The Darkness Knows
- Автор: Indridason Arnaldur
- Серия: Detective Konrad #1
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Harvill Secker/Penguin Random House UK
- ISBN: 978-1-78730-232-7
- Переводчик: Victoria Cribb
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «The Darkness Knows». Краткое содержание книги:
The case: impossible to solve. Until now.
A frozen body is discovered in the icy depths of Langjökull glacier, apparently that of a businessman who disappeared thirty years before. At the time, an extensive search and police investigation yielded no results-one of the missing man’s business associates was briefly held in custody, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him.
Now the associate is arrested again and Konrád, the retired policeman who originally investigated the disappearance, is called back to reopen the case that has weighed on his mind for decades.
When a woman approaches him with new information that she obtained from her deceased brother, progress can finally be made in solving this long-cold case.
‘What?’
‘I don’t believe you suddenly felt an overwhelming need to go and talk to him on his deathbed,’ Konrád said. ‘I don’t believe you were looking for answers at all.’
‘Oh?’
‘No, I think it’s more complicated than that.’
Linda took another sip of her drink. Apart from that, she was perfectly composed. But then, Konrád remembered, she’d always had an air of calm self-possession.
‘What are you implying?’ she asked.
‘Hjaltalín received a few calls on his mobile while he was in hospital, and made a few himself. But two of the calls he made went through the hospital telephone system. Maybe his battery had run out of juice or he suspected his phone was being tapped by the police. But he obviously didn’t have the same concerns about the hospital phone. Or perhaps he was so desperate to get in touch with you that he took the risk. One of the calls was to his sister in America. The other was to this house.’
Linda didn’t react.
‘That was the day before you went to see him.’
She remained silent.
‘It was Hjaltalín who got in touch with you, wasn’t it?’ Konrád persisted. ‘It was the first time in thirty years that you’d heard from him. He said he was dying and wanted to see you.’
Linda regarded him impassively.
‘Hjaltalín was a born liar but he wasn’t lying about one thing,’ Konrád said. ‘He was with a married woman that evening after all, and now I find it a bit easier to understand why he never admitted who it was — regardless of what happened.’
He saw that Linda’s eyes had filled with tears. But she didn’t move, just sat very erect in the armchair, trying to give the impression that Konrád’s words hadn’t got to her.
‘You’d already moved out of Sigurvin’s place by the time he went missing. But you weren’t formally divorced, were you? You were still married.’
Linda nodded, her lips a tight line.
‘We thought of you as divorced, so it never occurred to us that you were a married woman. Besides, you were with your sister that evening. I had to look it up. But I couldn’t find any confirmation of that. I don’t think your sister was asked to corroborate your alibi because no one ever suspected you of any wrongdoing. But then the inquiry was pretty chaotic during those first few days.’
Konrád leant forwards.
‘I’m right, aren’t I?’ he said. ‘You were the married woman — the woman whose identity Hjaltalín would never reveal.’
23
Linda stood up. She put her empty glass down on a small sideboard and went into the kitchen, returning with a tissue to dry her eyes. When she sat down in her chair again, she had recovered her composure a little.
‘I thought the police would never find out,’ she said at last. ‘I should be grateful. It’s been torturing me all these years.’
‘Hjaltalín told us so many lies,’ Konrád said. ‘There was no way of knowing when he was telling the truth. We did everything we could to discover your identity, but he clammed up and refused to say another word. We never found any trace of a married woman in his life. I don’t think it ever occurred to anyone: Sigurvin’s wife.’
‘I could hardly believe it when he used me as his alibi, after all he’d said about how vital it was that no one should get wind of our relationship.’
‘He was desperate. By the way, you took a risk when you paid him that visit in hospital.’
‘I know.’
‘But you thought it was worth it, in spite of that?’
‘We cut all contact after Sigurvin went missing, and never met or talked to each other again,’ Linda said. ‘We just behaved as if our affair had never happened. It was very hard at times. I never dared to get in touch with him, though I longed to. The danger of discovery was too great. And the years went by... But seeing him in hospital, seeing him lying in bed, looking so frail... it was a terrible shock. I hardly recognised him.’
‘Apparently he went downhill very suddenly.’
‘Yes. He just seemed completely done for.’
‘Why did he get in touch?’
‘To say goodbye, I suppose.’
‘What did you two talk about?’
‘Very little,’ Linda said. ‘When the time came, we had so little to say. But it was good to see him and sit with him for a while and...’ Her words died away.
‘Had you been seeing each other long before Sigurvin vanished?’
‘Several months.’
‘Was that why you and Sigurvin split up? Because you’d got involved with Hjaltalín?’
Linda nodded. ‘Partly.’
‘He didn’t know the reason?’
‘No,’ Linda said. ‘He didn’t know about Hjaltalín, but our marriage just wasn’t working. I think we’d have separated anyway.’
‘Was that why you started seeing Hjaltalín? Because your marriage wasn’t working?’
‘You could say that.’
‘Where did you two meet up?’
‘Here and there. At his place. At my place. We kept it very quiet. We used to find small guesthouses outside Reykjavík. In Borgarnes. Selfoss. No one took any notice of us and we kept ourselves to ourselves. Sigurvin was often abroad, which made things easier.’
‘But why? Why did you cheat on him?’
‘How can I explain?’ Linda said. ‘Sigurvin and I were all washed up. And Hjaltalín understood me. He used to comfort me. Cuddle me. Show me affection.’
Konrád waited in silence for her to go on, and soon she was telling him how she had first got to know Sigurvin at the Commercial College. She’d told Konrád some of it during the original inquiry, but now she had the benefit of maturity and bitter experience. Sigurvin had been a real go-getter, she said, and she’d been attracted by his self-confidence. It hadn’t hurt that he was good-looking too, and always seemed to have plenty of cash. They hadn’t even been twenty when they got together, and he had all these plans for how he was going to get rich. He had no intention of continuing in education, and told her she needn’t study pharmacology unless she wanted to. But she was more academic than him and had always wanted to go to university, to be independent.
She hadn’t paid Hjaltalín much attention at college until he and Sigurvin started plotting various business ventures together. They had a lot in common. Both were keen to make money and felt out of place at school. Hjaltalín never finished his course. Then Sigurvin persuaded him to go shares in the fishing venture as almost equal partners. Sigurvin owned the controlling share in the company, but only by a small margin, and as time went on he wanted more. The three of them used to spend a lot of time together in those days. Although Hjaltalín had plenty of girls, he’d always fancied Linda. She’d known instinctively, and one evening he came right out and told her.
‘That’s how it started,’ Linda said, ‘some time before he and Sigurvin fell out. I don’t really know what made me take that step. I suppose my relationship with Sigurvin wasn’t great. And Hjaltalín knew what he wanted and how to get it.’
‘Was he trying to avoid Sigurvin? Was that why he agreed to sell his share when Sigurvin wanted to buy him out? Because of your affair?’
‘I suppose so. That must have played a part.’
‘He reckoned he hadn’t been paid a fair price,’ Konrád said. ‘He believed Sigurvin had shafted him.’
‘Hjaltalín was incredibly angry,’ Linda agreed. ‘He had a temper on him but his moods didn’t usually last long. He was spitting mad about that, though. Still, the fact we were cheating on Sigurvin helped to calm him down a bit, because he felt guilty about it. We both did. We weren’t bad people, you know.’