli told her she’d have to go on board before the captain and the fourth crew member turned up. Loftur, I mean.’ He hesitated but when neither Bella nor Thóra commented, he went on: ‘Then nothing happened except that she rang next day and spoke to Halli, though I don’t know exactly what she said. All he told me was that they’d arranged to meet up the following day. I broke my leg that same evening, so I don’t think they can have done. Halli was busy helping me all the time that he wasn’t carrying out preparations on the yacht. Thanks to me, he had to manage all that on his own. He wouldn’t have had time to run around for Karítas, that’s for sure.’

‘Did she mention what it was she wanted to fetch?’

Snævar shook his head. ‘No, not in any detail. Just some of her crap. Clothes, stuff like that.’

‘A big fuss to make about a load of old clothes, don’t you think?’

‘Don’t ask me what goes on in women’s heads. Maybe they were all her favourite things.’

‘Maybe.’ The music ceased abruptly as Thóra was speaking and the second half of the word came out as a shout. Mercifully, the disc seemed to have finished and she lowered her voice before continuing, though she was ready for the next track to start booming out of the speakers any minute. ‘She seems to have gone to an awful lot of trouble over a few dresses. But tell me something else. Was Karítas’s assistant over there with her? A young woman called Aldís.’

Snævar seemed momentarily thrown; he shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. ‘I wouldn’t know.’

‘So she wasn’t at the bar and her name didn’t crop up in conversation? I imagine you asked Karítas if she was there alone? At least, that would seem to me a natural question if I bumped into someone I knew abroad.’

‘Maybe we did, or rather Halli did. I can’t remember. Can’t remember if she mentioned her either. Why do you ask?’

‘She can’t be traced.’ Thóra watched his Adam’s apple move up and down. ‘Which is rather odd. Yet she was definitely in Lisbon. The police have checked up on the two women’s movements. They both flew there but only one of them came home.’ She wasn’t about to tell him that the PA, not Karítas, had taken a plane out of Portugal. Which in itself was peculiar given that Karítas had come home, however she had managed it. Thóra suspected that when the CCTV recordings from airport security were examined, it would transpire that Karítas had travelled under her assistant’s name. No doubt the police had that covered.

‘How can they know that?’ Snævar was looking very uneasy. ‘They can hardly have checked with every airline in the world?’

‘I don’t know but that’s what I’m told.’ Thóra caught Bella’s eye. ‘Maybe we should be going. I’m keen to hear what the police have to say now that they’re getting to the bottom of this.’ She turned back to Snævar. ‘Do you know what I think?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I think there was money or other valuables on board that Karítas wanted to get her hands on. Maybe her husband had hidden away a fortune on the yacht in case of emergency, and he didn’t have a chance to remove it before he was forced to surrender the keys to the resolution committee. Whatever the truth, either he asked Karítas to recover it or she took it upon herself to do so. She needed to get on board somehow and that’s when you two drunken idiots fell into her lap. I reckon that when he sobered up your friend Halli began to suspect that she was after more than just clothes and jewellery, so he decided to take either all or part of it for himself. You were out of action, so there was nothing to stop him hunting for it. After that something happened and Karítas’s PA had to pay the price, perhaps because she’d come up with the same idea. It seems likely that Karítas was involved in her demise since she used Aldís’s air ticket to leave Lisbon. The truth will emerge. Perhaps she simply lost her own ticket or accidentally mixed them up. Who knows?’

‘Not me.’ Snævar moved to the edge of the sofa, as if to be ready to make a break for it. ‘Halli would never have harmed a woman. I’m telling you the truth.’

‘But you’ve told me so many things, hardly any of which seem to have any foundation in fact. So permit me to go on with the story. This mess created by your friend and Karítas almost certainly cost my clients their lives. And their daughters.’ Thóra dearly wished she’d brought along a photo of the twins that she could shove in his face. ‘Presumably whoever killed Karítas’s PA stuffed her body into the freezer, hoping to dispose of her once the yacht was out at sea. Then perhaps the couple or one of their daughters came across the body or the money, or worked out by other means that there was something strange going on. So it became necessary to get rid of the family.’

‘Halli would never have done anything like what you’re implying. Never.’

‘Maybe not. But how do we know that someone else wasn’t there with him? Or on board on their own account? Nothing much was heard from the crew after they left port, so there may well have been other passengers on board, whether they were aware of the fact or not. It’s a big yacht.’

‘Like who?’ Snævar narrowed his eyes. ‘No one could hide there without the crew noticing. I’ve already told you that. You’d have to know the yacht inside out and even then you’d have to be incredibly lucky not to get noticed. It’s a crazy idea. Completely crazy.’ Turning to Bella, he asked: ‘You don’t believe this bullshit, do you? You remember what it’s like on board. Do you think either of you would be capable of hiding there?’

‘No, maybe not. But then we don’t know our way around. I bet there are plenty of other people who could.’ Bella shrugged.

Thóra leant as far back as she could without touching the damp towel that was draped over the back of her chair. ‘I assume the police will look into that. And once the culprit has been found and confessed to the truth, it’ll be much easier for a judge to rule that my clients are dead. Then I’ll be able move on to other things, unlike their family who will have to struggle with their grief for the rest of their lives.’

Snævar sat back in the sofa again. ‘No stranger could have stowed away on board. You’ll never get me to buy that.’

‘No, maybe not. But could Karítas have done it?’

‘Oh, do me a favour.’ Snævar looked incredulous. Perhaps he thought women were incapable of stowing away. Or committing murder.

‘Or maybe somebody quite different,’ said Bella.

‘Like who?’

‘Like you.’ As soon as Bella had uttered these words, Thóra felt uncomfortably aware of the smallness of the room and their vulnerability to attack. No doubt Bella had intended it sarcastically; perhaps she had wanted to needle the man sitting opposite them, who was now racking his brains for a suitable reply. But big mouths often blurt out the truth, and all of a sudden Thóra realised that Bella could be right. As far as she knew, no one had checked Snævar’s claim to have flown home, and he could well have been on the yacht, in spite of his broken leg. Her eyes dropped to the plastic splint that projected from under his trouser leg, concealing the cast. From what she could see he was wearing a sock underneath it, and in a flash she understood his reluctance to procure a doctor’s certificate. No doctor with a modicum of self-respect would give a healthy man a certificate confirming that he had a broken leg.

Rarely, if ever, had she been as eager to get outside into the open air.