My Soul to Take: A Novel of Iceland

by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

  "But you must have heard stories from your mother over the years?" persisted Thora. "Don't you remember any about the farms?"

  "Our mother didn't really discuss her life here," Elin replied. "She was so young when she moved to Reykjavik with Grandfather." Elin looked down at her lap. "It's no secret that her life wasn't a bed of roses. Kristrun, our grandmother, died when Mum was still a baby, and we understand that Grandfather was far from being a model father. He had a few issues, shall we say, and never recovered properly after Grandmother died." Elin looked up again, into Thora's eyes. "Unfortunately I don't remember him, so I can't judge for myself, but I'm sure he wasn't a bad man."

  Thora frowned. "Why do you phrase it like that? Did he mistreat your mother?" Could this be the incest story Soldis had mentioned?

  "In a way, yes," replied Elin. "He committed suicide. Mother was only eighteen, and I know I would never let my own child find me dead, so to my mind he wasn't a good father, whatever else can be said for him."

  "Oh, come on," objected Borkur suddenly. "You know he was ill. You can't expect someone who's clinically depressed to behave in a way society would deem normal—that's discrimination."

  Elin glared angrily at him for a moment without answering. Then she relented slightly. "Of course, my brother has a point. I love Mother so much that I can't help feeling bitter about how he failed her." She looked around the room. "I'm pretty sure the reason Mother kept the farm going was that everything was wonderful when she lived here. It wasn't until they moved to the city that Grandfather's illness developed. She wanted to hold on to her memories of a happy childhood."

  "I understand. It must have been difficult," said Thora sympathetically. "I noticed your grandmother's gravestone in the cemetery by the farm, but your grandfather Grimur doesn't seem to be buried with her. If you don't mind me asking, why is that?"

  Elin pursed her lips. "Mother said she'd decided that after he died. He left no instructions as to his preferred place of rest, and she didn't want to have him buried here on Snaefellsnes. I think perhaps she wanted to have him close to her, because she was living in Reykjavik."

  This seemed a strange kind of logic to Thora. She made herself more comfortable on the sofa. "Tell me, do you know anything about your great-uncle Bjarni, who originally lived at Kirkjustett?"

  "He died young from TB," said Borkur quickly, clearly pleased at getting his answer in first. "He lost his wife young too, so the brothers' lives followed a similar pattern. They were both young widowers, each with a daughter."

  "She died too," Thora said. "I mean his daughter, Gudny. TB, wasn't it?"

  "Yes," said Elin firmly. Judging from her expression, she didn't like losing control of the conversation to her brother. "They both fell ill and refused to go to Reykjavik and stay in a sanatarium, as they used to call TB clinics in those days. I don't know if it would have changed anything. I know precious little about tuberculosis—nothing, really—but I know that Grandfather looked after them as best he could; he was a doctor. That wasn't enough, unfortunately."

  Thora leaned forward. "I have to ask you something now, and I'm aware you might find it uncomfortable." She paused. The brother and sister sat and waited, as if paralyzed. "I've heard stories about incest on the farm. They say Bjarni abused his daughter. Could that be right?"

  "No!" snapped Elin. "That's rubbish. It just goes to show that back then people had nothing better to do than invent filthy stories about respectable folk who had died and couldn't defend themselves against gossip." She fell silent, her face bright red. It clearly wasn't the first time she'd heard this.

  "How can you be sure?" Thora asked cautiously. "Your mother might not have known about it because she was so young, and—as you said yourself—you didn't know your grandfather, so you can't have heard his side of the story."

  Elin glared wrathfully at Thora. "I've heard my mother deny it so passionately that for me there's not a shred of doubt. It's pure fabrication." She frowned. "To tell the truth, I don't see any point continuing this conversation. If you don't have any more intelligent questions, I think we ought to call it a day."

  "I'm sorry," Thora said humbly. "Consider the subject closed." In desperation she tried to broach another subject to avoid being thrown out. "Do you happen to know why your grandfather and his brother quarreled?" she asked hurriedly. "I understand they didn't speak for years."

  Elin was still too angry to answer, so Borkur replied. "It was more to do with their wives. The women fell out, and their husbands followed suit. I don't think anyone knows exactly what the dispute was between Grandmother and her sister-in-law, but it was serious enough that the brothers were never the same with each other, even when both women were dead. Stubbornness and grudges run in the family."

  Elin interrupted. "Mother told me that our grandmother Kristrun lost a baby, and in her confusion she blamed her sister-in-law for killing it. The accusation was completely unfounded; the child had been ill, but Grandmother's mental state was starting to deteriorate at the time. Bjarni was insulted by her accusations against his wife and he and Grandfather had a furious argument, but they had made up by the time Bjarni died—I understand Grandfather treated him well, looked after him during his illness when no one else would go near him for fear of infection."

  Thora nodded. "Do you know if there was ever a fire at either of the farms?" she asked, visualizing the drawing of the burning house she'd seen on the child's desk at Kreppa.

  "A fire?" they said in unison.

  Elin shook her head. "No, I've never heard that. Both farmhouses are in their original state."

  Thora nodded again. "And do you recognize the name Kristin in connection with the farms?"

  "Not that I can recall," said Borkur, seeming unfazed by her change of topic. "There must have been a few Kristins in the area, but I don't remember having heard of any." Elin shook her head. Both seemed sincere.

  Thora carefully formulated her next question, which she expected to be her last. "Do you know whether either or both of the brothers were sympathetic to the nationalists during the war?"

  "Nationalists?" Borkur echoed, reddening. "You mean Nazis?"

  "Yes," said Thora.

  "This is quite enough," Elin said, slamming her hands on the arms of her chair and standing up. "I refuse to waste any more time on this nonsense."

  Thora also stood up. "One final question, on a different subject. You have presumably heard about the woman who was murdered last week. Now another murder has been committed, in all probability last night. Did you happen to be around here on the evenings in question?"

  In anger, the brother and sister looked uncannily alike. The expression of fury that appeared almost simultaneously on their faces made them suddenly almost identical. "The only polite answer I can think of to your unpleasant insinuation is no—neither of us is in any way connected with these murders. You should leave now," spat Elin. "Ghosts, incest, Nazis, and now murder. I won't put up with this crap any longer."

  MATTHEW WAS LEANING CASUALLy AGAINST A LAMPPOST OUTSIDE, but stood up straight when Thora appeared. The door slammed loudly behind her as soon as she stepped on to the porch, and he smiled mischievously. "Did you ask about the young man with the burns?" he said.

  "No," said Thora grumpily. "I didn't get that far." Matthew smiled even more broadly. "Doesn't matter," he said. "Come on, I need to show you something."

  Chapter 22

  WHAT'S THE BIG deal?" asked Thora, turning away from the little shop window. She didn't understand Matthew's glee as he'd shown her the bric-a-brac crowding the dusty white shelves in the window. "It's just a bunch of old crockery, so what?"

  "Look," he said, rather disappointed, and pointed at a small object sitting between a ceramic puffin and a vase with a faded rose on it.

  Peering through the glass, Thora saw a silver shield engraved with a helmet and two swords. Because it lay flat on the shelf, she had to stand on tiptoe to see it properly. "What is it?" she asked.

  "It's a
German medal from World War Two," said Matthew smugly.

  "So?" she replied. "Do you want to buy it?"

  He laughed. "No, of course not," he said as he led her toward the entrance. "But I caught a glimpse of the owner and he looked even older than the stuff he's selling. I thought we might go inside and ask him about Nazis on Snaefellsnes. He's bound to know a thing or two. That medal will make a good icebreaker."

  "Ah," said Thora. "Now I get it."

  As they entered the shop, the bell on the door chimed loudly. Thora couldn't see a need for it, because the shop was so tiny that the shop-keeper couldn't fail to notice if anyone wandered in. Every square inch was loaded with knickknacks, making the space look even smaller than it was. The crammed shelves on all four walls reached almost to the ceiling. A ladder was propped up against one wall. Everything was lightly coated in dust, which suggested trade was not brisk. At the back of the room, a white-haired old man stood behind an old-fashioned cash register, which Thora doubted would meet the tax authorities' exacting standards. After browsing for a while, they squeezed their way toward the counter, navigating the various small items of furniture that littered the tiny floor space.

  "Good afternoon." Thora smiled at the man when they eventually reached the counter without breaking anything.

  "Afternoon," the man said calmly, not smiling back. "What can I do for you?"

  "My friend here is from Germany, and he saw a brooch in the window that aroused his curiosity," Thora replied. "Could we take a look

  at it?"

  Nodding assent, the old man inched past the bric-a-brac toward the window. "Ah, yes, this has been with me a long time, I can tell you," he said as he reached for it. "Actually it's a medal, not a brooch." He turned and put it down on the counter. "A decoration for those wounded in battle."

  "Oh," said Thora, picking it up. As she had thought, it was carved with a helmet and two swords, but now she noticed a little swastika on the helmet. A laurel wreath ran around the edge of the medal. "So it was awarded to soldiers who were wounded in the war? Aren't there a lot of these in circulation?"

  The old man frowned reproachfully, and Thora regretted her comment. Presumably he now thought she was about to start haggling. He took the medal out of her hands. "A lot of them were awarded, yes. At the height of wartime, it was also given to civilians who were injured in air raids. What makes this one remarkable is that it's made of silver. There were three different ranks, awarded in accordance with the seriousness of the soldier's injuries. Regular, silver, and gold. The regular rank was often granted for being wounded in combat. It was by far the most common."

  "How badly did you have to be injured to get the silver one?" asked Thora.

  "There were various grounds for winning the silver, including losing a limb or minor brain damage." He lifted up the medal and allowed the weak sunlight to play across it. "It wasn't a medal people particularly coveted, I can tell you that."

  "Not to mention the gold," offered Thora. "I don't think I want to know what you had to sustain to deserve one of those." She smiled at him. "My friend's sure to be interested in buying it. Do you know anything about its background?"

  The old man smiled back. "No, unfortunately. I got it from the estate of someone who died several decades ago, along with some other personal effects. There was no information about how it ended up there."

  "I thought it might have belonged to an Icelander," Thora said. "That would be interesting."

  "Not as far as I know," the old man said. "It's possible, but I doubt it. I think it was awarded exclusively to Germans, especially when it came to civilians."

  "But didn't some Icelanders fight on the German side? Could one of them have earned the medal?" suggested Thora, who was trying to steer the conversation toward Nazis on Snaefellsnes.

  "Very few, I think. A couple of nutcases joined the Germans in Norway and Denmark, but I don't think any of them ever set foot on a battlefield." The man placed the medal on the counter. "The Icelanders who went for that sort of stuff at the time were no heroes. Bunch of idiots. I think they were mainly attracted by the uniforms."

  "Really?" said Thora. "I must admit I know absolutely nothing about the situation in Iceland. So there was a Nazi movement here?"

  "Oh, yes," said the shopkeeper. "They were nationalists, mainly teenage boys who enjoyed marching with flags and fighting the socialists. I think they were driven more by youthful energy than any political leanings."

  "Was the movement widespread here on Snafellsnes?" Thora asked innocently.

  He scratched his head. Thora noticed that his hair was unusually thick for such an old man, even though it had turned white. "Happily, it never got a foothold here," he said, looking at Thora with pale, watery eyes. "There was one man on the south coast near here who tried to spread the word and recruit, but he fell ill before he made any progress. The local boys he managed to convert to nationalism soon lost interest after he dropped out of the picture, so nothing ever came of it."

  Thora could have cheered, but she kept her voice light and disinterested. "Yes, of course. Wasn't it Grimur Thorolfsson, the farmer from Kreppa?" she said, crossing her fingers and praying she was right. If it had been Borkur and Elin's grandfather, that would explain the Nazi paraphernalia she had found in the box.

  The old man squinted at Thora suspiciously. "I thought you said you didn't know anything about it," he said. "You're not far off, considering."

  "I only know the family," Thora mumbled evasively. "I don't know anything about the nationalist movement." She turned to Matthew and shot him a conspiratorial wink the old man couldn't see. "Well, aren't you going to buy the brooch?"

  "Medal," he corrected her as he pulled out his wallet. "How much does it cost?"

  The shopkeeper named his price, and judging from Matthew's expression, it was no bargain. He paid in silence, then turned to Thora while the man was wrapping it up and asked, "When's your birthday? I've got the present."

  Thora poked out her tongue, then turned to the old man to take the wrapped medal. "Thank you," she said, and they threaded their way toward the door. There, she turned around, determined to ask who the nationalist farmer was, but she didn't need to say a word.

  The old man was still standing behind the counter, resting his hands on it. He stared long and hard at Thora, then spoke before she could get the question out. "It was Bjarni," he said, slowly and deliberately. "Grimur's brother. Bjarni Thorolfsson, from Kirkjustett."

  “Bjarni sounds luke a pleasant chap,” Matthew said, putting the medal on the table between them. "Abuses his daughter and spreads Nazi propaganda." He turned the medal so that the helmet and swords pointed away from Thora. "I think this'll look great on you."

  Thora pushed it away. "What's wrong with you?" she said. "I'd never wear that. It's bound to bring bad luck, and it might make people think I'm mentally impaired." She gestured at the plate in front of Matthew. "Eat up—it's not often I take a man out to lunch." They were sitting in a little restaurant, where Thora was treating Matthew as compensation for what he'd had to buy. "It goes toward the medal, remember?"

  She loaded her fork with pasta and put it in her mouth. After swallowing, she said, "But I still don't have a clue whether this has anything to do with Birna. I'm really in the same position as before."

  "I'd have to say that the swastika you mentioned being sketched in her notepad isn't very much to go on."

  "No, maybe not," Thora replied. "I just have a hunch that it's all connected."

  "Sometimes hunches are worth paying attention to," said Matthew, "but unfortunately not always." He sipped his water. "It would be best if you could support this hunch of yours with actual arguments. Preferably logical ones."

  Thora poked at her pasta with her fork. She looked up, pleased. "Do you know what I should do?"

  "Um, I don't know, forget all about this and leave the investigation to the police?" said Matthew hopefully.

  "No," Thora retorted. "I just need to get on the Inter
net, and also study Birna's diary a little more closely. I didn't read it properly because I felt guilty. I may well have overlooked something." She clinked her glass of lemonade against Matthew's water. "Let's drink to that."

  Thora sat in reception at the computer that provided internet access for guests. She had a laptop in her room, where there was supposed to be a wireless connection, but after ten fruitless attempts to connect she had given up and dragged Matthew out with her. "This must be him: 'Grimur Thorolfsson, born in Stykkisholmur in 1890, died in Reykjavik in 1957.'" She was browsing Reykjavik cemetery records on the Internet and had found Grimur's name. Clicking it, she read from the screen: "'Fossvogur Cemetery. Plot H36-0077.'" She looked triumphantly at Matthew.

  "I don't want to spoil your fun, but what good is that to us?" he asked.

  "I'm curious to know what his gravestone says. Who knows, Kristin might be lying by his side. Unfortunately you can't search by the plot references, so I'll have to send someone in person."

  "Who?" asked Matthew. "Hopefully not your fugitives in the trailer."

  "No," Thora answered. "Our very own Wonderwoman—Bella."

  “Yes, Bella. I’m asking you to go down to Fossvogur Cemetery to find a grave for me." Thora mimed a groan and rolled her eyes at Matthew, who grinned.

  "Then I need you to tell me what the gravestone says, and whether anyone named Kristin is buried either there or close by." She paused to listen to her secretary's protestations, then interrupted her. "Of course I realize that you can't be at the office at the same time as you're in the cemetery. It won't take long. You can forward the switchboard calls to your mobile, and before you know it you'll be back at your desk." Thora clutched her forehead as she listened. "Great. And let me know what you find out." She hung up. "Bah. Why can't I have a normal secretary who jumps at the opportunity of getting out into the fresh air? Even if it is in a churchyard."

  Matthew smiled. "She's okay. You just need to give her a chance." He was lying in bed, pleased with everything and everyone, including Bella. It was thanks to her that he and Thora had had some time to kill, and he'd made full use of it. Bella hadn't answered when Thora first tried to telephone her, or the second time, or the third. Thora had then decided to give Bella half an hour before making the fourth attempt.