Tainted Blood

by Arnaldur Indridason

  "They told the relatives about the skin."

  "Did they, really? Diagnosis isn't always certain."

  "Is this disease passed on from father to daughter?"

  "It can be. But genetic transmission isn't confined to that. Both sexes 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 Keflavík 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 passed 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 pornography. 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 glass 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.

  37

  At around 11.00 that same night, the policemen on duty in front of Katrín'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 Katrín. 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 Katrín's house at eight o'clock the following morning. Elínborg 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. Katrín appeared in the doorway. Elínborg 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," Katrín 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 Elínborg exchanged glances and followed her.

  "He walked out on me last night," Katrín 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?" Elínborg 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. Katrín had sat down on the sofa in the sitting room, Erlendur and Elínborg 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," Elínborg said. Erlendur glared at her.

  "No," Katrín said, "it's all right. It'll be all right. Albert will come back. He just needs to get over it. My God, 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."

  Katrín looked at them.

  "He's never shouted at me before."

  "Can I get you some help? Shall I call your doctor?" Elínborg said and stood up. Erlendur looked at her in bewilderment.

  "No, it's all right," Katrín 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."

  Katrín 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?" Elínborg 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 sai
d. "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," Katrín said. "Maybe I didn't tell him about it in the right way."

  "The right way," Elínborg said, not even trying to conceal her disbelief. "How can you tell anyone about that sort of thing in the right way?"

  Katrín 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," Katrín said.

  "Only about the rape?"

  "Only," Katrín 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.

  Katrín 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 Elínborg 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?"

  Katrín stayed silent.

  "Did you tell him the whole truth?"

  Katrín looked at Erlendur. He sensed she was preparing to resist. A few moments passed 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. Elínborg glared at Erlendur but he just watched Katrín 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."

  Katrín 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?" Elínborg asked.

  "He could well have been Albert's son."

  Katrín fell silent again.

  "But you saw it in his face," Erlendur said.

  Katrín 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 Keflavík 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 Keflavík?" Katrín said. "What woman who lives in Keflavík knows Holberg? Did he live with a woman there?"

  "No," Erlendur said, wondering whether he ought to tell her about Kolbrún and Audur. She'd hear about them sooner or later and he couldn't see any valid reason for Katrín not to learn the truth now. He'd already told her about the rape in Keflavík, 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 Keflavík and to Elín, and he told of the treatment Kolbrún had been given when she tried to press charges.

  Katrín 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 Grétar, 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 basement flat.

  "Is that all the fuss in Nordurmýri that's been in the news?" Katrín 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," Katrín 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 Elín in Keflavík."

  Katrín 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 Katrín 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?"

  Katrín said nothing.

  "Did he know Holberg was his father? Did he know what Holberg did to you? Did he know about Audur and Elín? How?"

  Katrin stared into her lap.

  "Where's your son now?" Elínborg asked.

  "I don't know," Katrín 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."

  38

  Erlendur looked at Katrín.

  "Is that how he got the information about his real father?" he asked.