Chapter 24
22 March 2008
The hotel in Kulusuk would never be listed among
the finest in the world, but it was clean and tidy and, most
importantly, it had a shower. Thóra hoped the hot water wasn’t too
expensive, because it was impossible for her to drag herself away
from the jet. The soap foamed on the enamelled shower floor as
Thóra tried to scrub off the imaginary film that had seemed to
cover her entire body. To her it felt as though the revulsion she’d
experienced at the work site had clung to her and refused to leave.
If she could just wash it off, she could also wipe away the memory
of the hole in the body of that poor man, lying in a freezer at the
ends of the earth. She knew it was just an illusion caused by
fatigue and hunger but that didn’t stop her from scouring her body
over and over again. Finally she had no energy for more; she put
down the soap and stood with her eyes closed, letting the water
play over her. However, she couldn’t stay there under the shower
until they were permitted to leave the country, so in the end Thóra
composed herself and turned off the water. She wrapped herself in a
large towel, her body steaming wherever her bare flesh showed. She
quickly got goosebumps from the cool air flowing in through the
bathroom window, which thankfully she had left open, otherwise she
would be in a sauna now. As she rubbed most of the water from her
hair she looked into the bedroom and saw Matthew lying asleep on
the turned-down bed. So that was the reason he hadn’t come to see
what was taking her so long in the shower. It was late in the
evening and the hour they had been given to rest before coming down
to the dining room for supper was long past. Not that supper was
really the right word – midnight snack was more like it. The day
seemed as if it would never end, and they had either forgotten or
not had time to eat in the afternoon. Since returning to the office
building from the freezer so much had happened that details like
food were neglected.
The police had turned up about an hour after Thóra,
Matthew and Finnbogi returned from their scientific expedition to
the freezer. Thóra had been so shocked to see what was beneath the
plastic that she’d had to lie down in the meeting room when they
got there. Now she regretted not having waited outside as Matthew
had advised her to do while they inspected the corpse. The hole
through the body had been so surreal that it took her a long time
to accept what she saw over Matthew and Finnbogi’s shoulders. The
wound was relatively clean and the edges not all ragged as she
would have thought would be the case with such an injury.
Strangely, it was the fact that the hole was so clean that made it
so horrendous; the man was like a cartoon character who had been
shot through with a cannonball, except that there was nothing funny
about it. Thóra wasn’t alone in finding it all rather unpleasant;
not a trace of a smile appeared on the lips of the policemen who
came from Angmagssalik.
As Thóra dressed in a skirt and elegant blouse,
which she hoped would be all right since they were in a hotel, she
recalled how the policemen had questioned them. Five of them came
on the same helicopter that had transported the group to the area,
and the helicopter was made to wait. Two of them were pilots, the
others police officers: two Greenlanders and the third a Dane. One
of the Greenlanders questioned Thóra and although he had been
extremely courteous, Thóra could have done without going through
this particular experience. She’d been present at interrogations
several times before, but always in the role of duty solicitor.
Actually it was interesting to be interrogated, although she
probably would not appreciate it until some time had passed. She
had behaved precisely like most of her clients, getting
over-excited and trying too eagerly to assist them and prove that
she’d done nothing wrong. Throughout the questioning she was wholly
convinced that the police officer suspected her of having murdered
the man in the freezer, and of being responsible for both the bones
in the office and the disappearance of the three Icelanders. All
because she felt guilty for having re-entered the freezer against
their instructions. Thóra had trusted herself completely to avoid
answering if asked what they’d done after phoning the police, but
she was worried about Finnbogi. Matthew would never admit their
minor transgression, but she knew the doctor well enough to guess
how he would react under such pressure.
In the end Thóra had recalled her own advice to
those whom she assisted in such circumstances – answer only what is
asked. Moreover, she had added nothing, and simply stared at the
desk between her and the officer after replying to his questions.
On the table lay several of the objects that they had found on the
drilling rig, which Matthew had handed over as soon as the police
appeared. Thóra had asked the policeman if he had any idea whether
they were connected to the case, and the man had shrugged and told
her that they were obviously old relics and it was unlikely to be
relevant. For example, he told her, pointing to the bone with the
two drilled holes and the leather strap, these were the goggles
hunters used to wear to protect their eyes against snowblindness.
No one used them now, as they were much clumsier than modern snow
goggles. Thóra could understand that; she would have to have been
blinded in both eyes by the snow before she wore a contraption like
that. After the questioning she felt greatly relieved as she
returned to the meeting room, where they had been told to wait. She
had neither been questioned about what they had done while waiting
for the police nor about how many times they had gone into the
freezer. The questions mainly concerned what business they had
there, what they had learned and why they hadn’t made contact with
the police until that morning.
Thóra had explained that the telephone connection
had been out and that the Greenlandic police had been informed
about the situation before she and her colleagues set off on their
trip, but had not seen fit to come to the work camp, to which the
man replied that they had more important things to deal with than
searching for missing persons in the mountains; these cases were
not usually their business, though they did officially register
them. Thóra and her colleagues, however, should have got in touch
with them when they found the human bones in the office. Then it
would have been clear to everyone that this case was about more
than a few Icelanders getting lost in a snowstorm. Thóra had
justified their decision by saying that the bones hadn’t seemed
that significant, since everyone could see that they were ancient.
They had thus thought it sufficient to notify the police about them
after making phone contact, and that is what they had done.
Moreover, she had said triumphantly, they had left the bones more
or less undisturbed so as not to spoil the police investigation.
The Greenlander had then looked at Thóra as if she were an idiot
and told her that the bones were far from ancient. Although they
still needed to be examined by a specialist, it was clear that the
individual to whom they belonged was from this generation. Thóra
had been flabbergasted and asked why he thought this; the police
officer informed her that there were two dental implants in the
woman’s lower jaw. So it was out of the question that this skull
was from a past generation. Thóra’s only response to this
information was: ‘Oh.’ Dr Finnbogi was apparently not quite as
smart as he pretended to be. Or in any case, he had completely
missed the false teeth.
Thinking back on it, she recalled that Finnbogi had
focused on the skull itself and for the most part neglected the
lower jaw. His determination of the gender of the individual had
mattered more than its teeth. If what the policeman said was true,
it was still possible that the bones belonged to Oddný Hildur.
Maybe the doctor had simply been wrong about their age. Thóra
recalled that he had based his opinion on how clean the bones were,
but it was conceivable that external factors had caused the corpse
to decompose faster than usual. She doubted this, however. Oddný
Hildur had disappeared earlier that winter and it was unlikely that
the temperature had ever climbed above freezing since then. Maybe
wild animals had picked clean the bones, but then the jawbone would
likely not have been found with the skull, as Dr Finnbogi had said.
In any case, one thing was certain: if these were the bones of
Oddný Hildur, the employees of Berg Technology were a bunch of
weirdos. Thóra had decided not to ask Friðrikka whether her friend
had had any crowns, fearing that the question would cause the woman
to break down completely. It was a miracle that Friðrikka had
pretty much held it together while the police performed their
duties; Thóra had doubted she’d bear up under interrogation. And
when it came to it she’d actually felt the same about Eyjólfur; the
young man had paced the floor of the meeting room while waiting his
turn, muttering that he knew nothing about this and shouldn’t have
come. Throughout all this, the fluorescent light kept on
flickering. None of it, however, seemed to disturb Bella. She even
appeared to be rather looking forward to her turn. Thóra was
thankful that they had told the others they were only going to
fetch water from the cafeteria, since she could rely on Bella to
tell the police everything just to get her boss into trouble.
Now Matthew stirred slightly as he sensed Thóra’s
presence. ‘What time is it? I’m dying of hunger.’
Thóra sat on the edge of the bed and patted his
belly. ‘It’s late. We missed supper.’
Matthew opened one eye. ‘Are you kidding?’ Thóra
shook her head. Matthew shut his eye again and rearranged his
pillow. ‘Then I’ll just die here.’
‘There must be something available. It’s not as if
we can pop over to the café next door and have a hot dog. The hotel
must have sandwiches or something.’ Thóra poked him in the ribs.
‘Come on, let’s check it out, have a snack and then go to sleep. Or
to bed, anyway. You won’t regret it.’
‘Sounds good.’ Matthew sat up. ‘Can I
shower?’
‘Sorry. I think I’ve used up all the hot water on
the east coast of Greenland. Maybe in the whole country.’ Thóra
stood up. Her entire body and soul were feeling much more
refreshed. ‘We won’t be long, and then you can hop in the shower
afterwards.’ She knew he’d been craving a bath for days. ‘We’ll be
really quick. I promise.’
The food wasn’t all that good, but Matthew and
Thóra were so hungry that they gulped it down as if they hadn’t
seen anything edible for days. The dining room had been empty so
they’d thrown themselves on the mercy of the bartender, who had his
hands full serving drinks to Alvar, Bella and Eyjólfur. The young
man very helpfully offered to check whether there was anything to
eat in the kitchen. He returned with five pots of yoghurt, a
banana, a loaf of bread and some slices of ham. He apologised that
there were no leftovers remaining from supper, but Thóra thought
this was fair enough under the circumstances.
After Thóra had scraped the last bit of yoghurt
from her second pot and only the end crust was left of the bread,
she suddenly found she was craving alcohol. ‘Let’s go over to the
bar, I need a drink.’
‘What about my shower?’ Matthew was still finishing
his third bowl of yoghurt. ‘I have to wash. I’m starting to disgust
myself.’ He looked towards the bar where their three colleagues
were sitting. ‘You go ahead while I go up and shower. I’ll come
back down when I’m finished. You’ll be one glass ahead of me but
I’ll catch up.’ He put down his teaspoon and stood up. ‘I’ll be in
much better shape once I’m clean.’
Thóra went over and sat next to Eyjólfur. Bella was
between him and Alvar, and Thóra was glad not to be too close to
the latter. He looked like he was brooding, and was downing beer at
impressive speed. ‘You’re looking very lovely,’ said Eyjólfur,
glancing appreciatively at Thóra’s legs as she lifted herself onto
the high stool. ‘I’d forgotten there was other clothing besides
trousers.’
Thóra did not appreciate his drawing attention to
her outfit. She ordered a glass of white wine. ‘Aren’t you all
tired?’ she asked. ‘I can’t remember ever having felt so
exhausted.’
‘Then you haven’t lived much,’ muttered Alvar,
without looking at her. He was staring straight ahead at the
bottles of alcohol on the shelves behind the bar, apparently
hypnotized by the gleam of the glass. ‘Was that meant to be an
insult?’ said Eyjólfur. He nudged Thóra with his elbow. ‘Aren’t you
going to fight back?’
‘Oh, I can’t be bothered.’ Thóra had no interest in
bickering with a foul-tempered drunk in some bar in Greenland. ‘Do
you recall whether Oddný Hildur had two dental crowns in her lower
jaw?’
‘Are you kidding?’ Eyjólfur put down his glass. He
could see Thóra’s question had been sincere. ‘No, but I didn’t
really ever have a close look at her teeth.’
‘Would you be able to tell?’ Bella interrupted,
yawning. ‘I mean, you can often see someone’s top teeth, but not
always the bottom ones.’
Of course, thought Thóra, dental implants were more
noticeable when people smiled and revealed the gums above them. In
fact she remembered having been at a club in Ibiza when she was
younger, where the UV lighting used on the dance floor had made it
advisable for people with porcelain crowns to smile as little as
possible. ‘You never went with her to a club or anything like
that?’
Eyjólfur laughed. ‘Me at a club with Oddný Hildur?
Christ, no. I never saw her outside of work.’ His smile vanished.
‘What sort of question is that, anyway? Did they find some
teeth?’
‘No, no. I’m just curious.’ The white wine was
ice-cold and was going down very easily. It was a shame there
wasn’t any decent food to have with it. ‘Where are Friðrikka and
Finnbogi?’ She wanted to drop the subject of the teeth with him,
but also to find out whether she would get a chance to ask
Friðrikka about them. She’d have to be more subtle than she’d been
just now, though, so Friðrikka wouldn’t read anything into the
question.
‘The doctor was going to go to bed, but Friðrikka
went for a walk.’ Alvar emptied a nearly half-full glass in one go
and ordered another beer. Thóra was willing to bet that it was his
fifth or sixth in a row. He was talking up a storm, compared to how
quiet he was normally.
‘A walk?’ asked Thóra in surprise. ‘It’s the middle
of the night. Is it even possible to take walks here? And why
hasn’t she come back?’
Eyjólfur leaned round on the bar to look Alvar in
the face. ‘You spoke to her – what time did she leave?’
Alvar seemed upset at having to take part in the
conversation just when the bartender had poured him a brand new
beer. ‘Not that long ago. Half an hour, an hour. She just wanted to
have a stroll in the area around the hotel. There’s a full moon and
the sky is clear, so she’s hardly in any danger.’ He spoke in a
rush, gulping at his beer as soon as he’d finished. Half the liquid
in the glass disappeared into him.
‘Aren’t you on the rescue squad?’ said Bella
scornfully. ‘I wouldn’t call you if I got lost.’
‘And I wouldn’t search for you if you did.’ Alvar
slammed the glass down on the bar. It looked like he really wanted
to storm off in a huff, but that would have meant leaving the bar.
So he just sat there stiffly. Bella was unconcerned. ‘Maybe she
came back without us noticing.’ She drew a finger down her damp
glass, leaving a broad streak on its slippery surface.
‘Maybe.’ Eyjólfur seemed sceptical. ‘God, I’m dying
to get online. There’s no wireless or DSL connection in the rooms
but the girl in reception pointed me to a computer with an Internet
connection in the lobby. This is the longest I’ve been offline
since the Internet was invented, I think.’
‘Were you even born then?’ Thóra sipped her wine.
She was looking forward to Matthew’s return; the conversation at
the bar could only improve once he joined in. She carried on before
Eyjólfur could defend himself. ‘Did you definitely make a copy of
the entire computer system?’
‘Yes, and the contents of most of the PCs. It’ll be
almost like sitting in the office building at the camp except that
you’ll have a view of something other than snow while you go over
the data.’ Eyjólfur looked up at the ceiling. ‘I can’t wait to get
home. Shouldn’t we just ignore this travel ban and take the next
plane out of here? The cops are still at the site, so who’s going
to stop us? It’s not as if we’ve done anything wrong.’
‘It isn’t the most popular airport in the world.
I’m sure the police have let their colleagues there know that we
aren’t allowed to leave the country.’ Thóra smiled at him.
‘Otherwise I’d be there like a shot too.’
The bartender suddenly stopped washing glasses in
the sink behind the raised bar and looked towards reception. The
four guests fell silent and turned to follow his gaze. They heard a
door shut and a moment later Friðrikka appeared in the doorway, her
cheeks flushed from the cold. She walked over to them and as she
drew nearer they felt a cold draught. ‘I thought you’d all be
asleep.’
‘And we thought you were lost.’ Eyjólfur lifted his
glass and toasted her. ‘I see that the search parties are just as
motivated as they were when Oddný Hildur disappeared.’
Friðrikka pulled off her gloves and stuck them in
her jacket pocket. ‘When were you going to start the search,
tomorrow morning?’ she said. ‘Or tomorrow night, even?’
‘People are hardly considered lost after half an
hour or an hour.’ Alvar drew out each word. It seemed all that beer
was starting to have an effect. ‘We would probably have gone to
look for you before going to bed.’ Thóra saw from Friðrikka’s
expression that this conversation was heading for trouble and she
tapped on Eyjólfur’s back, since he had turned around on his stool
so as not to miss anything. ‘Where is that computer?’
‘Are you leaving?’ Eyjólfur seemed frustrated. ‘The
fun is just getting started.’ He pointed towards reception. ‘It’s
out the front there.’ He gave her an inquisitive look. ‘Are you a
blogger?’
Thóra almost laughed. If she had had any spare time
outside of work and her home, she would take naps, not blog. ‘No, I
was going to send my son an e-mail. It was so late when we arrived
that I couldn’t phone home. I don’t have a blog.’
‘Okay. It just crossed my mind. Blogs can be pretty
cool. Some of Berg Technology’s employees kept them, with news from
the work site and personal stuff. I helped to set some of them up.
Bjarki and Dóri’s was fucking genius. Homemade videos and stuff
like that that’s really funny if you know them.’ He stopped,
recalling that the men were probably dead, and hurriedly gave them
the website address.
‘Tell Matthew where I am when he comes down.’ Thóra
took her glass and gave Eyjólfur a parting pat on the shoulder.
Friðrikka stood awkwardly at the bar, obviously debating whether to
stay or go, then as Thóra left the bar she decided to sit in her
newly vacated chair.
The computer in the lobby was old and the
connection slow, but Thóra managed to get into her e-mail and send
Gylfi a message saying that she hoped to be home soon. She didn’t
mention the body or the bones, though it probably wouldn’t have
hurt to do so. After sending the message she tried to get onto the
drillers’ blog. Despite the wavering and flickering on the screen
at every touch of the mouse Thóra became completely absorbed in the
site, until Matthew laid his hand on her shoulder and asked how it
was going. She could smell his aftershave, with an undertone of
soap, and longed to go back with him to their room. But first she
had to show him what she’d found on the blog.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t wait.