Runólfur

Runólfur is an import-export businessman whose body is discovered in Kristín’s Reykjavík flat. The apparent suicide is suspicious from the outset: he lives elsewhere, and the detective examining the scene questions whether the wound and weapon fit the explanation suggested by a note on the computer. His death becomes the case that draws police attention to Kristín and is later linked to business involving the foreign ministry.

Identity and Circumstances

Runólfur’s identity is established through the business card in his wallet, which lists him as involved in import-export. The wallet also contains his driving licence, money, restaurant receipts, and debit and credit cards. His licence gives his address as Breidholt, on the other side of Reykjavík from the flat where he is found. The distance between his home and the scene is not incidental to the investigation: the detective treats his presence in another person’s apartment as a reason to question whether he intended to die there.

Police reach the flat after a neighbour reports that a distressed young woman had entered his family home shortly before midnight, spoken incoherently about a murder, borrowed clothes, and disappeared. The caller identifies the number she used to make a phone call; police trace it to an address associated with a daughter of an age consistent with the woman’s description. When officers receive no answer at the flat, they notice a small hole in Kristín’s door, possibly made by a bullet, and call a locksmith. On entering, they find Runólfur slumped over a desk.

The Scene and the Suicide Question

The apartment appears orderly: the furniture is in place, pictures hang straight, and the surfaces show no obvious disturbance. There is no apparent weapon elsewhere in the room, yet the detective finds a gun in Runólfur’s hand and a wound in his forehead. The contrast between an undisturbed interior and a fatal shooting leaves the circumstances unexplained rather than settled.

The older detective draws attention to the angle of the wound, asking whether a person intending to shoot himself would aim at his forehead. He also questions the absence of scorching, powder marks, or blowback on the forearm. A note on the computer points toward suicide, but the detective does not treat it as conclusive. Runólfur’s address provides a further objection: he lived in Breidholt, not at Kristín’s flat. Taken together, the physical details and the mismatch between his home and the scene make the apparent suicide doubtful, though the evidence presented here does not identify his killer or establish exactly what happened.

Investigation and Wider Significance

Runólfur’s death quickly becomes entangled with the search for Kristín. After hearing a police announcement that she is wanted for questioning in connection with a man found dead in a west Reykjavík apartment, she suspects that the authorities will try to implicate her. The police subsequently describe her as a suspect in Runólfur’s murder, and public reports connect the case with a shooting in the city centre. The coverage also says that Runólfur had conducted unspecified business with the foreign ministry; it supplies no details that explain the nature of that business or its bearing on his death.

Later, an aide briefs the prime minister that the survivor of an attack on a glacier rescue team, Elías, is believed to be the brother of Kristín, who vanished from her home leaving Runólfur’s body behind. The aide confirms that the cases appear connected and notes that Kristín is also believed to be linked to the city-centre shooting. Runólfur therefore remains important to the plot not through an account of his life or motives, which the available evidence does not provide, but as the unresolved death around which suspicion of Kristín and a widening series of investigations gather.