She fell silent, and Daníel made some mental notes. He would ask for more detail later. He agreed it was strange that Björn had no idea of the whereabouts of the woman he had lived with for three years, and that could indicate that she had fled, and was keeping her whereabouts secret because she was frightened. Where domestic violence was concerned, there was nothing unusual about this kind of story.

‘Mum thought that maybe you might be able to help. I’d like to find out more about Björn. He’s recently been sentenced for something to do with dope. That’s what his brother told me, but he didn’t seem keen to discuss it any further,’ she said.

Daníel nodded.

‘You can check online yourself, to find out what he was sentenced for,’ he said. ‘The legal archive is open to everyone, and it shouldn’t be a problem to find the right case if you know roughly when the court pronounced sentence.’

Áróra nodded, and he breathed a sigh of relief. People frequently expected that he could dig up and pass on information about all kinds of cases under investigation by the police, as if the job came with no duty of confidentiality.

‘I’ll tell you what I can do,’ he said. ‘I’ll start things rolling by checking if Ísafold has been registered as leaving the country. It would certainly help if you could talk to as many relatives and friends, and maybe neighbours, as possible, to try and work out some kind of timeline, to figure out roughly when she might 55have been leaving the country, and when she was last seen in Iceland.’

The gratitude was clear on Áróra’s face, but Daníel felt a flicker of light at the back of his own eyes, as if he was looking both out and into his own head. He cursed inwardly. He knew that flicker and what it meant, and that he would have no choice but to follow it all the way to its conclusion, regardless of any plans he might have for his time off work. He knew well that this strange flash of light, which only he was aware of, didn’t bode well.

56

23

It was a wrench for Áróra to leave Daníel’s flat. There was something about the way he hummed and nodded while he listened that made her want to sit at his kitchen table and spill every secret she had. She felt that she knew him and that he knew her much more intimately than should be possible with such a short acquaintance. His mild voice and the grey eyes that never left her face triggered a warmth inside her that she wanted to sink deep into. It was a warm feeling of contentment that she hadn’t known for a long time, and she was almost distraught as Daníel’s door closed behind her.