Voices - By Arnaldur Indridason Page 0,2

a kind of moment of death,' he added, looking down at the body. 'So he had a double.'

'A double?' Erlendur didn't understand him.

'Orgasm, I mean,' the medical officer said. 'You'll take photographs, won't you?'

'Yes,' Erlendur said.

'They'll look nice in his family album.'

'He doesn't appear to have any family,' Erlendur said and looked around the room again. 'So you're done for the time being?' he asked, eager to put an end to the wisecracks.

The district medical officer nodded, squeezed back out of the room and went down the corridor.

'Won't we have to close down the hotel?' Elínborg asked, and noticed the manager gasp at her question. 'Stop all traffic in and out. Question everyone staying here and all the staff? Close the airports. Stop ships leaving port...'

'For God's sake,' the manager groaned, squeezing his handkerchief with an imploring look at Erlendur. 'It's only the doorman!'

Mary and Joseph would never have been given a room here, Erlendur thought to himself.

'This ... this ... filth has nothing to do with my guests,' the manager spluttered with indignation. 'They're tourists, almost all of them, and regional people, businessmen and the like. No one who has anything to do with the doorman. No one. This is one of the largest hotels in Reykjavík. It's packed over the holidays. You can't just close it down! You just can't!'

'We could, but we won't,' Erlendur said, trying to calm the manager down. 'We'll need to question some of the guests and most of the staff, I expect.'

'Thank God,' the manager sighed, regaining his composure.

'What was the man's name?'

'Gudlaugur,' the manager said. 'I think he's around fifty. And you're right about his family, I don't think he has any.'

'Who visited him?'

'I haven't got a clue,' the manager puffed.

'Has anything unusual happened at the hotel involving this man?'

'No.'

'Theft?'

'No. Nothing's happened.'

'Complaints?'

'No.'

'He hasn't become embroiled in anything that could explain this?'

'Not as far as I know.'

'Was he involved in any conflicts with anyone at this hotel?'

'Not that I know of

'Outside the hotel?'

'Not that I know of but I don't know him very well. Didn't,' the manager corrected himself.

'Not after twenty years?'

'No, not really. He wasn't very sociable, I don't think. Kept himself to himself as much as he could.'

'Do you think a hotel is the right place for a man like him?'

'Me? I don't know ... He was always very polite and there were never really any complaints about him.'

'Never really?'

'No, there were never any complaints about him. He wasn't a bad worker really?

'Where's the staff coffee room?' Erlendur asked.

'I'll show you.' The hotel manager mopped his brow, relieved that they would not close the hotel.

'Did he have guests?' Erlendur asked.

'What?' the manager said.

'Guests,' Erlendur repeated. 'It looks like someone who knew him was here, don't you think?'

The manager looked at the body and his eyes dwelled on the condom.

'I don't know anything about his girlfriends,' he said. 'Nothing at all.'

'You don't know very much about this man,' Erlendur said.

'He's a doorman here,' the manager said, and felt that Erlendur should accept that by way of explanation.

They left the room. The forensics team went in with their equipment and more officers followed them. It was difficult for them all to squeeze their way past the manager. Erlendur asked them to examine the corridor carefully and the dark alcove further down. Sigurdur Óli and Elinborg stood inside the little room observing the body.

'I wouldn't like to be found like that,' Sigurdur Óli said.

'It's no concern of his any more,' Elínborg said.

'No, probably not,' Sigurdur Óh said.

'Is there anything in it?' Elínborg asked as she took out a little bag of salted peanuts. She was always nibbling at things. Sigurdur Óli thought it was because of nerves.

'In it?' Sigurdur Óli said.

She nodded in the direction of the body. After staring at her for a moment, Sigurdur Óli realised what she meant. He hesitated, then knelt down by the body and stared at the condom.

'No,' he said. 'It's empty'

'So she killed him before his orgasm,' Elínborg said. 'The doctor thought—'

'She?' Sigurdur Óli said.

'Yes, isn't that obvious?' Elínborg said, emptying a handful of peanuts into her mouth. She offered some to Sigurdur Óli, who declined. 'Isn't there something tarty about it? He's had a woman in here,' she said. 'Hasn't he?'

'That's the simplest theory,' Sigurdur Óli said, standing up.

'You don't think so?' Elínborg said.

'I don't know. I don't have the faintest idea.'

2

The staff coffee room had little in common with the hotel's splendid lobby and well-appointed rooms. There were no Christmas decorations, no Christmas carols, only