Free Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Page A

unlikely that the
corpses were a collection of people that had all disappeared or died under
different circumstances at different times, so she didn’t read these
latter articles in any detail.
    She also thumbed through 1972, since there
was a possibility that the bodies had been in the basement before the
eruption started. That year, however, turned out to be as lacking in
significant detail for her purposes as 1973. A photo of a sinking ship raised
an eyebrow, but the accompanying article said it was a trawler that was thought
to have hit a mine. However, further investigation of the sinking revealed that
the ship’s owners had exploded dynamite in its hold in the hope of an
insurance pay-off. No one appeared to have died or disappeared in connection
with the incident.
    Another headline to draw Thóra’s
attention stated that eighty British trawlers were speeding towards the
Icelandic fishing grounds. The article was dated at the end of August 1972, which
was a bit early; however, this case involved a huge number of men, making it
possible that four of them might have disappeared without being noticed. In
fact nothing was mentioned about the disappearance of any of them, but the
article succeeded in capturing the tone of relations between the two nations
during the Cod War. The end of the article quoted a
British trawler captain, who stated that if the Icelanders tried to board a
British ship within fifty miles and outside twelve, they would be met with
boiling water and sacks of pepper. Thóra found the mention of the pepper
quite amusing, the boiling water less so, but the statement indicated that
those involved had been prepared for anything - even physical injury.
    After her reading Thóra was little closer
to discovering anything than she had been before, except for her feeling that
the bodies might be connected to the Cod War in some very vague way. After all,
to Thóra’s mind the word ‘war’ meant devastation and
death.
    She slammed the book shut and hurried to
pack for her trip the next morning.

Chapter Seven
     
    Sunday 15 July 2007
     
     
    Thóra took her seat next to Bella in
the plane. She thanked God that the flight would take only half an hour - she
had a terrible fear of having to keep up a conversation with the girl in such
close quarters. In the end Bella chattered the entire trip without pause, the
gist of her monologue being her desire for Thóra to bring a lawsuit
against the state for the ban on smoking in public places. Thóra smiled
uncomfortably but didn’t dare interject. She even nodded
non-committally when her secretary said that after smoking was prohibited in
aeroplanes the majority of passengers had started to get sick after long-haul
flights because the air on board was changed much less frequently. Instead of
breathing smoke the passengers breathed germs and bacteria from people who came
from all over the world and who therefore, according to Bella, could have the
Ebola virus or bird flu. Thóra doubted that people who had contracted
these diseases travelled much to the Westmann Islands, but nevertheless tried
to breathe less than usual. When they landed she gulped down fresh air at the
door of the plane and enjoyed the feeling of the warm breeze playing about her
face. Bella hurried past Thóra and out of the airport to have a smoke.
    ‘Well,’ said Thóra as she
dragged their suitcases over to Bella, who stood by the ash bin, enjoying her
cigarette, ‘shouldn’t we try calling a cab?’ She looked
around but there was no taxi to be seen. She felt worse when she saw that some
of their fellow travellers appeared to be getting ready to walk into town.
Maybe there weren’t any taxis in the Islands? Just as she was on the
verge of going back into the airport to ask about this, a new Range Rover jeep
pulled up. Thóra had recently been told how much these cars cost, but
the figure was so high that she still thought it must have been a
misunderstanding. The dark window-pane slid