The Darkness Knows

The second man had been equally unwilling to chat. He had treated Konrád with suspicion, repeatedly asking what he wanted. Konrád had explained that he was trying to track down a driver in connection with an accident on Lindargata seven years ago. He was asking on behalf of the sister of the man who had died in the accident — if it had been an accident. The driver of the car had never been found. He himself was following up a new lead and wanted to re-interview all those who had been spoken to in the course of the original inquiry.

‘So you’re not with the police, then?’ the man had asked. His name was Tómas and he lived on Ingólfsstræti, a long street which crossed the bottom of Lindargata near the city centre. A neighbour had seen him get into his jeep in the middle of the night and drive off in the direction of the Shadow District, looking as if he was in a hurry. When Leó had spoken to Tómas, he had claimed he was visiting a woman in the east end of town. He’d provided the woman’s name and she had confirmed his statement. In addition to this, there had been no suspicious marks on his jeep.

‘No, it’s more in the nature of a... private investigation,’ Konrád said, ‘but I was with the police for a long time, if that makes any difference.’

‘So I don’t have to talk to you.’

‘No, not unless you want to.’

‘Goodbye then,’ the man said.

‘You owned a jeep—’

‘Goodbye,’ the man repeated, and pushed the door almost to.

‘Why, have you got something to hide?’ Konrád asked, a little surprised by the man’s reaction as he stood there in the stairwell of a rundown block of flats, talking to him through a crack in the door. But before he could say anything else, the man had shut the door in his face.

He had got a similar reception from the third man he talked to, though this one wasn’t quite as rude. His name was Bernhard, he lived in a terraced house, and he was also in when Konrád rang the bell. When the man learnt that Konrád was asking about an accident on Lindargata, he explained that he had provided a statement at the time and knew nothing about the incident, then said a polite but firm goodbye. Konrád could understand. He would have reacted the same if a complete stranger had come to his door, asking questions about a serious incident. Bernhard had been seen driving east along Skúlagata. A witness, who had been trying to hitch a lift home in the blizzard, had come forward to say that a car had passed him, driving fast, and hadn’t stopped. The witness hadn’t been able to get a good look inside the vehicle and so couldn’t be sure if the driver had been alone, but he had remembered part of the number plate because it contained three sevens. Bernhard had told the police that his wife had been in the car with him, and that they hadn’t been mixed up in any accident.