Thorolfur jotted down some notes on his sheet and then asked, “Is there anything else you can think of that might be of help to us in this investigation?”
“No,” Reverend Hannes said, shaking his head, but Frida nudged him.
“Don’t you remember?” she whispered.
“Remember what, Frida dear?”
She took the initiative. “People here on the island have been gossiping about the fact that the Dane had been our guest and that we were the last people to see him. That’s simply not true, and I want it to be known.”
“Who saw him last then?”
“When he left us he was going to go to Doctor Johanna to buy seasickness pills. He was so afraid of being seasick. That’s why he left so early. That means that she was the last person to see him, not us, so you can write that down for the record.” Frida punctuated this statement by tossing back her head and crossing her arms.
Thorolfur thanked the priest and his wife for the chat, and the couple said good-bye, telling the policemen that they were welcome at the vicarage anytime. They could even stay with them if the school was uncomfortable. Frida had taken a shine to them.
“We need to talk to the doctor,” Thorolfur said to his assistant when the priest and his wife had left. “All our leads end with her.”
A member of the coast guard crew appeared with an envelope. Thorolfur opened it and read its contents. “Yes, we definitely need to speak to the doctor,” he said, folding the paper again.
Question thirty: The greatest sorcerer. First letter. On the eve of Yule, Svasi the dwarf came to King Harald Fairhair and, using sorcery, turned his mind to a Finnish woman by the name of Sn?frid. Harald married her and loved her to distraction, blinded by Svasi’s spell, which made her seem like the sweetest woman in the world. They had a son together. When Sn?frid died, a veil made by Svasi was draped over her. It possessed such a powerful spell that King Harald found her corpse so bright and vibrant that he refused to bury her and sat by her side for three winters. Then a wise man suggested the veil should be removed from her body and it was done. The body was rotten and gave off a foul smell. Following this, King Harald was so angry about the spell and all the sorcery that he banned the practice of all magic in his kingdom. The answer is “Svasi,” and the first letter is s.
CHAPTER 47
After lunch, Hogni was sent down to the doctor’s house to summon Johanna to an interview. It was still raining and cold. Hogni walked swiftly against the wind, tightly clutching the collar of his jacket under his chin. In less than twenty-four hours, everything seemed to have taken a turn for the worse in Flatey, including the weather. And instead of attending to their seal nets and picking eiderdown, farmers sat at home and waited for the inspectors to track down the monster who had started to kill people.
Hogni knocked many times on the doctor’s hall door and, when no one answered, opened it and stepped into a little hallway. The islanders were not in the habit of locking their houses on Flatey, and it was all right to pop one’s head through the door if the matter was urgent.
“Hello?” he called out, hearing nothing but the echo of his own voice in the small, dark hallway in reply. He could smell odors from the infirmary and pharmacy. All kinds of peculiar scents combined to produce that special mysterious hospital aroma that could feel both menacing and comforting, depending on the circumstances.
Hogni penetrated deeper inside and saw a patient’s room to his right in which there was a hospital bed containing a corpse veiled under a white sheet. Bjorn Snorri Thorvald was lying there, waiting for his removal and final farewell to the house. A flame glowed on a candlestick by the side of the bed.
Johanna wouldn’t have left the house like this, Hogni thought to himself. She must be home.
“Hello?” he called out louder than before.
This time he heard a door open on the floor above, and Johanna appeared on the stairs.
“What is it, Hogni? Are you sick?” she asked.
“No, no, no one is sick. But the inspectors from Reykjavik would like to talk to you. They’re talking to everyone.”
“Yes, I know. Is it my turn then? I won’t be a minute.”
“I’ll wait,” said Hogni. “We can go together.”
Johanna vanished for a moment before reappearing at the bottom of the stairs in her coat. She walked over to her father’s bed, blew out the candle, and locked the room behind her. In the hallway she grabbed an umbrella off a hook.
“It’s not often that you see one of those in Flatey,” Hogni said as they set off and Johanna opened the umbrella.
“No, people around here are so used to having their faces pelted by the rain it doesn’t bother them. I’m more delicate,” Johanna answered. Then they walked in silence.
Hogni wasn’t sure, but he thought he might have spotted Kjartan’s-the magistrate’s assistant’s-coat in the hallway of the doctor’s house.
Question thirty-one: The cause of the death of King Harald Gormsson. Fifth letter. The Jomsvikings saga tells of a man called Palnatok, who was a Viking, lived in Fjon, and was one of the most powerful men in Denmark, apart from King Harald Gormsson. There were feuds between these leaders, which culminated with Palnatok coming to a place where the king was resting by a fire in the evening after a battle. The king was stooped over the fire with his chest leaning forward and his ass in the air. Palnatok heard the king talking, armed his bow with an arrow, and fired. It is said that the arrow shot up straight up the king’s ass and out his mouth. He dropped dead, as was to be expected. The cause of his death was the “arrow up his ass,” and the fifth letter in the answer is w.
CHAPTER 48
Inspector Thorolfur scrutinized the woman who sat facing him, bolt upright, on the other side of the school desk. She seemed calm and reflective and had been waiting in silence since they had shook hands and sat down. District Officer Grimur awaited further instructions by the door.
“Should we call in more people?” he asked.
Thorolfur shook his head. “No, let’s wait a bit. This will be a long interview.”
He turned to Johanna. “Let’s start by talking about Professor Gaston Lund. Do you remember him coming to you last autumn to obtain some seasickness tablets?”
“Yes, I remember that.”
“Did he get the tablets?”
“Yes. They’re kept in the pharmacy.”
“What happened then?”
“He went off to catch his boat.”
“Are you sure he caught that boat?”
“No, I don’t know anything about that. I didn’t follow him.”
“Did he stay with you longer than he needed to when he bought the seasickness tablets?”
“Yes, he stayed on a bit with me and my father.”
“Why was that?”
“We knew each other from the days when my father and I lived in Copenhagen.”
“So it was, in fact, a reunion?”
“Professor Lund and my father were happy to have the opportunity to meet again.”
Thorolfur unfolded a sheet of paper on his desk. “As you can appreciate, there are many people working on this investigation. Both in Copenhagen and Reykjavik. They’ve been talking to people to try and understand what kind of lives Gaston Lund and Bryngeir led. Is there anything in particular you would like to say before we continue with this interview?”
Johanna gave Thorolfur a long stare, and then she shook her head with a numb smile. “Let’s just assume your colleagues are doing their job right and you, yours and just see what happens.”