‘Yes,’ he gulped. ‘Do you?’
‘I want to know how good your information is.’
‘It’s owned by Sólfell Property.’
He wondered if the voice was even listening.
‘Normally someone like you would have vanished. Maybe lost in the hills somewhere, but it would be many years before you might be found. Understand?’
‘I understand,’ Orri replied, his mouth dry, but his heart hammering with relief at the thought that whoever had put a bag over his head and tied him to a chair was going to let him live after all.
The voice spoke softly and Orri strained to listen through the bag that was gradually suffocating him.
‘In a few minutes I will be gone. This place will be empty, so there’s no need for you to search around for anything worth stealing because there’s nothing here. In a few days you might receive some instructions. You would be well advised to do what you are told.’
‘And if I don’t?’ Orri asked. The words were out of his mouth without thinking. There was silence for what felt a long time.
‘I thought I had made it plain that I know where you live. I know who your girlfriend is, where she works and where she lives. I know where your sister and her children live. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Yes,’ Orri whispered.
‘I don’t care about your other business, but it would be as well for you to not get caught,’ the voice said in a silky tone.
‘But. . that was nothing to do with me,’ Orri said desperately and heard the voice’s chair pushed back as its legs rattled on the concrete.
‘Goodbye, Orri Björnsson. Watch out for instructions.’
‘Hey, how do I get out of here?’
‘You’ll find a way, if you’re smart enough.’
‘But. . what if I can’t get out?’
‘If you’re not that smart, then you’re no loss. Consider it a test, Orri Björnsson.’
‘Take the bag off, at least, will you?’ Orri pleaded as he heard the soft footfalls recede and the door at the top of the stairs shut.
‘Go home, Gunnhildur.’
She looked up from the papers she had been engrossed in to see Ívar Laxdal at the end of her desk.
‘I can’t make head nor tail of this stuff,’ she said. ‘I just see company names and who owns which percentage of some company that also owns bits and pieces of something else. It’s an absolute minefield.’
‘Go home, like I told you.’
Gunna squared the sheets of paper she had been poring over and tucked them into her folder.
Ívar Laxdal’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’re not taking that lot home with you, are you?’
‘I am. I’ll have another read through it all tonight and see if I can make sense of it.’
‘No.’ Ívar Laxdal shook his head. ‘Don’t waste your time. If nothing jumped out at you right away, then it’s probably not going to. Take the whole lot to a specialist over at financial and ask them to guide you through it. But you have some names, at least?’
‘There’s no shortage of people who would like to do this group of people a bad turn,’ Gunna said. ‘But murder? I don’t know. I have a list of the companies that Sólfell Investment and all the other companies that this bunch bought and sold over the last few years, although I doubt it’s a complete list. A lot of them are in Denmark and Sweden, one or two in Germany and there’s one in Britain as well. My guess is that we’re spoilt for choice for people who would happily knock these shysters off.’
‘So where do we start?’
‘That’s the problem. I’m also concerned about Elvar Pálsson, the missing link. Is he going to turn up as a corpse? Or is he sunning himself somewhere a long way south of here? My feeling is that this character is either keeping out of harm’s way or else he’s already been dealt with.’
‘Or he’s involved?’
Gunna shivered. ‘Sending a message or taking care of unfinished business?’
‘Could be either. This woman’s husband is back tomorrow, right?’
‘No, he’s already back. I’ve just come from meeting the two of them. He’s not saying more than he has to, and he looks frightened.’
‘He’s a dentist?’
‘He is. A wealthy dentist.’
‘Is there any other kind?’
‘Wealthier than most, I understand.’
Ívar Laxdal’s thumb scratched the stubble on his chin. ‘Gunnhildur, go home. You have five minutes to be out of the building.’
‘Make it ten.’
‘Not a moment longer.’
‘Who are you?’ Jóhann asked, clearly intrigued by the slight young woman sitting in front of him while Sunna María hovered behind him.
‘My name’s Bára. I do the kind of work I think you’re looking for.’
‘How do you know what we’re looking for?’
‘Because you called me.’
She studied Jóhann and could learn little from the man’s tired face, while Sunna María’s nervous fingers told her more. Jóhann’s face was impassive, with lines that radiated from behind his eyes and she could sense that on a good day there could be a quick humour there, but he had come straight from the airport after a day’s travelling and it was clear that his patience was thin.
‘What do you offer?’
‘Personal protection. I stay with you, watch your back, keep bystanders away, that kind of thing. A lot of it’s gauging the temperature, understanding what’s going on around us, avoiding dangerous situations before they occur rather than having to deal with them when they happen,’ Bára said. ‘Although that’s naturally part of the brief as well. But it depends, and I’d have to have an idea of what to expect.’
‘What are your credentials? Experience?’
‘Five years as a police officer, and I was at the embassy in Brussels for a year. Is it the press you’re having problems with?’
Sunna María looked at Jóhann and shook her head rapidly. ‘You tell her.’
Jóhann cleared his throat. ‘A friend of ours has been murdered,’ he said. Bára took care not to show any surprise.
‘Here in Iceland? You mean the man who was murdered in Borgarfjördur a few days ago?’
‘Yes,’ Jóhann said in a dry voice. ‘Sunna, would you?’ He asked, nodding at the minibar in the corner of the room. ‘Ach, I seem to spend half my life in hotel rooms, and now I come home and have to spend the night in yet another one.’
He sipped the whisky Sunna María handed him. ‘Drink?’
Bára shook her head. ‘I’m at work.’
‘Not just Villi,’ Sunna María broke in. Nobody knows where Elvar is.’
‘There could have been two murders?’
‘We don’t know that,’ Jóhann said. ‘Elvar appears to have dropped off the face of the earth, but it’s not as if that hasn’t happened before. Both of these men are. . were business acquaintances of ours.’
‘So you feel you could be subject to some kind of similar attack?’
‘Exactly. I’m not too worried, but my wife is concerned, as you can imagine.’
‘I see.’
‘What can you do?’
‘What do you want? I can provide advice on where to go and not go, what to do or not do, places to avoid, things to look out for. Or I can accompany you if that’s what you feel you need.’
Sunna María looked anxiously at Jóhann and nodded while he rested his chin in one hand.
‘Round-the-clock or daylight hours?’ he asked.
‘It’s up to you. I can sleep in the same room as you if that’s what you feel is needed.’
‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ Jóhann said with a tired smile.
‘Can you tell me anything about the circumstances of these murders, so I have an idea of what we are talking about here?’
‘Villi was shot,’ Sunna María said, her voice welling up with pent-up anxiety.
‘I thought that was a drug-related killing?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Sunna María said.
‘So what can you do?’ Jóhann asked. ‘Anything?’
‘No guarantees. I can’t stop a bullet but I would expect to be able to keep you out of a dangerous situation.’