Ashes to Dust

by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

  One person she could call during office hours was the sex therapist Alda had been seeing. Of course she was unlikely to tell Thóra much, but it was worth a go. After calling and trying unsuccessfully to get the woman to tell her about Alda, Thóra gave up. All she got for her pains was a vehement denial that Alda had been a sex addict, as the websites had suggested, and the claim that she had been looking at them on the therapist’s recommendation. The woman could not be enticed to reveal what purpose this might have served, and the phone call ended at that.

  Next, Thóra decided to go to the police station in the hope of seeing which photos had been shown to the leaflet delivery boy who’d fingered Markus as the man at Alda’s house on the night of her murders. Hopefully the police would also give her a log of the phone calls between Markus and Alda that same night.

  ‘You’ve got to be joking’, said Thóra, as she put down the photos. She prodded the one resting on top. ‘This appears to be a woman, and I can’t be sure but it looks as though at least two of these people are over ninety, and one is barely out of adolescence.’

  Stefán picked up the stack, his face thunderous. As he flicked through it the flush on his cheeks darkened. ‘These photos were chosen at random, apart from the one of Markus, of course.’ He put pile the down again. ‘And this is a man, not a woman,’ he said, pointing at the photo of the person of indeterminate gender.

  ‘I would like to request that these photos be made available in the High Court,’ said Thóra doggedly. ‘This is preposterous, and you know it.’

  Stefán’s expression made it clear that he was seeing the photographs for the first time and was far from happy with the selection. ‘This is effectively an open and shut case,’ he snapped. ‘The boy’s description alone is enough. These photos were simply dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s.’

  Thóra said nothing, but she did not agree. She had read the boy’s description, which was rather vague, and in addition had been made many days after he had Distributed the flyers. She very much doubted he could remember minute details of a man whom he had passed on the street. ‘Do you have the phone log?’ she asked.

  ‘Part of it,’ said Stefán, but gave no indication that he was about to fetch the list for her. He straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Markus is guilty,’ he said, when he thought he appeared sufficiently grave. ‘I can promise you that.’

  Thóra smiled at him. ‘I don’t doubt your conviction, but I cannot agree with you.’ She stopped smiling. ‘Have you found out where the Botox came from? Markus doesn’t walk around with it on him, that’s for certain.’

  Stefán unfolded his arms. ‘We’re working on it. As it is, we’re going by the assumption that the drug was already in the house, since she was a registered nurse. But as I said, we’re actually still investigating this specific detail.’

  ‘I could have told you what her career was and spared you the time that went into investigating that,’ Thóra said sarcastically, then added: ‘One of the doctors in the office where Alda worked told me that you haven’t even gone to them for information about the drug. They say she didn’t have access to it except within the confines of the office.’ She clicked her tongue. ‘I’m going to look into that later today. You’re not going to help your reputation by focusing so intently on one man that you blind yourself to other possibilities.’

  ‘We’re not “blinding ourselves” to anyone or anything,’ said Stefán crossly. ‘There are only a few of us here and it takes time. Both of the doctors are coming down later to make statements.’ He smiled coldly at her. ‘So we’ll be looking into that later today, too. Also, we still haven’t managed to find a single soul who saw your client heading east at the time that he claimed to be travelling. We’re not just looking for something that proves Markus guilty. Although I’m personally convinced of his guilt, I need to be certain. Conviction alone isn’t enough, and it can sometimes let you down - although I don’t think that’s the case this time.’

  ‘Do you have the log or not?’ asked Thóra tetchily. ‘I want to go over it before the hearing begins.’ She frowned. ‘Could it be that you’re reluctant to give it to me because it shows that Markus spoke to Alda, just as he claimed?’

  ‘It doesn’t prove anything,’ said Stefán, thereby confirming Thóra’s suspicion. ‘Of course you can have the log; it’s being photocopied for you right now. I didn’t expect you here so soon.’

  ‘So Markus did speak to Alda?’ she asked, trying to keep the triumph out of her voice.

  Stefán’s expression was unreadable. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not necessarily. A call was made from Alda’s phone to his. It’s not the same thing. Anyone could have answered his phone, and I suspect that he came up with this to create an alibi. We still don’t know who helped him, but it’ll become clear. In other words, I suspect Markus of having placed a call from Alda’s home phone to his own mobile.’

  ‘Did you check where Markus’s phone was located when the call was made?’ asked Thóra, happily. This was all going much better than she had dared hope, despite Stefán’s attempts to downplay this good news and turn it to his own advantage.

  ‘Yes,’ Stefán said reluctantly. ‘The phone was just outside Hella.’ He cleared his throat. ‘But that doesn’t mean anything, as I said. Any fool knows it’s possible to trace the location of mobile phones. Markus would have done himself a great disservice if he had answered his own phone at Alda’s house. That’s why he got someone to answer it for him, that party need not have known it was for a criminal purpose.’

  ‘This is mind-boggling,’ she replied. ‘Markus’s photo has been in the papers, and everyone knows he’s suspected of murder. Do you honestly believe that if someone had taken it upon himself to answer Markus’s phone without any knowledge of this magnificent plot, that this very same person wouldn’t have contacted you?’

  ‘I said the accomplice might not have been party to the plot. If he was, then he would hardly draw attention to himself like that,’ said Stefán immediately. ‘Maybe Markus paid him for it, and now he’s too scared to report it for fear of being considered an accessory to the crime.’

  ‘If you’re planning to use this in court, you’d better hope you can find this mystery accomplice. You know as well as I do that it’s easy to come up with theories, but without evidence they’re not worth anything.’ Stefán’s certainty that Markus was guilty was getting on Thóra’s nerves. It didn’t bode well, since it meant other possibilities were no doubt being thrown out in the meantime. There was no time to quarrel over this, though. ‘How are you getting on with identifying the men in the basement?’ she asked. ‘I assume you’re in contact with the authorities in Britain?’

  ‘We haven’t been able to identify them yet,’ replied Stefán, without answering her second question. ‘However, we do have some specific clues that are promising. I actually can’t say anything more about them at this point.’

  ‘How do these things work?’ asked Thóra, but only out of curiosity - she was getting to know Stefán well enough to realize that he wouldn’t give in if she badgered him about clues. ‘Does Interpol have a list of people who vanished without a trace?’

  ‘We’ve contacted them, among others,’ replied Stefán, keeping his cards close to his chest.

  ‘It was suggested to me that there were a lot of men from the Defence Force helping out in the rescue operation during the eruption,’ she persisted. ‘Could these men have been from the base?’

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘We’ve already checked, and it’s out of the question. As I said, we’re hoping this will be cleared up soon, but until then it’s not up for discussion.’

  Thóra could understand his discretion; she wouldn’t preach Stefán’s own job to him any more than necessary. ‘Speaking of foreign countries,’ she said, ‘has anything been heard from the lab where the cardboard box the head came from was sent for testing?’

  Judging by Stefán’s face the results of the tests had been received,
and were not to his liking. He admitted this reluctantly.

  ‘And?’ asked Thóra. ‘What came out?’

  ‘A rather large quantity of old fingerprints were found on the box,’ said Stefán. ‘Most of them were from individuals unknown, since such a box can travel widely.’ He cleared his throat. ‘All the fingerprints were compared with Markus’s and Alda’s and it turned out they had both touched the box at one time.’

  Thóra grinned broadly. ‘Which provides strong support for Markus’s testimony, as I’m sure you realize.’

  ‘The presence of Alda’s fingerprints on the box doesn’t necessarily mean she touched it while the head was in it. Maybe she simply lent Markus the box when he needed it for something.’

  ‘And maybe the moon is made of cheese after all,’ said Thóra, still cheerful about this latest news. ‘Well,’ she said, and pushed her chair back. ‘I hope I can get all this information more easily from now on. It’s a bit of a pain to have to wait for the judge to order you to hand over whatever you’ve got.’ The district court judge had reprimanded the police for not having handed over all the case files to her, and Thóra enjoyed reminding him of it. ‘Is what I received yesterday absolutely everything?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes,’ replied Stefán, gruffly. ‘Everything that was available at that moment.’

  ‘You also still need to speak to Alda’s co-workers at the A&E because I didn’t see any statements taken from them. Of course you’ve had a lot to do,’ Thóra said, standing up. ‘I believe something came up there that might be connected to the case.’

  At that moment a secretary entered the office with some papers and handed them to Stefán. He sorted out the originals and handed Thóra the copies. ‘Here’s the report. It’s got the phone calls to and from Markus’s mobile, as well as to Alda’s home phone and mobile. I circled the phone calls that are within the time frame that we’re focusing on, Sunday evening, the eighth of July.’

  Thóra sat back down and looked through the photocopied pages. ‘Here’s the phone call from Alda to Markus,’ she said, then flipped to the page with information about his phone. ‘And here is the same phone call received on Markus’s mobile,’ she said, unable to suppress her smile. And here is another call made to him at around the same time,‘ she continued cheerfully. ’You hadn’t mentioned that one to me.‘ She looked up from the papers and stared at Stefán. ’You know what this means, of course?‘ she said.

  ‘We would if we knew who called,’ said Stefán, his expression far from happy. ‘As you can see, the number is unknown. It could be an unlisted number, or a call from a foreign mobile system that doesn’t have an agreement for number sharing with Iceland. It might be possible to dig it up, but that takes time.’ He sat up straighter in his chair. ‘While we still don’t know who phoned, we’ve got to assume that it was the accomplice I suggested before.’

  ‘What rubbish!’ Thóra said, now very irritated. If it were possible to find the second person who phoned, and that person could confirm that Markus had answered, his alibi would be watertight. ‘Have you made any attempt to ask my client if he remembers who phoned him?’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact I have,’ said Stefán. ‘It was the first thing I did when I saw this. I made a call to Litla-Hraun

  Prison and spoke to Markus. He says he doesn’t remember who phoned him, which is highly suspicious.‘

  ‘Could you call to mind exactly who phoned you over a week ago?’ asked Thóra. ‘Of course not.’ She had had enough. ‘In fact, it would be more suspicious if Markus bad been able to remember who phoned him on the evening in question.’ She stood up. Before she left the office she wondered for a moment whether to mention the autopsy report on Markus’s neighbour, but decided not to. In the light of how everything seemed to be turning against Markus, it made more sense to check this out in more detail before Stefán and his colleagues got their hands on the report. She would meet Markus later, then she could twist his arm in the faint hope that he knew more about ‘Horseshoe Two’ than his brother did.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Friday 20 July2007

  ‘Markus, sometimes this is just the way it goes,’ said Thóra encouragingly. ‘It doesn’t necessarily mean that the judges consider you guilty; far from it. I got a strong feeling that they doubted the police’s logic and that they were extremely interested when I ran through all the ways in which not only did things not add up, but they actually worked in your favour. I’m convinced that if they had been asked to rule on your guilt or innocence, you would not be here. That decision was not made purely because the police justified keeping you incarcerated during the investigation. It was also because the case is a serious one: it’s not every day five people are found murdered. That four of them appear to be foreign citizens doesn’t help much, either.’ Thóra was not exaggerating. She had had a good feeling about the case during the hearing and had been certain of coming out victorious, not least when one of the judges had hesitated over the photo of the feminine-looking man and asked whether it was usual to include both sexes in a photo line-up.

  ‘Well, that makes me feel much better,’ said Markus drily. He looked at Thóra, his anger evident. ‘I sit here, locked up, an innocent man, and find myself wondering if I shouldn’t just get myself another lawyer. When I hired you I didn’t expect to end up sitting in prison, suspected of murder. Much less serial murder.’

  Thóra did not look away, but answered him frankly. ‘If you want to find another lawyer it’s no skin off my nose. I can even give you the names of several colleagues who have more experience in penal cases than I do. It’s your life and your decision.’ She refrained from adding that she was convinced a change of lawyer would have had no effect on the High Court’s ruling.

  Markus nodded, rubbing his face distractedly. He had clearly expected to be released. ‘It’s not really all that long to be locked up,’ he said, more subdued. ‘I don’t doubt that you’ve worked your hardest. I’m just going out of my mind over this; I don’t know what’s what any more. I don’t want to change lawyers.’ He started rubbing his jaw. ‘What did my son say?’ he asked anxiously.

  ‘Naturally he was horrified, but he seems to be a smart kid so I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He understands the circumstances, and I put a lot of emphasis on this incarceration being exclusively during the investigation, and told him it wasn’t the same as a prison sentence,’ said Thóra. ‘Don’t worry about him.’

  ‘Maybe you can phone him again for me?’ he asked, and Thóra nodded. ‘Why didn’t they accept that phone call as valid evidence?’ he asked suddenly. ‘I thought it would be enough to show that I was far away from Alda’s home at that precise time? You said it was obvious that the phone was somewhere on the road between Hella and Hvolsvöllur.’

  ‘The police insist you didn’t have your phone with you,’ said Thóra. ‘They think you had an accomplice, who had your phone with him to provide you with an alibi.’

  Markus’s face turned crimson. ‘How can they say that?’

  ‘They’re grasping at straws,’ said Thóra. ‘Shortly before

  Alda called you, an unknown person also did. He or she unfortunately has an unlisted number, so it will take more time to find them, if that even proves to be possible. Stefán said you don’t remember who it was. Is that still the case?‘

  ‘Yes,’ said Markus. ‘But I don’t know what that would change. Isn’t it enough that Alda called me?’

  ‘It would change everything,’ said Thóra. ‘If we could prove it was you that answered your phone, it would be clear that you were the one on the road to your summerhouse, rather than this imaginary accomplice.’

  ‘I understand,’ said Markus, now rubbing the skin around his eyes. ‘But no.’ He closed his eyes. ‘I just can’t remember. Damn it - it was over a week ago.’

  ‘Try as hard as you can,’ said Thóra. ‘If nothing else, you could give me the names of people who might generally phone you and I could contact them as a last resort.
It would take some ammunition away from the police department.’ She was quiet for a moment. ‘It would look better for you if we could pinpoint the person in question while you’re locked up here. Then no one could claim that you influenced a witness.’

  ‘I’ll try,’ said Markus. ‘For example, it’s possible that my brother Leifur called, but he doesn’t have an unlisted number as far as I know. I know that I spoke to him some time that day. He wanted me to drop by, since I was coming to the Islands.’

  ‘Of course it would be great if it was him,’ said Thóra. ‘It would be even better, however, if it was someone a little less connected to you.’ She couldn’t make it any plainer. ‘Markus,’ she said softly, ‘you do understand, don’t you, how serious this case is?’ She didn’t wait for a reply but instead continued: ‘I think it’s extremely likely that the four men who were in the basement were connected to your father in one way or another. I’m not necessarily saying he killed them, just that he’s involved in the case. Anything else would be too hard to swallow.’ She saw that Markus was about to protest, so she held up a hand to stall him. ‘Just imagine, the bodies are put in your house at the same time as your father is struggling to save his own family. There must have been better hiding places in the Islands, if your father wasn’t involved. It crossed my mind that he might even have hidden the bodies for one of his friends. Alda’s father, Dadi, or even Kjartan. Even though it’s clear to me that Alda is involved in this somehow, it’s not possible that she killed all these men.’

  ‘My father didn’t do it,’ said Markus, but without the intensity of conviction that accompanied most of his statements. ‘I just don’t believe it.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ said Thóra. ‘But he knew about it. He had to.’ She drew a deep breath and gestured around at the narrow prison visiting room they sat in. ‘You can’t let your concern for your father be your shackles now. I suggest that I speak to your mother and arrange to meet your father. Maybe we’ll get something out of him; you never know. The oldest memories often survive the longest in people with Alzheimer’s. Even if you’re released in a few days, this case will hang over you until it’s been solved. If the perpetrator is found, at least some people won’t always consider you guilty.’ She gave him a moment for this to sink in. ‘Think about it, and I’ll phone you tonight.’