Part 25 (1/2)

Joel Ingi knew better than to argue and waited for the sudden screech of the blender to stop before saying anything more. He nodded as Agnes poured the thick pulp into a bowl and added a spoonful of yoghurt, stirring slowly.

'Will you text me when you get there? How long will you be staying?'

Agnes shrugged. 'A few days, maybe,' she said absently.

'Look, about yesterday . . .' Joel Ingi said before Agnes cut him off.

'Shhhh. It's not important.'

'Holmgeir,' Gunna read off the report in front of her.

'Yeah?' The sharp-faced little man with greasy hair which fell into his eyes responded.

'You're Holmgeir Sigurjonsson and you have a record that stretches back to kindergarten as far as I can see. Your friend asmundur asuson's dead and you're going to tell me just what happened.'

Holmgeir's eyes s.h.i.+fted rapidly from side to side and he licked his dry lips. Gunna could sense the wheels turning in his mind as the man quickly considered how much he could get away with keeping back. He'd made no obvious reaction to the news of his friend's death and he reminded Gunna of a rat in a trap.

'Let's start from the beginning, shall we? You turned up with asi at casualty in a taxi. How did he get cut like that, and why didn't he get to casualty earlier?'

'I don't know what happened. He just appeared at home like that.'

'Where's ”at home”?'

'My place. asi rents-' he stopped and corrected himself. 'He rented a room from me.'

'So you don't know what happened to him? You weren't with him when this happened?' Gunna asked. 'Because I'm d.a.m.n sure you know just what went on.'

Holmgeir licked his lips; even without the trembling of his fidgeting hands, his nerves were palpable. 'I don't know anything. asi turned up with blood all down his leg and I tried to get him to go to hospital but he wouldn't have it.'

'You could have called an ambulance, couldn't you?'

'Well, yeah. There was that,' he admitted.

'So why didn't you?'

'asi wrapped it all up in a bandage and said he'd be all right. He had a spliff and went to sleep on the couch and I reckoned he knew what he was doing so I went out for a bit.'

'And?'

'And when I came back he wouldn't wake up properly. He was s.p.a.ced, woozy. So I got him in a taxi and took him to casualty.'

'Who slashed asi's leg, Holmgeir? Who did he have a fight with?'

'I don't know! I wasn't there,' he said, his voice rising in pitch with anger and excitement. 'Look, where's my lawyer?'

Gunna sat back in her chair and folded her arms. 'Why? You're not under arrest, not yet, at any rate. Why do you reckon you might need a lawyer?'

'I don't trust you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.'

Gunna opened her mouth to speak and stopped as Helgi quietly came in. Holmgeir's mouth shut like a door as Helgi leaned over Gunna's shoulder and murmured in her ear.

Holmgeir's eyes swivelled from one to the other. His growing panic could not be mistaken and he struggled to hear the muttered conversation.

'Yeah. No problem,' Gunna said finally and Helgi straightened, picked up Holmgeir's file from the desk in front of her and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

'What's he taken that for?'

'Just an administrative matter,' Gunna said. 'Holmgeir, are you sure there isn't anything you want to tell me?' She asked, standing up and smiling in a way that she could see set his pulse pounding with nerves. 'Don't go away.'

She hurried across the lobby and reached the lift with only a second to spare.

'Hae, Joel Ingi,' Katrin giggled, breathing hard after her headlong run for the lift. She opened her thick coat and fanned herself. 'Phew . . . not used to exercise, I'm afraid,' she said, slowly unwinding her scarf and smiling at him, a rosy glow in her plump cheeks.

'You're very smart today,' she said, looking sideways at his suit while Joel Ingi tried to stop himself looking down at her billowing chest, which seemed to be trying to escape from the low-slung blouse imprisoning it.

'Coming out for lunch with the rest of us today?' she asked. 'Mar was talking about a place by the harbour that does a lunchtime seafood buffet.'

Joel Ingi scowled and quickly adjusted his features into the best smile he could manage. 'I'm not sure,' he said. 'I have a few meetings this morning and I might have to miss lunch if they overrun.'

Katrin sighed. 'I do like a man who's dedicated to his work,' she said. 'But not too dedicated. Bye!' She grinned, stepping out of the lift as the door hissed open on the third floor and leaving him alone in the steel box, wis.h.i.+ng that he could stay there for the rest of the day.

He took a deep breath as the door shut and a moment later it slid back again to reveal Mar looking at him.

'Stay there,' he ordered, stepping quickly into the lift and stabbing the b.u.t.ton for the ground floor. 'You're in the s.h.i.+t. AEgir's had some journalist from Reykjavik Voice on the phone already this morning; he chewed him out and said no comment, but he's on the warpath right now.'

'What's happened?' Joel Ingi asked with dread in his voice. 'What's this hack saying?'

Mar took a deep breath. 'He's asking if the minister can categorically deny that three Libyan men and one woman who were murdered in 2010 in Tripoli pa.s.sed through Iceland the year before. He has names and dates.'

'How?'

'How the f.u.c.k should I know? It was between us and the Yanks. If you remember, we didn't even have a minister then. One was leaving just as the new guy was having his office measured for carpets.'

Joel Ingi felt his fingers go numb. 'But all this was nothing to do with the minister. He can deny having known anything about it.'

'You know that and I know that, but we both know where the buck stops. Laughing boy was the minister. The fact that he'd been in the job five minutes means nothing.'

'So what now?'

Mar glared. 'I don't know what information that greasy hack has, but without any proof, they're not going to get far on hearsay. So I'm hoping they don't have the laptop you've been insisting is about to be recovered.'

'So what now? What am I going to tell AEgir?'

The lift stopped and Mar stood in the door, stopping it from closing. 'I'd recommend that you go home, phone in sick and then find that f.u.c.king laptop, even if it costs you money.'

'It's cost me a fortune already!'

'That's your problem. You shouldn't have mislaid it to start with, should you?'

Baddo looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and didn't like what he saw. His rough-cut beard had been left lopsided and he grimaced with discomfort as he trimmed it back as far as he could with a pair of scissors he'd found at the back of Maria's bathroom cabinet.