He removed a sheet of paper from his pocket and passed it across the table. Sverrir took it, read the figures, and handed it to Arnar.
‘You won’t be breaking any laws,’ continued Sörensen. ‘You’ll simply be taking a loan from my bank, investing the money in Iceland and then transferring the profit to Tortola. None of this is illegal.’
‘Basically you’re looking to invest in Iceland, using money that you want to put into circulation, and we get to keep the profit?’ said Sverrir.
‘That’s right, a simple carry trade,’ agreed Sörensen.
‘Are we talking about money laundering here?’ asked Arnar, who was prepared to be blunt as he did not know Sörensen.
The Luxembourg banker looked at them in turn.
‘If you want to think about it, that’s fine,’ he said. ‘If you need to discuss it with other colleagues, spread the loan further so as not to arouse suspicion, then that’s OK too — it’s a lot of money, even for bank employees.’
‘Why do you need a middleman?’ asked Sverrir. ‘Why don’t you plough this money into Iceland yourself? Take advantage of the interest rates?’
‘Of course I could do if I wanted,’ said Sörensen. ‘But my borrowing has — how shall I put it? — peaked for the moment. I’m not a major player, just an ordinary bank employee like you guys — though hopefully that will change. I’m interested in investing in Iceland further down the road, possibly in renewable energy. I gather there are opportunities in that area, in hydroelectric and geothermal power. That’s where the investors will be looking in future. And I hope you’ll be there to help me when the time comes.’ His lips stretched in a smile.
‘So, what you’re saying is that you’re interested in profiting from Iceland’s interest-rate policy?’ said Sverrir.
‘Not just me,’ replied Sörensen. ‘Your economic miracle is attracting interest from investors everywhere with their eyes on the interest margin. Your glacier bonds have been selling well.’
‘The glacier bonds are selling like crazy,’ agreed Arnar, nodding.
At this point Sörensen glanced at his watch and said that regrettably he would have to be leaving.
‘Let me know what you decide,’ he said. ‘If you find you need more than forty-five million, it can be arranged.’
‘It’s a lot of money,’ said Sverrir.
‘Carve it up into three or four parts, if there’s anyone you trust to get in on the act with you. Like I said, it would probably make sense to spread the money. I can ensure a low interest rate and no repayments for the first year; after that we can split the profit between us.’
Sverrir and Arnar took a taxi back to the hotel and sat up half the night in the bar, discussing Sörensen’s proposition. Based on his predictions, the trade should deliver them a handsome profit. Neither was instinctively opposed to the idea; both thought it worth taking a closer look. The loan they would be taking from Sörensen’s bank would be like any other; it was not their concern where the money came from, though Sörensen had been decent enough to give them a hint. They knew from their own experience that Icelandic entrepreneurs and banking clients used tax havens and shell companies as a matter of course.
‘It’s a hell of a gamble,’ said Arnar.
‘I reckon it could work,’ countered Sverrir.
‘You know him, do you?’
‘Yes, I’ve got to know him pretty well. He’s been pumping me about the situation in Iceland. And as you can see, he knows what he’s on about.’
‘Sure does,’ said Arnar with a smile.
They discussed every angle of the proposition, all the pros and cons. Alain Sörensen’s bank was a venerable, highly trust-worthy institution, but the question of the money’s provenance was more troublesome. They went over these two aspects again and again.
‘Shall we look into it?’ said Sverrir at last, when the night was half over and they were the only souls left in the bar.
‘I was thinking about Thorfinnur,’ said Arnar. ‘He started at the same time as me and I know he’s interested in making money.’
‘Yeah, it would probably be sensible to spread it out a bit. Not too much, though; we don’t want word getting out.’
‘No, we’ll keep it to ourselves,’ said Arnar. ‘If we decide to go for it, of course. No one, absolutely no one, must know.’
‘Not because there’s anything irregular about it,’ interjected Sverrir.
‘No, it would just be simpler to keep it under the radar,’ said Arnar.
‘Not a bad return,’ said Sverrir, studying the breakdown Sörensen had given them.
‘Unbelievable interest rates,’ said Arnar, smiling again. ‘For those with the means to exploit them.’
Knútur was sitting in Sigurdur Óli’s office, telling him and Finnur the story of how their dealings with Alain Sörensen had begun. He had allowed Sigurdur Óli to escort him to the station and had declined the services of a lawyer.
‘Maybe later,’ he had said, hanging his head. ‘I just want to tell it like it happened.’
Sigurdur Óli had given Finnur the salient facts over the phone. The matter would be handed over to the fraud squad the following morning.
Knútur had been visibly crushed as he tried to explain to his wife why, out of the blue, on an ordinary autumn evening, they had received a visit from the police. Sigurdur Óli had left the room while this was going on, asking them to leave the door open. About ten minutes later they came out, along with the little boy. The woman immediately accosted Sigurdur Óli, a grim expression on her face.
‘Couldn’t you have found another way?’ she snapped at him accusingly. Gone was the gentle wife.
‘Perhaps you should ask Knútur the same thing,’ he replied, unmoved.
Now Knútur was sitting before them, explaining how they had originally got involved with the Luxembourg banker and how Sverrir and Arnar had decided to accept Sörensen’s offer almost the very same night. Both took home decent salaries but no more than that. Like the rest of the staff, they had a few shares in the bank but were not otherwise active players of the market. They had no share option like the senior executives, who also borrowed from the bank to buy call options in the bank’s shares. They were just employees, there to serve clients.
‘So you jumped at it?’ said Finnur.
‘Without thinking twice, to be honest,’ answered Knútur. ‘Everybody’s making money, so why shouldn’t we?’
‘What about Thorfinnur? Did he jump at the chance too?’
Knútur nodded. ‘There were four of us,’ he said.
‘No one else?’
‘No.’
‘What happened to Thorfinnur?’
‘You’ll have to ask Sverrir.’
‘You must know,’ said Finnur.
‘All I know is that he regretted the whole thing. He told us he didn’t want to be involved any more.’
‘So you got rid of him.’
‘You’ll have to talk to Sverrir.’
‘Was this the scheme that Lína was talking about?’
‘Who’s Lína?’
‘Sigurlína Thorgrímsdóttir. She was murdered in her home last week.’
‘Well, I don’t know who she is. I’ve already told you that. Her name means nothing to me.’
‘She was on the glacier tour with you, the same tour as Alain Sörensen. Arnar remembers her, yet you claimed not to know her.’
Knútur was silent.
‘She knew what you were up to,’ said Sigurdur Óli.
‘Speak to Sverrir. He knows everything. I just put my name to the loans and opened some accounts. He knows all about Thorfinnur. I could never have laid a finger on him. Not in a million years.’
‘What about Sverrir then?’ asked Sigurdur Óli. ‘Could he have silenced Thorfinnur?’
‘You’ll have to ask him about that.’
‘Have you ever heard mention of Thórarinn or Hördur? One’s a van driver, the other runs a car repair shop.’
‘No.’