‘What kind of crap is this?' the voice said at last, angrily. ‘No, I haven't touched it,' she lied instinctively. She straightened out her jumbled thoughts and stated her name. ‘Your name, please,' said the neutral emergency-services voice. She remembered a phrase from a children's rhyme about a penny with a hole in it. Bloody hangover! Who says that sort of thing? A skull with a hole in it. ‘Hello – I'd like to report that I've found some bones,' she said. ‘Emergency services,' a voice said over the line. When she woke up she saw that he had got into her bed, where he was sleeping with his mouth open, wearing tiny underpants and black socks. Then she fell asleep in a living-room chair. He hardly talked about anything except his CD collection and carried on long after she had given up feigning any interest. No more than the others she had met since her divorce. He had come back to her flat after the dance but was not very exciting. She did not want to be there when he woke up and hoped that he would be gone when she returned. She thought about the man lying in her bed at home and knew that it was on his account that she had hauled herself off to the lake. The National Energy Authority had held its annual dinner dance the night before and, as was sometimes the way, she had had too much to drink. But she had a splitting headache and her thoughts were far from logical. She had always wanted to be a scientist and knew that the measurements had to be monitored carefully. She had persuaded herself that she must check the instruments. After planning to spend the day at home she had changed her mind and gone to the lake. It was probably because she was hung-over. Her thoughts were roaming all over the place and she had great trouble rounding them up again. A skeleton so far out in the lake, buried on its sandy bed. Instead, she took out her mobile and dialled emergency services. She decided not to touch the skeleton again. But the hole was too large to have been left by a hammer.

The thought of a hammer crossed her mind again and she shuddered at the idea of someone being struck over the head with one. With some hesitation she explored the hole with her finger. There was a wide hole in the skull itself, about the size of a matchbox, which she instinctively thought could have been made by a hammer. The skeleton was lying on its left side so she could see the right side of the skull, the empty eye sockets and three teeth in the upper jaw. The ribs protruded from the sand and beneath them could be seen the outlines of the pelvis and thigh bones.

Any more than for her.Īt first she thought it was another sheep that had drowned in the lake, until she moved closer and saw the skull half-buried in the lake bed and the shape of a human skeleton. She stood motionless for a long time, staring at the bones as if it should not be possible for them to be there.

The draining lake arnaldur indridason