nestling around those grey waves.
‘New grade effective from the first of October, you’d take over your new post on the first of December and you would have two months’ leave after stepping down at Hvalvik to relocate.’
‘Aha. Where to?’
‘There would be a reasonable relocation grant. The post is with the Egilstadir force, based in Seydisfjordur.’
‘So there is a catch,’ Gunna said with satisfaction.
‘It depends how you wish to look at it. Some officers would see it as an opportunity. A small force, fairly quiet, a chance to make an impression with the switch to plain clothes. You aren’t tempted?’
She thought quickly. The east coast, deep fjords and high mountains, virtually as far away from Hvalvik and Vilhjalmur Traustason as could physically be possible without leaving the country. A pay grade up in salary wouldn’t be unwelcome, though.
‘I’m wondering what I’ve done, or haven’t done, to deserve this. To be honest, it’s rather unexpected. Have I upset someone, or what?’
‘Not at all,’ he purred. ‘There’s a changing demographic in the east, a large immigrant population, and a major narcotics problem with smuggling that urgently needs to be addressed, so the Egilstadir Sheriff’s Office has put together an action plan with funding for additional officers to bolster their efforts on narcotics in particular.’
‘How long do I have to think about it?’
‘Not long. There are other candidates in the running.’
‘All right. I’ll think it over. Anyway, is that all?’
The man’s face was grey with fatigue, even under the orange cast of the lights in the interview room at Reykjavik’s Hverfisgata police station. All the pride had disappeared from Gusti the Gob as he leaned forward on the table, stubbled head in his hands.
‘Look. I’ve told you. I saw him that night in the bogs, told him and that other bloke to shut it or fuck off out. That’s it. End of story.’
S?valdur sat back in his chair as Gunna stood uncomfortably by the door.
‘Come on, Gusti,’ S?valdur said in a patient voice. ‘You’ve got plenty of form. You and your mates turned the guy over and dumped him out of town when it went wrong. Come on, come clean.’
‘No. No. No.’
‘Gusti, we’ve been here all day yesterday and all day today and we’ve got all night and all day tomorrow. And all day the next day.’
‘It wasn’t me.’ A hint of desperation crept into his voice as this time he smacked the table between them with the flat of one vast hand. ‘I’m telling you, it was nothing to do with me.’
S?valdur’s voice hardened. ‘So where did the cash come from?’
‘Savings,’ Gusti mumbled. ‘I saved it all up.’
‘You mean you had a spending spree on Einar Eyjolfur’s credit card? Come on, Gusti. We found the receipts in your flat. We know it was you.’
‘’No. It wasn’t me did him in. I want a lawyer, now.’
S?valdur tried to outstare him but failed.
‘All right,’ he admitted. ‘All right. We’ll get your legal eagle in. But it doesn’t look good for you, Gusti. You could get ten years for this. You did five years before, so you know what it’s like.’
‘It wasn’t me. I found the wallet in the bogs after we closed. All right, the old woman bought a few things with the bloke’s card, but that’s all.’
‘OK, so that’s your story.’
S?valdur stood up, reached for the tape recorder and switched it off.
‘Now I’m going outside for a smoke and you’re staying here,’ he sneered, shoving his chair back. ‘D’you want to take over?’
Gunna shook her head. ‘I’d like a word outside. Can Viggo sit in for ten minutes?’
S?valdur knocked on the door and it whispered open.
‘Viggo, would you?’ Gunna asked the thickset officer outside as he waddled into the room and sat down with the air of a man ready for the long haul.
‘Well, Gusti. Haven’t seen you for a while. How’s tricks, then?’ he asked as Gunna and S?valdur left the room.
At the back of the building, S?valdur and Gunna lit up. Although she had been inside the bowels of the building since the middle of the day, she was still surprised to see that night had fallen. It had started to rain and fat drops pattered around them.
‘I don’t like it,’ Gunna said. ‘It stinks.’
‘Come on. We have a crim with form and a link to the dead guy.’
‘Did you search his place yesterday?’
‘Yup. Found your guy’s credit card under the bathroom sink, receipts in the kitchen bin. It fits.’
‘It doesn’t fit. Einar Eyjolfur disappeared around midnight. We know that Gusti was on the door until after four in the morning.’
‘We can work around that. Gusti has mates.’
‘The barmaids confirmed Gusti was there until they locked up. Even that Thai girl who doesn’t speak Icelandic.’
S?valdur ground out his cigarette against the wall. ‘What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want to get a result on this? Is this PMS week, or what?’
‘Oh, for crying out loud . . .’
‘No, come on, tell me.’
‘Inside. It’s bloody cold out here.’
In the empty cafeteria they sat face to face over a table and Gunna wondered if S?valdur felt he was back in the interview room. In the far corner of the room a TV set showed a topical news programme with a Member of Parliament being interviewed. Gunna turned the sound down to a murmur.
‘So, what’s the problem?’ S?valdur asked pugnaciously. ‘Crim. Link. Dead man. It adds up.’
‘It doesn’t add up. You won’t get a conviction without more evidence and I don’t think you’ll find any.’
‘We can make it fit. I can get a confession and a result on this,’ S?valdur argued and Gunna noticed how ‘we’ had been replaced with ‘I’.
‘And whoever did this gets away while a brainless minor crim with a record of nothing but petty crime is banged up. That leaves someone very dangerous out there.’
‘Upstairs wants this sorted out quickly.’
‘Quickly doesn’t mean hanging a murder on an innocent man.’
‘Gusti the Gob isn’t innocent.’
‘He is of this, whatever else he may have on his conscience.’
‘He’s done plenty. Gusti doesn’t have a conscience.’
‘If you think you can get a confession out of him, good luck to you. There’s no evidence on Einar Eyjolfur’s body, no marks, no bruises, nothing to show any rough handling. I think you’re wasting your time.’
S?valdur drained his mug and rattled his chair back as he stood up. ‘Well, I’m going to batter it out of him whether he likes it or not.’
‘Sit down, will you? There’s something I want to know about,’ Gunna said sharply and the tone of her voice prompted S?valdur to do as he was asked.
‘What?’
‘Egill Grimsson. Tell me about him.’
‘Who?’
‘He was run over and killed in Grafarvogur in March.’
‘What the hell’s that got to do with anything?’ S?valdur demanded, refilling his own mug but forgetting to offer Gunna a refill.
‘They were close friends, Egill Grimsson and Einar Eyjolfur. I’d like to know if there’s a link.’
