"I knew something didn't bloody fit," he repeated almost shouting.
"What are you talking about, love," she said, unaware of why he was angry. "What doesn't fit?"
"I cracked the code," he said. "I broke the rules to crack the code. I wanted to see how the disease is passed on through families – and it is passed on through families, I can tell you that. It's in several families, but it's not in our family. Not in Dad's family and not in yours. That's why it doesn't fit. Do you understand? Do you understand what I'm saying?"
*
Erlendur's mobile phone rang in his coat pocket and he asked Katrín to excuse him. He went into the kitchen to answer it. It was Sigurdur Óli.
"The old girl from Keflavík's looking for you," he said, without introducing himself.
"The old girl? Do you mean Elín?"
"Yes, Elín."
"Did you talk to her?"
"Yes," Sigurdur Óli said. "She said she needed to talk to you straightaway."
"Do you know what she wants?"
"She flatly refused to tell me. How are you doing?"
"Did you give her my mobile number?"
"No."
"If she calls again give her my number," Erlendur said and hung up. Katrín and Elínborg were waiting for him in the sitting room.
"Sorry," he said to Katrín. She continued her story.
*
Einar paced the sitting room. Katrín tried to calm him down and work out what had made her son so upset. She sat down and asked him to sit beside her, but he wouldn't listen. Walked back and forth in front of her. She knew he'd been having problems for a long time and that the separation didn't help. His wife had left him. She wanted a fresh start. She didn't want to be overwhelmed by his sorrow.
"Tell me what's wrong," she said.
"So much, Mum, just so much."
And then came the question she'd been waiting for all these years.
"Who's my dad?" her son asked and stopped in front of her. "Who's my real father?"
She looked at him.
"We haven't got any secrets any more, Mum," he said.
"What have you found out?" she asked. "What have you been up to?"
"I know who isn't my father," he said, "and that's Dad." He roared with laughter. "Did you hear that? Dad isn't my dad! And if he isn't my dad, who am I then? Where did I come from? My brothers. Suddenly they're just half-brothers. Why haven't you ever told me anything? Why have you lied to me all this time? Why? Why?"
She stared at him and her eyes filled with tears.
"Did you cheat on Dad?" he asked. "You can tell me. I won't tell anyone. Did you cheat on him? No-one need know except the two of us but I have to hear it from you. You have to tell me the truth. Where do I come from? How was I made?"
He stopped talking.
"Am I adopted? An orphan? What am I? Who am I? Mum?"
Katrín burst into tears with heavy sobs. He stared at her, just beginning to calm down, while she wept on the sofa. It took him some time to register how much his words had upset her. Eventually he sat down and put his arm around her. They sat for a while in silence until she started to tell him about the night in Húsavík when his father was at sea. She was out with her girlfriends and met some men, including Holberg, who burst into her house. He listened to her story without interruption.
She told him how Holberg had raped her and threatened her and she'd decided for herself to have the baby and never tell anyone what had happened. Not his father and not him. And that had been fine. They'd lived a happy life. She hadn't allowed Holberg to rob her of her happiness. He hadn't managed to kill her family.
She told him that, though he was the son of the man who raped her, that didn't prevent her from loving him as much as her other two sons and she knew Albert was particularly fond of him. So Einar had never suffered for what Holberg did. Never.
It took him a few minutes to digest what she'd said.
"Sorry," he said at last. "I didn't mean to get angry with you. I thought you'd been cheating and that's where I came from. I had no idea about the rape."
"Of course not," she said. "How could you have known? I've never told anyone until now."
"I should have seen that possibility too," he said. "There was another possibility, but I didn't consider it.