“Have you been working here long?” Erlendur asked.

“Almost a year,” Osp said in a low voice. She looked at him. He did not give the impression that he would give her a hard time. With a snuffle she straightened up in her chair. Finding the body had clearly had a strong effect on her. She trembled slightly. Her name Osp — meaning aspen — suited her, Erlendur thought to himself. She was like a twig in the wind.

“And do you like working here?” Erlendur asked.

“No,” she said.

“So why do you?”

“You have to work.”

“What’s so bad about it?”

She looked at him as if he did not need to ask.

“I change the beds,” she said. “Clean the toilets. Vacuum. But it’s still better than a supermarket.”

“What about the people?”

“The manager’s a creep.”

“He’s like a fire hydrant with a leak.”

Osp smiled.

“And some of the guests think you’re only here for them to grope.”

“Why did you go down to the basement?” Erlendur asked.

“To fetch Santa. The kids were waiting for him.”

“Which kids?”

“At the Christmas ball. We have a Christmas party for the staff. For their children and any kids who are staying at the hotel, and he was playing Santa. When he didn’t show up I was sent to fetch him.”

“That can’t have been pleasant.”

“I’ve never seen a dead body before. And that condom.” Osp tried to drive the image out of her mind.

“Did he have any girlfriends at the hotel?”

“None that I know of?

“Do you know about any contacts of his outside the hotel?”

“I don’t know anything about that man, though I’ve seen more of him than I should of!

“Should have,” Erlendur corrected her.

“What?”