My Soul to Take: A Novel of Iceland

by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Thora took the file of police documents, flipped through it, and passed it to Matthew. She pointed out a photocopied picture of a dildo lying in a steel tray. "It was found on the beach, with a load of other stuff, so the police may not have picked up on it." Thora waved a hand toward the box she had borrowed. "It's the same model as was in there, if you're wondering how I happen to suddenly be an expert on sex toys."

  Matthew looked at the box, grinning. "I see," he said, looking back at her. "But I still don't quite get how it fits together."

  "According to the description on the box, the thing squirts aloe-vera gel," she said, her cheeks flushing pink. "Don't ask me why." She pointed to the picture again. "It's quite possible that two men's semen was found in Birna's vagina, but neither came from a rape."

  "But how can you know that?" asked Matthew. "Although two men have admitted having sex with her, it may not have been consensual."

  "I think the murderer tried to make it look like rape," she replied, "using the sex toy. It's the only plausible explanation for the presence of aloe vera. A woman who's just had sex with two men in one day is hardly going to wander down to the beach with a gadget like this." She pointed to the picture again. "And why would anyone want to make it look like rape? To deceive the police. It can only mean that the murderer was a woman. Women don't rape other women, so by making it look like a rape, the murderer would have diverted suspicion away from herself."

  "Well," said Matthew, "you have a point, but there are plenty of other women who could have killed her. It needn't necessarily be Rosa."

  "True," said Thora, "but it has to be a woman with a good motive, and Rosa certainly had that."

  "Quite," said Matthew, then fell silent. A knock on the door had interrupted him and he stood up to see who it was. To his surprise it was Stefania, still standing in the same place as when Thora had shut the door in her face.

  She smiled at him, still carrying the bag, which she handed to Matthew. In her excitement, Thora had completely forgotten to take back the gift bag from the sex therapist.

  "Here, this for you. You may have. Believe me, it have help many men like you," she said to Matthew in broken English, then turned and

  left.

  Matthew stood rooted to the spot. In one hand he held his beer glass, in the other the sex toy. He stared at it, lost for words, but as soon as he had closed the door behind Stefania, he turned to Thora. "Surely you didn't tell that woman I was gay?"

  "No, are you crazy?" answered Thora innocently. "I would never make up stuff about your sex life. Come on, let's go and find Thorolfur. He may not have figured it out yet."

  "Unless that weird woman is distributing her kinky toys to all and sundry," said Matthew. He put the box down and stood up.

  IN RECEPTION, VIGDIS TOLD THEM THAT THOROLFUR AND another police officer had gone out with Throstur to find and remove the canoe. Thora assumed they would send it for tests, in case Throstur had not succeeded in obliterating all the evidence, but she didn't hold out much hope, based on what Throstur had said.

  While she and Matthew stood with Vigdis, deciding whether to wait for him or try to contact another police officer, she noticed the injured stockbroker limping toward reception. He was pulling a suit-case behind him with some difficulty. "I'm going to give him a hand," she said to Matthew, and hurried over to Teitur. "Hey, I'll do that," she called, and was rewarded with a smile.

  "Thank you," he said with relief, allowing Thora to take the case. "I'm still not a hundred percent better, but I've got to get home."

  "Is someone picking you up?" she asked. She didn't think he should be driving in his condition.

  "Yes, my brother," puffed Teitur. "I'll have someone collect my car later. You don't need a car to get to town, do you?"

  Thora laughed. "No, actually," she replied, thinking of the SUV and how she would get it back to the city. Gylfi wouldn't be driving it, that was certain.

  Teitur stumbled and winced. "That bloody mare," he said. "I don't think anyone will ever get me on horseback again."

  "You're lucky it wasn't worse," said Thora. "I don't understand why the place you rented it from didn't give you a safer horse. Which riding stables did you go to?"

  "Oh, it was the farm just up above here—Tunga, I think—but it wasn't their fault," said Teitur. "The woman was terribly upset. Not a good start to a new business."

  "Tunga?" asked Thora. "You hired a horse from there? Was it a wild stallion, by any chance?"

  Teitur laughed. "No, I'm not that daft. It was just an ordinary horse. I was incredibly unlucky, though. I mean, what are the chances of coming across a dead fox? The horse was still panicking long after I had fallen off."

  Thora stopped in her tracks. "Was it near here? Was the dead fox near the path to the old farmhouse?"

  Teitur nodded. "Yup. I had no idea horses hated them so much."

  "Did you tell the horse-rental people about this?" Thora was struggling to stay calm.

  "Yes, of course," said Teitur, surprised that Thora was so interested. "I had to go back and let them know their horse had run off into the wild blue yonder."

  "And you told them what happened and where?" asked Thora. "You told them about the fox and how the horse reacted?"

  "Yes," said Teitur. "The woman was in shock, of course, because the horse was gone, and also because I was injured."

  "This woman," said Thora. "Was her name Rosa?" Teitur nodded. "Was there anyone with her who could have heard the story about the fox?" she asked. "Her husband, maybe?"

  "No," answered Teitur. "She was home alone. I wouldn't know if she told him, but I'd imagine she probably did." He looked searchingly at her. "Why do you ask?"

  "No special reason," said Thora vaguely. "Well, I hope you get home safely and make a swift recovery," she said, and set the case down by the reception desk.

  "I will," said Teitur. He reached into his jacket pocket for his wallet. For a moment Thora thought he was going to tip her for her assistance, but he handed her a business card. "Do get in touch if you're ever wondering what to do with your money," he said with a smile. "I get good returns on my clients' investments."

  Thora took the card, politely read it, and put it in her pocket. Something major would have to happen in her life for her to ever scrape together enough money to make an investment. "Thank you," she said. "You never know."

  “There’s one thing that doesn’t make sense,” said Matthew. "We don't know if Rosa came here the evening of the seance. And how does this fit in with Jonas's phone and the canoe?"

  Thora watched the front door open, hoping it would be Thorolfur at last. It was not. A young couple entered pulling a suitcase behind them: new guests, heading for reception. She turned to Matthew. "Maybe Jokull pinched the phone for her and sent the text message."

  "That doesn't explain the canoe," said Matthew. "She must have come here, otherwise using the canoe makes no sense."

  "Maybe she was here," said Thora. "She needn't have been at the seance."

  Matthew looked dubious. "It seems to me that the only reason for using the canoe was to be able to leave the seance unnoticed and return before the interval. Perhaps there's another explanation, but I can't see it."

  Thora stood up. They had been sitting in chairs by the main door, so as not to miss Thorolfur. "I'm going to have a word with Vigdis." She went over to the desk and waited while the receptionist dealt with the young couple, who finally left happily with their key.

  "Vigdis," said Thora, "do you know Jokull's sister by sight?"

  Vigdis removed a sheet of paper from the printer on the desk in front of her and reached for a hole-punch. "Rosie, or whatever her name is? Yes, I do," she answered, punching holes in the paper. "Why? Are you looking for her?"

  "Her name's Rosa, actually," Thora corrected her. "No, I'm not looking for her. I was just wondering if you remember whether she came to the seance last Thursday?"

  "No," said Vigdis firmly. "She wasn't here." She opened a binder and placed the sheet of paper
in it. Then she stopped and looked up at Thora. "Oh, wait, yes. She was here."

  "She was?" Thora tried to conceal her excitement.

  "Yes, I remember I felt kind of sorry for her. She had brought a bunch of flowers for that man who got hurt falling off her horse—Teitur Jakobsson, the one who just checked out." Thora nodded. "She had to walk all the way down the drive because there was a gap in the road, and the flowers were a bit windblown."

  "Are you sure this was on Thursday evening?" persisted Thora.

  "Absolutely," replied Vigdis. "I remember I had no time to talk to her because I was so busy dealing with people who were arriving for the seance. I took the flowers and said I'd deliver them. She thanked me and asked if she could pop into the kitchen to see her brother."

  "Did you see her leave?" asked Thora.

  "No, I don't think so," answered Vigdis. "I wanted to go the seance myself, so I left a note on reception asking people to come inside if they needed anything. I had the cordless phone, in case there were any calls."

  "Do you know if she had anything to do with Eirikur, the aura reader?" Thora said.

  Vigdis slowly shook her head. "No," she replied. "I don't think so. Actually, Eirikur came to see me before he went to meet Jonas to ask for a pay raise. He wanted information about the local landowners. He needed the phone number of that brother and sister, Elin and what's-his-name... "

  "Borkur," said Thora. "Why did he want to contact them?"

  "I don't know. I thought it had something to do with the haunting. He'd been fascinated by all the commotion. I didn't have their phone numbers, of course, but I did have a number for Berta, the girl who's clearing out the old farmhouse, so I suggested he ring her to get their numbers." She shut the file and put it back in its place. "Eirikur tried to call her from the phone here in reception, but there was no answer, so I gave him the number of another local landowner, the only one I had apart from Berta's."

  "Whose number was that?" asked Thora.

  "It was Rosa's," answered Vigdis. She took a sheet of paper from a pile on the desk and handed it to Thora. "It's an ad for the riding stables that Jokull asked me to hang up. It has her name and phone number." She took the sheet back. "I took it down after that guy got hurt. I didn't want any more guests getting crippled." Vigdis seemed to suddenly notice that she had Thora's rapt attention. "I told the police about it because it was just before Eirikur was killed in the stables."

  "So do you know if Eirikur rang Rosa?" asked Thora impatiently.

  "No idea," said Vigdis. "I wrote down both numbers and gave them to him." She leaned over the desk and pointed. "He went and made a call from that phone over there. I think it's the one and only time it's been used, as it's in such a silly place." She straightened up. "I heard him talking for quite a while, so he must have got through." She scribbled on a Post-it and handed it to Thora. "Here are the numbers, if you want to ask Rosa and Berta about it."

  The phone was pushed back on top of a cabinet, under a gigantic stuffed elk's head hung far too low on the wall. Thora picked up the phone, taking care not to poke her eye out with a prong of its antlers. She pressed the "last number recall" button. The first number was neither of those on the Post-it, but the next was Rosa's home number, followed by Berta's mobile number. Thora had to assume the first number was the most recently called, and irrelevant to Eirikur. He had tried to call Berta and received no reply, and then he had contacted Rosa.

  It was all coming together.

  THORA SANK BACK IN HER CHAIR. "YOU SEE, IT ALL FITS," SHE SAID triumphantly. She closed the heavy binder containing the case documents and placed it on the wide armrest.

  "Isn't it time we found Thorolfur?" suggested Matthew. He glanced at his watch. "I'm beginning to think he must have left. It's been an awfully long time."

  "The fog will probably delay him," said Thora, looking out of the glass doors. Visibility outside was very poor. She jumped as the basement door was suddenly flung open. "What now?" she said. "Are they still down there?" Something significant was clearly happening in the basement. The last of the animal bones must have been removed, as the men who emerged were empty-handed. They hurried past Thora and Matthew without looking at them, then quickly returned loaded with equipment: cameras, vacuum cleaners, and spades.

  "I think the child's skeleton has been uncovered," said Matthew. "They're making more fuss than they did about the animal bones."

  "Ugh," said Thora with a shudder. "I just can't understand how anyone could do that to a little child. They shut her up in a coal bunker just because of an inheritance and left her to die."

  "Grimur wasn't all there, so there's no way to comprehend what he did," said Matthew, watching a man with a large arc light descend into the basement.

  Thorolfur sat down heavily in the chair opposite them. He had approached astonishingly quietly, for such a large man. "Now, then," he said, "I gather you want to talk to me." He jerked his thumb at the basement. "I haven't got much time—I really have to get down there.

  What's up?"

  Thora passed him the binder containing the investigation documents. "I think I know who killed both Birna and Eirikur," she said. "We need more than a few minutes to explain it, but I don't think you'll find it a waste of time."

  Thorolfur harrumphed. "Don't be too sure," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Go ahead. No fancy talk, just the bullet points, please."

  When Thora had finished telling Thorolfur about Rosa, the fox, the aloe-vera gel, Eirikur's phone call, and everything else she'd learned, she looked anxiously at him. "Rosa is definitely the killer, and her brother may be an accomplice at least. You can investigate fully, but I can't."

  Thorolfur gazed thoughtfully at her. He had listened patiently and asked no questions. "I have spoken to her, in fact, about Eirikur's phone call," he said. "She said he called to ask about hiring a horse, whether it was based at the farm or elsewhere." Thora frowned. "What for?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know. I thought it was all a bit odd, but your story about the flowers and the gadget with the gel is most interesting." He stood up and yawned. "I was hoping I could call it a day. I'd better look in on those two." He glanced toward the basement door. "The discovery downstairs has been waiting for decades. It will hardly matter if it waits another half hour."

  Thora could not conceal her pleasure. Thorolfur seemed to be taking her story seriously, whatever else happened. "Thank you, Thorolfur. Perhaps you'll keep me informed?" She stood up.

  Thorolfur beckoned to a police officer to accompany him out of the building. He looked at Thora. "I didn't say that." He left without saying goodbye.

  Thora finished mashing potatoes and fish together for her daughter, who was carefully observing that the butter was evenly distributed throughout the mash. The chef certainly wouldn't have imagined that his beautifully presented meal would end up like this. There were few diners in the dining room and the service was quick and efficient.

  "I don't know if I should eat this," said Sigga, gazing at a pile of shellfish. "I thought I was ordering pasta." Gylfi, who did have pasta, looked at her plate, clearly debating with himself whether he should offer to swap with the mother of his unborn child. In the end he said he would share his meal with her and the shellfish went to Matthew as an extra main course, along with the big steak he had already started on.

  Thora placed the plate of fishy mash in front of her daughter, who dug in. She reached hungrily for her own plate. She'd had enough of wondering who did what and why. She thanked her lucky stars she'd met the stockbroker before he left. He had contributed more to the search for the murderer than anything they'd done over the past few days.

  She put down her knife and fork. "How did he get back to the horse rental when he fell off?" she said, puzzled.

  "Who?" asked Matthew, putting down an empty shell.

  "Teitur. He was injured and couldn't drive, and he can hardly have walked," she said. "Someone must have given him a lift."

  "Yes," said Matthew. "S
o?"

  Sigga and Gylfi listened, comprehending nothing. Soley, on the other hand, was not interested; she was comparing the level of Coke in her glass and Gylfi's.

  "If someone gave him a lift, or helped him out, that person also knew about the horse's reaction to the dead fox, and knew where the fox was." She reached for her phone and took Teitur's business card out of her pocket.

  "Hello. This is Thora, the lawyer at the hotel. Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering who drove you back to the stables from the place where you fell off."

  "Oh, hello," replied Teitur. "I was hoping you'd decided to invest. The market's looking good right now."

  "No, not at the moment, thanks," said Thora. "For the moment I'd like to focus on your accident."

  "Okay," said Teitur, slightly disappointed. "It was the girl. I thought I told you when you first asked me about the accident. She saved my bacon, pulled me away before the horse finished me off. It was crazy."

  "What girl was that?" asked Thora evenly. "Did you get her name?"

  "Yes," he said, "but I don't remember it. She just happened to be there. She was carrying some boxes into the old house at the end of the path. I've often wondered what might have happened if the dead fox had been a bit farther away, out of her view. She was kind enough to drive me to the stables and then back to the hotel."

  "Was her name Berta?" asked Thora, her voice still calm although her insides were in turmoil.

  "Yes," said Teitur cheerfully. "That's it. Berta."

  Chapter 34

  RER. BER. THORA set her phone down on the table and stared into space. Matthew, Gylfi, and Sigga waited silently with their cutlery in their hands, keen to hear what she'd found out.

  "It might not be Rosa after all," said Thora into the silence. "Berta knew about the fox."

  "Remember, she isn't necessarily guilty, even if she knew about it," said Matthew.

  Gylfi and Sigga listened closely, understanding nothing.

  "That's not all," said Thora. "Firstly, she's got the most to lose, apart from her mother, Elin, and her uncle Borkur. She was here, at the seance, and she believes in ghosts, so she could conceivably have pushed pins into the soles of the victims' feet to stop their spirits walking."