Tainted Blood Part 2

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Elinborg found the woman from Husavik.She had two remaining names on her list so she left Sigurdur oli behind in Nordurmri with the forensic team. The first woman's reaction was a familiar one, great but somehow predetermined surprise, she'd heard the story elsewhere, even several times. She said that to tell the truth she'd been expecting the police. The second woman, the last one on Elinborg's list, refused to talk to her. Refused to let her in. Closed the door saying she didn't know what Elinborg was talking about and couldn't help her.But the woman was somehow hesitant. It was as if she needed to summon up all the strength she could muster to say what she wanted and Elinborg felt the role was rehea.r.s.ed. She behaved as if she'd been expecting the police, but, unlike the others, she didn't want to know anything. Wanted to get rid of Elinborg immediately.Elinborg could tell she'd found the woman they'd been looking for. She took another look at her doc.u.ments. The woman's name was Katrin and she was a department manager at Reykjavik City Library. Her husband was the manager of a large advertising agency. She was 60. Three children, all born from 1958 to 1962. She'd moved from Husavik in '62 and had lived in Reykjavik ever since.Elinborg rang the bell a second time."I think you ought to talk to me," she said when Katrin opened the door again.The woman looked at her."There's nothing I can help you with," she said at once, in a surprisingly sharp tone of voice. "I know what the case is about. I've heard the rumours. But I don't know about any rape. Hopefully you'll make do with that. Don't disturb me again."She tried to close the door on Elinborg."I may make do with that but a detective called Erlendur, who's investigating Holberg's murder, won't. The next time you open the door he'll be standing here and he won't leave. He won't let you slam the door in his face. He could have you brought down the station if things get difficult.""Will you please leave me alone," Katrin said as the door shut against the frame.I wish I could, Elinborg thought. She took out her mobile phone and called Erlendur, who was just leaving the university. Elinborg described the situation to him. He said he'd be there in ten minutes.He couldn't see Elinborg anywhere outside Katrin's house when he arrived, but he recognised her car in the parking s.p.a.ce. It was a large detached house in Vogar district, two storeys with a double garage. He rang the bell and to his astonishment Elinborg answered the door."I think I've found her," she said in a low voice and let Erlendur in. "She came out to me just now and apologised for her behaviour. She said she'd rather talk to us here than down the station. She'd heard stories about the rape and she was expecting us."Elinborg went inside the house ahead of Erlendur and into the sitting room where Katrin was standing. She shook his hand and tried to smile, but didn't make a very good job of it. She was conservatively dressed, wearing a grey skirt and white blouse, with straight, thick hair down to her shoulders, combed to one side. She was tall, with thin legs and small shoulders, pretty with a mild but anxious expression.Erlendur looked around in the sitting room. It was dominated by books shelved in closed, gla.s.s-fronted cupboards. A beautiful writing desk stood by one of the book cupboards, an old but well-preserved leather suite was in the middle of the room, a smoking table in one corner. Paintings on the walls. Little watercolours in beautiful frames, photographs of her family. He took a closer look at them. All the photographs were old. The three boys with their parents. The most recent ones had been taken when they were confirmed. They did not seem to have graduated from school or university, or got married."We're going to buy a smaller place," Katrin said almost apologetically when she saw Erlendur looking around. "It's far too big for us, this huge house."Erlendur nodded."Your husband, is he at home too?""Albert won't be home until late tonight. He's abroad. I was hoping we could talk about this before he gets back.""Shouldn't we sit down?" Elinborg asked. Katrin apologised for her rudeness and invited them to sit down. She sat down on the sofa by herself, with Erlendur and Elinborg in the two leather armchairs facing her."What exactly is it you want of me?" Katrin asked, looking at them each in turn. "I don't really understand how I fit into the picture. The man's dead. That's nothing to do with me.""Holberg was a rapist," Erlendur said. "He raped a woman in Keflavik and, as a result, she had a child. A daughter. When we starting checking more closely we were told he'd done this before, to a woman from Husavik, a similar age to the second victim. Holberg may have raped again, later. We don't know. But we need to track down his victim from Husavik. Holberg was murdered at his home and we have reason to presume that the explanation may be found in his sordid past."Erlendur and Elinborg both noticed how his speech didn't seem to have any effect on Katrin. She wasn't shocked at hearing about Holberg's rapes or his daughter, and she asked neither about the woman from Keflavik nor the girl."You're not shocked to hear that?" he said."No," Katrin said, "what should I be shocked about?""What can you tell us about Holberg?" Erlendur asked after a pause."I recognised him at once from the photos in the papers," Katrin said, and it was as if the last trace of resistance vanished from her voice. Her words turned into a whisper. "Even though he'd changed a lot," she said."We had his photograph on file," Elinborg said by way of explanation. "The photo was from an HGV licence he had recently renewed. Lorry driver. Drove all over the country.""He told me at the time he was a lawyer in Reykjavik.""He was probably working for the Harbour and Lighthouse Authority at that time," Erlendur said."I'd just turned 20. Albert and I had two children when it happened. We started living together very young. He was at sea, Albert I mean. That didn't happen very often. He ran a little shop and was an agent for an insurance company.""Does he know what happened?" Erlendur asked.Katrin hesitated for a moment."No, I never told him. And I'd prefer it if you didn't tell him now."They fell silent."Didn't you tell anyone what happened?" Erlendur asked."I didn't tell anyone." She fell silent again.Erlendur and Elinborg waited."I blame myself for it. My G.o.d," she sighed. "I know that isn't right of me. I know it was none of my doing. It was nearly 40 years ago and I'm still accusing myself although I know I shouldn't. Forty years."They waited."I don't know how much detail you want me to go into. What matters to you. As I said, Albert was at sea. I was out having fun with some friends and we met these men at the dance.""These men?" Erlendur interjected."Holberg and someone else who was with him. I never found out what his name was. He showed me a little camera that he carried around with him. I spoke to him about photography a bit. They went back to my girlfriend's place with us and we went on drinking there. There was a group of four of us girlfriends who went out together. Two of us were married. After a while I said I wanted to go and he offered to walk me home.""Holberg?" Elinborg said."Yes, Holberg. I said no and said goodbye to my friends and walked home alone. It wasn't far to walk. But when I opened the door we lived in a little detached house in a new street they were building in Husavik suddenly he was standing behind me. He said something I didn't hear properly, then pushed me inside and closed the door. I was completely taken aback. Didn't know whether to be scared or surprised. The alcohol dulled my senses. Of course I didn't know that man in the slightest, I'd never seen him before that night.""So why do you blame yourself?" Elinborg asked."I'd been fooling around at the dance a bit," Katrin said after a while. "I asked him to dance. I don't know why I did it. I'd had a bit to drink and I could never handle alcohol. I was having fun with my friends and let my hair down a bit. Irresponsible. Drunk.""But you mustn't blame yourself ..." Elinborg began."Nothing you say can change that in the slight-est," Katrin said in a subdued tone and looked at Elinborg, "so don't go telling me who I can and can't blame. There's no point.""He hung around us at the dance," she continued after a pause. "Certainly didn't make a bad impression. He was funny and he knew how to make us girls laugh. Played games with us and got us to play along. I remembered later that he had asked about Albert and found out I was at home alone. But he did it in such a way that I never suspected what lay behind it.""In principle it's the same story as when Holberg attacked the woman in Keflavik," Erlendur said. "She let him walk her home, admittedly. Then he asked to use the phone and attacked her in the kitchen.""Somehow he turned into a completely different person. Revolting. The things he said. He tore off the coat I was wearing, pushed me inside and called me awful names. He got very worked up. I tried to talk to him but it was useless and when I started to shout for help he jumped on me and silenced me. Then he dragged me into the bedroom ..."She mustered up all the courage she could and told them what Holberg did, systematically and without holding anything back. She hadn't forgot-ten anything about that evening. On the contrary, she remembered every tiniest detail. Her account was devoid of sentimentality. It was as if she were reading out cold facts from a page. She'd never talked about the incident in this way, with such precision, but she'd created such a distance from it that Erlendur felt she was describing something that had befallen another woman. Not her personally, but someone else. Somewhere else. At another time. In another life.At one point in her account Erlendur grimaced and Elinborg cursed under her breath.Katrin stopped talking."Why didn't you press charges against that b.a.s.t.a.r.d?" Elinborg asked."He was like a monster. He threatened to finish me off if I told anyone and the police arrested him. And what was worse, he said if I made an issue of it he'd claim I'd asked him to meet me at home and wanted to sleep with him. He didn't use exactly those words, but I knew what he was getting at. He was incredibly strong, but he hardly left a mark on me. He made sure of that. I started thinking about that later. He hit me in the face a couple of times, but never hard.""When did this happen?""It was 1961. Late. In the autumn.""And wasn't there any aftermath? Didn't you ever see Holberg again or ...""No. I never saw him after that. Not until I saw the photo of him in the paper.""You moved away from Husavik?""That was what we'd planned to do anyway really. Albert always had it in the back of his mind. I wasn't against it so much after that. The people in Husavik are nice and it's a good place to live, but I've never been back there since.""You had two children before, sons from the look of them," Erlendur said, nodding in the direction of the confirmation photographs, "and then you had the third son . . . when?""Two years later," Katrin said.Erlendur looked at her and could see that, for some reason, for the first time in their conversation, she was lying.

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"Why did you stop there?" Elinborg said when they left the house and went into the street.She'd had trouble concealing her surprise when Erlendur suddenly thanked Katrin for being so cooperative. He said he knew how difficult it was for her to talk about these things and he'd make sure that nothing they had talked about would go any further. Elinborg gaped. They were only just starting to talk."She'd started lying," Erlendur said. "It's too much of an ordeal for her. We'll meet her later. Her phone needs tapping and we should have a car outside the house to check on her movements and any visitors. We need to find out what her sons do, get recent photos of them if we can, but without drawing attention to ourselves, and we need to locate people who knew Katrin in Husavik and could even remember that evening, although that might be a bit of a long shot. I asked Sigurdur oli to contact the Harbour and Lighthouse Authority to see if they can tell us when Holberg worked for them in Husavik. Maybe he's done that by now. Get a copy of Katrin and Albert's marriage certificate to find out the year they were married."Erlendur had got into his car."And Elinborg, you can come along the next time we talk to her.""Is anyone capable of doing what she described?" Elinborg asked, her mind still on Katrin's story."With Holberg it seems anything's possible," Erlendur replied.He drove down into Nordurmri. Sigurdur oli was still there. He'd contacted the phone company about the calls made to Holberg the weekend he was murdered. Two were from the Iceland Transport yard where he worked and another three were from public telephones: two from a phone box on Laekjargata and one from a payphone at Hlemmur Bus Station."Anything else?""Yes, the p.o.r.n on his computer. Forensics have looked at quite a lot of it and it's appalling. Downright sick. All the worst stuff you can find on the Internet, including animals and children. That guy was a total pervert. I think they gave up looking at it.""Maybe there's no need to subject them to it any more," said Erlendur."It does give us a small picture of what a filthy, disgusting creep he was," Sigurdur oli said"Do you mean he deserved to be smashed over the head and killed?" Erlendur said."What do you think?""Have you asked the Harbour and Lighthouse Authority about Holberg?""No.""Get a move on then.""Is he waving to us?" Sigurdur oli asked. They were standing in front of Holberg's house. One of the forensic team had come out of the bas.e.m.e.nt and was standing there in his white overalls waving to them to come over. He seemed quite excited. They got out of the car, went down into the bas.e.m.e.nt and the forensic technician gestured to them to come over to one of the screens. He was holding a remote control which he told them operated the camera that had been inserted into one of the holes in the corner of the sitting room.They watched the screen, but they couldn't see anything on it that they could at all identify. The image was speckled, poorly lit, blurred and dull. They could see gravel and the underside of the flooring, but otherwise nothing unusual. Some time pa.s.sed until the technician couldn't hold back any longer."It's this thing here," he said, pointing to the top centre of the screen. "Right up underneath the flooring.""What?" said Erlendur, who couldn't see a thing."Can't you see it?" the forensics technician said."What?" Sigurdur oli said."The ring.""The ring?" Erlendur said."That's clearly a ring we've found under the floor. Can't you see it?"They squinted at the screen until they thought they could make out an object that could well be a ring. It was unclear, as if something was blocking the view. They couldn't see anything else."It's as if there's something in the way," Sigurdur oli said."It could be insulating plastic like they use in building," the technician said. More people had gathered around the screen to watch what was happening. "Look at this thing here," he continued, "This line by the ring. It could easily be a finger. There's something lying out in the corner that I think we ought to take a closer look at.""Break up the floor," Erlendur ordered. "Let's see what it is."The forensic team went to work at once. They marked out the spot on the sitting-room floor and began breaking it up with the pneumatic drill. A fine concrete dust swirled around the bas.e.m.e.nt and Erlendur and Sigurdur oli put gauze masks over their mouths. They stood behind the technicians, watching the hole widening in the floor. The base plate was seven or eight inches thick and it took the drill some time to get through it.Once they'd broken through, the hole quickly widened. The men swept the concrete fragments away as fast as they were chipped loose and they could soon see the plastic that had been revealed by the camera. Erlendur looked at Sigurdur oli, who nodded at him.The plastic came increasingly into view. Erlendur thought it was thick building insulation plastic. It was impossible to see through. He'd forgotten the noise in the bas.e.m.e.nt, the revolting stench and the dust swirling up. Sigurdur oli had taken his mask off to see better. He bent down and called over the forensic team which was breaking up the floor."Is this how they open the Pharaohs' tombs in Egypt?" he asked and the tension eased a little."Except I'm afraid there's no Pharaoh under here," Erlendur said."Could it actually be that we've found Gretar under Holberg's floor?" Sigurdur oli said in eager antic.i.p.ation. "After twenty-f.u.c.king-five years! b.l.o.o.d.y brilliant!""His mother was right," Erlendur said."Gretar's mother?""'It was like he'd been stolen,' she said.""Wrapped up in plastic and stashed away under the floor.""Marion Briem," Erlendur muttered to himself and shook his head.The forensic team bored away with their electric drills, the floor split open under the pressure and the hole widened until the entire plastic package could be seen. It was the length of an average man. The forensic team discussed how they ought to go about opening it. They decided to remove it from the floor cavity in one piece and not touch it until they'd taken it to the morgue on Baronsstigur where it could be handled without the loss of any potential evidence.They fetched a stretcher they had taken into the bas.e.m.e.nt the night before and put it next to the hole in the floor. Two of them tried to lift the plastic package, but it turned out to be too heavy, so another two went down to help them. Soon it began to budge and they worked it free from its surroundings, lifted it out and placed it on the stretcher.Erlendur went up to the package, bent over it and tried to see through the plastic. He thought he could make out a face, shrivelled and rotten, teeth and part of a nose. He straightened up again."He doesn't look so bad, considering," he said."What's that?" Sigurdur oli asked, leaning down into the hole."What?" Erlendur said."Are those rolls of film?" Sigurdur oli said.Erlendur went up closer, knelt down and saw rolls of photographic film half buried in the gravel. Yards of film spread all around. He was hoping that some of it had been used.

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Katrin didn't leave the house for the rest of the day. No-one visited her and she didn't use the telephone. In the evening a man driving an estate car pulled up outside the house and went in carrying a medium-sized suitcase. This was presumably Albert, her husband. He was due back from a business trip to Germany that afternoon.Two policemen in an unmarked car were watching the house. The phone was tapped. The whereabouts of the two older sons had been ascertained, but nothing was known about where the youngest one was. He was divorced and lived in a flat in the Gerdi district but there was n.o.body home. A watch was mounted outside it. The police were gathering information about the son and his description was sent to police stations all over the country. As yet there were not considered to be grounds for releasing an announcement about him to the media.Erlendur pulled up in front of the morgue on Baronsstigur. The body of the man who was thought to be Gretar had been taken there. The pathologist, the same one who had examined Holberg and Audur, had removed the plastic from the body. It turned out to be the body of a male with his head snapped back, his mouth open as if screaming in anguish and his arms by his sides. The skin was parched and shrivelled and pallid, with large patches of rot here and there on the naked body. The head appeared to have been badly damaged, and the hair was long and colourless, hanging down the sides of the face."He removed his innards," the pathologist said."What?""The person who buried him. A sensible move if you want to keep a body. Because of the smell. He gradually dried up inside the plastic. Well preserved in that sense.""Can you establish the cause of death?""There was a plastic bag over his head which suggests he may have been suffocated, but I'll have to take a better look at him. You'll find out more later. It all takes time. Do you know who he is? He's a bit of a runt, the poor b.u.g.g.e.r.""I have my suspicions," Erlendur said."Did you talk to the professor?""A lovely woman.""Isn't she just?"Sigurdur oli was waiting for Erlendur at the office but when he arrived he said he was going straight to forensics. They had managed to develop and enlarge several exposures from the film that had been found in Holberg's flat. Erlendur told him about the conversation he and Elinborg had had with Katrin.Ragnar, the head of forensics, was waiting for them in his office with several rolls of film on his desk and some enlarged photographs. He handed them the photographs and they huddled over them."We could only manage these three," Ragnar said, "and I can't actually tell what they show. There were seven rolls of Kodak with 24 exposures each. Three were completely black and we can't tell whether they'd been used, but from one of them we managed to enlarge the little we can see here. Is this anything you recognise?"Erlendur and Sigurdur oli squinted at the photographs. They were all black-and-white. Two of them were half black as if the aperture hadn't opened properly; the pictures were out of focus and so unclear that they couldn't make them out. The third and final print was intact and reasonably sharp and showed a man taking his own photograph in front of a mirror. The camera was small and flat, with a flash cube on the top with four bulbs, and the flash lit up the man in the mirror. He was wearing jeans and a shirt and a waist-length summer jacket."Do you remember flash cubes?" Erlendur said with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "What a revolution.""I remember them well," said Ragnar, who was the same age as Erlendur. Sigurdur oli looked at them in turn and shook his head."Is that what you'd call a self-portrait?" Erlendur said."It's difficult to see his face with the camera in the way," Sigurdur oli said, "but isn't it probable it's Gretar himself?""Do you recognise the surroundings, what little of them is visible?" Ragnar asked.In the reflection they could make out part of the room behind the photographer. Erlendur could see the back of a chair and even a coffee table, the carpet on the floor and part of something that could have been a floor-length curtain, but everything else was difficult to discern. The face of the man in the mirror was brightly lit but to the sides the light faded to total darkness.They pored over the photograph for a long time. After much effort Erlendur began to distinguish something in the darkness to the left of the photographer, which he thought might be a human form, even a profile, eyebrows and a nose. This was only a hunch, but there was something uneven in the light, tiny shadows, that kindled his imagination."Could we enlarge this area?" he asked Ragnar, who stared hard at the same part but couldn't see a thing. Sigurdur oli took the photograph and held it up in front of his face, but he couldn't make out what Erlendur thought he could see either"It will only take a second," Ragnar said. They followed him from the office and over to the forensic team."Are there any fingerprints on the film?" Sigurdur oli asked."Yes," Ragnar said, "two sets, the same ones as on the photo from the cemetery. Gretar's and Holberg's."The photograph was scanned and came up on a big computer screen. The area was enlarged. What had been only an unevenness in the light became countless dots that filled the screen. They couldn't discern anything from the photo and even Erlendur lost sight of what he thought he'd seen. The technician worked on the keyboard for a while, entered some commands and the image was reduced and compressed. He continued, the dots arranged themselves together until gradually the outline of a face began to emerge. It was still unclear, but Erlendur thought he recognised Holberg there."Isn't that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d?" Sigurdur oli said."There's more here," the technician said and went on sharpening up the photograph. Waves soon appeared which reminded Erlendur of a woman's hair, and another more blurred profile. Erlendur stared at the image until he thought he could make out Holberg sitting talking to a woman. A strange hallucination seized him at the moment he saw this. He wanted to shout out to the woman to get out of the flat, but it was too late. Decades too late.A phone rang in the room, but no-one made a move. Erlendur thought the one on the desk was ringing."It's yours," Sigurdur oli said to Erlendur.It took Erlendur a while, but eventually he managed to find his mobile phone and fished it out of his coat pocket.It was Elinborg."What are you playing around at?" she said when finally he answered."Get to the point, will you," Erlendur said."The point? What are you so stressed about?""I knew you couldn't just say what you're going to say.""It's about Katrin's boys," Elinborg said. "Or men, actually, they're all grown men now.""What about them?""All of them nice guys, probably, except one of them works at a rather interesting place. I thought you ought to hear about it straightaway but if you're so tense and busy and can't bear the thought of a little chat, I'll just phone Sigurdur oli instead.""Elinborg.""Yes?""Good Lord, woman," Erlendur shouted and looked at Sigurdur oli, "are you going to tell me what you're going to tell me?""The son works at the Genetic Research Centre.""What?""He works at the Genetic Research Centre.""Which son?""The youngest one. He's working on their new database. Works with family trees and illnesses, Icelandic families and hereditary diseases, genetic diseases. The man's an expert on genetic diseases."

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Erlendur got home late in the evening. He planned to visit Katrin early the next morning and talk to her about his theory. He hoped that her son would soon be found. A prolonged search posed the risk of the story being sensationalised by the media, and he wanted to avoid that.Eva Lind wasn't at home. She had tidied up in the kitchen after Erlendur's tantrum. He put one of the two meals he'd bought at the late-night shop in the microwave, then pressed Start. Erlendur recalled when Eva Lind had come to him a few nights before, when he'd been standing by the microwave, and she told him she was pregnant. He felt as though a whole year had gone by since she had sat there facing him, scrounging money and dodging his questions, but it was only a few nights. He was still having bad dreams. He had never had many dreams and only ever remembered s.n.a.t.c.hes of them when he woke up, but a feeling of discomfort lingered in him when he was awake and he couldn't shake it off. It didn't help that the pain in his chest was constantly making itself felt, a burning pain that he couldn't rub away.He thought about Eva Lind and the baby and about Kolbrun and Audur and about Elin and Katrin and her sons, about Holberg and Gretar and Ellidi in the prison and about the girl from Gardabaer and her father, and about himself and his own children, his son Sindri Snaer, whom he seldom saw, and Eva, who had made the effort to find him and with whom he argued bitterly when he disliked what she did. She was right. Who was he to go around handing out scoldings?He thought about mothers and daughters and fathers and sons and mothers and sons and fathers and daughters and children that were born and no-one wanted and children who died in that little community, Iceland, where everyone seemed related or connected in some way.If Holberg was the father of Katrin's youngest son, had he in fact been killed by his own son? Did the young man know Holberg was his father? How had he found out? Had Katrin told him? When? Why? Had he known all the time? Did he know about the rape? Had Katrin told him Holberg had raped her and she had fallen pregnant by him? What kind of a feeling is that? What kind of a feeling is it to discover you're not the person you thought you were? Not who you are? That your father isn't your father, you're not his son, you're the son of someone else you didn't know existed. Someone violent: a rapist.What's that like? Erlendur thought. How can you come to terms with that? Do you go and find your father and murder him? And then write: "I am him"?And if Katrin didn't tell her son about Holberg, how did he find out the truth? Erlendur turned the question over in his mind. The more he thought about the matter and considered the options, the more his thoughts turned to the message tree in Gardabaer. There was only one other way the son could have found out the truth and Erlendur intended to check that the following day.And what was it that Gretar saw? Why did he have to die? Was he blackmailing Holberg? Did he know about Holberg's rapes and plan to turn him in? Did he take photographs of Holberg? Who was the woman sitting with Holberg in the photograph? When was it taken? Gretar went missing in the summer of the national festival, so it had to have been taken before then. Erlendur wondered whether there weren't more victims of Holberg who had never said a thing.He heard a key turn in the lock and he stood up. Eva Lind was back."I went to Gardabaer with the girl," she said when she saw Erlendur coming out of the kitchen, and closed the door behind her. "She said she was going to charge that sod for all the years he abused her. Her mother had a nervous breakdown. Then we left.""To see the husband?""Yeah, back to their cosy little pad," Eva Lind said, kicking off her shoes by the door. "He went mad, but calmed down when he heard the explanation.""How did he take it?""He's a great guy. When I left he was on his way to Gardabaer to talk to the old sod.""Really.""Do you think there's any point in charging that b.a.s.t.a.r.d?" Eva Lind asked."They're difficult cases. The men deny everything and somehow they get away with it. Maybe it depends on the mother, what she says. Maybe she ought to go to the rape crisis centre. How are you doing, anyway?""Just great," Eva Lind said."Have you thought about a sonar or whatever they call it?" Erlendur asked. "I could go with you.""The time will come for that," Eva Lind said."Will it?""Yeah.""Good," Erlendur said."What have you been up to anyway?" Eva Lind asked, putting the other meal into the microwave."I don't think about anything except children these days," Erlendur said. "And a message tree, which is a kind of family tree: it can contain all kinds of messages to us if we only know what we're supposed to be looking for. And I'm thinking about obsessions with collecting things. How does that song about the carthorse go?"Eva Lind looked at her father. He knew she knew a lot about music."Do you mean 'Life is Like a Carthorse'?" she said."'Its head is stuffed with hay'," Erlendur said."'Its heart is frozen solid'.""'And its brain has gone astray'," Erlendur finished the verse. He put on his hat and said he wouldn't be gone for long.

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Hanna had warned the doctor so he wasn't surprised to see Erlendur that evening. He lived in an elegant house in the old part of Hafnarfjordur and welcomed Erlendur at the door, the very picture of gentility and courteousness, a short man, bald as a billiard ball and portly beneath his thick dressing gown. A bon viveur, Erlendur thought, with a perpetual and slightly feminine redness in his cheeks. He was of an indeterminate age, could be around 60. Greeted Erlendur with a hand as dry as paper and invited him into the lounge.Erlendur sat on a large wine-red leather sofa and declined the offer of a drink. The doctor sat facing him and waited for him to begin. Erlendur looked around the lounge, which was s.p.a.cious and lavishly adorned with paintings and objets d'art, and wondered whether the doctor lived alone. He asked him."Always lived alone," the doctor said. "I'm extremely happy with that and always have been. It's said that men who reach my age regret not having had a family and children. My colleagues go around waving pictures of their grandchildren at conferences all around the world, but I've never had any interest in starting a family. Never had any interest in children."He was convivial, talkative and chummy as if Erlendur was a bosom pal, as if implicitly recognising him on equal terms. Erlendur was not impressed."But you're interested in organs in jars," he said.The doctor refused to let Erlendur throw him off balance."Hanna told me you were angry," he said. "I don't know why you should be angry. I'm not doing anything illegal. Yes, I do have a little collection of organs. Most of them are preserved in formalin in gla.s.s jars. I keep them in the house here. They were due to be destroyed, but I took them and kept them a little longer. I also keep another type of bio-sample, tissue samples."Why, you're probably wondering," he continued, but Erlendur shook his head."How many organs have you stolen? was actually the question I was going to ask," he said, "but we can get to that later.""I haven't stolen any organs," the doctor said, slowly stroking his bald head. "I can't understand this antagonism. Do you mind if I have a drop of sherry?" he asked and stood up. Erlendur waited while he went over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a gla.s.s. He offered one to Erlendur, who declined, and sipped at the sherry with his thick lips. It was clear from his round face how he relished the taste."People don't normally wonder about this," he said then, "and there's no reason to either. Everything dead is useless in our world, and so is a dead human body. No need to get sentimental about it. The soul's gone. Only the dross left and dross is nothing. You have to look at it from a medical perspective. The body's nothing, you understand?""It clearly is something to you. You collect body parts.""In other countries, university hospitals buy organs for teaching purposes," the doctor continued. "But that hasn't been the custom in Iceland. Here we ask for permission to perform an autopsy on a case-by-case basis and sometimes we request to remove an organ even though it might not necessarily have anything to do with the death. People agree or refuse, the way things go. It's mainly older people whose bodies are involved. n.o.body steals organs.""But it wasn't always like that," Erlendur said."I don't know how things were in the old days. Of course, they didn't keep such a close watch on what went on then. I simply don't know. I don't know why you're shocked at me. Do you remember that news report from France? The car factory that used real human bodies in their crash tests, children too. You ought to be shocked at them instead. Organs are bought and sold all over the world. People are even killed for their organs. My collection can hardly be called criminal.""But why?" Erlendur said. "What do you do with them?""Research, of course," the doctor said, sipping his sherry. "Examine them through a microscope. What won't a collector do? Stamp collectors look at postmarks. Book collectors look at years of publication. Astronomers have the whole world in front of their eyes and look at things of mind-boggling proportions. I'm continually looking at my microscopic world.""So your hobby's research, you have facilities for studying the samples or organs that you own?""Yes.""Here in the house?""Yes. If the samples are well preserved they can always be studied. When you get new medical information or want to look at something in particular they're perfectly usable for research purposes. Perfectly."The doctor stopped talking."You're asking about Audur," he said then."Do you know of her?" Erlendur said in surprise."You know if she hadn't had an autopsy and had her brain removed you might never have found out what killed her. You know that. She's been lying in the ground too long. It wouldn't have been possible to study the brain effectively after 30 years in the soil. So, what you are so disgusted at has actually helped you. Presumably you realise that."The doctor thought for a moment."Have you heard about Louis XVII? He was the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, imprisoned during the French Revolution, executed at the age of 10. It was on the news a year ago or more. French scientists had found out he died in prison and did not escape as some people claimed. Do you know how they found that out?""I don't remember the story," Erlendur said."His heart was removed and kept in formalin. When they could do DNA and other tests they found out that the alleged relatives based their kinship with the French royal family on lies. They weren't related to the prince. Do you know when Louis died in childhood?""No.""More than two hundred years ago. In 1795. Formalin is a unique fluid."Erlendur became thoughtful."What do you know about Audur?""Various things.""How did the sample come into your hands?""Via a third party. I don't think I'd care to go into that.""From Jar City?""Yes.""Did they give you Jar City?""Part of it. There's no need to talk to me as though I'm a criminal.""Did you ever establish the cause of death?"The doctor looked at Erlendur and took another sip of his sherry."Actually, I did," he said. "I've always been more inclined towards research than medical practice. With this obsession of mine for collecting things, I've been able to combine the two, although only on a small scale of course.""The coroner's report from Keflavik only mentions a brain tumour, without any further explanation.""I saw that. The report is incomplete, it was never more than preliminary. As I say, I've looked into this more closely and I think I have the answer to some of your questions."Erlendur leaned forward in his chair. "And?""A genetic disease. It occurs in several families in Iceland. It was an extremely complex case and even after examining it in depth I wasn't sure for a long time. Eventually I thought the tumour was most probably linked to a genetic disease, neurofibromatosis. I don't expect you've heard of it before. In some cases there aren't any symptoms. In some cases people can die without the illness ever surfacing. There are symptom-free carriers. It's much more common for the symptoms to emerge at an early stage, though, mainly in the form of marks on the skin and of tumours."The doctor sipped his sherry again."The Keflavik people didn't describe anything of that sort in their report, but I'm not sure they knew what they were looking for either.""They told the relatives about the skin.""Did they, really? Diagnosis isn't always certain.""Is this disease pa.s.sed on from father to daughter?""It can be. But genetic transmission isn't confined to that. Both s.e.xes can carry and contract the disease. It's said that one strain of it came out in the Elephant Man. Did you see the film?""No," Erlendur said."Certain people contract extreme bone growth which causes deformity, as in that particular case. In fact there are other people who claim that neurofibromatosis has nothing to do with the Elephant Man. But that's a different story.""Why did you start looking for it?" Erlendur interrupted the doctor."Brain diseases are my specialist field," he said. "This girl is one of my most interesting cases. I read all the reports about her. They weren't very precise. The doctor who looked after her was a poor GP, he was drinking at the time, so I'm told. But be that as it may, he wrote about acute tubercular infection of the head in one place, which was the term that was sometimes used when the disease appeared. That was my starting point. The coroner's report from Keflavik wasn't very precise either, as we talked about before. They found the tumour and left it at that."The doctor stood up and went over to a large bookcase in the lounge. He took out a journal and handed it to Erlendur."I'm not sure you'll understand all this, but I wrote a short scientific article about my research in a highly respected American medical journal.""Have you written a scientific article about Audur?" Erlendur asked."Audur has helped us on our way towards understanding the disease. She's been very important both to me and to medical science. I hope I'm not disappointing you.""The girl's father could be a genetic carrier," Erlendur said, still trying to grasp what the doctor had told him. "And he pa.s.sed the disease on to his daughter. If he'd had a son, wouldn't he also have inherited the disease?""It wouldn't necessarily have to come out in him," the doctor said, "but he could be a genetic carrier, like his father.""So?""Yes. If he had a child, the child could also have the disease."Erlendur thought about what the doctor had said."But you really ought to talk to the scientists at the Genetic Research Centre," the doctor said. "They've got the answers to the genetic questions.""What?""Talk to the Genetic Research Centre. That's our new Jar City. They've got the answers. What's wrong? Why are you so shocked? Do you know anyone there?""No," Erlendur said, "but I soon will.""Do you want to see Audur?" the doctor asked.At first Erlendur didn't take the doctor's hint."Do you mean . . . ?""I've got a small laboratory down here. You're welcome to take a look."Erlendur hesitated."All right," he said.They stood up and Erlendur followed the doctor down the narrow stairs. The doctor switched on a light and a pristine laboratory appeared, with microscopes, computers, test tubes and equipment for purposes that Erlendur couldn't even begin to imagine. He remembered a remark that he happened to read somewhere about collectors. Collectors make a world for themselves. They make a little world all around them, select certain icons from reality and turn them into the chief characters in that artificial world. Holberg was a collector too. His obsession with collecting things was connected with p.o.r.nography. It was from that he made his private world, just as the doctor did from organs."She's here," the doctor said.He went over to a large, old, wooden cabinet, the only article of furniture in the room and out of place in the sterilised environment, he opened it and took down a thick gla.s.s jar with a lid. He put it carefully on the table and Erlendur could see in the strong fluorescent light a little child's brain floating in formalin.When he left the doctor, Erlendur took with him a leather case containing Audur's earthly remains. He thought about Jar City as he drove home through the empty streets, hoping that no part of him would ever be kept in a laboratory. It was still raining when he pulled up outside the block of flats where he lived. He switched off the engine, lit a cigarette and stared out into the night.Erlendur looked at the black bag on the front seat. He was going to put Audur back where she belonged.

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At around 11.00 that same night, the policemen on duty in front of Katrin's house watched her husband leave, slam the door behind him, storm into his car and drive off. He seemed to be in a tearing rush and they noticed he was carrying the same suitcase as when he arrived home earlier that day. The policemen saw no further movement during the night and there was no sign of Katrin. A police patrol car was called to the neighbourhood and followed Albert to Hotel Esja where he checked in for the night.Erlendur turned up outside Katrin's house at eight o'clock the following morning. Elinborg was with him. It was still raining. The sun hadn't come out for days. They rang the bell three times before they heard a rustling inside and the door opened. Katrin appeared in the doorway. Elinborg noticed she was wearing the same clothes as on the day before and she had clearly been crying. Her face was drawn and her eyes were red and swollen."Sorry," Katrin said as if in a daze, "I must have fallen asleep in the chair. What's the time?""May we come in?" Erlendur said."I never told Albert what happened," she said and went inside, without inviting them in. Erlendur and Elinborg exchanged glances and followed her."He walked out on me last night," Katrin said. "What's the time anyway? I think I must have fallen asleep in the chair. Albert was so angry. I've never seen him that angry.""Can you contact some of your family?" Elinborg asked. "Someone who can come and stay with you? Your sons?""No, Albert will come back and everything will be all right. I don't want to disturb the boys. It'll be all right. Albert will come back.""Why was he so angry?" Erlendur asked. Katrin had sat down on the sofa in the sitting room, Erlendur and Elinborg sat down opposite her just as before."He was furious, Albert was. And he's generally so calm. Albert's a good man, such a good man, and he's always been so good to me. It's a good marriage. We've always been happy.""Maybe you want us to come back later," Elinborg said. Erlendur glared at her."No," Katrin said, "it's all right. It'll be all right. Albert will come back. He just needs to get over it. My G.o.d, how difficult this is. I should have told him straightaway, he said. He couldn't understand how I could keep quiet about it all that time. He shouted at me."Katrin looked at them."He's never shouted at me before.""Can I get you some help? Shall I call your doctor?" Elinborg said and stood up. Erlendur looked at her in bewilderment."No, it's all right," Katrin said. "That's not necessary. I'm just a bit sleepy-headed. It'll be all right. Sit down, dear. Everything will be all right.""What was it you told your husband?" Erlendur asked. "Did you tell him about the rape?""I'd wanted to all these years, but I never had the guts to. I've never told anyone about that incident. I tried to forget it, pretend it had never happened. It's often been difficult, but I've managed, somehow. Then you came and I found myself telling you everything. Somehow I felt better. It was like you'd relieved me of a great burden. I knew I could finally talk openly and that was the only right thing to do. Even after all this time."Katrin stopped talking."Did he get angry with you because you hadn't told him about the rape?" Erlendur asked."Yes.""Didn't he understand your point of view?" Elinborg asked."He said I should have told him about it straightaway. That's understandable, of course. He said he'd always been honest with me and he didn't deserve this.""But I don't quite understand," Erlendur said. "Albert sounds like a better person than that. I'd have thought he'd try to comfort you instead and stand by you, not storm out through the door.""I know," Katrin said. "Maybe I didn't tell him about it in the right way.""The right way," Elinborg said, not even trying to conceal her disbelief. "How can you tell anyone about that sort of thing in the right way?"Katrin shook her head."I don't know. I swear, I don't know.""Did you tell him the whole truth?" Erlendur asked."I told him what I told you.""And nothing else?""No," Katrin said."Only about the rape?""Only," Katrin repeated. "Only! As if that's not enough. As if it's not enough for him to hear that I'd been raped and never told him about it. Isn't that enough?"They all fell silent."Didn't you tell him about your youngest son?" Erlendur asked eventually.Katrin suddenly looked daggers at him."What about our youngest son?" she said, spitting out the words."You named him Einar," said Erlendur, who had looked through the details Elinborg had collected about the family the day before."What about Einar?"Erlendur looked at her."What about Einar?" she repeated."He's your son," Erlendur said. "But he's not his father's son.""What are you talking about? Not his father's son? Of course he's his father's son! Who isn't his father's son?""Sorry, I'm not being precise enough. He isn't the son of the father he thought was his," Erlendur said calmly. "He's the son of the man who raped you. Holberg's son. Did you tell your husband that? Was that why he left as he did?"Katrin stayed silent."Did you tell him the whole truth?"Katrin looked at Erlendur. He sensed she was preparing to resist. A few moments pa.s.sed and then he saw how her lips gave in. Her shoulders sank, she closed her eyes, she half collapsed in the chair and burst into tears. Elinborg glared at Erlendur but he just watched Katrin in the chair and gave her time to collect herself."Did you tell him about Einar?" he asked again when he thought she had managed to pull herself together."He didn't believe it," she said."That Einar wasn't his son?" Erlendur said."They're particularly close, Einar and Albert, they always have been. Ever since he was born. Albert loves his other two sons as well, of course, but especially Einar. Right from the start. He's the youngest child and Albert's pampered him."Katrin paused."Maybe that's why I never said anything. I knew Albert wouldn't be able to stand it. The years went by and I pretended there was nothing amiss. Never said a thing. And it worked. Holberg had left a wound and why not let it heal in peace? Why should he be able to destroy our future together? To ignore it was my way of dealing with the horror.""Did you know at once that Einar was Holberg's son?" Elinborg asked."He could well have been Albert's son."Katrin fell silent again."But you saw it in his face," Erlendur said.Katrin looked at him."How do you know all this?""He looks like Holberg, doesn't he?" Erlendur said. "Holberg as a young man. A woman saw him in Keflavik and thought it was Holberg himself.""There's a certain resemblance between them.""If you never told your son anything and your husband didn't know about Einar, why this big showdown now between you and Albert? What started it?""What woman in Keflavik?" Katrin said. "What woman who lives in Keflavik knows Holberg? Did he live with a woman there?""No," Erlendur said, wondering whether he ought to tell her about Kolbrun and Audur. She'd hear about them sooner or later and he couldn't see any valid reason for Katrin not to learn the truth now. He'd already told her about the rape in Keflavik, but now he named Holberg's victim and told her about Audur, who died young after a serious and difficult illness. He told her how they'd found the photograph of the gravestone in Holberg's desk and how it had led them to Keflavik and to Elin, and he told of the treatment Kolbrun had been given when she tried to press charges.Katrin took in every word of the account. Tears welled up in her eyes when Erlendur told her about Audur's death. He also told her about Gretar, the man with the camera, whom she'd seen with Holberg, and how he vanished without trace, but had been found underneath the concrete floor of Holberg's bas.e.m.e.nt flat."Is that all the fuss in Nordurmri that's been in the news?" Katrin said.Erlendur nodded."I didn't know Holberg raped any other women. I thought I was the only one.""We know only about you two," Erlendur said. "There could be others. We can't be sure we will ever know.""So Audur was Einar's half-sister," Katrin said, deep in thought. "The poor child.""Are you sure you didn't know about this?" Erlendur asked."Of course I'm sure," she said. "I didn't have the faintest idea about it.""Einar knows about her," Erlendur said. "He tracked down Elin in Keflavik."Katrin didn't answer. He decided to try a different question."If your son didn't know anything and you never told your husband about the rape, how has Einar suddenly found out the truth now?""I don't know," Katrin said. "Tell me, how did the poor girl die?""You know your son is suspected of Holberg's murder," Erlendur said, not answering her. He tried to phrase what he had to say as carefully as he could. He thought Katrin was astonishingly calm, as if it didn't surprise her that her son was suspected of murder."My son's no murderer," she said softly. "He could never kill anyone.""There's a strong probability that he hit Holberg over the head. Maybe he didn't intend to murder him. He probably did it in a fit of rage. He left a message for us. It said: I am him. Do you understand what that means?"Katrin said nothing."Did he know Holberg was his father? Did he know what Holberg did to you? Did he know about Audur and Elin? How?"Katrin stared into her lap."Where's your son now?" Elinborg asked."I don't know," Katrin said quietly. "I haven't heard from him for several days."She looked at Erlendur."Suddenly he found out about Holberg. He knew something wasn't right. He found it out at work. He said we couldn't hide any secrets these days. He said it was all in the database."

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Erlendur looked at Katrin."Is that how he got the information about his real father?" he asked."He discovered that he couldn't be Albert's son," Katrin said in a low voice."How?" Erlendur asked. "What was he looking for? Why was he looking himself up in the data-base? Was it a coincidence?""No," Katrin said. "It wasn't a coincidence."Elinborg had had enough. She wanted to stop the questioning and give Katrin a break. She stood up saying she needed to fetch a gla.s.s of water and gestured to Erlendur to come with her. He followed her into the kitchen. Elinborg told him she thought the woman had been through enough for the time being and that they should leave her alone and tell her to consult a lawyer before she said anything else. They ought to save further questioning until later in the day, talk to her family and ask someone to stay with her and help her. Erlendur pointed out that Katrin hadn't been arrested, wasn't suspected of anything, that this wasn't a formal interrogation, just collecting information, and that Katrin was very cooperative at the moment. They ought to continue.Elinborg shook her head."Strike while the iron's hot," Erlendur said."What a thing to say!" Elinborg hissed.Katrin appeared at the kitchen door and asked if they should continue. She was ready to tell them the truth and not conceal anything this time."I want to get it over with," she said.Elinborg asked whether she wanted to contact a lawyer, but Katrin said no. She said she didn't know any lawyers and had never had occasion to consult one. Didn't know how to go about it.Elinborg looked accusingly at Erlendur. He asked Katrin to continue. When they had all sat down Katrin resumed her story. She wrung her hands and sadly began her story.*Albert was going abroad that morning. They got up very early. She made coffee for them both. They talked yet again about selling the house and buying somewhere smaller. They'd often talked about this, but had never got round to it. Maybe it seemed like too big a step, as if underlining how old they were. They didn't feel old, but it seemed an increasingly pressing matter for them to buy a smaller place. Albert said he would talk to an estate agent when he came back, and then he left in his Cherokee.She went back to bed. She didn't have to go to work for two hours, but she couldn't get back to sleep. She lay there tossing and turning until eight o'clock. Then she got up. She was in the kitchen when she heard Einar come in. He had a key to the house.She could tell at once that he was upset but she didn't know why. He said he'd been up all night. Paced the sitting room and went into the kitchen but refused to sit down."I knew there was something that didn't fit," he said, and gave his mother an angry look. "I knew it all the time!"She couldn't understand what he was angry about."I knew something didn't b.l.o.o.d.y fit," he repeated almost shouting."What are you talking about, love," she said, unaware of why he was angry. "What doesn't fit?""I cracked the code," he said. "I broke the rules to crack the code. I wanted to see how the disease is pa.s.sed on through families and it is is pa.s.sed on through families, I can tell you that. It's in several families, but it's not in our family. Not in Dad's family and not in yours. That's why it doesn't fit. Do you understand? Do you understand what I'm saying?" pa.s.sed on through families, I can tell you that. It's in several families, but it's not in our family. Not in Dad's family and not in yours. That's why it doesn't fit. Do you understand? Do you understand what I'm saying?"*Erlendur's mobile phone rang in his coat pocket and he asked Katrin to excuse him. He went into the kitchen to answer it. It was Sigurdur oli."The old girl from Keflavik's looking for you," he said, without introducing himself."The old girl? Do you mean Elin?""Yes, Elin.""Did you talk to her?""Yes," Sigurdur oli said. "She said she needed to talk to you straightaway.""Do you know what she wants?""She flatly refused to tell me. How are you doing?""Did you give her my mobile number?""No.""If she calls again give her my number," Erlendur said and hung up. Katrin and Elinborg were waiting for him in the sitting room."Sorry," he said to Katrin. She continued her story.*Einar paced the sitting room. Katrin tried to calm him down and work out what had made her son so upset. She sat down and asked him to sit beside her, but he wouldn't listen. Walked back and forth in front of her. She knew he'd been having problems for a long time and that the separation didn't help. His wife had left him. She wanted a fresh start. She didn't want to be overwhelmed by his sorrow."Tell me what's wrong," she said."So much, Mum, just so much."And then came the question she'd been waiting for all these years."Who's my dad?" her son asked and stopped in front of her. "Who's my real father?"She looked at him."We haven't got any secrets any more, Mum," he said."What have you found out?" she asked. "What have you been up to?""I know who isn't my father," he said, "and that's Dad." He roared with laughter. "Did you hear that? Dad isn't my dad! And if he isn't my dad, who am I then? Where did I come from? My brothers. Suddenly they're just half-brothers. Why haven't you ever told me anything? Why have you lied to me all this time? Why? Why?"She stared at him and her eyes filled with tears."Did you cheat on Dad?" he asked. "You can tell me. I won't tell anyone. Did you cheat on him? No-one need know except the two of us but I have to hear it from you. You have to tell me the truth. Where do I come from? How was I made?"He stopped talking."Am I adopted? An orphan? What am I? Who am I? Mum?"Katrin burst into tears with heavy sobs. He stared at her, just beginning to calm down, while she wept on the sofa. It took him some time to register how much his words had upset her. Eventually he sat down and put his arm around her. They sat for a while in silence until she started to tell him about the night in Husavik when his father was at sea. She was out with her girlfriends and met some men, including Holberg, who burst into her house. He listened to her story without interruption.She told him how Holberg had raped her and threatened her and she'd decided for herself to have the baby and never tell anyone what had happened. Not his father and not him. And that had been fine. They'd lived a happy life. She hadn't allowed Holberg to rob her of her happiness. He hadn't managed to kill her family.She told him that, though he was the son of the man who raped her, that didn't prevent her from loving him as much as her other two sons and she knew Albert was particularly fond of him. So Einar had never suffered for what Holberg did. Never.It took him a few minutes to digest what she'd said."Sorry," he said at last. "I didn't mean to get angry with you. I thought you'd been cheating and that's where I came from. I had no idea about the rape.""Of course not," she said. "How could you have known? I've never told anyone until now.""I should have seen that possibility too," he said. "There was another possibility, but I didn't consider it. Sorry. You must have felt terrible all these years.""You shouldn't think about that," she said. "You shouldn't suffer for what that man did.""I've already suffered for it, Mum," he said. "Endless torment. And not just me. Why didn't you have an abortion? What stopped you?""Oh Lord, G.o.d, don't say that, Einar. Never talk like that."*Katrin stopped."Didn't you ever consider an abortion?" Elinborg asked."All the time. Always. Until it was too late. I thought about it every day after I found out I was pregnant. Anyway, the child could well have been Albert's. That probably made all the difference. And then I got depressed after the birth. Postnatal depression, isn't it? I was sent for psychiatric treatment. After three months I was well enough again to look after the boy and I've loved him ever since."Erlendur waited a moment before he continued his questioning."Why did your son start looking up genetic diseases in the Research Centre's database?" he asked eventually.Katrin looked at him."How did that girl from Keflavik die?" she asked."Of a brain tumour," Erlendur said. "The disease is called neurofibromatosis."Katrin's eyes filled with tears and she heaved a deep sigh."Didn't you know?" she said."Didn't I know what?""Our little love died three years ago," Katrin said. "For no reason. Absolutely no reason.""Your little love?" Erlendur said."Our little sweetheart," she said. "Einar's daughter. She died. The poor, sweet child."

39

A deep silence fell across the house.Katrin was sitting with her head bowed. Elinborg looked first at her and then at Erlendur, thunder-struck. Erlendur stared into s.p.a.ce and thought about Eva Lind. What was she doing now? Was she at his flat? He felt the urge to talk to his daughter. Felt the urge to hug her, snuggle up to her and not let go until he'd told her how much she meant to him."I can't believe it," Elinborg said."Your son's a genetic carrier, isn't he?" Erlendur said."That was the phrase he used," Katrin said. "A genetic carrier. They both are. He and Holberg. He said he inherited it from the man who raped me.""But neither of them got ill," Erlendur said."It seems to be the females who become ill," Katrin said. "The males carry the disease, but don't necessarily show any symptoms. But it comes in all kinds of forms, I can't explain it. My son under-stands it. He tried to explain it to me, but I didn't really know what he was talking about. He was heartbroken. And so was I of course.""And he found all this out from that database they're making," Erlendur said.Katrin nodded."He couldn't understand why his little girl got the disease so he started looking for it in my family and Albert's. He talked to relatives and just wouldn't give up. We thought it was his way of dealing with the shock. All that endless searching for the cause. Searching for answers where we didn't think there were any answers to be found. They split up some time ago, Lara and him. They couldn't live together any longer and decided on a temporary separation, but I can't see things ever improving."Katrin stopped talking."And then he found the answer," Erlendur said."He became convinced that Albert wasn't his father. He said it couldn't be right according to the information he had from the database. That's why he came to me. He thought I'd been unfaithful and that was where he came from. Or that he was adopted.""Did he find Holberg in the database?""I don't think so. Not until later. After I told him about Holberg. It was so absurd. So ridiculous! My son had made a list of his possible fathers and Holberg was on it. He could trace the disease back through certain families using the genetics and genealogy databases and he found out he couldn't be his father's son. He was a deviation. A different strain.""How old was his daughter?""She was seven.""It was a brain tumour that caused her death, wasn't it?" Erlendur said."Yes.""She died of the same disease as Audur. Neurofibromatosis.""Yes. Audur's mother must have felt terrible; first Holberg, and then her daughter dying."Erlendur hesitated for a moment."Kolbrun, her mother, committed suicide three years after Audur died.""My G.o.d," Katrin sighed."Where's your son now?" Erlendur asked."I don't know," Katrin replied. "I'm worried sick he'll do something terrible to himself. He feels so depressed, the boy. So terrible.""Do you think he's been in contact with Holberg?""I don't know. I just know he's no murderer. That I know for certain.""Did you think he looked like his father?" Erlendur asked and looked at the confirmation photographs.Katrin didn't answer."Could you see a resemblance between them?" Erlendur asked."Come on, Erlendur," Elinborg snapped, unable to take any more of this. "Don't you think you've gone far enough, seriously?""Sorry," Erlendur said to Katrin. "I'm just being nosy. You've been extremely helpful to us and if it's any consolation I doubt that we'll ever find a more steadfast or stronger character than you, being able to suffer in silence for all those years.""It's all right," Katrin said to Elinborg. "Children can take after anyone in the family. I could never see Holberg in my boy. He said it wasn't my fault. Einar told me that. I wasn't to blame for the way his daughter died."Katrin paused."What will happen to Einar?" she asked. She wasn't putting up any resistance now. No lies. Only resignation."We have to find him," Erlendur said, "talk to him and hear what he has to say."He and Elinborg stood up. Erlendur put on his hat. Katrin remained on the sofa."If you want I can talk to Albert," Erlendur said. "He stayed at Hotel Esja last night. We've been