Then the interpreter came hurrying downstairs, handed him some money and a small shopping list and asked him to buy the items for the mother and son upstairs. He refused politely, shaking his head with a smile and saying he was not allowed to leave. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t. He was a policeman. Not an errand boy.
“It’ll only take five minutes,” the interpreter said. “I’d do it myself but I’m in a rush.”
Then she ran over to her car and drove off.
He was left standing there with the shopping list and the banknote and a conscience that he struggled with, but only for a moment. Then he hurried off too. He wasn’t long at all, as he told that Erlendur bloke who tore him off such a strip that he almost burst into tears. Perhaps he should have called for assistance. Perhaps he should not have gone on that ridiculous errand, which reminded him of when he was a child and his mother was always sending him out to the shop. Perhaps that was the point: he had acted instinctively and forgot himself for a moment. He had flicked through a trashy magazine containing stories of celebrity divorces, but did not dare to tell the inspector about that part of his journey. The old man was so worked up that he thought he would knock him senseless. Sigurdur Oli, whom he knew slightly, had to step in to restrain the inspector.
When he came back from the shop he ran up the stairs and rang the bell. Then he knocked on the door but there was no reply. Eventually he opened it and called in, “Hello!” The door was not locked. No one answered him. He walked around the flat, calling out in all directions. He received no reply. The flat was empty.
He stood like an idiot with a plastic shopping bag in his hand and could hardly muster the courage to inform the station that Sunee and her boy had gone missing.
13
Erlendur did not blame the officer for Sunee and Niran’s disappearance although the man had showed incredible and incomprehensible neglect in the course of duty. He was convinced that the interpreter, who was the last to leave the mother and her son, had helped them to go into hiding. She had persuaded the officer to leave for a moment and then drove them off to a place that she would not name. After grilling the officer Erlendur sent for the interpreter. In the meantime the police looked for clues as to where Sunee could have taken her son. Her telephone did not have a caller ID, but Elinborg applied to the District Court to be given a list of Sunee’s incoming and outgoing calls during the previous month.
Elinborg called Erlendur and told him about her conversation with the teacher from Elias’s old school.
“Don’t you think she’s trying to protect him by running away?” she asked Erlendur when he told her that the mother and son had gone missing.
“The explanation is obviously something like that,” Erlendur said. “The question is who she thinks she’s protecting him from.”
“Maybe he’s told her something.”
Erlendur had just finished talking to Elinborg when his mobile rang again. The head of narcotics told him that they had located a girl at the school who had been trying to sell drugs in the playground. She had not been involved with the narcotics squad before but her older sister was well known to the police, a hardened addict with a string of arrests for drug offences. The two sisters had an elder brother who was in prison for manslaughter; he had attacked a passer-by in the centre of Reykjavik, inflicting wounds that led to his death.
“A classy family, then,” Erlendur said.
“The creme de la creme,” the head of narcotics said. “Do you want to talk to the girls?”
“Yes, bring them in,” Erlendur said.
At that moment Gudny appeared in the flat. Erlendur cut off his call and put his mobile in the pocket of his overcoat.
“Where are they?” he said in a determined voice, walking over to Gudny. “Why did they run away and where did you take them?”
Are you seriously blaming me for this?” she said.
“You deceived a police officer,” Erlendur said, “then came back to collect them. We want to know what you’ve done with them. I could lock you up for obstructing the police in the execution of their duty. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it.”
“I had nothing to do with this,” Gudny said. “I didn’t come back to collect them. And don’t you go threatening me. If you want to “lock me up”, then go right ahead.”
“We need answers from you,” Sigurdur Oli said, walking in from the corridor to the bedrooms after hearing the conversation. “You were the last person to talk to them. Why have they disappeared?”
“I have no idea,” Gudny said with a sigh. “I was as shocked as you when the police contacted me. When I left them about, what -‘ she said with a look at her watch “- three-quarters of an hour ago, there was nothing to suggest that Sunee was planning to do a disappearing act. She said she needed some shopping. I was late for a meeting. The officer was so kind as to help them. I didn’t suspect that she was plotting something. She told me nothing about that. I don’t care whether you believe me or not. I knew nothing about it.”
“Do you know where they could have gone?” Sigurdur Oli asked.
“No, I don’t have the faintest idea. I don’t even know if they are hiding. She might come straight back. Maybe she just popped out somewhere. Maybe she’s not hiding at all. Have you considered that?”
“Did she contact anyone this morning?” Sigurdur Oli asked.
Gudny told them that she had visited Sunee early that morning. There had been a police officer at the door and a patrol car with another two policemen in it in the car park in front of the block. Then the patrol car was called away. Sunee had told her straight away that she wanted to be left alone with Niran. He was in a very difficult state. She had not managed to make him talk to her, and if she could not do so, then neither could a police officer or an expert of any kind. What she needed was time alone with Niran to draw him back out of himself. His brother’s death had clearly been a great shock to him and she was trying to help him as best she could. That was her number-one priority under the circumstances. Gudny had sat down with them and offered her assistance, but when Sunee found out that she had to go to a meeting, she started talking about some things she needed from the shop.
“Did she know then that the police car had gone?” Erlendur asked.
“Yes, she saw it leave.”
“What happened to that bloody car?” Erlendur asked Sigurdur Oli, who had a ready answer. The car had been called out to a serious accident on a busy junction a few streets away. It was the nearest patrol car. They had not foreseen any problem in sending it on a quick call-out.
Erlendur shook his head in resignation.
“Who is Sunee’s boyfriend?” he asked Gudny.
“I’ve told you I know nothing about any boyfriend,” Gudny said warily.
“Could she have gone to him?” Erlendur said.
“She doesn’t seem to have many places to go,” Sigurdur Oli said.
“Who is this man?” Erlendur said with an angry look at Sigurdur Oli. He had a habit of interrupting, which got on Erlendur’s nerves.