Part 16 (1/2)

'I'll do my best.'

'What do you need?'

'What do you mean?'

'More bodies, or what?'

'Nothing right now. Eirikur and Helgi will do just fine for the moment. But it would be helpful if you could keep Saevaldur off my back.'

Gunna had already clashed more than once with the force's newest chief inspector, Saevaldur Bogason, and while her team wasn't part of his immediate department, she suspected that he wanted it to be.

'Don't you worry about Saevaldur. I'm trying to persuade him to apply for a post in Afghanistan. He won't go for it, as the man hasn't a shred of imagination between his flapping ears,' he said. Gunna was almost shocked to hear him speak so freely about another officer and wondered if he were joking. 'I'll leave you to it as much as I can, but . . .' he said.

'Is this where you tell me that Johannes Karlsson has influential friends who don't want to see any dirty was.h.i.+ng aired in public?'

ivar Laxdal flashed a sharp look at Gunna as they stepped out into the cold of the car park, and she wondered if it had been a remark too far.

'No,' he said with a chuckle in his baritone. 'Not yet, at any rate. I know very little about the man, but I'd guess that as he owned quotas, he probably had some influential friends. I understand that he dabbled in politics, and that he was probably a mason, a councillor and a pillar of his community, so I'm already being given encouragement for this to be dealt with promptly. Nothing for you to worry about, but the quicker you can get this wrapped up, the better.'

He clicked the fob of his car keys and a brooding black car on the far side flashed its lights in recognition. This time ivar Laxdal really did laugh, albeit fleetingly. 'I hear congratulations are in order. Is that right?'

'Why's that?' Gunna asked, nonplussed.

'Imminent grandparenthood, I'm told.'

'Oh, that. Yes. Thanks. But I didn't have anything to do with it and wasn't asked if I wanted to become a grandmother.'

'It's not so bad,' ivar Laxdal said almost wistfully. 'It's rather enjoyable, in fact. I'll see you in the morning,' he added, stalking across the car park in the dark and leaving Gunna with an incongruous mental image of ivar Laxdal dandling an infant on his knee.

The car stank and Baddo was concerned that the reek of petrol would cling to him as well. He stood upwind as the flames began to lick at the car, waiting for the fire to catch properly. He backed away, expecting a sudden blaze, and was rewarded with a burst of flame and a roar of sound as the fire caught the petrol the seats had been soaked with, sucking in oxygen and illuminating the rusted containers and abandoned vehicles on what was left of the shrinking patch of wasteground near Reykjavik's harbour.

Baddo turned and walked quickly, making his way along the unlit path and around the next corner towards the new shops and, ironically, he thought, the Harbourside Hotel, where the car's owner had worked until his unfortunate accident. He was still cursing the interfering dog walker who'd found the boy's body out there in the lava fields, where he should have been able to lie for years without anyone stumbling across him. He was also cursing himself for not making the whimpering fool of a boy walk a few hundred metres further through the lava crags before wringing his miserable neck.

Leaving the darkness, Baddo went along the wall at his side; as far as anyone watching would be concerned, he was just another city dweller walking home from one of the new harbour-area shops.

He would have preferred to dispose of the car somewhere more discreet, preferably somewhere out of town that would take the fire brigade half an hour to reach, by which time there wouldn't be much of a fire left to put out. But with no other transport and no appet.i.te for asking that boneheaded thug Hinrik to help him out, it had to be settled somewhere uncomfortably public. He just hoped that the intense heat generated by ten litres of unleaded splashed over the interior would be enough to make the car unidentifiable, at least until he had finished the job in hand and figured out how to make a little extra from it that Hinrik wouldn't expect or even need to know about.

This time he needed to run; he felt he had to exhaust himself physically to match the emotional turmoil within. He stared at the screens above the bank of running machines, the chainsaw heavy metal that accompanied him bearing no relation to the subt.i.tled news footage on the screens as he felt his legs ache and complain, forcing himself to ignore the pain until he could run no further. He collapsed onto a bench and chugged a bottle of chilled water, the muscles in his legs trembling.

He closed his eyes, held his head in his hands and made himself stand up. Half an hour later, showered and clean, but no less tense, he shouldered his sports bag and made his way to the lobby, stopping short in abrupt amazement as a heavy figure in a parka and a baseball cap appeared in his field of vision.

Unable to restrain himself, he marched up to the figure leaning against the counter and grabbed a shoulder of the oversized parka, hauling its wearer around in an undignified half-circle.

'Hey, what the h.e.l.l . . . ?'

'Why are you following me?' He yelled, trembling as his fingers clung to the slippery material, shaking it until the figure's baseball cap fell off to reveal blonde curls and an earring.

'What the h.e.l.l are you talking about, you idiot?' the girl shot back. 'I don't know who you are.'

'You've been following me. Yesterday in town, and the day before. Why? Who are you? Who sent you?'

'Look, pal. I don't know what you're talking about. I just come here to train, the same as you,' the girl protested and stood up to her full height, equalling his, as a pair of bulky young men in shorts and tight singlets appeared on either side of him.

'Anything the matter?' one of the two lifeguards asked politely.

'Yeah, this perv just came and grabbed my coat,' the girl said quickly as the woman behind the counter nodded sadly in corroboration.

'I think you'd best leave, don't you?'

'No, you've got it wrong. She's been hara.s.sing me,' Joel Ingi protested.

The two men looked at each other.

'I don't think so,' the second one said, looking at the blonde girl. 'D'you want us to call the police?'

'No . . . it must be just a mistake.'

'You'd best be leaving, pal, before someone does call the law,' the first one said slowly.

The two men nodded and between them they marched him to the door by his arms, Joel Ingi's feet half dragging on the floor until he found himself outside with the cold air rapidly clearing his head as he asked himself what he had done.

The two lifeguards stood inside the gla.s.s door and watched as Joel Ingi got into his car and sped faster than was wise through the slush out of the car park towards the main road, his tyres kicking up a spray of grit and water as it pa.s.sed. The last they saw of him was an upraised finger with a furious face behind it as he pa.s.sed, and a battered Renault that b.u.mped along in its wake and followed at a discreet distance.

Baddo's phone buzzed as he walked past Ellingsen's darkened windows. He looked at the screen and saw only 'private number calling'. Hoping that Sonja had decided to call after all, he replied.

'h.e.l.lo?'

'h.e.l.lo, whose phone is this?' a woman's voice asked. It was a strong voice, not deep, but a voice with a mind of its own, Baddo decided.

'This is Jon,' Baddo said. 'Is that Sonja?' he asked and immediately kicked himself for asking so quickly. There was a long silence and he wondered if she was still on the line.

'Could be. Why?'

'It's just that I'm looking for some information and I think you might be able to help me,' Baddo said. 'I could put a little business your way,' he added with a cheerful chuckle just as two fire engines with howling sirens pa.s.sed him on their way surprisingly promptly, he noted to the blazing car. He hoped they wouldn't put it out too fast, although he was sure that any fingerprints would have been scorched off by now.

'What sort of business?'

'Let's say I think you could operate more effectively as part of a team.'

'What sort of team do you have in mind?'

'So you're not retired, then?' Baddo asked.

'Let's say I'm not tiring myself out.'

'Well, if you're interested, there are opportunities for both of us.' There was another long silence and Baddo again wondered if she was still on the line. 'Hae. Still there?'

'Yeah. Let me think it over.'

'Up to you. No pressure,' Baddo said. 'Can you give me your number? I'll call you tomorrow and we can talk more.'