Part 30 (1/2)

'No. Katrin split up with her guy about the same time as I did with mine, so we're renting this place together for the time being. How long have you known Katrin?'

'I don't know. I've been at the ministry since 2008 and she's been there at least as long. But she's on another floor so it's only recently that I've got to know her.'

'At the lunch club?'

Joel Ingi grinned. 'Yeah. Mar Einarsson's famous lunch club.'

Ursula looked at her watch. 'I called her but she's not answering. She'll ring me back when she sees there's been a missed call. She's organized is our Katrin.'

The coffee was thick and fragrant, giving him a new rush of alertness.

'Where do you work?'

Ursula looked sour. 'I was the accounts manager for a building company until last week.'

'New job?'

'I've been made redundant.'

'That's a shame.'

Ursula shrugged. 'That's the way it goes. Last in, first out. Business hasn't been great and they were optimistic when they took me on.'

'No other job to go to?'

'Some freelance work, doing people's tax returns and stuff, but not a lot.'

'That's a shame,' Joel Ingi repeated, at a loss for anything else to say.

In spite of the coffee having given him a momentary rush, he felt inexplicably drowsy, blaming the heat of the little flat.

'I'd like to go away for a while. I've been in boring jobs for years now and I want to see a little colour, so I might go travelling for a few months, and maybe go back to university in the autumn. That'd be nice.' She glanced down to check her phone. 'Katrin normally calls back right away.'

'Maybe she's busy?'

'Could be . . .'

'Where would you go if you wanted to do some travelling?'

'I don't know. Spain, maybe. Or France.'

Joel Ingi smiled broadly. He liked her already, solid arms and legs in spite of her pet.i.te figure, nothing like Agnes's willowy frame.

'Then this could be your lucky day.'

Ursula looked at him sharply. 'How so?'

'I'm flying to Paris tonight.' Joel Ingi pulled a package out of his coat pocket, put it on the table and spread the notes in a fan. 'If we don't go too wild, I reckon that should keep us for at least a year.'

She had picked up his trail easily enough, and now she watched Joel Ingi disappear up the stairs and into departures with the woman on his arm. They were travelling light, hand baggage only. She shrugged. There was nothing more that she could do other than report back. Under the street lamps that lit the car park outside with their harsh glare, she keyed a message into her phone, looking pensively out of the window as the Renault's heater whined and fought to disperse the thin film of frost on the windscreen.

She pulled off her ski hat, ma.s.saging her scalp, then prodded gently at the tender part of her face, relieved that it was no more painful than it was. It was close to midnight on a dark, cold night, and she asked herself yet again why she had given up a stable but frustrating job for this life of anti-social hours, awkward clients and unreliable payments. She wasn't expecting a reply until the morning, but the phone on the seat flashed once and hummed briefly.

She read the message, nodded briefly and punched in a one-word reply before putting the car into gear. It was rolling forward when the phone flashed a second time and she stopped to look at the message. Her eyebrows rose as she read it, before heading for the main road back to Reykjavik.

Wednesday Gunna slept badly and was on her feet long before the alarm started to buzz to the m.u.f.fled sound of Drifa retching in the bathroom, the faint but unmistakable sound carrying along the corridor of the silent house. Her thoughts immediately went back to Gisli as she looked at the ceiling in the darkness, and how or if he would resolve things with his two expectant mothers when he came home in a few weeks' time.

Laufey was asleep and Gunna decided to trust her to get up on time and head off to school. She listened for a second at the door of what had once been Gisli's room, where Drifa had settled herself like a nesting hen.

She pulled on her coat and padded into the bedroom, where Steini lay on his side with one hand under his head and the other stretched out as if looking for her. Gunna sat on the edge of the bed and put out a hand to tickle his neck, her fingernail rasping briefly against his bristles. He muttered and s.h.i.+fted, his eyes still closed. She leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek.

'Wakey, wakey, big boy,' she whispered.

Steini's eyes opened wide in a flash. There was a brief look of disappointment as he took her in, sitting next to him fully dressed and with her coat on.

'You're up early.'

'I know. Couldn't sleep, so I decided to get up.'

'You could have given me a poke. I'd have told you stories until you fell asleep.' He yawned, sitting up and sliding one hand under her coat.

'But that would have ended up being more than a story, wouldn't it? And then you wouldn't have got much sleep either.'

'It's a tough call, but I'd have done it for you.'

'You're a saint.' Gunna grinned. 'There's fresh coffee. The girls are still asleep. All right?'

Steini nodded and flexed his shoulders. 'Any idea how long Drifa's going to be staying?'

'None at all. She's a pain, but I don't have the heart to send her home.'

'You're all heart,' Steini grunted. 'Beneath that tough exterior . . .'

'Hides a woman who eats broken gla.s.s for breakfast. Yeah, I know. Even Helgi and Eirikur have started saying that now.'

'I'm doing a job in Keflavik today. Nothing difficult, but it'll take a while and I'll probably be back late. How about you?'

Gunna sighed and Hekla, Baddo and Joel Ingi all came back to her. 'No idea. This is a tough one and I've no idea how long it'll take, not that there isn't pressure to get it sorted out quickly. It doesn't help that there's a government department involved, but I shouldn't have told you that.'

'I didn't hear a word.' Steini swung his legs out of bed as Gunna stood up. 'I'll see you when I see you, then?'

'That's about it.' She blew him a kiss from the doorway. 'See you tonight.'

The cold north wind had strengthened overnight, bringing with it cold air that was almost painful to breathe and which stung her face as she hurried to the car. The car's wheels jerked and initially refused to move, held in place by the ice that had formed around them as the ground froze. A healthy foot on the pedal broke the grip with a crack, and the car crunched through puddles and pools that had formed overnight. Fortunately the road had already been gritted, as Gunna could feel the brittle hardness of the road surface instead of the slush of the past week.

Being early was a way of beating the rush hour and Gunna found the usual hour's drive pleasantly shortened as she parked in the yard behind Hverfisgata police station, next to ivar Laxdal's hulking black Volvo. She wondered just how early she would have to be to get to work before the boss. The chance to ask the question came and went as she encountered him on the stairs.

'Were you planning to bring that insolent yuppie in for questioning today?' he asked.

'That was the plan, although there's other stuff that's closer to the top of the priority pile, like getting hold of Hrobjartur Bjarnthorsson before he does any more damage.'