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.
‘Plenty to do,’ he remarked, taking a seat as she closed the door.
‘People want their feet looked after,’ she replied with a brief smile. ‘Look, I don’t understand how... why you want to talk to me. What can I tell you?’
‘I don’t know if you remember, but about seven years ago a man was hit by a car on Lindargata. The driver took off and the man died. His name was Villi and he was a friend of Ingibergur’s. They’d been at a sports bar together that evening but had got separated. I’ve spoken to Ingibergur. He says he saw you at the bar that evening. You were with a couple of girlfriends. He’d been drinking and decided to come over for a chat but lost his nerve. I don’t suppose for a moment that you’ll remember the evening, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask.’
Helga watched him, her expression serious, giving every sign of listening intently. When he had finished, she asked: ‘What about it?’
‘What about what?’
‘What’s it got to do with me?’
‘Do you remember that evening?’ Konrád asked.
‘I remember Ingibergur,’ Helga said. ‘But it wasn’t quite like you described. Was that his version of what happened? I haven’t forgotten. Ingibergur was unbearable at school, always pinching us and making sleazy comments. The evening you’re talking about was my friend’s birthday. The three of us went out to dinner and then on a pub crawl, and ended up at that sports bar. The way I remember it, Ingibergur was totally pissed and there was a snowstorm raging outside.’
‘What about Ingibergur? What did he do?’
‘He came over but we refused to talk to him, so he got angry and started calling us bitches and whores. After that we told him to get lost. I thought he might actually go for us, but instead he started puking up. There were these streams of vomit pouring out of him. He caught most of it in his beer glass but some went on the floor. It was absolutely disgusting. He was such an idiot you wouldn’t believe it. Me and my friends still talk about it when we meet up.’
‘He didn’t mention any of that to me,’ Konrád said.
‘I bet he didn’t. He probably doesn’t even remember. He was paralytic.’
‘But you do know each other?’
‘Well, he was in year eight and nine with me,’ Helga said, ‘but I didn’t really know him.’
‘Do you remember anyone else who was at the bar that evening?’
Helga didn’t even have to think. ‘No.’
‘You didn’t read about the case in the papers at the time? About the hit-and-run? The police appealed for witnesses.’
‘No, I wasn’t aware of that.’
‘There were two men sitting talking at the bar. One of them was Villi. The man he was talking to was wearing a bulky anorak and a baseball cap. I’m trying to find him. The problem is, I don’t know his name and have no idea who he was.’
The door opened and one of the other podiatrists put her head in to say she’d tidied up and was going home. Helga told her she still had some things to finish and that she would close up.
‘I don’t remember that,’ Helga said, once the woman had gone. ‘I’ll ask the girls in case they do, but, you know...’
‘What?’
‘I doubt they’ll be able to tell you anything useful.’
33
The next day Konrád rang the childhood friend of Villi, mentioned by Herdís, who had remembered seeing a big off-roader up by the tanks on Öskjuhlíd as a boy. The man proved eager to cooperate and they arranged to meet at a little place on Ármúli where he said he often went for coffee during the day.
His name was Ingvar and he turned out to be a scrawny figure, with several days’ worth of stubble and a baseball cap covering a large bald patch, which Konrád noticed when Ingvar removed it to scratch his head. He worked as a lorry driver and clearly loved to talk. He went on at length about what it was like growing up in the Hlídar area and playing on Öskjuhlíd and being a Valur fan, as well as a lot of other random stuff that occurred to him. They were sitting at a small round table, sipping their coffees. The place was cosy and quiet, as the afternoon rush hadn’t yet started.
Ingvar turned out to have an extraordinary memory for trivia relating to the Valur sports club. He knew the name of every single player in the handball and football teams, going back many years. He knew all the match results since 1970, and could tell Konrád what Valur’s league position had been on any given date. He knew the players’ birthdays, which teams they had played for before Valur and where they had transferred to afterwards. He not only remembered all the major games but had attended most of them too, and he knew details about the minor games that even the players themselves wouldn’t be able to recall. Indeed, he boasted to Konrád that he had often caught out old Valur players with questions they couldn’t answer. And that wasn’t alclass="underline" he knew the family relationships of the main players to other sportsmen and sportswomen, right back into the twentieth century. As a big football fan himself, Konrád enjoyed asking him questions that no sane man should have been able to answer, and never failed to get a reply. Ingvar was almost as well informed about Manchester United as he was about Valur, and his specialist subject was historical match results in the English football league and the FA Cup.
This all came to light because Konrád asked when he had seen the big off-roader, and Ingvar replied that it must have been exactly a week before Villi was chased off Öskjuhlíd, because that evening he had been at a junior-league game between Valur and FH at Hlídarendi, and had seen Valur wipe the floor with the Hafnarfjördur team. He had attended the match with two friends whose names he was able to provide. He could remember the final score and who had scored the most goals, and added that it had been the eighteenth birthday of one of the Valur players.
‘So you can pinpoint the exact day?’ Konrád said, marvelling at the man’s phenomenal sporting memory.
‘Yup,’ Ingvar confirmed proudly.
The three friends had been delighted with their team’s victory and had been reliving the highlights of the game as they walked up the hill afterwards, revelling in the power of the scorers and resourcefulness of the wingmen. Ingvar had nicked some cigarettes from his dad and they were planning to smoke them up by the tanks.
‘We thought it was cool,’ Ingvar said of the off-roader. ‘You should have heard the throbbing of the engine as it drove away. We didn’t actually give it much thought, though. I just remembered it when I was talking to Herdís and we were discussing the body on the glacier and what sort of vehicle you’d need to get up there. Villi had mentioned it to me before he died. He remembered the details of the match that had been played at the sports hall that evening, and when I looked it up, I saw that it had taken place the same evening as Sigurvin was supposed to have vanished. It seemed like a pretty amazing coincidence to us. Of course, it was a long time ago, but I’m pretty confident of the timing.’
‘Do you know the make of the vehicle you saw?’
‘I’m afraid I didn’t notice.’
‘Could it have been a Ford Explorer?’ Konrád asked, thinking about Hjaltalín’s car.
‘More like a Wrangler. I don’t know. I reckon I’m quite good at car models, especially trucks, of course, but I didn’t notice that one.’
‘Was the off-roader the only vehicle parked there? Was the owner waiting for someone? What colour was it?’