Someone to Watch Over Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

marriage; she was the only one registered to the telephone number Thóra had called. ‘Are you still married to Jakob’s father?’
    ‘He died when Jakob was ten. Another victim of nanny state bureaucracy. He was a plumber, and he was sent east to Hveragerði to do a small job for a contractor. It was early May and they’d put summer tyres on all the company cars, but their regulations don’t control the weather and he hit black ice. He flipped his car over on Kambarnir and died instantly.’ The woman looked away and gazed out of the window. ‘He hadn’t liked the look of the weather, so he’d called the police to see if he could put on winter tyres. They said no.’ She paused. ‘When Jakob turned twenty the system went to work to put him into a sheltered community. The social worker who handled his case felt it best for him to move away from me, since in her infinite wisdom she thought I was overprotecting him and inhibiting his development. I’m still not sure quite how it was all sorted out, since I know that at the time there was a long waiting list for the community. For some reason the others on the list were turned down and Jakob was squeezed in. If you ask me, their so-called support was just the opposite: you never got what you wanted, and you never wanted what you got.’
    ‘Were you opposed to him living in a sheltered community?’ It was a ridiculous question given what the woman had just said, but Thóra always preferred to have everything spelled out to prevent any misunderstanding.
    Grímheiður didn’t seem to mind. ‘Yes, I certainly was. He was too, but that just made it more of a challenge for the system, and in the end they won and I let myself be persuaded. But my doubts didn’t arise from any fears about his future; if I’d had a crystal ball, obviously I would have fought harder. I just wanted to have my son with me; I thought I could care for him better than complete strangers, off somewhere in the middle of the city. And his benefits made a difference, too. It’s very hard to run a household alone. After he moved out, the residence received the lion’s share of his monthly allowance and what little was left wasn’t even enough to keep him in clothes and shoes.’
    ‘How long had Jakob been living there when the centre burned down?’ Thóra was careful not to say
when he set the centre on fire
.
    ‘Nearly six months. Not long.’
    ‘And was he happy there, or did he not have the chance to settle in properly?’
    ‘He was terribly unhappy, really depressed. Maybe not as bad as he was after the fire, or when he was transferred to the Secure Psychiatric Unit at Sogn, but still miserable. Jakob needs stability, not turmoil.’
    ‘Then you think it might be inadvisable for me to take on this case? It will inevitably be a disruption for him.’
    The woman gave Thóra a look of fierce determination. Her face bore the marks of a difficult life; deep wrinkles fanned from the corners of her eyes to her temples, like the sunbeams Thóra’s daughter drew in the sky in all her pictures. Even deeper furrows lay across her forehead, but although her face was lined with signs of stress her eyes were like a teenager’s, the whites clear and the demarcation of the irises sharp. ‘Someone called me today from Sogn and advised me to ask you to leave it, for Jakob’s sake. I was having a few doubts, but after that call I made my decision and I won’t change my mind.’
    ‘So you’re against it?’ Thóra was both relieved and disappointed. She had wanted to take the case, but also felt compelled to refuse it. Sometimes it was good to let others make decisions for you, but she was a little irritated that someone had tried to influence Jakob’s mother, even if it had been done with good intentions.
    ‘No, absolutely not. I want you to take the case, and spare no one in your investigation. Neither me nor Jakob. I’m done with following the advice of people who think they know best. It’s