The Draining Lake

“I don’t think it’s dead,” Ha

“You’re still a socialist?” Erlendur said.

“I always have been,” Ha

“But didn’t everyone join in singing the praises of that deception?” Erlendur said.

“I don’t know,” Ha

“What do you mean, go the whole hog?” Erlendur asked.

“They wanted me to spy on my companions, the Icelanders. I refused. Other things I saw and heard there made me rebel. I didn’t go to the compulsory lectures. I criticised the system. Not openly, of course, because you never criticised anything out loud, just discussed the flaws in the system with small groups of people you trusted. There were dissident cells in the city, young people who met secretly. I got to know them. Is it Lothar you found in Kleifarvatn?”

“No,” Erlendur said. “Or rather, we don’t know.”

“Who were “they”?” Elinborg asked. “You said “they” asked you to spy on your companions.”

“Lothar Weiser, for one.”

“Why him?” Elinborg asked. “Do you know?”

“He was nominally a student but didn’t seem serious about it and went about his own business as he pleased. He spoke fluent Icelandic and we believed he was there explicitly on the orders of the party or student organisation, which was the same thing. Clearly, one of his functions was to keep an eye on the students and try to enlist their cooperation.”

“What kind of cooperation?” Elinborg asked.

“It took all kinds of forms,” Ha

“Could Lothar have asked other Icelanders to give him information?” Erlendur asked. “Could he have asked other people to spy on their companions?”

“There’s no question about it. I’m sure he did,” Ha

“And?”

“And nothing.”

“Was there any particular reward for being cooperative or was it purely idealistic?” Elinborg asked. “Spying on your neighbours?”

“There were systems to reward those who wanted to impress. Sometimes a bad student who was loyal to the party line and politically sound would get a bigger grant than a brilliant student who had much higher grades but was not politically active. The system worked like that. When an undesirable student was expelled, like I was in the end, it was important for the other students to show what they thought by siding with the party apparatchiks. Students could gain kudos by denouncing the offender to show loyalty to the general line, as it was called. The Freie Deutsche Jugend was in charge of discipline. It was the only student organisation that was allowed and it had a lot of power. Not belonging to it was frowned upon. As was not attending their talks.”

“You said there were dissident cells,” Erlendur said.

“I don’t even know if you could call them dissident cells,” Ha

“You said Lothar Weiser “for one” had asked you to spy. Do you mean there were others like him?” Erlendur asked.

“Yes, of course,” Ha

“Did you know any Icelandic student who may have worked for Lothar?”

“Why do you want to know that?” Ha

“We need to know whether he was in contact with any Icelanders when he was here as a trade attache in the 1960s,” Erlendur said. “It’s a perfectly normal check. We’re not trying to spy on people, just gathering information because of the skeleton we found.”

Ha

“I don’t know of any Icelander who paid any attention to that system, except Emil maybe,” he said. “I think he was acting under cover. I told Tomas that once when he asked me the same question. Much later, in fact. He came to see me and asked exactly the same question.”

“Tomas?” Erlendur said. He remembered the name from the list of students in East Germany. “Do you keep in touch with Leipzig alumni?”

“No, I don’t have much contact with them and never have,” Ha

“Why did he tell you about her?” Elinborg asked.

“He was a broken man when he came to see me,” Ha

“Why was he a broken man?”

“Because she disappeared,” Ha

“And he came to see you again later?” Erlendur asked.

“That was quite strange actually. Him coming after all those years to reminisce. I’d forgotten the whole business really, but it was obvious that Tomas had forgotten nothing. He remembered it all. Every detail, as if it had happened yesterday.”

“What did he want?” Elinborg said.

“He was asking me about Emil,” Ha

“What kind of proof?” Elinborg asked.

“Emil was a hopeless student. He didn’t really belong at university, but he was a good socialist. Everything we said went straight to Lothar, and Lothar made sure that Emil received a good grant and good marks. Tomas and Emil were good friends.”