The Shadow District

by Arnaldur Indridason

  Petra couldn’t understand what was so significant about the story she had told them, but then she didn’t know much about the case. She explained to both men that her mother had hardly ever spoken about Rósamunda, either to her or to anyone else, as far as she knew, so she couldn’t really answer their questions. She’d never bothered to familiarise herself with the details of the case. In fact, all she knew was that her mother had been one of the people questioned by the police about a murder that had been committed during the war. She didn’t even know if it had ever been solved.

  She suspected that the old woman had her reasons for not wanting to discuss it. On the rare occasions when Petra had asked her about Rósamunda’s death, if she was reading about a murder in the papers for instance, she had sensed her mother’s reluctance to dredge it up. But it had never entered Petra’s head that her mother might be sitting on information that could shed new light on the case.

  She looked at Konrád curiously. She had conscientiously related everything she knew as accurately as possible, just as she had done previously for the old man, Stefán. They had both seemed so extraordinarily interested in her mother and Rósamunda, and she’d been eager to help.

  ‘Was it common for the women working for your mother to react like that? To refuse to take deliveries?’ asked Konrád.

  ‘I wouldn’t know.’

  ‘Your mother found it very unusual, didn’t she?’

  ‘Well, yes, she gave that impression. Though I think mainly because it was so rare for one of her staff to disobey her. Especially when it came to a simple task like that.’

  ‘And Rósamunda wouldn’t explain?’

  ‘No, but as I said Mother reckoned she’d had a nasty experience at that house the day she found her in tears.’

  ‘Do you know if Thorson – Stefán – was intending to act on this information?’

  ‘No, but he seemed very upset when I told him about it, though he didn’t explain why. As I said, I know very little about the case. He left shortly afterwards and I never heard from him again.’

  ‘Which house was it that Rósamunda refused to visit?’ asked Konrád. ‘Who lived there?’

  ‘My mother said she knew the woman very well and wasn’t aware that she had ever been rude to Rósamunda. Not that Mother ever raised the matter with her of course. She never told a soul, so the family in question wouldn’t have had a clue that there was a problem. The woman’s husband was a politician, an MP, according to my mother. That’s why she didn’t want to make a fuss.’

  ‘An MP?’

  ‘Yes, he died years ago. Mother said he was a person of considerable standing at the time and his wife sat on all kinds of committees, was involved in the Women’s Institute and so on. They were both Oddfellows, or whatever it’s called. She was pretty sure he was a Freemason too. Their son later became a cabinet minister.’

  ‘And Rósamunda refused to deliver a dress to the wife?’

  ‘Yes. Not just a dress but bedclothes as well. All terribly smart, according to Mother, with the couple’s monograms embroidered on the quilt and pillowcases – she remembered it vividly. Mother was always very proud of the quality of her seamstresses’ work.’

  ‘And when you told this to Stefán, he was startled?’

  ‘To be honest he seemed stunned,’ said Petra. ‘He kept asking me questions, like you’re doing now, kept repeating the same questions over and over again, as if he wanted to be sure he’d understood correctly.’

  ‘But you don’t know what action, if any, he intended to take?’

  ‘No. I haven’t the foggiest.’

  ‘And you didn’t hear from him again?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you gave him the names of the family involved?’

  ‘Yes, I did.’

  ‘Was he going to look them up?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Petra paused, then added: ‘I got the feeling …’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I got the feeling he wasn’t satisfied with how the case was handled at the time. He wouldn’t have come round otherwise.’

  ‘Can you be more specific?’

  ‘I think that was why he came to see me. I sensed that he felt the case wasn’t closed. That he was unhappy about how he’d left it. Even before I told him about Rósamunda I could tell something was still nagging at him after all these years. It was like he was searching for reassurance that he’d done the right thing.’

  ‘Did he actually come out and say that?’ asked Konrád.

  ‘No, and I didn’t ask him,’ replied Petra. ‘It was just a hunch. But I could have been mistaken.’

  ‘As if he had a bad conscience about some aspect of the case?’

  ‘That was my instinct. That he wasn’t happy about it, and was even less happy after what I told him. When he left he was muttering something about a student.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘I didn’t quite catch it, but I heard him say “the student”.’

  ‘The student?’

  ‘Yes.

  ‘What student?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve no idea what was troubling him but the poor man seemed genuinely distressed.’

  34

  Jónatan offered no resistance when they led him through the doors of the prison on Skólavördustígur. On the way there he had protested against his detention, saying he needed to go home. There was so much to do and he had lectures first thing in the morning. Eager though he was to help the police, he didn’t have the time right now. He was polite, never descending into rudeness, but imploring, as if they’d be doing him a great favour if they let him go. Flóvent told him it was probably too late to continue the interview that night but they would resume their chat in the morning. Until then he would have to stay in the police cells.

  ‘But I’ve got lectures in the morning,’ pleaded Jónatan.

  ‘Perhaps you’d better take tomorrow off,’ said Flóvent.

  ‘But I haven’t got time to take a day off.’

  The prison guards signed him in and escorted him to a cell, Flóvent following just behind. Jónatan kept up a constant stream of protests. When Flóvent asked if there was anyone he wanted to inform of his circumstances, Jónatan merely shook his head as if he still couldn’t fully grasp that they were going to lock him up.

  ‘I don’t want anyone to know,’ he said. ‘This is ridiculous. Surely you’ll have to let me go in the morning?’

  He grabbed Flóvent’s arm as the door to the cell opened. ‘Don’t shut me in there, I beg you.’

  ‘We’ll have another chat tomorrow morning, son,’ said Flóvent. ‘It’s late. I’m afraid we have to do it this way. It can’t be helped.’

  ‘But I can’t bear it,’ said Jónatan, in a choked voice. ‘There’s been some terrible mistake. I don’t understand why you’re treating me like this. I didn’t … I haven’t done anything.’

  ‘Then we’ll straighten it all out tomorrow,’ said Flóvent reassuringly. ‘Don’t worry. If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ll soon be able to go home again. You have nothing to be afraid of – if that’s the case.’

  ‘Don’t do this to me. Please, I beg you.’

  The door closed on Jónatan.

  ‘Don’t shut me in here!’ He raised his voice for the first time and it carried through the cell door. Flóvent lingered outside for a moment or two, then headed back down the corridor, the sound of sobbing echoing behind him.

  He and Thorson had felt they had no alternative but to detain Jónatan. The evidence was stacking up against him. He had known Hrund and had dealings with her when he was labouring on the roads up north. He was an enthusiast, practically an expert, in Icelandic folklore. Frank Ruddy had thought it possible he was the man he’d spied standing on the corner of Skuggasund the evening Rósamunda’s body was found. Jónatan smoked Lucky Strikes, just like the cigarette butts they had found in the street. Admittedly they were very popular, but all things considered it was another mark against Jónatan that he smoked them.<
br />
  ‘I guess Frank’s not the most reliable witness in the world,’ commented Thorson as they re-emerged onto Skólavördustígur.

  ‘Have you let him go?’

  ‘I told him he could rejoin his regiment. There’s no reason to hold him any longer. At any rate, he doesn’t seem to have attacked Rósamunda. We’ve found nothing to support that theory. And there’s been no news yet from the States about a criminal record.’

  ‘But he reckoned it could have been Jónatan standing on the corner?’

  ‘Yes. Rather than your father, anyway.’

  ‘During my training in Edinburgh they told me that criminals are sometimes drawn back to the scene of a crime. Particularly in cases of murder or other serious incidents.’

  ‘So you think Jónatan may have been drawn back to the theatre?’

  ‘Hard to say. Criminals go back for a variety of reasons. Guilt is one. It gnaws away at them until they’re on the brink of giving themselves up – and some actually do turn themselves in. Another is fear of being found out. They’re scared they’ve left something incriminating at the scene and want to double check.’

  ‘So you think the man on the corner was Rósamunda’s killer? Whether or not it was Jónatan?’

  Flóvent shrugged. ‘Did you tell Frank to steer clear of Icelandic women from now on?’

  ‘What good would that do?’

  ‘His testimony isn’t everything,’ said Flóvent. ‘Jónatan’s strongest link to the two girls is the folk tales. That’s where we should apply the pressure when we question him.’

  ‘We’ve got the link to Hrund,’ said Thorson. ‘All we really need is to connect him to Rósamunda. Any reason to put off searching his apartment?’

  Flóvent glanced at his watch. ‘It’s pretty late,’ he said, thinking of his father. ‘Maybe we should leave it till tomorrow morning, before we talk to the boy.’

  Thorson nodded. It had been a long day, and he was tired. They drove down to the centre of town where they parted company. Flóvent said he wanted to walk home; he had a lot to think about. Thorson headed into Hótel Borg, hoping to grab a bite of supper before bed. He was staying there for a few nights while the barracks were undergoing some modifications. It didn’t bother him in the least, except when the drinking got out of hand at the weekends.

  The restaurant was packed but he found an out-of-the-way table and decided to order the roast lamb. A waiter came over and started to apologise in broken English that the kitchen was closed. Thorson replied in Icelandic and asked if the man could fix him a snack instead since he was a guest at the hotel. The waiter promised to see what he could do.

  Sitting back and surveying the crowded room, Thorson spotted the proprietor, a strapping, broad-shouldered man, standing by the door to the kitchen in conversation with a waiter. The proprietor was a champion in the ancient art of Icelandic wrestling known as glíma, and had toured the world in his younger years, taking on all challengers. His fame had spread all the way to Manitoba. He had done so well out of these tours that when he returned home he was able to build the hotel out of the proceeds, and ran it now with great panache.

  That evening the restaurant was largely filled with American servicemen, officers mostly, accompanied by several Icelandic women whose shrieks of laughter frequently punctuated the roar of male voices. Thorson was only too familiar with the so-called Situation. Numerous cases involving relations between soldiers and Icelandic women had landed on his desk at military police headquarters. In a rather draconian effort to tackle the problem, the Icelandic authorities had set up a juvenile court to process cases involving minors, but the initiative had proved short-lived since there were few solutions available short of exiling the younger girls to the countryside to remove them from temptation. It was against regulations to bring women back to barracks and the age limit for admission to dance halls was sixteen, but neither rule was observed in practice. Every now and then fights broke out between locals and servicemen, and there were instances of women seeking to press charges because of the way they had been treated. Cases where soldiers turned out to be married back home were common and invariably a source of distress.

  His mother had asked in her letters how he liked his ancestral home. He knew his parents missed Iceland at times; they always spoke well of their homeland and fellow Icelanders. They had emigrated while still young, at the turn of the century, in search of a better life in the new world, and had the good fortune to be allotted a decent piece of land when they arrived in Canada. Thorson’s mother had relatives in Manitoba who had fled a life of poverty in Iceland several decades earlier, and they gave the young immigrants a warm welcome. His parents were hard workers and had been quick to establish themselves and put down roots in their new country. Although they often thought of home and missed family and friends, they never regretted their decision to leave. Thorson had written that most Icelanders were still dirt poor but their situation had greatly improved with the outbreak of war, since now there was plenty of well-paid work to go round. As a result, people were flocking from the countryside to Reykjavík in search of a better life – new homes, opportunities that had never been open to them before, a brighter future. He omitted to mention the Situation, preferring not to cast a shadow on his parents’ rosy image of the old country, but said the occupation was proving such a watershed in the history of the nation that it was bound to change it for ever. The traditional farming society that his parents had known was fast disappearing.

  Having finished his snack, Thorson returned to his room and went to bed. He could hear a muffled echo of the carousing from the restaurant and thought of his home in Canada, as he often did in his lonely state. His parents had told him so many tales of their old homeland, their memories tinged with nostalgia. But the society that awaited him bore little relation to their stories. From the moment he arrived, he’d had the inescapable feeling that he was in a completely different country from the one his parents had left.

  Early next morning Flóvent and Thorson drove round to Jónatan’s bedsit to search for conclusive evidence that he had known Rósamunda. They had no idea what precisely they were looking for and wouldn’t know until they found it. Jónatan had handed over the keys himself the evening before, saying they were welcome to search his room. His only concern was that they would muddle up the papers on his desk: the notes, source references and other carefully ordered material. He offered to go with them and prove that he had nothing to hide, but they declined his offer. ‘Maybe later,’ Flóvent had said.

  The tiny bedsit was exactly the kind of place you would expect a university student, a bookworm too engrossed in his research to take care of himself and his surroundings, to live. In addition to the volumes of Icelandic folk tales and legends, they found a range of other scholarly works related to his studies in the Icelandic Department, as well as books and papers devoted to his other interest: birds. When they’d visited him the previous evening he claimed he’d been out watching cormorants, and Flóvent unearthed a brief composition Jónatan had written about the bird, stating that it was large, black, almost prehistoric in appearance, with a broad wingspan and talons, that it was impressive in flight and a good diver.

  In the bookcase they discovered a file of sketches Jónatan had made of the cormorant and other seabirds, which revealed an above-average skill in draughtsmanship – even artistic flair. Some were painted in clear watercolours, with every detail accentuated.

  ‘Nice work,’ remarked Thorson.

  ‘The boy’s an artist,’ agreed Flóvent, holding up one of the drawings and inspecting it closely.

  ‘A sensitive soul, perhaps.’

  Flóvent replaced the picture and surveyed the room. He was aware of a flutter of excitement in the pit of his stomach, a feeling that had been present when he woke up that morning and had now returned. ‘There’s nothing here to suggest that he attacks and harms women.’

  ‘No,’ said Thorson. ‘He’s an innocent student. A birdwatcher and bookworm
who happens to be interested in Icelandic folklore.’

  ‘They used to say –’

  ‘Don’t tell me – in the Edinburgh police?’ finished Thorson.

  Flóvent smiled. ‘They used to say that you should disregard everything but hard evidence. Any gut feelings we may have about the boy or his digs or his skill at drawing or the fact he’s an innocent bookworm are beside the point. Irrelevant.’

  ‘Isn’t that just Scottish cynicism?’

  ‘They knew a thing or two,’ said Flóvent.

  He began to examine the source material Jónatan had amassed for his thesis, leafing through the papers until his gaze alighted on an account relating to the huldufólk that appeared to derive from old court records. The handwriting was almost illegible, however, and after peering at it for a while, Flóvent abandoned the attempt to decipher it on the spot and decided to take the pages away to peruse them at leisure.

  Thorson was out in the hallway investigating a small wardrobe. He opened it to find two shirts, a folded jumper and some rolled-up socks. Picking up a pair of smart trousers that had been lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom, he searched the pockets and turned them inside out, noticing, as he did so, a rip in the crotch that had been mended so skilfully as to be almost invisible.

  Ten minutes later they located the invoice for the mending service, buried in a kitchen drawer.

  35

  Jónatan hadn’t slept a wink during his night in the cells. The guards heard him muttering to himself and sobbing quietly. When breakfast was delivered to his cell, he asked after the two policemen who had brought him there. He wanted to get a message to them that he mustn’t miss his classes; he should already have been in a lecture by now and was hoping he would be released as soon as possible. The gravity of his situation still seemed to elude him. He had little appetite and hardly touched his breakfast of porridge served with two slices of liver sausage and a glass of milk.