“Did he return to town immediately?”
“No. The weather was wonderful, and he walked with my brother and me up Reykjaborgin, the mountain nearby. I remember so clearly how bright and beautiful the view was.”
Kirsten wiped a few tears from her eyes.
“Who brought you the news of your father’s death?”
“It was the parish pastor. Hjörleifur drove him to our summerhouse to see us.”
“Is Hjörleifur still alive?”
“No, he and his wife are both gone.”
“How did you react to the news?”
“Mom and I broke down completely, of course, but my brother Jacob was stronger at first and looked after us. It was later that the shock overwhelmed him, and I don’t think he ever recovered after that. Dad was his role model and the head of the family, and when he was gone my brother felt he had to take on that role, but he wasn’t ready for it by any means. The person who killed my father also took a large part of my brother’s life.”
“How did you and your brother get on?”
“Extremely well. My brother Jacob was very good to me when we were little, and we had a good relationship after I got married and moved to the north. It was only in the last few months that some problems came up.”
“What kind of problems?”
“It had to do with Birkihlíd. He wouldn’t hear of selling the property.”
“Who wanted to sell it?”
“Matthías and I. It had become ridiculous keeping the house just for my brother Jacob. Then he wanted us to donate the house to the City of Reykjavik to be made into a museum, and he even offered it to the city without asking us. His behavior had become morbid.”
“How did he react when you rejected this idea?”
“Very badly. He accused us of wanting to wipe out Dad’s and Mom’s memory. It was all becoming very difficult for us.”
“Are we talking large sums of money?”
“Yes, the property is big and very well situated. We assumed that we would be able to sell the house for a good deal of money. Matthías is retired and needs something to live off. The money would also come in handy for me, as I would very much like to support Ella in her studies.”
“Then what happened?”
“Matthías and I had to secure a lawyer, but the matter was concluded when Jacob said he would buy the house and its contents himself.”
“Where did he get the money to do this?”
“I have no idea. He wanted to draw up a conveyance and we couldn’t refuse. He agreed to pay the sum the realtor set for the house, and an appraiser was brought in to value the contents.”
“Did you not want any items from the house?”
“Yes, of course there are many things I would have loved to have, but I didn’t want to upset my brother Jacob any more than we already had.”
“Had he finished paying for the house?”
“No, he paid twenty percent on signing, and planned to pay another forty percent in four installments this year. The rest was payable as a four-year bond.”
“So he must have produced a considerable sum of money at the outset?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where he got this money?”
“No.”
“Did he give any indication of this?”
“No, I didn’t dare ask. He had become so strange. He had such incredible delusions about the rest of us in the family and our plans. I think he may have been ill by then, but I didn’t dare suggest he see a doctor. I do know, though, that he has been in such financial difficulty that Matthías and I have had to pay the property tax for the house over the last two years to save it from being seized by the authorities. But we did finally reach an agreement that he should pay the house expenses while he was living there.”
Hrefna realized they should make it a priority to examine Jacob Junior’s finances; they might provide some clues about his fate. But for now, she decided to change the subject.
“Could there be any links between the deaths of father and son? Are there any friends of the family who were around in 1945?”
Hrefna purposely kept silent about the ballistics report, which had established that the same weapon had been used in both murders.
“There were of course very many people who visited the home while Dad was alive,” Kirsten replied. “He ran his engineering firm from there and had assistants. There were also lots of other visitors all the time, but I don’t know that any of these people maintained connections with my brother Jacob in later years.”
“Were you aware that your father had any enemies?”
“No. I was, of course, very young. There was actually some communist that was arrested when Dad died and it was said that he had threatened Dad.”