‘Zero-four-fifty-one, ninety-five-fifty. Eiríkur, you there?’
Ninety-five-fifty, zero-four-fifty-one. Got you.’
‘Heading for Reykjanesbraut. Our friend’s moving.’
‘Orri?’ Eiríkur asked sleepily.
‘My guess is he’s going to work. Any movement at Sunna María’s place?’
‘This early? Nothing.’
‘All right. Give her an hour and then bang on her door. Make sure she’s still in one piece.’
‘Will do.’
Gunna leaned over the seat to peer through the windscreen. ‘You can still see him?’
‘Right there,’ Geiri growled. ‘And over the speed limit in this weather.’
‘Definitely looks like he’s going to work. I’ll duck behind the seat if you want to get closer. We can’t let him see me.’
The Golf spun through the sheets of water forming on the roads and Orri’s car came gradually closer until Geiri caught up with it at an intersection outside Hafnarfjördur. As the lights changed he ran a light that had just gone red to keep up and then allowed another car to filter across between them, still keeping Orri in sight.
With Hafnarfjördur behind them, Orri’s car sideslipped onto a feeder road and Geiri took his foot off the pedal to create some space between them.
‘He’s coming off.’
‘I thought he would. Keep an eye on him as far back as you can.’
Geiri slowed and waited until Orri was already down the sloping curve before he followed, letting himself lose sight of Orri’s car for a few seconds, and at the same time letting Orri lose sight of anyone who might be following. Now it was obvious where he was going and Geiri pulled up in the parking lot of a neighbouring building between a couple of vans, far enough from the Green Bay Dispatch unit to be inconspicuous.
‘What now?’
‘I need another half hour with my eyes closed,’ Gunna said, handing him the pair of small binoculars from the back seat. ‘Our boy will probably come out and drive off in one of those vans. When he does, wake me up.’
Gunna’s communicator came to life at the same time as the Golf did and she felt the car move as ‘Ninety-five-fifty, zero-four-fifty-one’ crackled in her ear.
‘Zero-four-fifty-one, ninety-five-fifty,’ Gunna answered as she looked around. ‘What’s happening, Geiri?’
‘Our friend’s moving off. The white Trafic up there.’ He pointed with a thick finger to the van in the distance.
‘OK, good, don’t lose him,’ she said blearily and clicked her communicator again. ‘Eiríkur, what news?’
‘Nobody home, chief. No answer when we banged on the door and the home phone isn’t answering either. Nothing to be seen through the windows.’
‘Hell. Where’s the damned woman got to?’
‘I’m starting to wonder if it was her we saw last night.’
‘Why do you think that?’
‘It was someone who knew their way around, I reckon, and slipped away in the dark. We were looking for someone going to her house, not someone coming from it.’
‘Use your discretion. Get inside if you can without doing too much damage and check if she’s there or not. If there’s any comeback, we can truthfully say that we were concerned for her well-being. All right?’
‘Sure, chief. After sitting here all night, Tinna really likes the idea of breaking Sunna María’s windows.’
Gunna wanted to laugh, but stopped herself. Her head was starting to pound. ‘Up to you, dear boy. But you’ll have to answer for any damage. Let me know when you’ve had a look.’
The van was making sedate progress back along Reykjanesbraut towards the city through the swelling rush hour traffic that Gunna reflected she would also be in the middle of on a normal day. Geiri hummed to himself, easily keeping the high-sided Trafic in sight as the streams of cars stopped and started, pushing his way across into the other lanes when he needed to and once flooring the accelerator when the van took an unexpected turn, pressing Gunna into the seat in the back.
She reflected that it was as well Orri drove fairly responsibly, and wondered why she was still in the back like a passenger in a taxi. As the van approached the intersection with Vesturlandsvegur and Geiri watched Orri join the lane of traffic heading for the city’s northern region and the countryside beyond, Gunna’s communicator clicked.
‘Gunna, you there?’ she heard Eiríkur call, for once forgetting proper communications protocol.
‘Yep, I’m here. What’s the score?’
‘The house is empty. Nobody here.’
‘Sure she’s not been dumped in the freezer?’
‘Already checked. She must have gone out the back door, around the house and walked away. There’s a footpath between the two houses and she must have gone up there.’
‘Hell and damnation.’
‘Want to put out an alert for her?’
‘Not yet. Her car’s there?’
‘There are two cars in the garage, and guess what? One of them’s a dark grey Audi A5, the same as someone saw in Borgarfjördur the night Vilhelm Thorleifsson was shot. It’s registered to Jón Vilberg Voss.’
‘Who has been in Paris for the last three months. Very convenient.’
Gunna felt the car slow down and looked up. The white van with Orri at the wheel had pulled into the exit lane and climbed a slope to the lights at the top, where it waited, eventually hauling itself past the lights and across the intersection bridge to another set of lights.
‘What’s happening, Geiri?’
‘Not sure. Looks like he’s heading into Grafarvogur. Unless he’s figured out he’s being followed and is doubling back on himself. We’ll see when the lights change.’
‘All right,’ Gunna said and went back to her communicator. ‘Eiríkur?’
‘Here.’
‘If there’s nothing happening, then get over to communications. Check the traffic on Orri’s phone, the mysterious one he’s been in touch with, and see if Sunna María’s phone can be tracked as well. I’ve already requested warrants for a bunch of mobile numbers, so check with the Laxdal if they aren’t there yet.’
‘Will do. And you?’
‘We’re tailing Orri in his work van. We’re up near Höfdabakki at the moment and it looks like he’s just driven into that new shopping centre there.’
He had to admit to himself, it didn’t feel bad to be back in the van and back at work. Dóri had been surprised to see him, but refrained from dropping the sarcastic comments the others let fall. The place had changed in the last couple of weeks, but with all the fuss of the police and being arrested a couple of times, he had hardly noticed it.
The old boys had a subdued feel about them now, nervous that their jobs were about to fall through, and while nobody missed Alex and his abrasive manner, the fact that he had died in such circumstances had left a clear mark on the staff.
Dóri had given him a couple of easy collections that would keep him busy for a few hours. He was still undecided about meeting the Voice. He felt he was in enough trouble already and he was nervous that he might not come out of a meeting unscathed, but meeting somewhere public should be safe enough. Of course, it wasn’t his fault that the police had caught up with him like that. Well, he admitted to himself, it had been his fault, but he could hardly be blamed for it.
As the van made its stately way up Vesturlandsvegur to the first pickup of the day, Orri wondered how long it would be before the police came calling again and how soon he would be hauled before a court. The thought had kept him awake last night, along with all the other question marks he felt had dropped into view in the last few days.
He had called Lísa’s phone twice and she hadn’t picked up. Would she come back? Could he persuade her to come back? He certainly missed her presence far more than he could have imagined, even though her pernickety ways sometimes irritated the hell out of him. And what about the Voice? The thought kept coming back to him and he wondered what was going to happen there.