Erlendur looked for a vacant table, found one and sat down. Sigurdur Oli sat down with him and looked at the heaped plate, and his mouth began watering too.

“Well, if it’s a woman she’s still of child-bearing age, isn’t she? Because of the condom.”

“Yes, that would have been the case twenty years ago,” Erlendur said, savouring the lightly smoked ham. “Nowadays a condom’s more than just a contraceptive. It’s protection against bloody everything, chlamydia, Aids …”

“The condom might also tell us that he wasn’t very well acquainted with the … the person who was in his room. That it must have been a quickie. If he’d known the person well he may not have used a condom.”

“We must remember that the condom doesn’t rule out that he was with a man,” Erlendur said.

“What kind of implement could it be? The murder weapon?”

“We’ll see what comes out of the autopsy. Obviously there’s no problem getting hold of a knife at this hotel, if it was someone from here who attacked him.”

“Is that nice?” Sigurdur Oli asked. He had been watching Erlendur devouring the food and was sorely tempted to get some for himself but was afraid of causing even more of a scandal: two cops investigating a murder at a hotel, who sat down at the buffet as if nothing had happened.

“I forgot to check whether there was anything in it,” Erlendur said between bites.

“Do you think you ought to be eating at the murder scene?”

“This is a hotel.”

“Yes, but…”

“I told you, I ran into a compromising situation. This was the only way to get out of it. Was there anything in it? The condom?”

“Empty,” Sigurdur Oli said.

“The medical officer thought he’d had an orgasm. Twice in fact, but I didn’t really catch how he came to that conclusion.”

“I don’t know anyone who can work out what he’s talking about”