Summary

Chapter 7 opens with Erlendur at the hospital watching his daughter. Her condition has not changed and he decides to go see Elínborg and Sigurdur Óli at the office. While he has been away, the work on the skeleton has continued at a painstakingly slow pace and Sigurdur Óli has searched and organized missing persons cases to find who this skeleton could be. Despite how long the bones have been there, Erlendur decides it is best to pursue the case in order to find out what really happened. Erlendur reluctantly tells Elínborg some basic information about his daughter and admits he feels responsible for her condition.

Erlendur returns home and falls asleep. He is awoken by a call from Elínborg telling him that there was a building near the bushes as he suspected. The owner was a man named Benjamín...