Hákon repeatedly ran a hand over his face, as if trying to wipe away the bad luck that had dogged his steps, and his lips trembled.

‘I’ll have to sell the hotels to pay the tax bill, and if the worst comes to the worst, I could be back in prison.’

Áróra stayed silent; if she spoke, there would simply be too much to say. She would tell him that his desperation over the lost money was no genuine sorrow. That was a feeling that grabbed you by the throat when a policeman told you your sister was probably dead. You could always earn more money.

‘There’s one light at the end of the tunnel,’ he said, mopping away the tears that flowed down his cheeks. ‘My wife and I talked yesterday, after all this happened. We’re going to try again. If she’s talking to me when I’ve lost everything, then she must really love me.’ 244

‘Then what the hell are you whining about?’ Áróra said. The words burst out of their own volition, and for a second she wasn’t sure if she had said them out loud or if she had hissed them to herself. But Hákon’s punch to her face removed all doubt. She had said it out loud and he had replied. He had given her an answer for the camera, the spying and the betrayal.

Áróra sank to the floor as the door closed behind Hákon. The main advantage of her work was being able to administer her own form of justice, but sometimes justice had a bitter taste. The eye the fist had landed on saw nothing but blackness, and behind it, inside her head, a rapid pounding had begun. She needed to cool it, to put a cold flannel against her eye, and then fetch ice from the machine along the corridor to cool it further. But first, before standing up to do all this, she was going to sit here for a moment and think of Ísafold, who had so often experienced exactly this; the bizarre feeling of having been struck by a hand that had previously been so gentle.

245

102

It was a relief for Olga to be back at work, even though the owner of the factory had told her that she would be welcome to stay at home if she was ill or had slept badly. A man of her own age, he understood perfectly how a night’s sleep can be wrecked by the pain of arthritis, and she had worked there for so long with hardly a day’s illness, clocking in late after a bad night wasn’t a problem.