When Erlendur went back down to the lobby he noticed Elinborg at the reception desk. The head of reception pointed towards him and Elinborg turned round. She was looking for him and walked over briskly wearing a concerned expression that Erlendur seldom saw.'Is something the matter?' he asked as she approached.'Can we sit down somewhere?' she said. 'Is the bar open yet? G.o.d, what a pathetic job this is! I don't know why I bother.''What's up?' Erlendur asked, taking her by the arm and leading her to the bar. The door was closed but not locked, and they went inside. Although the room was open, the bar itself seemed to be closed. Erlendur saw a sign saying it would not open for another hour. They sat down in one of the booths.'And my Christmas is being ruined,' Elinborg said. 'I've never done so little baking. And all the in-laws are coming tonight and-''Tell me what happened,' Erlendur said.'What a c.o.c.k-up,' Elinborg said. 'I don't understand him. I simply don't understand him.''Who?''The boy!' Elinborg said. 'I don't understand what he means'She told Erlendur that, instead of going home and baking cookies the previous evening, she had dropped in at Kleppur mental hospital. Exactly why she did not know, but she couldn't get the case of the boy and his father out of her mind. When Erlendur chipped in that she may just have had enough of baking for her in-laws, she didn't even smile.She had been to the mental hospital once before to try to talk to the boy's mother, but the woman was so ill then that she hardly uttered a word of sense. The same happened again on this second visit. His mother sat rocking back and forth, in a world of her own. Elinborg wasn't quite sure what she wanted to hear her say, but thought she might know something about the relationship between the father and the son that had not yet come to light.She knew that his mother would only be in hospital temporarily. She was admitted intermittently, when she went through a phase of flushing her psychiatric medication down the toilet. When she took her pills she was generally in reasonable condition. She took good care of their home. When Elinborg mentioned the boy's mother to his teachers, they also said she seemed to look after him well.Elinborg sat in the hospital lounge where the nurse had brought the boy's mother, and watched her twiddling her hair around her index finger, muttering something Elinborg could not make out. She tried to talk to her but the mother seemed to be miles away. Offered no response to her questions. It was as though she was sleepwalking.After sitting with her for a while, Elinborg started thinking about all the a.s.sortments of cookies that she still had to bake. She stood up to fetch someone to take the woman back to the ward and found a warder in the corridor. He was about thirty and looked like a bodybuilder. He was wearing white trousers and a white T-shirt, and his strong biceps rippled with every movement of his body. His hair was crewcut and he had a round, chubby face with little eyes sunk deep into his head. Elinborg didn't ask his name.He followed her into the lounge.'Oh, it's old Dora,' the warder said, walking over and taking the woman by the arm. 'You're pretty quiet tonight'The woman stood up, just as confused as ever.'Stoned out of your tree again, are you, old girl,' the warder said in a tone that Elinborg disliked. It was like he was talking to a five-year-old. And what did he mean by saying she was pretty quiet tonight? Elinborg couldn't hold herself back.'Will you stop talking to her like a little kid,' she said, more brashly than she had intended.The warder looked at her.'Is that any of your business?' he said.'She's ent.i.tled to be treated with respect just like everyone else,' Elinborg said, but desisted from saying she was from the police.'Maybe she is,' the warder said. 'And I don't think I'm treating her disrespectfully. Come on, Dora,' he went on, leading her out into the corridor.Elinborg followed close behind.'What did you mean when you said she's pretty quiet tonight?''Quiet tonight?' the warder repeated, turning his head towards Elinborg.'You said she was pretty quiet tonight,' Elinborg said. 'Wasn't she supposed to be?''I sometimes call her the Fugitive,' the warder said. 'She's always on the run.'Elinborg didn't follow.'What are you talking about?''Haven't you seen the movie?' the warder asked.'Does she escape?' Elinborg said. 'From this hospital?''Or when we take them on trips into town,' the warder said. 'She ran away the last time we went. We were s.h.i.tting bricks when you found her at the bus station and brought her back here to the ward. You didn't treat her with much respect then.''I found her?''I know you're from the cops. The cops literally threw her at us.''What day was this?'He thought about it. He had been accompanying her and two other patients when she slipped away. They were on Laekjartorg square at the time. He remembered the date well, it was the same day that he set his personal best on the bench press.The date matched that of the attack on the boy.'Wasn't her husband informed when she ran away from you?' Elinborg asked.'We were about to phone him when you found her. We always give them a few hours to come back. Otherwise we'd spend all our time on the phone.''Does her husband know that you call her that? The Fugitive.''We don't call her that. It's only me. He doesn't know.''Does he know that she runs away?''I haven't told him. She always comes back.''I don't believe this,' Elinborg said.'When she comes in here she has to be drugged right up to stop her running off,' the warder said.'This changes everything!''Come on, Dora old girl,' the warder said, and the door to the ward closed behind him.Elinborg stared at Erlendur.'I was positive it was him. The father. Now she could have run away, gone home, a.s.saulted the boy and hopped back out. If only the boy would open his mouth!''Why should she a.s.sault her son?''I've no idea,' Elinborg said. 'Maybe she hears voices''And the broken fingers and bruises? All that over the years? Is it always her then?''I don't know.''Have you spoken to the father?''I've just come from seeing him.''And?''Naturally, we're not the best of friends. He hasn't been allowed to see the boy since we burst into their home and turned everything upside-down. He showered me with abuse and-''Did he say anything about his wife, the boy's mother?' Erlendur b.u.t.ted in impatiently. 'He must have suspected her.''And the boy hasn't said a thing,' Elinborg continued.'Except that he misses his father,' Erlendur said.'Yes, apart from that. So his father finds him in his room upstairs and thinks he's crawled home from school in that state.''You visited the boy in hospital and asked if it was his father who a.s.saulted him, and he made some reaction that convinced you it was.''I must have misunderstood him,' Elinborg said, her head bowed. 'I read something into his manner...''But we have nothing to prove it was the mother. We have nothing to prove it wasn't the father.''I told him, the boy's father, that I'd been to the hospital to talk to his wife and that we know nothing about her whereabouts on the day of the a.s.sault. He was surprised. As if it never occurred to him that she could escape from the hospital. He's still convinced it was the boys in the school playground. He said the boy would tell us if his mother had a.s.saulted him. He's convinced of that.''So why doesn't the boy name her?''He's in a state of shock, poor thing. I don't know.''Love?' Erlendur said. 'In spite of everything she's done to him.''Or fear,' Elinborg said. 'Maybe a huge fear that she'll do it again. Either way he might be keeping quiet to protect his mother. It's impossible to say''What do you want us to do? Should we drop the charges against the father?''I'm going to talk to the State Prosecutor's office and find out what they say''Start with that. Tell me another thing, did you phone the woman who was with Stefania Egilsdottir at this hotel a few days before Gudlaugur was stabbed?''Yes,' Elinborg said vacantly. 'She asked her friend to vouch for her but when it came to the crunch she couldn't go through with the lie.''You mean lie for Stefania?''She began by saying that they'd been sitting here, but she was very hesitant about it, and she was such a bad liar that when I said I had to bring her down to the station to make a statement she started crying over the phone. She told me how Stefania phoned her, they're old friends from a music society, and asked her to say they were together at this hotel if she was asked. She said she refused, but Stefania appears to have some hold over her and she won't tell me what it is.''It was a poor lie from the start,' Erlendur said. 'We both knew she let it slip out. I don't know why she's holding up the investigation like this unless she knows it's her fault''You mean that she killed her brother?''Or she knows who did.'They lingered at their table for a while and talked about the boy, his father and mother and the difficult family circ.u.mstances, which prompted Elinborg to ask Erlendur once again what he was going to do for Christmas. He said he was going to be with Eva Lind.He told Elinborg about his discovery in the bas.e.m.e.nt corridor and his suspicions that osp's brother was somehow involved, a delinquent with endless money problems. He thanked Elinborg for the invitation and told her to take off the rest of the time until Christmas.'There isn't any time until Christmas' Elinborg smiled, and shrugged as if Christmas no longer mattered, what with all the cleaning and cookies and in-laws.'Will you get any Christmas presents?' she asked.'Maybe some socks,' Erlendur said. 'Hopefully.'He hesitated before saying: 'Don't upset yourself about the boy's father. These things always happen. We feel certain, convinced even, then something always comes along that erodes it.'Elinborg nodded.Erlendur followed her through the lobby and they exchanged farewells. He planned to go up to his room to pack. He'd had enough of the hotel. He was seriously beginning to miss his 'hole with nothing in it', his books, his armchair and even Eva Lind lying on the sofa.He was standing waiting for the lift when osp surprised him.'I've found him,' she said.'Who?' Erlendur said. 'Your brother?''Come with me,' osp said, heading for the stairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt. Erlendur hesitated. The lift doors opened and he looked inside. He was on the trail of the murderer. Perhaps osp's brother had come to turn himself in at her urging: the lad with the chewing tobacco. Erlendur felt no excitement about it. None of the expectation or sense of triumph that accompanied solving a case. All he felt was fatigue and sadness because the case had stirred up all manner of a.s.sociations with his own childhood, and he knew he had so much left to come to terms with in his own life that he had no idea where to begin. Most of all he wanted to forget about work and go home. Be with Eva Lind. Help her to get over the troubles she was dealing with. He wanted to stop thinking about others and start thinking about himself and his own people.'Are you coming?' osp said in a low voice, standing on the stairs and waiting.'I'm coming,' Erlendur said.He followed her down the stairs and into the staff coffee room where he had first spoken to her. It was as squalid as ever. She locked the door behind them. Her brother was sitting at one of the tables and leaped to his feet when Erlendur walked in.'I didn't do anything,' he said in a high-pitched voice. 'osp says you think I did it, but I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything to him!'He was wearing a dirty blue anorak with a rip on one shoulder that revealed the white lining. His jeans were black with grime and he was wearing scruffy black boots that could be laced up to the calves, but Erlendur saw no laces in them. His fingers were long and filthy, clutching a cigarette. He inhaled the smoke and blew it back out. His voice was agitated and he paced back and forth in the corner of the kitchen like a caged animal, cornered by a policeman who was poised to arrest him.Erlendur looked over his shoulder at osp, who was standing by the door, then back at her brother.'You must trust your sister to come here like this.''I didn't do anything,' he said. 'She told me you were cool and just wanted some information.''I need to know about your relationship with Gudlaugur,' Erlendur said.'I didn't stab him,' he said.Erlendur sized him up. He was halfway between adolescence and adulthood, peculiarly childlike but with a hardened expression that displayed anger and bitterness towards something that Erlendur could not even begin to imagine.'No one is suggesting you did,' Erlendur said rea.s.suringly, trying to calm him down. 'How did you know Gudlaugur? What relationship did you have?'He looked at his sister but osp just stood by the door and said nothing.'I did him favours sometimes and he paid me for it,' he said.'And how did you know each other? Have you known him for a long time?''He knew I was osp's brother. He thought it was funny that we're brother and sister, like everyone does.''Why?''My name's Reynir.''So? What's funny about that?''osp and Reynir. Aspen and Rowan. Brother and sister. Mum and Dad's little joke. Like they're into forestry''What about Gudlaugur?''I first saw him here when I came to meet osp. About half a year ago.''And?''He knew who I was. osp had told him a bit about me. She sometimes let me sleep at the hotel. On his corridor.'Erlendur turned to osp.'You cleaned that alcove very carefully,' he said.osp gave him a blank look and did not reply. He turned back to Reynir.'He knew who you were. You slept on the corridor in front of his room. What then?''He owed me money. Said he would pay.''Why did he owe you money?''Because I did him favours sometimes and-''Did you know he was gay?''Isn't that obvious?'And the condom?''We always used condoms. He was paranoid. He said he didn't take chances. Said he didn't know if I was infected or not. I'm not infected,' he said emphatically and looked at his sister.And you chew tobacco.'He looked at Erlendur in surprise.'What's that got to do with it?''That's not the point. Do you chew tobacco?''Yes.''Were you with him the day he was stabbed?''Yes. He asked me to see him because he was going to pay me.''How did he get hold of you?'Reynir took a mobile phone out of his pocket and showed it to Erlendur.'When I arrived he was putting on his Santa suit,' he said. 'He said he had to rush off to the Christmas party, paid me what he owed, looked at his watch and saw he had time for a quickie.''Did he have a lot of money in his room?''Not that I knew of. I just saw what he paid me. But he said he was expecting a load of money.''Where from?''I don't know. He said he was sitting on a goldmine.''What did he mean by that?''It was something he was going to sell. I don't know what it was. He didn't tell me. Just said he was expecting loads of money, or a lot of money, he never said loads. He never talked like that. Always spoke polite and used cla.s.sy words. He was always really courteous. A good bloke. Never did me any harm. Always paid. I know loads of worse people than him. Sometimes he just wanted to talk to me. He was lonely, or at least he said he was. Told me I was his only friend.''Did he tell you anything about his past?''No.''Nothing about being a child star once?''No. A child star? At what?''Did you see a knife in his room that could have come from the hotel kitchen?''Yes, I saw a knife in there but I don't know where it came from. When I went to see him he was picking away at his Santa suit. He said he had to get a new one for next Christmas''And he didn't have any money besides what he paid you?''No, I don't think so.''Did you rob him?''No.''Did you take half a million that was in his room?''Haifa million? Did he have half a million?!''I'm told you always need money. It's obvious how you get it. There are people you owe money. They've threatened your family...'Reynir glared at his sister.'Don't look at her, look at me. Gudlaugur had money in his room. More than he owed you. Maybe he'd sold part of his goldmine. You saw the money. You wanted more. You did things for him that you thought you ought to be paid more for. He refused, you argued, you grabbed the knife and tried to stab him, but he held you off until you managed to sink the knife into his chest and kill him. You took the money...''You t.o.s.s.e.r,' Reynir hissed. 'What f.u.c.king b.o.l.l.o.c.ks!'' ... and since then you've been smoking hash and shooting up or whatever it is you-''You f.u.c.king creep!' Reynir shouted.'Go on with the story,' osp called out. 'Tell him what you told me. Tell him everything!''Everything about what?' Erlendur said.'He asked me if I'd give him one before he went up to the Christmas party,' Reynir said. 'He said he didn't have much time but had money and he'd pay me well. But when we were starting that woman burst in on us.''That woman?''Yes.''What woman?''The one who caught us.''Tell him,' Erlendur heard osp say behind his back 'Tell him who it was!''What woman are you talking about?''We forgot to lock the door and suddenly the door opened and she burst in on us.''Who?''I don't know who it was. Some woman.''And what happened?''I don't know. I b.u.g.g.e.red off. She shouted something at him and I legged it.''Why didn't you give us this information straight away?''I avoid the cops. There's all kinds of people after me and if they know I'm talking to the cops they'll think I'm gra.s.sing and they'll get me for it''Who was this woman who caught you? What did she look like?''I didn't really notice. I b.u.g.g.e.red off. He was mortified. Pushed me away and shouted and totally lost it. He seemed to be terrified of her. Scared s.h.i.tless.''What did he shout?' Erlendur asked.'Steffi.''What?''Steffi. That was all I heard. Steffi. He called her Steffi and he was scared s.h.i.tless of her.'

32

She was standing outside the door to his room with her back to him. Erlendur stopped and watched her for a moment, and saw how she had changed since the first time he saw her, storming into the hotel with her father. Now she was just a tired and weary middle-aged woman who still lived with her crippled father in the house that had always been her home. For reasons unknown to him, this woman had come to the hotel and murdered her brother.It was as if she sensed his presence in the corridor, because suddenly she turned round and looked at him. He could not decipher her thoughts from the expression on her face. All he knew was that she was the person he had been looking for since he first went to the hotel and saw Santa sitting in a pool of his own blood.She stood still by the door and said nothing until he was standing right next to her.'There's something I have to tell you,' she said. 'If it makes any difference.'Erlendur thought she had come to see him concerning the lie about her friend and felt the time had come to tell him the truth. He opened the door and she walked in ahead of him, went to the window and watched the snow.'They forecast it wouldn't snow this Christmas,' she said'Are you ever called Steffi for short?' he asked.'When I was small,' she said, still looking out of the window.'Did you brother call you Steffi?''Yes, he did,' she said. 'Always. And I always called him Gulli. Why do you ask?''Why were you at this hotel five days before your brother's death?'Stefania gave a deep sigh.'I know I shouldn't have lied to you.''Why did you come?''It was to do with his records. We thought we were ent.i.tled to some of them. We knew he had quite a few copies, probably all the ones that didn't sell when they came out, and we wanted a share if he was planning to sell.''How did he acquire the copies?''Dad had them and kept them at home in Hafnarfjordur, and when Gudlaugur moved out he took the boxes with him. He said they belonged to him. To him alone.''How did you know he was planning to sell them?'Stefania hesitated.'I also lied about Henry Wapshott,' she said. 'I do know him. Not very well, but I should have told you about him. Didn't he tell you he met us?''No,' Erlendur said. 'He has a number of problems. Is anything true that you've told me up to now?'She did not answer him.'Why should I believe what you're telling me now?'Stefania watched the snow falling to earth and was remote, as if she had vanished back into a life she led long ago when she knew no lies and everything was the truth, fresh and pure.'Stefania?' Erlendur said.'They didn't argue about his singing,' she said suddenly. 'When Dad fell down the stairs. It wasn't about singing. Hurt's the last and the biggest lie.''You mean when they had a fight on the landing?''Do you know what the kids called him at school?''I believe I do,' Erlendur said.'They called him The Little Princess.''Because he sang in the choir and was a sissy and-''Because they caught him wearing one of Mum's dresses,' Stefania interrupted him.She turned away from the window.'It was after she died. He missed her terribly, especially when he wasn't a choirboy any more but just a normal boy with a normal voice. Dad didn't know, but I did. When Dad was out he sometimes put on Mum's jewellery and sometimes he tried on her dresses, stood in front of the mirror, even put on make-up. And once, it was in the summer, some boys walked past the house and saw him. Some were in his cla.s.s. They peeped in through the living-room window. They used to do that sometimes because we were considered odd. They started to laugh and jeer, mercilessly. After that he was considered an absolute freak at school. The kids started calling him The Little Princess.'Stefania paused.'I thought he just missed Mum,' she continued. 'That it was his way of getting close to her, wearing her clothes and putting on her jewellery. I didn't think he had unnatural urges. But it turned out otherwise.''Unnatural urges?' Erlendur said. 'Is that how you regard it? Your brother was a h.o.m.os.e.xual. Haven't you been able to forgive him for that? Is that why you had no contact with him for all those years?''He was very young when our father caught him with a boy. I knew he had his friend in his room, I thought they were doing their homework together. Dad came home unexpectedly to look for something and when he walked into Gudlaugur's room he saw them doing something abominable. He wouldn't tell me what it was. When I came out the other boy was running down the stairs, Dad and Gulli were on the landing shouting at each other, and I saw Gulli give him a shove. He lost his balance, fell down the stairs and never stood up again.'Stefania turned back to the window and watched the Christmas snow gliding to earth. Erlendur said nothing, wondering what she thought about when she disappeared within herself like now, but he could not imagine it. He thought he gained some kind of answer when she broke the silence.'I never mattered,' she said. 'Everything I did was a secondary consideration. I'm not saying that from self-pity, I think I stopped that ages ago. More to try to understand and explain why I never had any contact with him after that awful day. Sometimes I think I gloated over the way everything turned out. Can you imagine that?'Erlendur shook his head.'When he left, I was the one who mattered. Not him. Never again him. And in some strange way I was pleased, pleased that he never became the great child star he was supposed to become. I expect I envied him the whole time, much more than I realised, for all the attention he got and the voice he had. It was divine. It was as if he'd been blessed with all those talents but I had none; I thumped away at the piano like a horse. That was what Dad called it when he tried to teach me. Said I was totally devoid of talent. Yet I worshipped him because I thought he was always right. Usually he was kind to me and when he became unable to look after himself my talent became looking after him. I was indispensable to him then. And the years went by without anything changing. Gulli left home, Dad was in a wheelchair and I took care of him. Never thought about myself at all, what it was that I wanted. The years can pa.s.s like that without you doing anything except living in the rut you create for yourself. Year after year after year.'She paused and watched the snow.'When you begin to perceive that that is all you have, you start to hate it and try to find the culprit, and I felt my brother was to blame for everything. Over time I began to despise him and the perversion that ruined our lives'Erlendur was about to add something, but she went on.'I don't know if I can describe this better. How you lock yourself up inside your own monotonous life because of something that, decades later, turns out to be so unimportant. Actually turns out to be unimportant and harmless.''We understand that he thought he had been robbed of his childhood,' Erlendur said. 'That he wasn't allowed to be what he wanted to be, but was forced to be something completely different, a singer, a child star, and he paid the price when he was bullied at school. Then it all came to nothing and those "unnatural urges", as you call them, compound the picture. I don't think he can have been very happy. Maybe he didn't want all that attention you clearly longed for.''Robbed of his childhood,' Stefania said. 'Could well be.''Did your brother ever try to discuss his h.o.m.os.e.xuality with your father or you?' Erlendur asked.'No, but we might have seen it coming. I don't know if he even realised what was happening to him. I have no idea about it. I don't think he knew why he wore Mum's dresses. I don't know how or when those people discover they're different.''But he was fond of the nickname in some perverse way,' Erlendur said. 'He's got this poster and we know that...' Erlendur stopped mid-sentence. He didn't know whether to tell her that Gudlaugur had asked his lover to call him Little Princess.'I don't know anything about that,' Stefania said. 'He could have been tormenting himself with the memory of what happened. Maybe there was something inside him that we'll never understand.''How did you get to know Henry Wapshott?''He came to our house one day and wanted to talk about Gudlaugur's records. He wanted to know whether we had any copies. It was last Christmas. He had obtained information about Gudlaugur and his family through some collector and told me that his records were incredibly valuable abroad. He had talked to my brother, who refused to sell him any, but that changed somehow and he was prepared to let Wapshott have what he wanted.''And you wanted your share of the profits.''We didn't think that was unreasonable. It didn't belong to him any more or less than to my father. At least, that was how we saw it. Our father paid for the recordings out of his own pocket.''Was a substantial sum involved? That Wapshott offered for the records?'Stefania nodded. 'Millions.'"That corresponds with what we know.''He has plenty of money, that Wapshott man. I believe he wanted to avoid the records going into the collectors' market. If I understood him correctly, he wanted to acquire all the existing copies of the records and prevent them from flooding the market. He was very straightforward about it and was prepared to pay an incredible sum. I think he finally talked Gudlaugur round just before this Christmas. Something must have changed for him to attack him like that.''Attack him like that? What do you mean?''Well, haven't you got him in custody?''Yes,' Erlendur said, 'but we have no proof that he attacked your brother. What do you mean by "something must have changed"?''Wapshott visited us in Hafnarfjordur and said he had persuaded Gudlaugur to sell him all the copies, and I expect he was making sure that there were no others around. We told him there weren't, Gudlaugur had taken them all when he left home.''That's why you went to the hotel to meet him,' Erlendur said. 'To get your cut of the sale.''He was wearing his doorman's uniform,' Stefania said. 'He was in the lobby carrying suitcases out to a car for some tourists. I watched him for a while and then he saw me. I said I had to talk to him about the records. He asked about Dad...''Did your father send you to see Gudlaugur?''No, he would never have done that. After the accident he never wanted to hear his name mentioned.''But he was the first thing Gudlaugur asked about when he saw you at the hotel.''Yes. We went down to his room and I asked where the records were.'*'They're in a safe place,' Gudlaugur said, smiling at his sister. 'Henry told me he'd talked to you.''He told us you were planning to sell him the records. Dad said half of them are his and we want half of the proceeds.''I've changed my mind,' Gudlaugur said. 'I'm not going to sell them.''What did Wapshott say to that?''He wasn't pleased.''He's offering a very good price for them.''I can get more for them if I sell them myself, one at a time. Collectors are very interested in them. I think Wapshott's going to do the same even if he told me he wants to buy them to keep them out of circulation. I expect he's lying. He's planning to sell them and make money out of me. Everyone was going to make money out of me in the old days, especially Dad, and that hasn't changed. Not in the least.'They stared at each other.'Come home and talk to Dad,' she said. 'He doesn't have much time left.''Did Wapshott talk to him?''No, he wasn't there when Wapshott came. I told Dad about him.''And what did he say?''Nothing. Only that he wanted his share.''What about you?''What about me?''Why have you never left him? Why haven't you got married and had a family of your own? It's not your life that you're living, it's his life. Where's your life?''I suppose it's in the wheelchair you put him in,' Stefania snorted, 'and don't you dare ask about my life.''He has the same power over you that he had over me in the old days.'Stefania exploded with rage.'Someone had to look after him! His favourite, his star, turned into a voiceless queer who pushed him down the stairs and hasn't dared talk to him since. Prefers sitting in his house at night and creeping out before he wakes up. What power does he have over you? You think you got rid of him for once and for all, but just look at you! Look at yourself! What are you? Tell me that! You're nothing. You're sc.u.m.'She stopped.'Sorry,' he said. 'I shouldn't have said that.'She didn't answer him.'Does he ask about me?''No.''He never talks about me?''No, never.''He hates the way I live. He hates the way I am. He hates me. After all these years.'*'Why didn't you tell me this before?' Erlendur said. 'Why this game of hide-and-seek?''Hide-and-seek? Well, you can imagine. I didn't want to talk about family matters. I thought I could protect us, our privacy.''Was this the last time you saw your brother?''Yes.''Are you quite sure?''Yes.' Stefania looked at him. 'What are you implying?''Didn't you catch him with a young man just as your father did, and throw a fit? That recalled the root of the unhappiness in your life and so you decided to put an end to it.''No, what...?''We have a witness.''A witness?''The lad who was with him. A young man who did your brother favours for money. You caught them in the bas.e.m.e.nt, the lad ran away and you attacked your brother. Saw a knife on his desk and attacked him.''That's all wrong!' Stefania said, sensing that Erlendur meant what he was saying, sensing the noose genuinely closing on her. She stared at Erlendur, unable to believe her own ears.'There's a witness-' Erlendur began, but didn't manage to finish the sentence.'What witness? What witness are you talking about?''Do you deny having caused your brothers death?'The hotel telephone began ringing and before Erlendur could answer his mobile began ringing in his jacket pocket as well. He cast an apologetic look at Stefania, who glared back at him.'I must take this call,' Erlendur said.Stefania backed off and he saw her take one of Gudlaugur's records, which was on the desk, out of its cover. When Erlendur answered the hotel telephone she was scrutinising the record. It was Sigurdur oli. Erlendur answered his mobile and asked the caller there to hold.'A man got in touch with me just now about the murder at the hotel and I gave him your mobile number,' Sigurdur oli said. 'Has he called you?'"There's someone on the other line right now,' Erlendur said.'It looks as though we've solved this case. Talk to him and call me. I sent three cars over. Elinborg's with them.'Erlendur put the receiver down and picked up his mobile again. He didn't recognise the voice, but the man introduced himself and started his account. He had barely begun before Erlendur's suspicions were confirmed and he figured it all out. They had a long talk and at the end of the conversation Erlendur asked the caller to go down to the police station and give a statement to Sigurdur oli. He called Elinborg and gave her instructions. Then he put his mobile away and turned to Stefania, who had put Gudlaugur's record on the turntable and switched it on.'Sometimes, in the old days,' she said, 'when records like this were being made, there was all kinds of background noise that got onto the recordings, maybe because people didn't take much care about making them, the technology was primitive and the recording facilities were poor too. You can even hear pa.s.sing traffic on them. Did you know that?''No,' Erlendur said, not grasping the point.'You can hear it on this song, for example, if you listen carefully. I don't think anyone would notice unless they knew it was there.'She turned up the volume. Erlendur p.r.i.c.ked up his ears and noticed a background sound in the middle of the song.'What is that?' he asked.'It's Dad,' Stefania said.She played the part of the song again and Erlendur could hear it clearly, although he couldn't make out what was being said.'That's your father?' Erlendur said.'He's telling him he's wonderful,' Stefania said remotely. 'He was standing near the microphone and couldn't contain himself:She looked at Erlendur.'My father died yesterday,' she said. 'He lay down on the sofa after dinner and fell asleep as he sometimes did, and never woke up again. As soon as I entered the room I could tell he was gone. I sensed it before I touched him. The doctor said he had had a heart attack. That's why I came to the hotel to see you, to make a clean sweep. It doesn't matter any more. Not for him and not for me either. None of this matters any more.'She played the s.n.a.t.c.h of song a third time and on this occasion Erlendur thought he could make out what was said. A single word attached to the song like a footnote.Wonderful.'I went down to Gudlaugur's room the day he was murdered to tell him that Dad wanted a reconciliation. By then I'd told Dad that Gudlaugur kept a key to the house and had sneaked inside, sat in the living room and crept back out without our noticing. I didn't know how Gudlaugur would react, whether he wanted to see Dad again or whether it was hopeless to try to reconcile them, but I wanted to try. The door to his room was open...'Her voice quavered.'... and there he lay in his own blood...'She paused.' ... in that costume ... with his trousers down ... covered in blood ...'Erlendur went over to her.'My G.o.d,' she groaned. 'I'd never in my life ... it was too appalling for words. I don't know what I thought. I was terrified. I think my only thought was to get out and try to forget it. Like all the rest. I convinced myself it was none of my business. That it didn't matter whether I was there or not, it was over and done with and was none of my business. I pushed it away, acted like a child. I didn't want to know about it and I didn't tell my father what I saw. Didn't tell a soul.'She looked at Erlendur.'I should have called for help. Of course I should have called the police ... but ... it ... it was so disgusting, so unnatural ... that I ran away. That was the only thing I thought of. Getting away. To escape from that terrible place and not let a single person see me.'She paused.'I think I've always been fleeing him. Somehow I've always been running away from him. All the time. And there...'She sobbed gently.'We should have tried to patch things up much earlier. I should have arranged that long before. That's my crime. Dad wanted that too, in the end. Before he died.'They fell silent and Erlendur looked out of the window, and noticed that it was snowing less.'The most terrifying thing was ...'She stopped, as if the thought was unbearable.'He wasn't dead, was he?'She shook her head.'He said one word, then he died. He saw me in the doorway and groaned my name. That he used to call me. When we were little. He always called me Steffi.'And they heard him say your name before he died. Steffi.'She looked at him in surprise.'They who?'Suddenly Eva Lind was standing in the open doorway. She stared at Stefania and at Erlendur, then at Stefania again and shook her head.'How many women have you got on the go anyway?' she said, with an accusatory look at her father.

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He couldn't discern any change in osp. Erlendur stood watching her working, wondering if she would ever show remorse or guilt for what she had done.'Have you found her, that Steffi?' she asked when she saw him in the corridor. She dumped a pile of towels into the laundry bin, took some fresh ones and put them in the room. Erlendur walked closer and stopped in the doorway, his thoughts elsewhere.He was thinking about his daughter. He had managed to convince her who Stefania actually was, and when Stefania left he asked Eva Lind to wait for him. Eva sat down on the bed and he could tell at once that she was altered, she was back to her old ways. She launched into a tirade against him for everything that had gone wrong in her life and he stood and listened without saying a word, without objecting or enraging her even further. He knew why she was angry. She was not angry with him but with herself, because she had crashed. She could control herself no longer.He didn't know what drug she was using. He looked at his watch.'Are you in a hurry to go somewhere?' she said. 'Rushing off to save the world?''Can you wait for me here?' he said.'p.i.s.s off she said, her voice hoa.r.s.e and ugly.'Why do you do this to yourself?''Shut up.''Will you wait for me? I wont be long and then we'll go home. Would you like that?'She didn't answer. Sat with bowed head, looking out of the window at nothing.'I won't be a minute,' he said.'Don't go,' she pleaded, her voice less harsh now. 'Where are you going?''What's wrong?' he asked.'What's wrong!' she barked. 'Everything's wrong. Everything! This f.u.c.king b.l.o.o.d.y life. That's what's wrong, life. Everything's wrong in this life! I don't know what it's for. I don't know why we live it. Why! Why??''Eva, it'll be-''G.o.d, how I regret not having her,' she groaned.He put his arm around her.'Every day. When I wake up in the morning and when I fall asleep at night. I think about her every single day and what I did to her.''That's good,' Erlendur said. 'You ought to think about her every day''But it's so hard and you never break out of it. Never. What am I supposed to do? What can I do?''Don't forget her. Think about her. Always. She helps you that way''How I wish I'd had her. What kind of a person am I? What kind of person does something like that? To her own child.''Eva.' He put his arm around her, she huddled up to him and they sat like that on the edge of the bed while the snow quietly settled over the city.When they had been sitting for some time Erlendur whispered to her to wait for him in the room. He was going to take her home and celebrate Christmas with her. They looked at each other. Calmer now, she gave a nod.But now he was standing at the door of a room on the floor below watching osp at work. He couldn't stop thinking about Eva. He knew he had to hurry back to her, take her home, be with her and spend Christmas with her.'We talked to Steffi,' he called into the room. 'Her proper name's Stefania and she was Gudlaugur's sister.'osp came out of the bathroom.'And what, does she deny everything, or...?''No, she doesn't deny anything,' Erlendur said. 'She knows where her fault lies and she's wondering what went wrong, when it happened and why. She's feeling bad but is beginning to come to terms with it. It's tough for her because it's too late for her to make amends.''Did she confess?''Yes,' Erlendur said. 'Most of it. In effect. She didn't confess in so many words but she knows the part she played.''Most of it? What's that supposed to mean?'osp walked through the doorway past him to fetch detergent and a cloth, then went back into the bathroom. Erlendur walked inside and watched her cleaning as he had done before when the case was still open and she was a kind of friend of his.'Everything, really,' he said. 'Except the murder. That's the only thing she's not going to own up to.'osp sprayed cleaner onto the bathroom mirror, unmoved.'But my brother saw her,' she said. 'He saw her stab her brother. She can't deny that. She can't deny being there.''No,' Erlendur said. 'She was down in the bas.e.m.e.nt when he died. It just wasn't her who stabbed him.''Yes, Reynir saw it,' she said. 'She can't deny it''How much do you owe them?''Owe them?''How much is it?''Owe who? What are you talking about?'osp rubbed the mirror like her life depended on it, like it would all be over if she stopped, the mask would drop and she would have to give up. She went on spraying and polishing, and avoided looking herself in the eye,.Erlendur watched her and a phrase from a book he once read about paupers in times of old crossed his mind: she was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d child of the world.'Elinborg is a colleague of mine who just checked your record at the crisis centre. The rape crisis centre. It was about six months ago. There were three of them. It took place in a hut by Lake Raudavatn. That was all you said. You claimed not to know who they were. They s.n.a.t.c.hed you one Friday night when you were in town, took you to that hut and raped you one after the other.'osp went on polishing the mirror and Erlendur couldn't see whether what he said had the slightest effect on her.'In the end you refused to identify them and refused to press charges'osp did not say a word.'You work at this hotel but you don't earn enough to clear your debts and you don't earn enough to cover your habit. You've managed to keep them at bay with small payments and they give you more stuff, but they've been threatening you and you know they follow through with their threats'osp did not look at him.'There's no pilfering at this hotel, is there?' Erlendur said. 'You said that to hoodwink us, lead us on a wild goose chase.'Erlendur heard a noise it he corridor and saw Elinborg and four police officers in front of the door. He gestured to her to wait.'Your brother is in the same position as you. Maybe you have the same account with them, I don't know. He's been beaten up. He's been threatened. Your parents have been threatened. You don't dare to name these people. The police can't act because they are only threats, and when these people do do something, seize you and rape you in a hut, you don't give their names. Nor does your brother.'Erlendur paused and watched her.'A man phoned me just now. He works for the police, the drug squad. He sometimes gets calls from informants who tell him what they hear on the streets and on the drug scene. He received a call late last night, this morning really, from a man who said he had heard a story about a young girl who was raped six months ago and had trouble paying her dealers, until she settled her debt a couple of days ago. Both for herself and for her brother. Does that sound familiar?'osp shook her head.'It doesn't sound familiar?' Erlendur asked again. 'The informant knew the girl's name and that she worked at the hotel where Santa Claus was killed.'osp went on shaking her head.'We know that Gudlaugur had half a million in his room,' Erlendur said.She stopped wiping the mirror, dropped her hands to her sides and stared at herself.'I've been trying to stop.' 'Drugs?''It's pointless. They're merciless if you owe them.' 'Will you tell me who they are?' 'I didn't mean to kill him. He was always nice to me. And then ...' 'You saw the money?' 'I needed the money.''Was it because of the money? That you attacked him?' She didn't answer.'Was it the money? Or was it because of your brother?' 'A bit of both,' osp said in a low voice. 'You wanted the money' 'Yes.''And he was taking advantage of your brother.' 'Yes.'*Out of the corner of her eye she saw her brother on his knees, a pile of money on the bed and the knife, and without a moment's thought she grabbed the knife and tried to stab Gudlauger. He parried her with his arms but she lurched at him again and again until he stopped thrashing around and slumped against the wall. Blood spurted out of a wound in his chest, his heart.The knife was bloodstained, her hands were b.l.o.o.d.y and blood had spilled onto her coat. Her brother had got up from the floor and run out into the corridor, heading for the stairs.Gudlaugur gave a heavy groan.A deathly silence descended in the little room. She stared at Gudlaugur and at the knife in her hands. Suddenly Reynir reappeared.'Someone's coming down the stairs,' he whispered.He took the money, grabbed his sister who was glued to the spot, and dragged her out of the room and into the alcove at the end of the corridor. They hardly dared to breathe as the woman approached. She peered into the darkness but did not see them.When she reached Gudlaugur's door she let out a m.u.f.fled scream and they could hear Gudlaugur.'Steffi,' he groaned.Then they heard nothing more.The woman went into the room but they saw her come straight back out. She backed away all the way up against the corridor wall, then suddenly turned away from the room and walked off quickly without so much as a backward glance.*'I threw the coat away and found another one. Reynir got out. I had to go on working. Otherwise you'd have sussed it all out at once, or I thought so anyway. Then I was asked to fetch him for the Christmas party. I couldn't refuse. I couldn't do anything that would draw attention to myself. I went down and waited in the corridor. His door was still open but I didn't go inside. I went back up and said I found him in his room and I thought he was dead.'osp looked down at the floor.'The worst thing is he was never anything but kind to me. Maybe that's why I got so mad. Because he was one of the few people who treated me decently here, and then my brother... I went mental. After everything that...''After everything they did to you?' Erlendur said.'There's no point in bringing charges against those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. For the most brutal and bloodiest rapes they maybe get a year, a year and a half inside. Then they come back out. You lot can't do anything. There's nowhere to go for help. You just have to pay up. No matter how you go about it. I took the money and I paid. Maybe I killed him for the money. Maybe because of Reynir. I don't know. I don't know...'She paused.'I went mental,' she repeated. 'I've never felt like that before. Never flown into such a rage. I relived every second in that hut. Saw them. Saw it all happening again. I took the knife and tried to stab him everywhere I could. Tried to slash him and he tried to defend himself but I just stabbed and stabbed and stabbed until he stopped moving.'She looked at Erlendur.'I didn't realise it was that hard. That hard to kill someone.'Elinborg appeared in the doorway and gestured to Erlendur that she couldn't understand why they didn't arrest the girl.'Where's the knife?' Erlendur asked.'The knife?' osp said, walking over to him.'The one you used.'She paused for a moment.'I put it back where it belongs,' she said eventually. 'I cleaned it as well as I could in the staff coffee room, then got rid of it before you came.''And where is it?''I put it back where it belongs.''In the kitchen, where the cutlery's kept?''Yes.''The hotel must own five hundred knives like that,' Erlendur said in desperation. 'How are we supposed to find it?''You could start in the buffet'"The buffet?''Someone's sure to be using it'

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Erlendur handed over osp to Elinborg and the officers and hurried up to his room where Eva Lind was waiting for him. He put his card in the slot and threw the door open to find that she had opened the big window completely and was sitting on the windowsill, looking down at the snow falling to the ground several floors below.'Eva,' he said calmly.Eva said something he couldn't make out.'Come on, dear,' he said, approaching her cautiously.'It looks so easy,' Eva Lind said.'Eva, come on,' Erlendur said in a low voice. 'Home.'She turned around. She took a long look at him, and then nodded.'Let's go,' she said quietly, stepped down onto the floor and closed the window.He walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead.'Did I rob you of your childhood, Eva?' he said in a low voice.'Eh?' she said.'Nothing,' he said.Erlendur took a long look into her eyes. Sometimes he could see white swans in them.Now they were black.*Erlendur's mobile rang in the lift on the way down to the lobby. He recognised the voice at once.'I just wanted to wish you a merry Christmas,' Valgerdur said, and she seemed to be whispering down the phone.'You too,' Erlendur said. 'Merry Christmas.'In the lobby, Erlendur glanced into the dining room packed with tourists gorging themselves on the Christmas Eve buffet and chattering away in all imaginable languages, their joyful murmuring spreading all over the ground floor. He couldn't help thinking that one of them was holding a murder weapon in his hands.He told the head of reception that Rosant may well have been responsible for sending the woman who slept with him that night and who demanded payment afterwards. The man replied that he was beginning to suspect something of the sort. He had already informed the owners of the hotel about what manager and head waiter were up to, but did not know how they would tackle the matter.Erlendur caught a glimpse of the hotel manager looking in astonishment at Eva Lind. He was going to pretend he hadn't noticed him, but the manager darted into his path.'I' just wanted to thank you, and of course you don't need to pay for your stay!''I've already settled,' Erlendur said. 'Goodbye.''What about Henry Wapshott?' the manager asked, blocking Erlendur's way. 'What are you going to do with him?'Erlendur stopped. He was holding Eva Lind by the hand and she looked at the manager with drowsy eyes."We're sending him home. Was there anything else?'The manager dithered.'Are you going to do anything about those lies the girl told you about the conference guests?'Erlendur smiled to himself.'Are you worried about that?''It's all lies.'Erlendur put his arm around Eva Lind and they set off towards the front door.'We'll see,' he said.When they crossed the lobby Erlendur noticed people stopping all about and looking around. The sentimental Christmas songs were no longer jingling through the speakers, and Erlendur smiled to himself when he heard that the reception manager had agreed to his request and changed the music on the sound system. He thought about the records. He had asked Stefania where she thought they might be, but she didn't know. Had no idea where her brother kept them, and was uncertain whether they would ever be found.Gradually the murmuring in the dining room died down. The guests exchanged astonished looks and peered up at the ceiling in search of the wondrously beautiful song that reached their ears. The staff stopped in their tracks to listen. Time seemed to stand still.They left the hotel and in his mind Erlendur sang the beautiful hymn in chorus with the young Gudlaugur, and sensed once again the deep yearning in the boy's voice.O Father, turn me into a light for all my life's short stay...

Now read the first chapter of Arnaldur Indridason's next novelThe Draining Lakeavailable now from Harvill Secker

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She stood motionless for a long time, staring at the bones as if it should not be possible for them to be there. Any more than for her.At first she thought it was another sheep that had drowned in the lake, until she moved closer and saw the skull half-buried in the lake bed and the shape of a human skeleton. The ribs protruded from the sand and beneath them could be seen the outlines of the pelvis and thigh bones. The skeleton was lying on its left side so she could see the right side of the skull, the empty eye sockets and three teeth in the upper jaw. One had a large silver filling. There was a wide hole in the skull itself, about the size of a matchbox, which she instinctively thought could have been made by a hammer. She bent down and stared at the skull. With some hesitation she explored the hole with her finger. The skull was full of sand.The thought of a hammer crossed her mind again and she shuddered at the idea of someone being struck over the head with one. But the hole was too large to have been left by a hammer. She decided not to touch the skeleton again. Instead, she took out her mobile and dialled emergency services.She wondered what to say. Somehow this was so completely unreal. A skeleton so far out in the lake, buried on its sandy bed. Nor was she on her best form. Visions of hammers and matchboxes. She found it difficult to concentrate. Her thoughts were roaming all over the place and she had great trouble rounding them up again.It was probably because she was hung-over. After planning to spend the day at home she had changed her mind and gone to the lake. She had persuaded herself that she must check the instruments. She was a scientist. She had always wanted to be a scientist and knew that the measurements had to be monitored carefully. But she had a splitting headache and her thoughts were far from logical. The National Energy Authority had held its annual dinner dance the night before and, as was sometimes the way, she had had too much to drink.She thought about the man lying in her bed at home and knew that it was on his account that she had hauled herself off to the lake. She did not want to be there when he woke up and hoped that he would be gone when she returned. He had come back to her flat after the dance but was not very exciting. No more than the others she had met since her divorce. He hardly talked about anything except his CD collection and carried on long after she had given up feigning any interest. Then she fell asleep in a living-room chair. When she woke up she saw that he had got into her bed, where he was sleeping with his mouth open, wearing tiny underpants and black socks.'Emergency services,' a voice said over the line.'h.e.l.lo I'd like to report that I've found some bones,' she said. 'There's a skull with a hole in it.'She grimaced. b.l.o.o.d.y hangover! Who says that sort of thing? A skull with a hole in it. She remembered a phrase from a children's rhyme about a penny with a hole in it. Or was it a shilling?'Your name, please,' said the neutral emergency-services voice.She straightened out her jumbled thoughts and stated her name.'Where is it?''Lake Kleifarvatn. North side.''Did you pull it up in a fishing net?''No. It's buried on the bed of the lake.''Are you a diver?''No, it's standing up out of the bed. Ribs and the skull.''It's on the bottom of the lake?''Yes.''So how can you see it?''I'm standing here looking at it''Did you bring it to dry land?''No, I haven't touched it,' she lied instinctively.The voice on the telephone paused.'What kind of c.r.a.p is this?' the voice said at last, angrily. 'Is this a hoax? You know what you can get for wasting our time?''It's not a hoax. I'm standing here looking at it''So you can walk on water, I suppose?''The lake's gone,' she said. 'There's no water any more. Just the bed. Where the skeleton is.''What do you mean, the lake's gone?''It hasn't all gone, but it's dry now where I'm standing. I'm a hydrologist with the Energy Authority. I was recording the water level when I discovered this skeleton. There's a hole in the skull and most of the bones are buried in the sand on the bottom. I thought it was a sheep at first.''A sheep?''We found one the other day that had drowned years ago. When the lake was bigger.'There was another pause.'Wait there,' said the voice reluctantly. 'I'll send a patrol car.'She stood still by the skeleton for a while, then walked over to the sh.o.r.e and measured the distance. She was certain the bones had not surfaced when she was taking measurements at the same place a fortnight earlier. Otherwise she would have seen them. The water level had dropped by more than a metre since then.The scientists from the Energy Authority had been puzzling over this conundrum ever since they'd noticed that the water level in Lake Kleifarvatn was falling rapidly. The authority had set up its first automatic surface-level monitor in 1964 and one of the hydrologists' tasks was to check the measurements. In the summer of 2000 the monitor seemed to have broken. An incredible amount of water was draining from the lake every day, twice the normal volume.She walked back to the skeleton. She was itching to take a better look, dig it up and brush off the sand, but imagined that the police would be none too pleased at that. She wondered whether it was male or female and vaguely recalled having read somewhere, probably in a detective story, that their skeletons were almost identical: only the pelvises were different. Then she remembered someone telling her not to believe anything she read in detective stories. Since the skeleton was buried in the sand she couldn't see the pelvis, and it struck her that she would not have known the difference anyway.Her hangover intensified and she sat down on the sand beside the bones. It was a Sunday morning and the occasional car drove past the lake. She imagined they were families out for a Sunday drive to Herdisarvik and on to Selvogur. That was a popular and scenic route, across the lava field and hills and past the lake down to the sea. She thought about the families in the cars. Her own husband had left her when the doctors ruled out their ever having children together. He remarried shortly afterwards and now had two lovely children. He had found happiness.All that she had found was a man she barely knew, lying in her bed in his socks. Decent men became harder to find as the years went by. Most of them were either divorced like her or, even worse, had never been in a relationship at all.She looked woefully at the bones, half-buried in the sand, and was close to tears.About an hour later a police car approached from Hafnarfjordur. It was in no hurry, lazily threading its way along the road towards the lake. This was May and the sun was high in the sky, reflecting off the smooth surface of the water. She sat on the sand watching the road and when she waved to the car it pulled over. Two police officers got out, looked in her direction and walked towards her.They stood over the skeleton in silence for a long time until one of them poked a rib with his foot.'Do you reckon he was fishing?' he said to his colleague.'On a boat, you mean?''Or waded here.'"There's a hole,' she said, looking at each of them in turn. 'In the skull.'One officer bent down.'Well,' he said.'He could have fallen over in the boat and broken his skull,' his colleague said.'It's full of sand,' said the first one.'Shouldn't we notify CID?' the other asked.'Aren't most of them in America?' his colleague said, looking up into the sky. 'At a crime conference?'The other officer nodded. Then they stood quietly over the bones for a while until one of them turned to her.'Where's all the water gone?' he asked.'There are various theories,' she said. 'What are you going to do? Can I go home now?'After exchanging glances they took down her name and thanked her, without apologising for having kept her waiting. She didn't care. She wasn't in a hurry. It was a beautiful day by the lake and she would have enjoyed it even more in the company of her hangover if she had not chanced upon the skeleton. She wondered whether the man in the black socks had left her flat and certainly hoped so. Looked forward to renting a video that evening and snuggling up under a blanket in front of the television.She looked down at the bones and at the hole in the skull.Maybe she would rent a good detective film.