Part 24 (1/2)

'Nope. Uniform are dealing with it. The guy'll be in hospital until tomorrow at least. Something for you to look forward to.'

'Oh, joy. Hoodlums fighting over a bit of dope, I expect. I'll see about it tomorrow. G'night.'

'Sleep well, Gunna,' Siggi replied, yawning again. 'Another four hours and I can go as well.'

Steini put down his book and clicked off the television. Gunna lay on the sofa, her eyes closed and with the reports she had promised herself she'd read in disarray on her chest. The place was blissfully quiet for once after an awkward few days with Drifa among them.

Gunna knew that the girl felt uncomfortable there, but guessed that the flat she was sharing in Reykjavik with a gaggle of first-year university students had also become less comfortable as her pregnancy progressed. Gunna had tried to probe gently and find out if Drifa intended to return to her parents in the Westfjords town of Vestureyri, but understandably the fear of small-town gossip and notoriety meant she had no desire to go home to her mother and stepfather. She wondered if the girl were waiting for Gisli to come home, but there were still more than three weeks left before he returned from sea the second to last trip he had planned before Soffia was due to give birth in April. Even more worryingly, Gunna wondered if Soffia would let Gisli back into the little flat they had rented in Kopavogur, raising the spectre that the lad might have to come home to his mother as an emergency measure.

Steini knelt next to her and lifted the papers, squaring them neatly and laying them on the table. Concern registered on his face as he saw Gunna frowning to herself in her sleep.

'Hey, sleepyhead.'

When there was no response, he stroked the tip of one finger down her cheek and was rewarded with a bleary eye opening.

'What time is it?'

'It's tomorrow, and some of us have to get up in the morning.'

'Tomorrow, as in after midnight?'

'Yup, coming to bed?'

Gunna yawned and lifted herself up on one elbow. 'Can't you just bring me a duvet and I'll go back to sleep here?'

'You're telling me to sleep alone?'

'You should be so lucky,' she said, swinging her feet to the ground. 'It's a cold night and I don't want to freeze to death before morning.' She yawned. 'Where are the girls?'

'Laufey's babysitting for Sigrun while she has a date with some new man, and Drifa went with her.'

'Steini, are you all right?' Gunna asked, noticing the more than usually serious expression on his face.

'Yeah, fine.'

'That doesn't sound convincing to me. What's the problem?'

Steini s.h.i.+fted from squatting uncomfortably to sitting on the floor. 'Well,' he said in an awkward tone.

'Well, what?'

'I was just wondering if I'm, y'know, up to the mark?'

Gunna wrinkled her forehead in incomprehension. 'What are you driving at?'

He cleared his throat awkwardly. 'You see, it's like this,' he said and paused, while Gunna looked expectant.

'For a man who normally gets straight to the point, you're not doing a great job.'

'All right, then. I was using your computer yesterday and I saw your browser history.'

'And what about it?'

'I couldn't help but see that you'd been looking through personal.is a lot. I'm just wondering if there's something going on that I should know about?'

Perplexed and still half asleep, Gunna realized Steini's predicament. 'Ah, you mean you're wondering if I'm up for a threesome or looking for a like-minded, discreet couple, or if I fancy trying out riding crops and leather underwear with studs on the inside?'

Steini coughed, embarra.s.sed for the first time since she'd known him. 'Well. Yes, I suppose that's what I'm asking.'

'In a good way or what?'

'You mean would I be interested in all that stuff? A threesome with a nineteen-year-old who waxes his chest or a h.o.r.n.y housewife from down the street? Actually, no. I was just wondering if there might be something I wasn't doing right.'

Gunna yawned, stretched and sat upright on the sofa. 'That's good, because if you were expecting an interest in fluffy pink handcuffs, then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. My trawl through personal.is is purely work-related as that's where it seems a now-dead punter made his arrangements to meet a potential witness we're trying to track down. That's about it,' Gunna said, yawning. 'And that's about all I can tell you as well.'

She studied his reaction and was relieved that he didn't seem visibly disappointed.

'So we'll just keep to the old-fas.h.i.+oned way, shall we?' he asked.

'Ten minutes every other Sat.u.r.day night before I put my curlers in, you mean?'

'Yeah. Something like that,' he said with a grin and Gunna could hear relief in his voice, which he tried to conceal.

She stood up and looked at her watch. 'Well, as officially I don't have to be in at eight tomorrow, and Laufey's at Sigrun's place, we can give it a trial run if you feel like it.'

Steini's grin spread across his face. 'In ten minutes before the curlers go in? I should be able to manage that.'

Tuesday It took hours for the doctor to clean up Baddo's wound as best he could, lips pursed in concentration and frustration.

'It's going to be painful,' he said long after midnight when the job was done, pus.h.i.+ng his gla.s.ses back up his nose with the back of his hand. The nurse who had a.s.sisted whispered in the doctor's ear and he nodded.

'It's going to leave you with something of a scar,' he told Baddo sorrowfully, who wanted to snap back that the guys in the boots and combats had probably been paid a decent wedge of cash to do just that.

'I know, doctor,' he sighed, his face stiff and numb with local anaesthetic. 'Looks like my catwalk days might be over, doesn't it?'

The doctor ignored the quip, although Baddo could see that it had been registered and wasn't appreciated. He stood up and looked down at him disapprovingly. 'I'd like to keep you in overnight for observation,' he said. 'And I believe there are a couple of police officers who would like a word with you.'

'It was an accident, doc. Honestly,' Baddo told him. 'I had the knife in my hand and fell down. It caught my face as I tried to break my fall,' he said.

'Yes,' the doctor replied absently. 'That's as may be,' he said, making it clear that he didn't believe a word of what Baddo was saying, 'but we have an obligation to report anything that could possibly be an injury with an edged weapon to the police and they'll be here to speak to you in a moment.'

The doctor left the room and Baddo stood up to get a look in a mirror for the first time.

's.h.i.+t!'

The wound's ragged edges had been fixed together as well as possible with tape sutures and Baddo was shocked at how raw the cut looked, not least as part of his beard had been roughly shaved away to give access to it.

'If you'd like to come this way, Jon,' the nurse suggested as she put her face around the door, beckoning him to follow. Baddo heard a blast of laughter from down the corridor as a door quickly opened and closed, cutting it off abruptly. 'There are two police officers here to speak to you, but I'll get you bedded down and then I'll go and fetch them. All right?'

Baddo nodded, too numb and tired even to check out the nurse's figure as he followed her along the pa.s.sage, his leather jacket over his arm. He sniffed the musty air of the small room she showed him into.