“I don’t know about any boyfriend,” Gudny repeated. “She might be with her mother-in-law. Have you checked that? Or her brother?”
“That’s the first place we’ll look,” Erlendur said.
At that point Elinborg arrived.
“How can they be missing?” she asked. “Weren’t they under supervision?”
“She’s scared,” Gudny said. “Who wouldn’t be scared in her position? If she’s run off, it’s to protect her only surviving son. That’s all she can think of at the moment. She doesn’t trust you. That’s obvious. She trusts herself. She always has.”
“Why shouldn’t she trust us?” Elinborg said. “Has she any reason not to?”
Gudny looked at her.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t have answers to all your questions.”
“Who is her boyfriend?” Erlendur asked. “What kind of relationship do he and Sunee have? When did they meet? Was he the reason Sunee and her husband divorced? Did he know the boys well? How did he get along with them?”
Gudny looked at each of them in turn.
“She met a man recently,” she said at last.
“Yes, and… ?” Erlendur said impatiently.
“I don’t think she’s with him. I don’t know anything about Sunee’s divorce from Odinn. I don’t know exactly when this man entered the picture.”
“And who is he?”
“Sunee’s friend.”
“What kind of friend?” Erlendur asked.
Gudny looked over at Elinborg, then at Sigurdur Oli and finally back at Erlendur, and shrugged.
“Does he work? Do you know where he lives?”
“Sunee has never talked about him. I don’t even know his name.”
“Why don’t you think she’s gone to him? You said she wouldn’t go to him, why do you think that?”
“That’s just my feeling,” Gudny said.
Erlendur recalled the words of Sunee’s ex-husband, who had said that she had a boyfriend but he knew little about him. Virote knew about him. Gudny had finally acknowledged his existence. Emilia, Elias’s former teacher, thought he was Icelandic.
“Is he an Icelander?” Erlendur asked.
“Yes,” Gudny said.
“And has this relationship been going on for long?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“There’s another thing, since you mentioned trust,” Erlendur said. “I know you don’t have answers to all our questions. But there’s one question we can’t ignore, however much we would like to, and that’s the question of Niran. Now that Sunee’s fled with him, that question has become all the more pressing.”
“What are you talking about?” the interpreter asked.
Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg exchanged glances as if they had no idea what Erlendur was driving at.
“Why did she run off with Niran?” Erlendur asked, lowering his voice.
“I don’t know,” Gudny said.
“Could she be trying to get him out of the country?”
“Out of the country?”
“Why not?”
“I think she’s trying to protect him, not that I know anything about it. No, I don’t think she’s trying to get him out of the country. In the first place, I don’t think she’d have a clue how to go about it”
“She might know someone.”
“That’s absurd!”
“I agree that she’s trying to protect Niran,” Erlendur said. “I think she’s gone into hiding because he’s told her something at last. He knows what happened.”
“I can’t believe you’re claiming he was involved in murdering his own brother!” Gudny said, outraged.
“We have to examine all the possibilities and Sunee disappearing with the boy doesn’t help. She may well want to protect him by doing so but she may also know something that we don’t. I expect he told her something important.”
“If Niran has done something wrong, Sunee would tell us. I know her. She wouldn’t cover up for the boy.”
“We have to keep all our options open.”
“But it’s out of the question!” the interpreter shouted.
“Don’t tell me what’s out of the question and what isn’t,” Erlendur said.
“You can’t keep them imprisoned here at least,” Gudny said. “You can’t lock them up in this flat! They must be free to go where they please.”
“I don’t want anything else to happen to them,” Erlendur said. “They need to let us know where they’re going.”
“That’s crap,’Gudny said.
“There she is!”
Sigurdur Oli stared out through the door into the corridor where Sunee was standing. Her brother was with her, but there was no sign of Niran.
Gudny went over to them and said something in Thai. Virote answered her. Sunee looked apprehensively at Erlendur.
“Niran not do nothing,” she said.
“Where is he?” Erlendur asked.
Sunee spoke to Gudny for a long while.
“She’s not certain that she can look after him,” Gudny said. “He’s safe where he is. Sunee knows you want to question him, but says it’s unnecessary. He hasn’t done anything and doesn’t know anything. He came home by himself yesterday and saw the police and his brother and went into a state of shock. He hid and couldn’t speak to his mother until this morning. He assured Sunee that he has no idea what happened to his brother. He had no part in it himself and didn’t see or meet Elias that day. He was scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“That the same thing would happen to him,” Gudny said.
“Will you tell Sunee that it’s not right to conceal the boy. It’s suspicious behaviour and even dangerous as long as we don’t know any more about the case. We don’t know what happened to Elias and if she thinks Niran’s in danger she’ll have to trust us to look after him. She’s just making things worse.”
Gudny translated Erlendur’s words as he spoke but Sunee started shaking her head before she managed to finish.
“Niran not do nothing,” she said again, glaring at Erlendur.
“Please ask her to tell us where her son is,” Erlendur asked.
“She says you needn’t worry about him,” Gudny said. “She asks you to find Elias’s murderer instead. Are there any new developments on that front?”
“No,” Erlendur said, trying to imagine what he himself would do in Sunee’s shoes. Perhaps she was doing the right thing. He could not tell.
“We hear you’ve met a man — an Icelander,” Erlendur said. “I haven’t had the opportunity to ask you about him yet.”
Gudny interpreted between them.
“He’s nothing to do with this,” Sunee said.
“Who is this man?” Sigurdur Oli asked. “What can you tell us about him?”
“Nothing,” Sunee said.
“Do you know where we can reach him?”
“No,” Sunee replied.
“Is he at work? Do you know where he works?”
“He’s none of your business,” Sunee said.
“What kind of relationship do you have?” Erlendur asked.
“He’s my friend.”
“What kind of friend?”
“I don’t understand the question.”
“Is he more than just a friend?”
“No, nothing more.”
“Do you think this man was involved in the murder of your son?” Sigurdur Oli asked.
“No,” Sunee said.
“Isn’t that enough for now?” Gudny asked.
Erlendur nodded.
“We’ll talk to her again later today. And try to make her understand that she’s not helping at all by hiding Niran.”
“Except helping to save his life perhaps,” Gudny said. “Try to put yourself in her position. Try to understand what she’s going through.”
They walked downstairs and got into Erlendur’s car.
“Who is this woman who’s such a good interpreter?” Erlendur asked, taking out a pack of cigarettes.
“Are you going to smoke?” said Sigurdur Oli, who was sitting in the back seat.
“Gudny?” Elinborg said. “She lived in Thailand for years. Goes there regularly, worships the place and the people, and works as a tourist guide during the summer. I think she’s done a great job under difficult circumstances. I like her.”
“She can’t stand you,” Sigurdur Oli said to Erlendur.