‘Yes, Helgi. I was told someone had asked to see me, then she walked into my office. I didn’t recognize her at first – she looked different from the photos I’ve seen. I thought she must be a doctor who wanted to talk to me for some reason, or maybe a patient wanting to lodge a complaint. I was polite to her, but then…’
She broke off briefly, before resuming:
‘Then she introduced herself. She said her name was Bergthóra and that she was your partner…’
‘My partner? Is that the word she used?’ He felt a cold sense of dread.
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, only to regret it immediately. He didn’t mean to cast doubt on Aníta’s story.
‘Quite sure. It totally threw me. And the look on her face as she said it. Like…’ She hesitated. ‘Like she owned you.’
He didn’t want to hear any more, but there was no avoiding it.
‘Did she say anything else? Or…’
‘Yes. She said she’d heard we were… How did she put it?… That we’d starting seeing each other, that was it.’
Helgi wondered how the hell she’d got wind of the fact, and – even worse – what she had been intending to achieve by going to see Aníta.
‘What did she actually want?’ he asked. He was still standing in the biting wind by the terminal building, unable to move until he was satisfied that everything was all right. He added: ‘Is everything OK?’
‘Yes, I’m just a bit freaked out. To be honest, I didn’t know what to think. She gave the impression that you two were still together and that she wanted to remind me of the fact. She told me to stop seeing you, to leave you alone.’
Helgi was stunned. ‘She told you to leave me alone?’
‘Yes. It was all so strange. There wasn’t any doubt, was there? You know, that you…’
‘There’s not a shadow of a doubt that Bergthóra and I are no longer together,’ Helgi replied. ‘Our relationship came to a dramatic end when I walked out on her. I haven’t talked to her since or answered any messages from her. Mind you, she’s stopped sending them.’ The disturbing thought occurred to him that Bergthóra might have stopped hassling him precisely because she was planning to turn her focus on Aníta instead.
‘Was she threatening at all?’ he asked.
There was a delay, then Aníta said: ‘No, not exactly. She didn’t threaten me, but it was obvious she wasn’t happy that we were seeing each other.’
Helgi thought he could hear a tremor in Aníta’s voice.
‘I’ll have to talk to her.’
‘No, please don’t. I don’t think that’s a good idea. She just needs time to get over it, don’t you think?’
Helgi heaved a deep breath.
‘Yes, maybe.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you. I just found the whole thing so unsettling. I’m feeling a bit calmer now, though. Thanks for ringing – I’m definitely feeling better. I’ll just tell the receptionists not to let her in again.’
‘Yes, you do that. I can’t understand what she’s trying to achieve.’Unsettling, Aníta had said, and he couldn’t agree more. ‘Do you think she could have been drinking?’ he asked. At the time of their break-up, he’d told Bergthóra in no uncertain terms that she should go to rehab, even though it was no longer any of his concern how she lived her life now that their ways had parted. She had reacted badly to the suggestion, insisting that her drinking wasn’t a problem. While she was prepared to admit that she sometimes crossed a line when she’d had a drop too much, she claimed that she was perfectly in control when it came to deciding whether or not to open a bottle.
I’m perfectly capable of handling my drink, just like you, she had said, without so much as blinking.
‘I’m really not sure,’ Aníta said, after a moment’s pause. ‘It wasn’t obvious, but of course people are different and you can’t always tell if someone’s been drinking.’
Even Helgi hadn’t always been able to tell from looking at Bergthóra whether she was drunk; it was her behaviour that gave her away. Her violent outbursts of temper.
‘Why don’t you go home and take it easy?’ he suggested. ‘It can’t have been a pleasant experience.’
‘Oh, no, I’ll stay on at work. There’s a lot to do, and it wasn’t that bad, honestly. I think I can cope with finishing the day.’ He heard her laugh but thought it sounded hollow.
