The Silence of the Sea

Chapter 31

Thóra had dressed up that morning out of respect for Ægir’s parents, but as she sat at the table in the small kitchen, she realised it would have made no difference what she was wearing. Such matters were trivial in the face of the news she had brought them. The couple sat opposite her, their haggard features expressing a heartfelt wish that she would stop talking; that she would get the harrowing story over with as soon as possible. They listened attentively, saying little, their eyes fixed on the pattern in the tablecloth. Every now and then one of them would adjust the teaspoon in their saucer or smooth out a wrinkle in the cloth, as if the events Thóra was describing were so unreal that they needed to touch something solid to reassure themselves that this was not a bad dream.

‘So, at the end of the day, it all came down to money. I suppose it’s not really surprising.’ Thóra tried to make eye contact but neither of them would look up. ‘There was a fortune on board; millions of US dollars that the owner of the yacht had stashed in the safe. Or so it’s claimed. No money has been found but both Karítas and Snævar swear blind that they didn’t take it because, although they had the security code, they couldn’t open the safe. They may be telling the truth for all we know. I doubt we’ll ever find out. The fact that they didn’t simply program the yacht to sail off into the Arctic Ocean and never be seen again suggests they genuinely believed the money was still on board. They broke in after her arrival in Iceland to make yet another attempt on the safe, but came away empty-handed, though Karítas couldn’t resist the temptation to grab some of her clothes and a box of personal papers at the same time. Next she tried to persuade me to let her in, presumably for one last crack at it.’ Thóra automatically lowered her voice for what she had to say next. ‘It appears that Ægir got in touch with the American manufacturer of the safe, apparently on behalf of the resolution committee. Once he had managed to convince them of the change of ownership, they provided him with the code that would reset the lock. But he kept this information to himself, so he alone would have had access to the contents. If there were any.’

‘Ægir?’ Margeir’s face was unreadable. He avoided looking at his wife who did not seem to have grasped the implications of Thóra’s words.

‘Yes, but, like I said, we’re not sure there was anything inside when he opened it, though it’s clear that somebody had used the code. We’ll probably never know what happened, so it’s best to assume it was already empty – at least until further evidence comes to light. So much is still unresolved.’

Although many of the questions about what happened on board remained unanswered, the circumstances were much clearer now. The police were still working on the inquiry but the officer Thóra had talked to the day before had thought it unlikely that much more would emerge. Snævar and Karítas had both given extremely one-sided accounts, and the detectives were having to try and piece together the probable sequence of events from their statements.

‘What we have established is that two of the crew members ran into Karítas by chance in Lisbon and she persuaded them to help her go on board to retrieve the money. Not that she actually admitted what she was after; she pretended all she wanted was to fetch some belongings that had been left behind by mistake. They lent her the keys and that same evening she sent her assistant Aldís to pack up her clothes. She herself intended to go on board the following morning to empty the safe.’ Thóra allowed this to sink in before continuing: ‘Snævar and Karítas give conflicting versions of what happened next. She claims she paid an unexpected visit to the yacht that evening and found the keys in the lock but her assistant nowhere to be seen, so she concluded that the girl must have emptied the safe somehow and changed the security code. Whereas Snævar alleges that Karítas caught Aldís messing about and trying on her clothes. When, on top of that, the safe wouldn’t open, Karítas attacked the girl in a rage and pushed her – probably without meaning to – with the result that Aldís banged her head on a sharp marble sink surround in the bathroom.’

‘Which of them is telling the truth, in your opinion?’ Margeir’s question seemed perfunctory, as if he didn’t really care about the answer.

‘My money’s on Snævar, but they’re waiting for the results of tests on the marble surface, which should decide the matter. Until then we’ll just have to rely on their evidence, and his story fits with the captain’s report about finding a dead woman. Whereas Karítas’s statement is full of holes and she’s unable to explain why she took a flight out of Lisbon under Aldís’s name. The police believe she did it to give the impression that the girl had fled the city. If necessary, she wanted to be able to back up her story that Aldís had tampered with the safe and possibly even emptied it.’

Outside the window a postwoman walked by, towing a red trolley that looked half empty. She was holding some envelopes that she checked briefly before continuing on her way, past Ægir’s parents’ house. Perhaps she couldn’t face trying to force any more letters into the couple’s post-box, which was still bursting at the seams. ‘If Snævar’s account is to be believed, it seems that Karítas lost her nerve and rang his friend Halldór to ask for help. She promised him a big reward if he’d dispose of the body once the yacht was out at sea.’

The couple’s faces radiated disgust mingled with disbelief; Margeir’s forehead creased into a mass of wrinkles. His eyes begged Thóra to stop talking and leave at this point. Trying not to let this deter her, she persevered with her tale: ‘But Halldór refused to get involved, though he agreed not to report her to the authorities. He believed her claim that it had been an accident and also bought the idea that he and Snævar were somehow implicated because they had lent her the keys that had been entrusted to them. Yet this wasn’t enough to make him do what she wanted and no doubt everything would have turned out differently if he had only kept the matter to himself. But he didn’t. That evening when he and Snævar were out boozing, Halldór confided in him about Karítas’s request.’

Thóra paused for breath. Her audience seemed more disorientated with every word and she wasn’t sure they were following her any longer. ‘Do let me know if there’s anything you don’t understand and I’ll try to explain it better.’

‘I understand the words all right.’ The woman fiddled with the buttons of her cardigan. The wool was worn and frayed at the seams, and Thóra wished she herself hadn’t come dressed as if for the courtroom. ‘I just don’t understand them. What kind of people are they?’

‘Deeply flawed. Each in their own way.’ Thóra licked her dry lips. She could have done with a glass of water but didn’t like to put her hosts to the trouble. They had enough to cope with at the moment. ‘Anyway, to go on, Snævar became very excited and tried to talk Halldór round. Karítas was offering a big sum of money as a reward and he thought it only natural that they should share it. But Karítas had omitted to tell Halldór that the money she had come to retrieve was locked in a safe that refused to open, which made it unlikely she would ever be able to pay them a penny of it. In fact, unbeknownst to her, the safe was completely empty. However, Snævar believed she was capable of paying and in the end he told Halldór he would do it himself and keep all the money. Halldór reacted badly and forbade Snævar to make contact with Karítas, threatening to go to the police with the whole story if he went ahead. According to Snævar, they were both pretty drunk by this point and started a fight which ended up with Halldór falling into the road, getting hit by a car and breaking his leg. He was so plastered that he couldn’t give a coherent account of his accident when he was admitted to hospital, and that wasn’t only because of the alcohol. You see, Snævar had lent him his European Health Insurance Card because Halldór hadn’t had the sense to apply for one before he left home. As they were about the same age and there’s no photo on the card, the staff at A & E didn’t doubt for a moment that he was Snævar, so Halldór couldn’t reveal the full story behind his injury. In addition to which, he was in such pain that his priority would have been to see a doctor and get medical attention as soon as possible.’

Thóra paused for breath before carrying on. ‘Karítas and Snævar give contradictory statements about what happened next. She asserts that Snævar killed Halldór, whereas he insists that she murdered him. I doubt the mystery will ever be solved, any more than many other details of this case. It’s clear, though, that after Halldór’s leg had been put in a cast, Snævar took him back to the hotel where he slept it off for most of the day. Meanwhile, Snævar rang Karítas from his friend’s mobile and they agreed to meet down by the yacht. There Snævar set to work, cramming the PA’s body into a large bin-bag and hiding it at the bottom of a big chest freezer. They made a deal that he would throw it into the sea in return for a share of the cash, unaware that this would never be forthcoming. The police believe that after Halldór woke up to find himself in a plaster cast, he went down to the harbour and discovered what was going on. He was furious and threatened to report them, after which one or both of them shut him up by drowning him. He may simply have fallen in during the struggle and been unable to save himself because of his injury. Instead of helping him, they didn’t fish him out until it was too late. Presumably, with the body in the freezer, they were eager at all costs to avoid the unwanted attention that a drowned man would attract.’

‘Which of them is more likely to have killed him?’

‘I’d guess Karítas. She had much more to lose at this stage. But it could just as well have been Snævar. In any case, Halldór’s body ended up on board like the PA’s.’

‘My God.’ The woman rubbed the corners of her eyes behind her glasses. ‘I didn’t know people like that existed.’

‘I’m afraid so.’ Thóra deliberately didn’t remind them that Ægir himself had probably succumbed to the temptation of Karítas’s money while he was in Lisbon with his family. Thóra was fairly convinced that the safe had turned out to contain a fortune in cash and that he had removed it. She hadn’t a clue what he had done with it but it was quite possible that the money had influenced his decision to travel home by ship, since it would have been easier to smuggle it back to Iceland by sea than by air. But his parents didn’t need to hear any of this. Things were bad enough as it was. ‘Their next actions can probably be blamed on the fact that they were in a state of shock; they decided that Snævar should join the crew, posing as Halldór, throw the two bodies overboard during the voyage, and keep up the pretence that nothing was wrong. Karítas dyed his dark hair blond to make him look more like his friend. The other crew members hadn’t met either Halldór or Snævar before, so he had a good chance of getting away with it.’

‘What were they thinking of? How could they imagine it would work?’

‘Apparently, their original idea was that just before the yacht reached land Snævar should jump ship, making it look as if Halldór must have fallen overboard and drowned. Accidents like that aren’t particularly unusual, so it was unlikely to have aroused much suspicion. Then Snævar would pretend that he had been waiting at home with a broken leg after flying back from Lisbon. As it turned out, it never occurred to anyone to check his alibi. After all, Snævar’s leg appeared to be broken and he had papers to prove it from the hospital in Lisbon because Halldór had used his health insurance card. No one thought for a moment that he could have been involved.’ Thóra hesitated. ‘And he would almost certainly have got away with it if Halldór had been the only one to disappear. The investigation of one missing person is nothing compared to a case in which an entire yacht-load of people have vanished into thin air.’

‘I don’t know if I can bear to hear any more.’ Margeir’s expression was grim. ‘These people are sick.’

‘If you don’t want to hear the rest, I can leave it at that. But when this despicable pair are called to the dock, you won’t be able to avoid reading about the case or seeing it on the news. It’ll be impossible to block it out.’ She had resolved beforehand to leave out various details, such as the fact that Snævar had decided to chop off Halldór’s legs, reasoning that it would be best if his body washed ashore as proof that he had fallen overboard, but at the same time needing to disguise the fact that he had a broken leg. As bodies washed up by the sea often have a limb or two missing, he reckoned it wouldn’t look suspicious. But he alone knew why he had amputated both legs rather than just one. Perhaps he thought it would look more plausible as sea damage if both were missing. After this, he had stolen Halldór’s splint and plaster cast to bind round his own leg.

Thóra also left out the description of how Snævar had originally tried to hide Halldór’s body in his own cabin. When the smell of decomposition grew increasingly obvious, Snævar had to find a new place for the corpse. First he tried to disguise it with perfume that he had filched from Lára and Ægir’s room. But when that failed to mask the stench, he stuffed it into a freezer that was located in a storeroom adjoining the engine room. There the body remained until Snævar wrapped it in canvas and hung it over the side of the ship so that when he eventually chucked it overboard, it would look as if it had been immersed in the sea rather than deep-frozen. First he removed the legs using an axe that was kept in the pilot house, taking the precaution of putting his own shoes on the feet in case they got caught in a fishing net or washed up somewhere. This was to ensure that those who survived the voyage would identify the legs as Halli’s. Then Snævar turned off the ship’s main engine so that he could push Halldór’s body out through a hatch which couldn’t be opened while the vessel was under way. The navigation computer confirmed that by this point they were only a day’s journey from port.

But Snævar made a fatal mistake in the final stretch. After tethering the body outside the hatch, he locked the storeroom behind him in case Ægir thought of trying to escape with the girls on one of the jet skis. On his way back upstairs to dispose of Halli’s legs, he ran into Ægir and apparently murdered him, losing the key in the struggle. By the time he realised this he was too close to shore and had no time to search for it. As a result, he was unable to jettison Halli’s body as planned.

After his return home, the news of the police examination of the yacht and the collection of forensic evidence had driven Snævar frantic with anxiety that he would be betrayed by the presence of his DNA on Halli’s body. His chance of removing the evidence when he and Karítas went on board was thwarted by an inquisitive nightwatchman and they were forced to flee. So when Snævar was offered the opportunity to go on board with Thóra, he planned to pretend to stumble on Halli’s body by chance, in the hope that this would explain any forensic traces linking him to the corpse. As it was, his friend was in such a horrific state of decomposition that he didn’t need to force himself to vomit; the reaction was involuntary. And his plan had worked.

‘I want to hear the rest.’ Sigrídur jutted out her chin as if she could handle it, though her wet eyelashes told a different story. ‘Go on.’

‘Unfortunately, not much more can be established with any certainty. Snævar insists that he had no part in any other death, and is sticking to his story that all he did was deal with the bodies for Karítas. She, on the other hand, claims that he gave her a very different account after his return home, in a long phone call that his telephone company confirms took place. According to her, Snævar killed Loftur because Loftur had worked out that it must have been Snævar who threw the body of the woman in the freezer overboard. It wasn’t hard for him to guess, since only two people could have done it, him or Snævar – or rather Halli, as he was calling himself. When Loftur accused him of this, Snævar drowned him in the Jacuzzi, which Loftur was in the process of heating up at the time. After that Snævar invented a story about a mysterious stowaway but the others weren’t convinced, so when the net began to tighten around him he killed them too – the captain, Thráinn, when the poor man fell asleep on watch.’

‘How did he kill…?’ Margeir couldn’t finish the sentence but there was no need. Thóra was well aware of what he was asking.

‘According to Karítas, Lára died as the result of an accidental shot. No one knows if that’s yet another lie but the gun that should have been on board is missing. Snævar told Karítas that Ægir threw the weapon overboard, but I very much doubt that. The police believe that Snævar murdered her as well as the others.’

‘And Ægir?’

‘He supposedly killed him last. Karítas claims this was unintentional. Snævar had hoped that Ægir and the girls would stay out of the way below deck and that he himself would be able to keep a low profile once they reached Iceland. Ægir would believe that Halli, who had vanished, was the murderer and no one would ever find out that Snævar had been posing as his friend on board. However, I find it hard to believe that he’d have taken such a risk, so I’m guessing that he killed Ægir to save his own skin. If everyone on board disappeared, people would put it down to an accident and no one would suspect a man with a broken leg whose only connection with the yacht had been before the vessel had left harbour. Apparently he went around the ship and removed all the mobile phones and cameras he could find in case he appeared in any pictures. Then he flung them all in the sea. During his time on board he had taken care to touch as little as possible and to wipe away his fingerprints when no one was looking. So there weren’t many prints to give him away. In fact, his actions seem to have been carefully premeditated, which suggests that he wasn’t just Karítas’s innocent dupe as he would like us to think.’

‘How did he get ashore? He was waiting with us on the docks when the yacht put in.’ Sigrídur’s voice was angry, as if she had let herself be tricked and should have seen through him from the beginning.

‘He set the autopilot to bring the yacht close enough in for him to jump into the sea and swim to shore. He was wearing a wetsuit, which he apparently knew how to use, and reached land safely without being noticed. He had brought along a change of clothes, the splint and the plaster cast in a waterproof bag, along with the crutches that had been lent to Halldór in Portugal. Afterwards, the yacht continued on its pre-plotted course, sailing in a large circle in Faxaflói bay to give Snævar time to be waiting on the docks when she entered the harbour. The whole thing had been planned to prevent suspicion from falling on him. He even wore a woolly hat to hide his freshly shaven head; I don’t know if you remember that.’

‘Yes.’ They both nodded, but the woman still had reservations. ‘The harbour may not be far from Grótta but it’s still quite a distance on two feet, let alone on crutches. And he wasn’t out of breath.’

‘He waited until the last minute to put on the cast, which was only loosely fixed round his leg. As for his journey from Grótta; Karítas had ordered her mother to park her car in the neighbourhood with the keys under the seat, two days before the yacht reached land. It was the plan she and Snævar had originally made, when only Halli was supposed to go missing. She kept up her end of the bargain and claims she had no idea what lengths Snævar had gone to during the voyage. Her mother has since confirmed the part about the car; she was under the impression that some mechanic friend of her daughter’s, who supposedly ran a garage in the area, was going to service the car. But in reality it was for Snævar. He changed his clothes and fastened the sawn-off plaster cast round his leg with adhesive tape and string. Then he tied a plastic bag over it and drove down to the harbour where he took up position as if nothing had happened.’

‘God, I wish we hadn’t met him there. I wish we’d never gone to meet the yacht; that we’d never set eyes on that man.’ Margeir rubbed his forehead as if to obliterate the memory. ‘We were just so excited. I’d asked my cousin in the Coast Guard to give us a shout, whatever the time of day or night, when the yacht appeared on their radar. We were worried because we hadn’t heard from them, so we were immensely happy and relieved when we got his call.’

‘Snævar sabotaged the communications equipment, as well as the emergency button that could conceivably have saved them. He disconnected the aerials, with the result that the radios hardly had any range, though we know that at least one ship tried to contact the Lady K to warn them about a container that had blown off a vessel near the area they were sailing in. They didn’t think they’d got through.’

Thóra saw that this was enough horror for one day. These people needed some good news, though she had not yet answered the most important question about the fate of those on board. Nevertheless, she felt it would be better to break it up before going any further. ‘I’ve sent the insurance company the court’s verdict that Ægir and Lára are presumed dead, along with a declaration from the police stating that the investigation into their disappearance is in its final stages and that everything points to their having been murdered. The company may send you another letter trying to object, but only for form’s sake. I’ll reply on your behalf. All going well, the insurance money should be paid out in the next few months.’ The couple murmured at this but didn’t say anything aloud. Money mattered little in comparison to what they had lost. Fortunately, however, she had more good news for them. ‘It seems you’ve also passed the Child Protection Agency’s evaluation with flying colours and I’ve been informed unofficially that you’ll be granted very generous access rights to Sigga Dögg. A proviso will be made that whoever adopts her should be fully apprised of the tragic circumstances. So you’ll continue to play an important role in her life as her grandparents. In that respect nothing will change.’

‘Nothing will change. So you say.’ The woman shook herself and shivered. ‘But nothing will be the same either.’ Thóra didn’t reply. The woman was quite right; of course nothing would be like it was before.

Her husband coughed and turned his head to look out of the window. ‘What happened to the girls? I notice you avoided mentioning them but I need to know. As little as I want to.’

Thóra stared down at the table. ‘It’s not clear. Snævar flatly denies having laid a finger on them and swears that they simply vanished. He says he searched high and low for them but with no success. As matters stand, nobody knows if he’s lying, but the yacht did circle for a while as if looking for something that had fallen overboard and the location fits more or less with his statement.’

‘What about Karítas? Didn’t he tell her during their phone call?’ Margeir stared even more intently out of the window. The street was empty and there were no passing cars. It was as if the neighbourhood had come to a standstill out of consideration for the old couple’s loss.

‘Karítas backs him up. She says he told her the girls had simply vanished.’

‘Do you believe that?’

‘No, I don’t. But then no one will ask my opinion.’

‘God will ask.’ The woman fumbled under her cardigan and her hand reappeared clutching a small silver cross on a modest chain. ‘And lies won’t help them then.’

Shortly after this Thóra took her leave, promising to ring at the end of the week, or earlier if anything new emerged. On her way out she passed the door of the sitting room where Sigga Dögg sat on the floor watching a cartoon. Tom and Jerry were involved in a chase around a boat that rocked violently, causing the cat more problems than the mouse. The episode was almost over and as Thóra stood watching the child, both cat and mouse fell overboard. They splashed around in the sea, still fighting, their open mouths full of water. Next the pair appeared clad in white robes, complete with wings and halos, floating up from the surface of the sea to heaven; the mouse beaming from ear to ear, the cat looking thoroughly fed up. Perhaps this was the explanation for the child’s words about her sisters and parents. She knew they had been on a boat and when they didn’t come home, she may well have concluded that they had gone the same way as poor old Tom and Jerry.

‘They used to be Arna and Bylgja’s favourite programmes. I’m afraid the tape will wear out.’ Sigrídur smiled faintly. ‘Not that my granddaughters will mind now.’

Sigga Dögg looked round at the sound of her grandmother’s voice. She studied the two women calmly for a moment, then turned back to the screen. The next episode was starting; life went on, though some had fallen by the wayside.

On the way home Thóra couldn’t stop thinking about this shattered family and the fate of the two little girls, which would perhaps never be known. Although not religious, she sent a silent prayer of thanks to the higher powers for her own family’s good fortune. Yet the thought of Gylfi’s imminent adventures in Norway filled her with trepidation, reminding her that nothing could be taken for granted. The future could never be pinned down. Abruptly, she decided against going back to the office where Bella was sitting glued to the computer with its new high-speed connection. Instead, she turned the car and drove to Orri’s nursery school. She would pick him up early and enjoy the rest of the day with him. The sun peeped out from behind the clouds and suddenly the world seemed a brighter place.