Ellý nodded. ‘Yeah, she called me too, asking if I knew anything, and then Daníel called. You remember Daníel? The cop who used to be married to our aunt Didda? We all had crushes on him when we were girls. He took us for a ride on a police bike when I was confirmed, remember? Anyway, he’s a detective now, and he called and asked when was the last time I saw Ísafold—’

‘And when did you last see her?’ Áróra interrupted.78

The flow of chatter stopped and Ellý frowned.

‘Didn’t you hear about that?’ she asked, with surprise that was nothing compared to Áróra’s.

‘Didn’t I hear about what?’ she replied, and Ellý stared for a moment, shifted in her seat and leaned forward with her elbows on the table.

‘I haven’t seen Ísafold for ages – a long time before Christmas, anyway. She used to come around all the time when I was due to go into labour. I was having such a hard time with the pelvic girdle pain that I couldn’t go anywhere, so I was really grateful to see someone other than my mum, and my boyfriend works all day long. We live at Mum’s place, you see. And then the thing with the pills came up, and since then I haven’t seen her. I didn’t want to say anything about it to Daníel, what with him being in the police, and didn’t want to get Ísafold into trouble or anything—’

Áróra raised a hand. ‘Hold on, you’ll have to rewind the tape. I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. What pills?’

‘Well, yeah…’ Ellý said slowly. ‘So you mean you really haven’t heard about this?’

79

32

Áróra managed to connect her phone to the hire car’s hands-free system so she could talk to her mum, taking care to drive on the right at the same time. The conversation with Ellý had left her exhausted, and she couldn’t wait to throw herself on the pristine-white hotel bed and nap for a while. It seemed that her thoughts needed to take a rest after hearing the story of Ísafold’s life in Iceland. What was clear was that it was very different to how Áróra had imagined it.

‘Did you know about this thing with the pills, with Ellý and her mother?’ Áróra asked as soon as her mother answered the phone.

‘What thing with the pills?’

‘That Ísafold had stolen painkillers from Dagný, Ellý’s mother – and that she’d then picked up Dagný’s prescriptions from the chemist?’

‘Yes … I sort of heard something, but…’ her mother said faintly.

‘But, what? Why didn’t you tell me? I’m running around the city talking to people, and you decide to keep this quiet?’

Her tone was furiously accusatory, but Áróra was angry – and this was so like her mother.