Part 21 (2/2)

'Listen, Eggert Thor. I need a quiet word with your colleague, so while she and I go over there and have a quiet talk . . .' Gunna said, jerking a thumb towards a set of armchairs in the hotel's echoing lobby. 'You're a smart lad and you can manage to run things by yourself for ten minutes, can't you?'

'Er . . . yeah,' he replied, with an uncertain look on his face.

'All you have to do is stand there and look like you know what you're doing. Any problems and we're right over there. All right?'

'Yeah!' the lad said, a happy smile stealing across his face as Gunna marched the girl to the set of armchairs and sat opposite her. 'Magnus was murdered,' she said bluntly and watched the shock register in her eyes.

'Why? Do you know who did it?'

'That's what I'm trying to pin down,' Gunna said, catching sight of the girl's name badge. 'Look, Eva. Something shady has been going on here and Simon hasn't exactly been helpful, any more than your colleagues at the Gullfoss have.'

'I think Simon's really worried about something. Normally he's quite cheerful, but these last few days he's been mega-grumpy.'

'There's a scam been going on here and at a few other hotels across Reykjavik. You have an idea of this, right?'

'A what?' Eva asked and Gunna inwardly cursed the girl's slow-wittedness.

'People being tied up in rooms. That's happened a few times, hasn't it?'

Eva chewed her lip and looked nervously over towards Eggert, standing like a sentry behind the reception desk. 'We're not supposed to say anything.'

'Says who?'

'Simon. And Magnus. They said that if anything about this got out and it affected business, we could find ourselves out of work, and it's not easy to find work at the moment.'

'When did they tell you this? Recently?'

'It was before my birthday. I remember because it was the day before my party.'

'And when was that?'

'August the ninth's my birthday.'

Gunna was surprised that Sonja's scam went back so far; Eva twisted her fingers nervously.

'Am I going to get the sack if they find out I told you this?' she asked abruptly.

'I've no idea. I wouldn't think so. But if you don't tell them, I won't. This was Simon, right? And Magnus told you the same thing?'

'They told all of us. But not all together. Just in ones and twos.'

'How did Magnus seem to you? Was he nervous or upset in any way?'

'Not that I noticed. His girlfriend threw him over because her parents didn't like him, or so he said. He tried to make out he didn't really care, but he was well p.i.s.sed off,' Eva said. 'I mean, it's not as if Magnus was the kind of dreamboat who was going to find another girlfriend just like that.'

The hostility in the air was unmistakable. Joel Ingi Bragason and Mar Einarsson sat on one side of the polished table, practically identical young men in suits that Gunna felt made them look like youngsters ready for confirmation, while ivar Laxdal sat at one end of the table and glowered.

'So this is a MacBook that has been mislaid and you want it back, or so ivar tells me,' Gunna opened.

'Who are you?' the slimmer and younger-looking of the pair demanded with outright distrust in his tone.

Gunna sighed and put her identification on the table for them both to see.

'As I'm sure smart gentlemen like you are already aware, I'm Gunnhildur Gisladottir and I'm a sergeant with the serious crimes unit. I don't doubt that my colleague' she nodded towards ivar Laxdal 'has already told you exactly who I am, so let's stop wasting everyone's time, shall we?'

The younger man with the narrow face and the darting eyes Joel Ingi, according to the hurried briefing ivar Laxdal had given her sat back and pouted sulkily while his colleague Mar smiled winningly and clasped his hands together in front of him.

'Joel Ingi, would you like to explain exactly what happened?' Mar invited.

'Yes, well . . .' he floundered for a moment before regaining his footing. 'It was a few days before Christmas, I think.'

'You think? You don't know for certain?'

'Of course I do. I'll just have to check my diary,' Joel Ingi snapped back. 'I was walking home and had my laptop in a bag on my shoulder, as usual. There were two boys in the street, and one of them had a bicycle. They were having an argument,' he recited.

'So what happened?' Gunna prompted.

'One of them pushed the other quite hard in the chest, and he fell backwards against me. I stumbled and fell. The boy who had pushed the other grabbed my laptop case and made off on his bicycle.'

'And the other boy?'

'I . . . er, I don't know. I ran after the one on the bicycle, but couldn't catch him. When I looked round, the other boy had gone as well.'

'And where did all this happen?'

'Skipholt,' Joel Ingi replied. 'The corner of Skipholt and Bolholt.'

'Which way did the lad on the bike go?'

'Back along Skipholt.'

'What time of day was this?'

'Around five, five-thirty.'

'So it was dark. What was the weather like?'

Joel Ingi stared back. 'What?'

'Weather? Cold? Wet? Raining?'

'I don't remember.'

Joel Ingi's eyes widened in suspicion as Gunna glanced at ivar Laxdal.

'I'll need descriptions of the two lads, anything that might distinguish them. What ages?'

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