‘I regret it now, though – God, how I regret it. If she is dead…’
‘Don’t feel too bad, Kristín. I very much doubt she was waiting for a phone call from you. You kept her secret for her and—’
Kristín shook her head and, to his surprise, Helgi noticed a tear trickling down her cheek.
When she didn’t say anything, he seized the chance to ask: ‘Can I listen to the recording?’
Kristín nodded.
‘Yes, I was intending to let you hear it.’
‘Thanks,’ he said, and waited. He mustn’t give her the idea that he was putting pressure on her. It seemed the recording might hold some answers, but Kristín wasclearly distressed by the situation and he didn’t want to risk frightening her off.
‘I listened to it myself yesterday evening, after you came to see me at the studio,’ she said at last. ‘I hadn’t heard it for years, though the conversation had stayed with me. I felt as though I remembered some of what she’d said word for word, but maybe it wasn’t always like that. I’ve got it here in my bag. The cassette player and the tape.’
‘OK.’
‘But there was something else I wanted to talk to you about first, if that’s all right?’
‘Sure.’
‘As you can imagine, I’ve been going over and over this in my head, Helgi. You talked about a lot of money, and even her house too. It’s completely over the top, such a mad thing for her to have done.’
‘Yes.’
‘Anyway, as I said, I went back and listened to the tape. Then I read up on Elín again. Found some old interviews. There were no real clues there. You see, I’d spotted – or at least I believed I’d spotted – certain clues in my conversation with Elín. And I had to follow them up…’
She was silent for a long moment. Helgi didn’t say a word, just tuned in to the drumming of the rain.
Finally, Kristín continued: ‘I needed a little time to pluck up my courage.’ She laughed and wiped the tear from her cheek. ‘There I was, an adult, too afraid to confront the truth. Ridiculous.’
Helgi gave her an encouraging smile.
‘That’s nothing to be ashamed of. It must require quite an adjustment, learning about an inheritance like that, the whole thing so—’
She interrupted him, as if she wasn’t even listening: ‘You never asked.’
Helgi opened his mouth to say something, but Kristín went on:
‘You never asked.That’s what my parents said to me when I went to see them early this morning. And they also said they’d promised never to tell. The whole thing was meant to be kept quiet.But it’s not as important now, and we can’t stay silent for ever, my dad said to me. Or something like that. I don’t remember the exact words, but then I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything as shattering as this morning’s revelations.’
‘You don’t mean…’
Kristín nodded.
‘Yes. They say I’m adopted.’ Another tear began to slide down her cheek. ‘Mum and Dad. Now they tell me. I don’t think they ever would have let on if I hadn’t asked.’
‘So you believe Elín’s your mother?’
‘I know for a fact she is. They told me. They’ve known all these years.’
‘That must have been quite a shock,’ Helgi said, and then it dawned on him why Kristín had appeared so familiar the first time he saw her. She reminded him, quite simply, of Elín.
‘You can say that all right. And I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to meet her again… All I have is thatinterview, nothing else… I don’t understand why she didn’t say anything, why she didn’t get in touch. Though apparently she’d promised my parents never to tell me – that was the condition they made. They wanted to decide for themselves when and if they should break it to me. Like I say, I don’t think it would ever have happened if I hadn’t demanded an answer.’
‘Well, with any luck, Elín’s OK. I’m confident that you’ll still have a chance to see her again,’ Helgi said, against his better instincts.
Kristín shrugged.
