Authors: Quentin Bates
âIt'll be forgotten on Monday,' Bjarni Jón said with satisfaction, levering himself to his feet to pour himself a hefty drink. âWant one?'
âNo,' Sigurjóna said with determination, standing up.
He poured a stiff vodka and brought the bottle with him to the table. Sitting down, he extracted a small cigar from an inside pocket and put it between his lips.
âOh, for fuck's sake. You're not going to smoke that in here, are you?' Sigurjóna demanded, scowling at him.
âYes, I bloody well am,' Bjarni Jón replied airily.
âIn that case I'm going to the office.'
âDo whatever the hell you like,' he said, lighting up and contentedly blowing smoke towards the expensive abstracts on the walls for the first time. âYou always have done, so why change now?'
He felt happier with the arrangements for his fall-back plan. The airport had been too carefully watched and the hours in the air would have been too dangerous, leaving too much time for him to be noticed, calls to be made and a discreet tap on the shoulder at the destination airport where security would be tight in these days of international terrorism. He wondered how the unfortunate Ib Torbensen was feeling. Probably being waited on hand and foot in an Icelandic hospital.
He stretched out in the narrow bed, extending his feet past the end of the heavy duvet that was made to suit someone twenty centimetres shorter, and wondered what time it was.
Late in the evening he had tucked the little grey Toyota away behind the unobtrusive tarred wooden shed set well back from the road but with a view through the rattling windows of rain-laden skies to the west. The back door had opened with the same piece of plastic he had used on the fat policewoman's door, only even more easily. Weeks before he had scouted out the area, noting the locations of remote summer cottages in case he might need to disappear. It wasn't something he expected might happen, being a respectable employee of an international company, albeit with a false passport, but he'd done it anyway out of force of habit.
He had two days to wait for Horst's ticket off the island, two full days to lie low and stay out of trouble. Normally he would have relished the prospect of two days of solitude to spend watching a little TV, stretching and meditating, but this time Erna sashayed in front of him every time he closed his eyes, grinning as she peeled off her clothes.
The car would have to be dumped, he decided. The fat policewoman would certainly by now be aware of the number and make of the car rented on the Danish guy's credit card, so sometime during the day he would need to replace it discreetly. He wondered about laying a false trail for the fat policewoman to follow, even a strike of some kind to give them something else that would overload the country's tiny police force beyond being able to seek out a single person making a quiet departure.
âIt's all right, Mum,' Laufey said. âI don't mind staying with Sigrún.'
Sprawled in an armchair, she returned her attention to Facebook and Gunna gave up.
Sigrún leaned on the door frame with folded arms and grinned. âDon't worry. She's fine here.'
âWell, if you're sure,' Gunna said fretfully.
âIt's all right,' Sigrún said soothingly. âIs it that bloke who was on the news yesterday that you're after?'
âYes, it is,' Gunna admitted.
âThen don't worry about it. She's fine here for a few days.'
âThanks, Sigrún. I owe you a huge favour,' Gunna said, turning up her coat collar as close as it would go to her cap to trot the hundred metres uphill through the rain to her own house.
She threw herself through the front door. Inside, she shook rain off her jacket, took it off and hung it on the door before kicking off her boots. Although the place felt empty without Laufey, it had a feel of habitation about it.
âHello!' she called out loudly, striding to the kitchen to look around. Plates and dishes that she had not used were stacked on the draining board. In the living room, an empty wine bottle stood on the table.
Gunna cast about, called again and went over to look at the sofa, rearranging the scattered cushions with swift movements. Spotting something white peeking from under a cushion in the corner, she pulled at it gently.
âHi, Mum.'
A towel tied around his waist, GÃsli rubbed his eyes as he emerged from his room to find Gunna sending a wry half smile towards him as she held up a lacy white bra.
âWell, my lad. It's definitely not one of mine,' she said. âFar too small.'
âSorry, Mum.'
âCompany?'
âYeah. She's still asleep.'
âAll right. I won't disturb you. I've just nipped in for a shower and a change. Got to be back at the station soon again anyway.'
GÃsli grunted and went past her to the kitchen, and soon the flat was filled with the aroma of brewing coffee.
For some reason she couldn't put her finger on, her bedroom felt different, as if there were a fleeting aroma of someone else that she couldn't quite catch hold of. Gunna threw clothes in a corner of her bedroom, wrapped herself up for GÃsli's benefit and made for the shower. A few minutes later she was towelling off vigorously, and was soon feeling properly awake again in a clean uniform shirt at the kitchen table as GÃsli poured fresh coffee into a mug.
âMm, hello. The smell woke me up,' a small voice behind her said.
Gunna turned to see a round freckled face and flood of red hair streaming over the shoulders of one of GÃsli's shirts.
âMum, this is SoffÃa,' GÃsli announced with sheepish pride.
âHello, SoffÃa, pleased to meet you. I'm GÃsli's witch of a mum, but you call me Gunna.'
âI know who you are. GÃsli said you were in the police,' she said slowly, sitting on GÃsli's knee and moulding herself to him.
âWhen are you sailing, GÃsli?' Gunna said, draining her mug.
âNot until next week. There's no hurry since they cut the bloody quotas again.'
âFine. Are you staying here? It's up to you. I've no idea when I'll be back.'
âWe'll stay here for a while, I think,' SoffÃa said carefully. âIf that's all right with you?'
âNo problem. I'll be back sometime. Just make sure my lad washes up after himself, won't you?' she said, standing up and making for the door, by which time the young couple were already wrapped precariously around each other.
In the lobby, she half closed the door and bent to pull her boots on again, looking out through the narrow window by the door to see that the rain was beating down outside harder than ever.
***
He drove slowly through Hafnarfjördur, down the hill from the town's southern entrance and stopped at the lower quayside, thought about going into the café on the dock where he had eaten several times with Matti, but decided against it.
With the wipers struggling to clear water from the windscreen, HÃ¥rde drove slowly up the slope and along the southern edge of the harbour area, through a small industrial estate crowded with fork-lift trucks, badly parked vans and large plastic tubs of fish waste along the sides of the road. Looking for a suitable opportunity, he carried on past the industrial zone, before taking a U-turn to double back, this time passing the bay towards the town itself.
Confidence, that's the key, he reminded himself. A man with a smile and a purpose doesn't normally get asked what he's doing.
He parked neatly in a bay in the town centre and got out of the car to reconnoitre on foot, the collar of his jacket turned up, hands deep in his pockets. The small precinct of shops where he bought a couple of pastries had a few people walking around, but both the post office and the bank in particular were busy with longish queues. Chewing a sweet roll, he timed a middle-aged lady as she entered the bank â it took her an encouraging eleven minutes to get her business concluded and leave. He went back to the car, where he sat watching the passers-by while he ate a second roll and drank the carton of fruit juice he had bought.
He unfolded the free newspaper he had picked up without looking at it carefully and was jolted awake at the sight of a photo of himself at the bottom of the front page, one that he recognized as the Swedish police's mug shot of him.
He swore, anger rising inside him until he carefully stifled it. Only the woman serving at the shop counter had seen him clearly, and she had been a foreigner as well, not likely to read an Icelandic newspaper. Nobody else would need to see him anyway, so the photo in the paper needn't be an issue.
What had caught him off guard was that the fat policewoman was obviously further ahead of him than he had imagined. Maybe that stupid taxi driver had told them something? Or Sigurjóna, a person he would never be able to trust.
He looked back at the paper and saw to his surprise that Sigurjóna was there on the cover too, one scarlet-taloned hand shielding a sour pout from a photographer's flash, and he chuckled grimly to himself, well able to imagine what would be going on now that InterAlu had dropped its Icelandic partners.
Ãgúst Vilmundsson wasn't having a good day. He had been late for work that morning, one of his men hadn't turned up and he had had to reorganize the whole schedule for the day to fit in the six jobs that seven men would have to do between them, knowing full well that finishing four jobs of out of six would be good going.
After the coffee break, he left the first job with two of the lads getting on well with the old lady's new floor and decided that he would have to go and give a bit of moral support to the two finishing off fitting a kitchen in Kópavogur, but on the way he remembered that the sheaf of bills on the passenger seat would have to be paid and now was as good a time as any to stop off at the bank.
Ãgúst Vilmundsson cursed the rain as he drove into Hafnarfjördur, cursed it as he tried to find a spot to park and cursed yet more as he hurried across the car park to the bank with the rain fogging his glasses.
Ten minutes later, he stepped back out into the rain, reminding himself for the hundredth time to get internet banking set up so he could pay bills in the evenings instead of having to do it when it didn't suit him.
At first he thought the drops of rain on his glasses were playing tricks on him, so he took them off and peered myopically about the car park. There was no doubt about it. He perched his glasses back on his nose and peered about him, spying a police car in the distance making sedate progress along the road between the bay and the rows of shops. He ran as fast as he could towards the road, crashing through sparse hedging plants along the road and waving.
The police car drew to a gentle halt beside him and a window hissed down.
âGot a problem?' the young officer inside asked, looking over at him.
âSome bastard's stolen my truck,' Ãgúst Vilmundsson announced bitterly, as if the day hadn't been miserable enough already.
Sightings of HÃ¥rde trickled in, with each report filled and passed over to Gunna's team. By late morning they had chased up a dozen leads, liaising with police in ReykjavÃk to coordinate inquiries in and around the city.
âNo, that's perfectly all right. Thank you for your help.' Gunna heard Snorri finishing a call and swearing under his breath the moment the receiver was on the hook.
âWhat was that?' she asked as Snorri scrawled âNo further action' across the report sheet in big letters.
âAch, you know how it is when there's an appeal on the TV. That was an elderly lady in HúsavÃk. It seems there's a Polish fishworker living in the flat above her who she thinks might be HÃ¥rde. The guy's been living there for the best part of a year, he's short and fat with a black beard, but as he's foreign she thought it might be him in disguise.'
âSure you don't want to check it out?' Bára asked sweetly.
âPlease . . .' Snorri said as the phone trilled again.
Bára followed Gunna outside to the smoking spot by the back door and watched as Gunna lit up, frowning.
âIf you were in a strange country and needed to stay out of sight for a while, what would you do?' Bára asked her.
Gunna inhaled deeply and thought. âI've no idea off the top of my head. What about you?'
âI reckon either somewhere very unobtrusive, right off the beaten track, or smack in the centre of things. If I was trying to stay out of sight and didn't have to worry about cash, I'd book into the smartest hotel I could find. You remember how snobby and unhelpful they were at Hotel Gullfoss?'
Gunna nodded. âYou're quite right, although I can't see our boy checking in there somehow. But it fits. The man does have a certain style,' she admitted.
Gunna ground her half-smoked Prince beneath a heel and they walked back towards the incident room where Snorri was watching his computer screen while carrying on a conversation through the headset clamped to one ear.
âThank you, yes. We'll follow that up. Goodbye,' he said, hanging up.
âAnything useful?' Gunna demanded.
âPetrol station attendant on Hringbraut. Reckon he sold HÃ¥rde a hot dog and a bottle of mineral water last night. Worth a visit, d'you reckon?'
âDefinitely. You'd best get on with that right now and check on that report from the girl in Hafnarfjördur who saw him this morning while you're at it. But first, Snorri, tell me something.'
âChief?'
âIf you were on the run and wanted to keep a low profile, what would you do? Come on, let's think about what one of us might do in HÃ¥rde's position.'
âMe?' Snorri said slowly. âI'd just live in the car for a couple of days, park up here and there, keep moving around. Maybe find a shed or something to lie low in, or maybe a boat somewhere. There's plenty of decommissioned boats around that aren't going anywhere. It depends how long,' he finished.
âThat's just it. It depends how long for,' Gunna mused. âPeople get noticed around harbours now that they're so quiet. I'm inclined to go along with what you said, Bára.'