The Draining Lake

“What proof did you have?” Elinborg repeated.

“My engineering professor told me when I said goodbye to him. After I was expelled. He was hurt that I wasn’t allowed to finish the course. All the teaching staff talked about it, he said. The teachers disliked students like Emil, but couldn’t do a thing. They didn’t all like Lothar and his ilk, either. The professor said that Emil must have been valuable to Lothar, because there was hardly a worse student around, but Lothar ordered the university authorities not to fail him. The FDJ sanctioned the move and Lothar was behind it.”

Ha

“Emil was the staunchest of us all,” he said after a while. “A hardline communist and Stalinist.”

“Why…” Erlendur began, but Ha

“It was all such a shock,” he said, staring ahead. “The whole system. We witnessed absolute dictatorship by the party, fear and repression. Some tried to tell the party members here about it when they got back, but made no headway. I always felt that the socialism they practised in East Germany was a kind of sequel to Nazism. This time they were under the Russian heel, of course, but I pretty quickly got the feeling that socialism in East Germany was essentially just another kind of Nazism.”

30

Ha

“Is there anything else you need to know?” Ha

“So Tomas turns up years after he left Leipzig and asks you about Emil and Lothar, and you tell him you have proof that they were operating together,” Erlendur said. “Emil performed for him the important task of monitoring and informing on the students.”

“Yes,” Ha

“Why was Tomas asking about Emil, and who is Emil?”

“He didn’t tell me why and I know very little about Emil. The last I heard, he was living abroad. I think he did ever since we studied in Germany. He never moved back as far as I know. I met one of the students from Leipzig a few years ago, Karl. We were both travelling in Skaftafell and we started talking about the old days, and he said he thought Emil had decided to settle abroad after university. He hadn’t seen or heard of him since.”

“But Tomas, do you know anything about him?” Erlendur asked.

“Not really. He did engineering at Leipzig but I’m not aware that he worked in the field. He was expelled. I only met him once when he got back from Germany, that one time he came to ask about Emil.”

“Tell us about it,” Elinborg said.

“There’s not much to tell. He dropped in and we reminisced about the old days.”

“Why was he interested in Emil?” Erlendur asked.

Ha

“I should make some more coffee,” he said and stood up.

Ha

“Sorry to disturb you like this,” Tomas said.

“No, it’s fine,” Ha

Tomas took off his coat and greeted Ha

When they had settled down in the basement they reminisced about their Leipzig years for a while; between them they knew where some of the students were now, but not others. Ha

Well aware of Ilona’s disappearance, he remembered the previous time Tomas had visited him, just back from East Germany and a changed man, to tell him what had happened. He felt nothing but pity for Tomas. He had sent him a message written in a moment of anger, blaming him for his expulsion from Leipzig. But when his rage had died down and he was back in Iceland he realised that it was not Tomas’s fault, but as much his own for defying the system. Tomas mentioned the note and said it was preying on his mind. He told him to forget it, that it had been written in a fit of pique and did not represent the truth. They were fully reconciled. Tomas told him he had contacted the party leaders about Ilona and they had promised to make inquiries in East Germany. He was severely reproached for being expelled, for abusing his position and the trust he had been shown. Tomas had admitted to it all, he said, and repented. He told them whatever they wanted to hear. His sole aim was to help Ilona. It was all in vain.

Tomas mentioned the rumour that Ilona and Ha

And now Tomas was sitting there again, in his home. It was twelve years since they had last faced each other. He had begun talking about Lothar and finally seemed to be getting to the point.

“I wanted to ask you about Emil,” Tomas said. “You know we were good friends in Germany.”

“Yes, I knew,” he said.

“Could Emil have, say, had a special co

He nodded. Although he disliked maligning people, he was no friend of Emil’s and felt he understood what sort of character he was. Ha

“Do you ever wonder if Emil played a part in your expulsion?” Tomas asked.

“That’s impossible to say. Anyone could have grassed on me to the FDJ — more than one person, more than two. I blamed you, as you remember. I wrote you that note. It gets so complicated talking to people when you don’t know what you’re allowed to say. But I haven’t been dwelling on it. It’s over and done with long ago. Buried and forgotten.”

“Did you know that Lothar is in Iceland?” Tomas suddenly asked.

“Lothar? In Iceland? No, I didn’t.”

“He’s involved with the East German embassy, some kind of official there. I met him by chance — actually I didn’t meet him, I saw him. He was on his way to the embassy. I was walking down Aegisida. I live in the west of town. He didn’t notice me. I was some way off but it was him, large as life. I accused him back in Leipzig of being involved in Ilona’s disappearance and he said to me: “Take a closer look.” But I didn’t understand what he meant. I think I understand now.”

They stopped talking.

He looked at Tomas and could tell how helpless and alone in the world his former fellow student was, and wanted to do something for him.

“If I can help you with… you know, if I can do anything for you…”