establish a time of death and who the last people he saw were. Can you tell me what your movements were on and after the weekend?’
Sigurjona’s eyes opened wide. ‘Surely you don’t suspect me of anything.’
‘Of course not,’ Gunna said smoothly, noting down that she would also have to stock up on toilet paper, so much cheaper in town than at the Co-op in Hvalvik. ‘Purely routine. We have to ask and I assure you I’ll want to know the movements of all your staff at the same time if that’s possible.’
‘I was with my husband in Akureyri. A business trip.’
‘Anyone other than your husband who will confirm that?’
‘Oh, yes.’
‘Just routine, you understand. Anyway, thank you for your time. But if you recall anything that could help the investigation, I’d appreciate it if you could give me a call. Now, it would be useful if I could talk to Jon Oddur and Disa.’
She stood up and Sigurjona did the same, coming around the desk to accompany her to the door. Gunna felt a whiff of something powerful on her breath as Sigurjona held the door open for her and called out to the girl at reception.
‘Disa, would you call Jon Oddur? This lady would like to speak to him,’ she instructed and closed the office door behind her.
At the reception desk, Gunna looked down at where Disa sat at the switchboard, speaking quietly into the microphone of a headset. She pressed a button to finish the call and looked up with eyes that Gunna could see were full of concern.
‘Are you here about Einar?’ she asked immediately, with a backward glance to make sure the door was shut.
‘Yes. You knew him pretty well, Sigurjona tells me.’
‘I did. Where is he?’
‘He’s dead, I’m afraid.’
Disa dropped her head and looked down at the desk in front of her. Then she buried her face in both hands for a moment before sweeping them up and through her hair, looking up bright-eyed. ‘Do you know who killed him?’
‘Why do you ask? Is there anything you want to tell me about?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe,’ she said dully as the young man with the red face Gunna had seen earlier escaping from Sigurjona’s office appeared.
‘What does the old witch want now?’ His harsh tone did nothing to hide the trepidation behind it. The expression on his face was briefly of panic when he saw Gunna standing by the desk.
‘It’s not the boss. This lady wants a word with you,’ Disa said quietly.
‘That’s a relief. You’d better come to my office.’
Jon Oddur sat with his back to the window and fiddled with a laptop on his desk as he spoke.
‘Is it Einar Eyjolfur you’re here about?’ he asked nervously.
‘What makes you think that?’
‘We haven’t seen him for a few days and I can’t get through to his mobile.’
‘As it happens, we have every reason to believe that he drowned in Hvalvik harbour in the early hours of Tuesday morning.’
‘So it was him,’ Jon Oddur said with a sigh. ‘Disa was right.’
‘When did you see him last?’
‘Monday,’ he replied promptly. ‘He didn’t come in, but we met in the evening with some clients from Denmark he was supposed to meet again on Wednesday.’
‘In Copenhagen? So he was due to fly out there on Tuesday?’
‘That’s right, Tuesday afternoon. He didn’t show up, so I’m going there next week to pick things up.’
‘What business is that?’
Jon Oddur smiled sourly for the first time. ‘It’s a Danish sweet company that manufactures chewing gum. They want to see if Iceland’s a market for them, so we’re doing market research, putting them in touch with retailers, that sort of thing.’
‘Sounds interesting.’
‘Yeah. Right,’ Jon Oddur said bitterly.
‘Not an exciting prospect?’ Gunna probed gently.
‘Einar Eyjolfur didn’t think so, and neither do I now that it’s been dumped on me.’
‘What was he doing before that?’
‘The Hvalvik smelter was his project. He’d been on that since it started. He wasn’t very pleased when he was taken off it and put on this chewing gum thing instead. What happened to him?’
‘Drowned,’ Gunna repeated. ‘In Hvalvik harbour.’
‘God. What the hell was he doing in that dump?’
‘That’s what we’d like to know. What do you know of his movements?’
‘We took the chewing gum guys to dinner at that Chinese place on Hverfisgata and then we went to a few bars after that.’
Gunna sat in silence, waiting for him to continue.
‘The Danes bowed out about eleven and went back to their hotel. We went for a few beers.’
‘A few?’
‘Yeah. Einar Eyjolfur liked a drink, but he didn’t have much of a head for it.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘Gaukur a Stong. Then that really loud place with all the lights on Laugarvegur and then the Emperor.’
‘Quite a night, then. So when and where did you part company?’
‘At the Emperor. About one. I told him he needed to get some sleep if he was going to catch his flight in the morning, but he said it was an afternoon flight so he didn’t need to be up early.’
‘Did anything happen that was unusual?’
‘No. We had a few beers and I left him in the Emperor. That’s it.’
‘Will anyone else corroborate that?’
‘Hell, I don’t know,’ Jon Oddur said wearily. ‘The barmaid might recognize us, I suppose. But it was a busy night. I got talking to a group of tourists and there was some really drunk bloke who bumped into Einar Eyjolfur and wanted to start a fight, but nothing out of the ordinary.’
Jon Oddur transferred his attention from the keyboard to a rubber band that he wrapped repeatedly around his fingers.
‘You seem nervous,’ Gunna said as the rubber band flew off his hand and hit the wall.
‘You would be if one of your best mates had just drowned,’ he snapped back. ‘What the fuck was he doing in Hvalvik, anyway?’
‘Like I said, that’s what I’m trying to find out and the more you can tell me, the more likely it is I’ll be able to get to the bottom of it all.’
‘Sorry,’ Jon Oddur apologized with a sigh. ‘That’s it. That’s all I can tell you.’
‘Thank you. Now I’d better have a word with Disa. She was his girlfriend, right?’
‘Sort of. They kind of split up when he moved out, but they were still sort of together.’
Sort of, thought Gunna as she stood up to leave Jon Oddur to his fidgeting.
‘If you recall anything else that might be useful, then I’d appreciate a call,’ she said, placing a card on the desk.
Jon Oddur nodded vaguely, his attention split between her and the laptop in front of him.
‘Yeah. I’ll let you know,’ he said half-heartedly, his attention back on his computer screen. ‘Disa’s at reception. She normally leaves at four, so you’d better be quick.’
Disa sat behind the reception desk and Gunna could see that she was watching her approach.
‘What did Jon Oddur say?’ she asked before Gunna could speak.
‘That you knew him better than almost anyone. Is that right?’
‘What’s happened to him?’
