Tainted Blood - By Arnaldur Indridason Page 0,8

tell Erlendur the story. "It happened on Saturday – three days ago, my God how time flies – and it was such a wonderful day. They had just been married by that vicar who's so popular."

"Hopeless," her husband said. "Came rushing in, delivered a few clichés and then he was off again with his briefcase. I can't understand why he's so popular."

His wife wouldn't let anything mar the beauty of the wedding.

"A marvellous day! Sunshine and lovely autumn weather. Definitely a hundred people at the church alone. She has so many friends. Such a popular girl. We held the reception at a hall here in Gardabaer. What's that place called? I always forget."

"Gardaholt," the father said.

"Such a wonderful cosy place," she went on. "We filled it. The hall, I mean. So many presents. And then when . . . then when . . ."

"They were supposed to dance the first dance," the father continued when his wife burst into tears, "and that idiot of a boy was standing on the dance floor. We called out to Dísa Rós, but she didn't show up. We started looking for her, but it was as if the ground had opened up and swallowed her."

"Dísa Rós?" Erlendur said.

"It turned out that she'd taken the wedding car."

"The wedding car?"

"The limousine. With the flowers and ribbons, that brought them from the church. She just ran away from the wedding. No warning! No explanation!"

"From her own wedding!" the mother shouted.

"And you don't know what made her do that?"

"She obviously changed her mind," the mother said. "Must have regretted the whole thing."

"But why?" Erlendur said.

"Please, can you find her for us?" the father asked. "She hasn't been in touch and you can see how terribly worried we are. The party was a total flop. The wedding was ruined. We're completely stumped. And our little girl is missing."

"The wedding car. Was it found?"

"Yes. In Gardastraeti."

"Why there?"

"I don't know. She doesn't know anyone there. Her clothes were in the car. Her proper clothes."

Erlendur hesitated.

"Her proper clothes were in the wedding car?" he said eventually, briefly pondering the plane this conversation had dropped to and whether he was in some way responsible.

"She took off her wedding gown and put on the clothes she'd apparently kept in the car," the wife said.

"Do you think you can find her?" the father asked. "We've contacted everyone she knows and no-one knows a thing. We just don't know where to turn. I have a photo of her here."

He handed Erlendur a school photograph of the young, beautiful blonde who was now in hiding. She smiled at him from the photograph.

"You have no idea what happened?"

"Not a clue," the girl's mother replied.

"None," the father said.

"And these are the presents?" Erlendur looked at the gigantic dining table, piled high with colourful parcels, pretty bows, cellophane and flowers. He walked towards it as the couple watched. He'd never seen so many presents in his life and he wondered what was inside the parcels. Crockery and more crockery, he imagined.

What a life.

"And what's this here?" he said, pointing to some offcuts from a tree that stood in a large vase at one end of the table. Heart-shaped red cards hung from the branches by ribbons.

"It's a message tree."

"A what?" Erlendur said. He'd only been to one wedding in his life and that was a long time ago. No message trees there.

"The guests write greetings to the bride and groom on cards and then hang them on the tree. A lot of cards had been hung up before Dísa Rós went missing," the mother said, still holding her handkerchief to her nose.

Erlendur's mobile phone rang in his overcoat pocket. As he fumbled to get it, the phone got stuck in the opening and, instead of patiently working it loose, which would have been so easy, Erlendur tugged at it vigorously until the pocket gave way. The hand holding the phone flew back and sent the message tree flying to the floor. Erlendur looked at the couple apologetically and answered his phone.

"Are you coming with us to Nordurmýri?" Sigurdur Óli said without any preamble. "To take a better look at the flat."

"Are you down there already?" Erlendur asked. He had withdrawn to one side.

"No. I'll wait for you," Sigurdur Óli said. "Where the hell are you?"

Erlendur hung up.

"I'll see what I can do," he said to the couple. "I don't think there's any danger involved. Your daughter probably just lost her nerve and she's staying with some friends. You shouldn't worry