He disappeared through the glass doors to the flat and reappeared a moment later with plates, cutlery and a tub of coleslaw, of the kind that Áróra remembered so well from her childhood. 85He took a seat opposite her, sliced the potato in two, and as he put half of it on her plate, Áróra realised how hungry she was.

‘Be my guest,’ he said with a dazzling smile, indicating the mountain of meat.

‘Thank you,’ Áróra said, taking a slice and thinking to herself that this was a meal of which her father would have approved. ‘Troll girls need protein,’ he would have said. Daníel put two slices of meat on his plate, cut a piece and put it in his mouth.

‘Nice,’ he said, heaping a generous helping of coleslaw next to the meat.

Áróra had a sudden feeling of wellbeing. She took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, allowing her back to relax, and then leaned over the table and began to cut into the meat. An aroma of new-mown grass blended with the smell of the food, while the warm sun and Daníel’s muscular leg touching hers beneath the table sent a ripple of contentment through her. It was a relief to relax.

‘There are just more and more questions I want to ask my sister,’ she said.

After dinner, Daníel pointed her to the computer in the living room, and while she went through the register of court judgements, he washed up. She found the Reykjanes District, checked the most recent judgements, and it didn’t take long to find what she was looking for: ‘The defendant is found guilty of possession and distribution of prescription drugs.’

She clicked on the link and the court documents opened in front of her: The State vs Björn Hannesson.

According to the documents, Björn had been given a seven-month suspended sentence for having in his possession two hundred painkillers for which he had no prescription, and his explanation that these were for his own use was not treated as credible. This had to be linked to Ísafold stealing her aunt Dagný’s painkiller prescription. If Björn were an addict and needed such a huge amount, then she could well believe that Ísafold would go 86to great lengths to get them for him. She seemed to be able to accept virtually anything from Björn. This was another piece in the puzzle that would give Áróra a picture of Ísafold’s life in Iceland, although it provided no clue as to her whereabouts. Neither did it explain why Björn had told the neighbours that Ísafold had gone on holiday to England but told her that she had walked out on him.

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