Sitting at the traffic lights waiting to turn off into Bústadavegur and into town, Erna squeezed her thighs together and tingled in anticipation of a week in the sun, running her mind over everything already packed and ready.
‘Had a good time in the country, Matti?’ Gunna asked cheerfully.
‘Yeah. S’always good to get away from the tarmac for a while.’
As he wasn’t under arrest, merely helping the police with inquiries, Matti wasn’t being held in a cell. They sat in an interview room at the central police station on Hverfisgata.
‘How’s Lóa?’
‘Ach. She’s fine, the same as usual.’
‘Still got the goats?’
‘Yeah. Same goats.’
‘Why did you walk into the police station in Hólmavík?’
Sitting on his hands and with the hangdog expression Gunna remembered from the teenager who had always been in trouble, Matti looked wretched.
‘Lóa told me I should. She said old Hallgrímur’s missus had noticed me so it was only a matter of a few days till you found me, so I might as well go over to Hólmavík and have done with it.’
Gunna nodded sagely. ‘Lóa is nobody’s fool.’
Matti nodded back, head still hanging.
‘What happened to your girlfriend?’
‘Marika? Still at Álfasteinn, for all I know.’
‘This bloke you’ve been going about with, tell me about him.’
‘Hardy?’
‘If that’s what he calls himself.’
‘What about him?’
‘Everything, and be quick about it.’
‘He’s a right hard bastard.’
Gunna waited until Matti looked up, and she stared him straight in the eye. It’s a shame he grew up to be such a slob, she thought to herself. It’s a shame he went through life constantly on the back foot, considering what a pleasant boy he had been when someone gave him a little attention.
‘Look, I need to find this bloke before he kills someone else and I don’t have a lot of time to do it, so tell me what you know and please get on with it.’
‘So he really has killed people?’
‘Two that we’re sure of, possibly one more.’
Matti went pale. ‘I knew he was a hard fucker, but I didn’t think he was that nasty.’
‘You don’t know the half of it. Where is he, Matti?’
Matti shook his head. ‘No idea.’
‘Come on. You must have some idea. Where did you usually meet him?’
‘He always called and told me where to pick him up. Normally by the side of the road somewhere, or else on the rank somewhere. Grensás or Lækjartorg normally. Down at Grandi sometimes. He liked to eat in Kaffivagninn, said it was a homely sort of place.’
‘Do you think he was living somewhere downtown?’
‘Yeah, probably.’
‘Come on, Matti. Think, will you? He’s bumped off two people already.’
‘All right. It’s in Hverfisgata, the other side of the crossroads. There’s a block of offices with a dodgy photographer on the ground floor. At the top of the place there’s a couple of little one-room flats. He lives in one of them. I followed him one day and saw him go up there,’ Matti announced proudly.
‘You mean he’s been just over the road from here?’
‘Yup.’
‘Stay here.’
Gunna and two burly officers emerged from the tiny flat, leaving a pair of technicians to dust painstakingly for fingerprints.
The place was scrupulously clean, minimally furnished with little more than a narrow bed, a small closet and a threadbare chair in the single room, with a tiny bathroom off to one side. It reminded Gunna of a cell as she looked through everything, the photographer from the ground floor who owned the three flats standing at the door and wringing his hands.
‘So, who lives here?’
‘Just people passing through. A few days now and again. Never very long.’
‘Yeah, but who?’ Gunna asked, pulling off the surgical gloves she had worn inside the flat to pick through the sparse contents of the kitchen cupboard.
‘I don’t ask too much. If someone wants a room for a while . . .’ He shrugged.
Gunna squared her jaw and shoulders, putting on her grimmest expression. ‘And who’s in this one?’ she growled.
‘Big guy. Don’t know his name. Only saw him a few times.’
‘When did you see him last?’
‘A while ago.’
‘How long a while?’
‘Not sure. Before the weekend, anyway.’
‘Name?’
‘Dunno.’
‘He rented a room and you don’t know his name?’
The photographer looked deeply uncomfortable. ‘Well, yeah. I don’t ask too many questions, y’know?’
‘No, I don’t. That’s why I’m asking. Don’t make this harder than it has to be,’ Gunna said quietly while the other officers were out of earshot. ‘Look, you come clean on this and I won’t have to say anything to anybody about tax-free income. OK?’
Beaten, the photographer looked at the floor and twisted his hands. ‘All right. The place is rented by a guy called Jón Oddur for some foreign guy to use. He pays every month on the dot in cash. I don’t know the guy at all. He was at school with my brother, that’s how he came to me.’
‘Good man. What’s this guy look like?’
‘Jón Oddur? Beefy. Short hair, thin on top. Goatee. Always looks nervous. Only saw the foreign bloke a few times, tall guy, fair hair, quiet.’
‘Well done. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now, when’s the rent due next? Because I think you might be disappointed.’
At the station, Matti had laid his head on the table and was fast asleep. He jerked it sharply up as Gunna slapped the tabletop with the flat of her hand.
‘Now that you’re awake, Matti, and I have your full attention, tell me why you did a runner.’
Matti kneaded his eyes with his knuckles as he struggled to make it back from sleep. ‘Scared, y’know? He’s a scary bloke, is Hardy.’
‘How so?’
‘He’s just . . .’ Matti fumbled for words. ‘He’s quiet. Doesn’t say much. He’s cool. But when he tied some guy up in knots and broke his arm, bloody hell, that opened my eyes a bit.’
‘Explain.’
‘That was a while ago. One moment he’s just stood there chatting to this bloke and the next the feller’s on the ground screaming. Hardy says to the guy: ‘‘This is a message to your friend to make it stop.’’ And he’s stood there smiling with one hand through the guy’s arm, twisting it. The poor feller was like a sack of spuds when Hardy finally let him up.’
‘Any idea who this was?’
Matti shook his head.
‘Do you know someone called Arngrímur Örn Arnarson?’
‘Should I?’’
Gunna placed a blow-up of the man’s national archive photo on the table. ‘Lived at a place called Grund, just outside Borgarnes.’
Matti hesitated. ‘Well, I did take Hardy there,’ he admitted finally. ‘But I didn’t go in. Just waited by the car.’
‘When was this?’
‘Not sure. Week before last?’
‘So why did you run for it?’
‘Scared. When I rang him up and said the coppers had been checking up on me, he went all quiet and said we should meet, and I don’t know why, but it didn’t seem right, so I thought, shit, best get out of the city for a while,’ Matti explained, words tripping over themselves as they tumbled out.
Gunna glanced at her watch and Matti continued. ‘I knew he’d seen me with the girls, y’know, driving them to places and that. And I know he knew me and Marika, y’know, sometimes . . . So I thought he might go and scare her, so I went and got her, told her it was a bit of a holiday, so off we went.’
‘To Auntie Lóa at Álfasteinn?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Sorry, Matti, I have to go. Look, you’re free to go later w
hen you’ve made a statement, but I need to be able to reach you, so don’t go too far.’
‘I can’t,’ Matti said bitterly. ‘The taxi’s still in Hólmavík because your lot brought me down here in a cop car. Now I’d better go and tell Nonni the Taxi why his car’s not here.’
‘You do that. You’re living at Ugly Tóta’s still?’
Matti groaned. ‘If she hasn’t filled my room up with Latvians. Unless I can stay in a cell here for a day or two?’ he asked with hope in his eyes. ‘Like, until you’ve caught him?’
‘Is he really your cousin?’ Bára asked. They were standing outside in the car park, having left Matti to go back to sleep in a cell.
‘He is, I’m afraid,’ Gunna admitted. ‘And he’s been a pain in the arse to everyone around him since the day he was born. Now, you heard what he said: ‘‘This is a message to your friend to make it stop.’’ Egill Grímsson and Einar Eyjólfur were both killed discreetly, if we can describe it that way. But Arngrímur was different. I don’t think Hårde intended to kill him at all, just provide a painful message. Do you get the impression that this was maybe a message for someone else?’
‘Hard to tell. Who is this a message for, do you think?’
‘What do you think?’
‘I’d say Skandalblogger,’ Bára said with conviction.
‘Why?’
‘We know Hårde’s worked for Spearpoint. Sigurjóna Huldudóttir and Bjarni Jón are constantly being skewered by the blogger, and the whole country reads it.’
‘Fair enough,’ Gunna agreed. ‘In that case, I’d like you to get back in there and put some pressure on Matti to get as much detail as he can remember on who this guy was that Hårde wanted to frighten. Could be a lead to this blogger and to Arngrímur’s associates.’
Bára nodded. ‘When do you want me back in Keflavík?’
‘Whenever you’re done. I’ll get Snorri or someone to come and pick you up unless one of them here can run you back to us. You can tell Matti from me that Cousin Gunna will make his life hell if he doesn’t cooperate.’
‘What going on here?’ Bára asked as Gunna stopped the car outside the glass and concrete block where Spearpoint’s offices occupied a floor near the top.
Every parking space was full, with faces behind the windscreen of every car. A camera crew was in the process of setting up its equipment on the forecourt outside the building, to the consternation of the huddles of people on their way home through the crush of the evening rush hour traffic.
Gunna double-parked across the row of spaces reserved for directors and they made their way slowly through the gathering crowd. Gunna scanned for a familiar face and eventually alighted on Jonni Kristinns, sitting in a tired grey Skoda parked in a disabled spot. She tapped on the window and Jonni looked around and grinned at her. The window hissed open.
‘Gunna, my dear. Good to see you.’
‘And you, Jonni. What the hell’s going on?’
Jonni tapped the side of his nose theatrically. ‘Ah. That’s what we’d all like to know.’
‘Come on. Spill the beans, old lad,’ Gunna instructed. ‘No bullshit, now.’
‘Rumour has it that InterAlu is pulling out of its deal with Spearpoint. Nothing’s been confirmed and nothing’s been denied. Not a word so far.’
‘Big news, then?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Jonni said, licking dry lips. ‘Top story. Timing’s just right as well. Too late for the TV news and not too late for our morning edition.’
‘Is Sigurjóna in her office?’
Jonni shrugged. ‘No idea. We’re just waiting to see what happens. It’s a hell of a story if it’s true.’
‘Won’t this leave her in trouble?’
‘And how. They have some colossal financial commitments and if their partner has pulled out, it means that Sigurjóna and her unpleasant husband have been royally shafted up their collective back passage. Of course, it could just as well be that the bank has run out of cash and is doing the same, without the benefit of lubrication, as one of my colleagues put it rather graphically this morning.’
‘Of course, now you’d never say anything as disgusting as that, would you, Jonni?’
‘Well, not in print, anyway. Hello,’ he said, looking up. ‘Got to run, Gunna, looks like something’s happening.’
With a speed that surprised Gunna, Jonni was out of the car and at the forefront of the scrum that formed around the door as Jón Oddur, red-faced and sweating, appeared to face a barrage of questions.
Gunna and Bára stood at the back of the group to listen as Jón Oddur floundered.
‘Quiet, please. Quiet,’ he pleaded with the crowd of microphones in his face and the staccato rattle of questions being fired at him. He pulled a sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket and unfolded it, blinking as flashes went off in his face.
‘I have a prepared statement to read. I am not authorized to answer any questions afterwards. I will read this only once.’
He looked around him at the microphones, raised the sheet of paper and read in halting, careful English: ‘Spearpoint values its ongoing business relationship with InterAlu and is fully confident that this is set to continue to our mutual benefit. We are at present engaged in cooperative negotiations with InterAlu and its partners to extend and expand our current partnerships across the business environment.’
Jón Oddur paused and looked up at the expectant faces around him before taking a deep breath. ‘Spearpoint’s senior management has built up a positive working relationship with the heads of InterAlu’s European business development division and we fully expect this to continue. Speculation of a rift between Spearpoint subsidiaries ESC and Bay Metals, and InterAlu is completely unfounded and has no basis in actuality. As media professionals ourselves, we are fully aware of the need to respond to unfounded rumours and we would ask our colleagues at the front line of news reporting for a level of circumspection in reporting unverified and unverifiable hearsay. Message ends. Thank you.’
‘Jón Oddur, what’s InterAlu’s take on all this?’
‘Is Sigurjóna going to make a statement herself?’
‘How many jobs are going to be lost when InterAlu pull out?’
‘How much money does Sigurjóna personally stand to lose on this?’
The questions came thick and fast, while Jón Oddur slowly turned and began to make his way back to the door, carefully avoiding eye contact with anyone in his way.
‘Jón Oddur, what are the implications for the Minister’s position? Will he have to resign?’
‘What about the allegations of intimidation and bribery? What’s Spearpoint’s response?’
The barrage fell silent as the glass door swung shut behind him, and Jón Oddur could feel rivulets of sweat running down his back as he made for the lift at the trot.
‘Bullshit,’ Jonni Kristinns announced with delight as he returned to his car. ‘Bullshit from start to finish.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Bára asked.
‘What else could they say? He didn’t say anything at all that says anything. No facts, no information, just business as usual. I reckon it’s a smokescreen to keep the lid on things while they salvage what they can from the wreck,’ he said with satisfaction.
Gunna nodded and looked up at Spearpoint’s windows high above. ‘It doesn’t sound right, does it? Is denying everything flatly like that normal practice, Jonni?’
‘Yeah. It’s the normal bullshit. This has to be a face-saving exercise while they try to keep the stock exchange happy. Spearpoint is privately owned, but I’ll bet you a shag to a bag of shit that ESC’s share value is going to plummet.’
‘Er. No thanks, Jonni. Maybe later, all right?’ she said as he launched himself into his car and beat the unwilling engine into life. ‘Jæja, Bára. Maybe we should have brought Snorri along as well. He would have enjoyed all that. Come on, let’s see if we can track down Sigurjóna.’
Ósk Líndal was more imposing than Snorri’s desc
ription of her had even hinted. She stood two metres tall in flat shoes, looking down at Gunna and Bára. Her arms were folded underneath a bosom that jutted alarmingly into free space. Robustly built herself, Gunna felt pleasantly petite standing opposite her and Bára’s slight frame was little more than a wisp alongside the two of them.
‘Sigurjóna is not available,’ Ósk announced sternly. ‘I thought your officers had already been given all the available information they asked for yesterday.’
‘They were,’ Gunna replied equally sternly. ‘But we have some more questions for Sigurjóna.’
‘I’m here in her place while she’s out of the office. You can ask me anything relevant to the company.’
‘What exactly is your role here?’ Gunna asked.
‘I am the operations manager. I handle the day-to-day running of the company. If you have questions, I can do my best to help,’ she barked, looking anything but helpful.
‘Where is your boss right now?’
‘She’s not here.’
‘I wasn’t asking where she isn’t.’
‘I’m not at liberty to divulge her whereabouts.’
‘You would be if I come back with a warrant.’
‘In that case, our lawyers will be waiting for you.’
‘If that’s the way you want to play it, that’s fine with me. Now, I want to speak to some of your staff.’
‘Who?’
‘To begin with, I want to talk to that boy with the red face who was outside just now.’
‘We don’t have a meeting room available right now.’
‘In that case he can come down to Hverfisgata and we can talk there, and you can send the rest of them down at thirty-minute intervals.’
Gunna lifted herself to her maximum height, bringing the top of her head level with Ósk’s nose.
‘It’s past five o’clock. People will be going home shortly,’ she protested.
‘Then you’ll just have to tell them that they can’t.’
‘All right. You can use the canteen if you must. I’ll ask the receptionist to clear it for you and make sure nobody disturbs you.’
Frozen Assets gm-1 Page 27