He nibbled a pastry without much appetite. ‘So if we have met, where was that?’
‘You want a refill?’ Sunna María asked, nodding at his mug.
‘All right, then.’
She stood up to return with a second mug of coffee and put in front of him.
‘You didn’t answer my question. Where have I seen you before?’
‘You’ve been to my house, Orri,’ she said sweetly. ‘And to the house I own along the street. I have a few motion sensor cameras here and there, and it wasn’t that hard to figure you out.’
‘Oh,’ Orri sat crestfallen, wondering what to say as she reached out and patted his hand. He tried to draw his hand back but his fingers felt numb.
‘Then you appeared one night and we met in the cellar. I thought Bruno was a little harsh on you, but that’s his business.’
‘That was you?’ Orri wanted to stand up and overturn the table, but found himself welded to his chair, watching Sunna María bite into another slice of pastry.
‘It was, I’m afraid. Are you feeling all right, Orri?’ she said, standing up and dusting crumbs from her fingers with the same enchanting smile. ‘I’ll help you back to the van. You don’t want to embarrass yourself in here, do you?’
Big Geiri hurried out of the shopping centre and sat heavily in the driver’s seat.
‘There’s something odd going on in there. Our boy’s had a funny turn or something, and she’s helping him out,’ he said, switching on the engine and watching over the steering wheel as Orri came out of the shopping centre, unsteady on his feet and with Sunna María, an arm firmly around his waist, propping him up and steering him towards the van.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ Gunna muttered to herself. ‘He looks drunk.’
‘He had two cups of coffee and that’s all.’
‘Zero-four-fifty-one, ninety-five-fifty,’ Gunna called into her communicator. ‘Speak to me, Eiríkur.’
‘Ninety-five-fifty, zero-four-fifty-one. Nothing new here.’
‘There is here. Listen, I want some backup ready in the background and I reckon we’re going to need an ambulance as well. You can follow me on the tracker, so I want them ready when I need them. Got that?’
‘There’s a traffic unit round the corner on the main road and a squad car at the Hafnarfjördur station. I’ll get those ready to go for you. What’s happening?’
‘I have Sunna María and Orri apparently heading towards Green Bay’s van and it looks very strange. I really want to grab the pair of them, but I don’t want to move until our mystery man shows up,’ Gunna replied. ‘If he shows up, that is.’ Gunna impatiently wiped the windscreen with her sleeve. ‘Can you see what’s happening, Geiri?’
‘No, looks like they’re round the other side,’ he replied, letting the Golf creep forward. ‘There’s something going on round there. Hang on, he’s moving.’
‘Sunna María isn’t. Surely Orri’s not driving the van if can hardly stand up?’ Gunna said, pointing to the blonde figure in a belted raincoat getting into a black Mercedes four-by-four. ‘So which one do we keep track of now?’ She clicked her communicator. ‘Eiríkur, still there?’
‘Listening, chief.’
‘We have two people to follow, Sunna María in a Mercedes four-by-four,’ she said, reading out the car’s registration. ‘Got that?’
‘Got it.’
‘And Orri in the white Trafic. You have the number, don’t you?’
‘Got that as well.’
The Golf moved off as the van swung out of the car park. Gunna put a hand on Geiri’s elbow. ‘Wait a second. Let the Merc go as well,’ she said. Geiri stopped and the four-by-four sped too fast through some puddles and followed the van. ‘Now go,’ she said, as the Golf was already rolling forward.
‘That’s not our boy driving the van,’ Geiri said. ‘There’s someone else there and it’s not him.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘I think so. It’s someone who sits higher than the guy we were tailing before, and whoever’s driving isn’t wearing a high-viz vest like our boy was.’
‘Right, keep in sight,’ Gunna said as they followed the van and the four-by-four along the waterfront and then up the hill. Instead of taking the turnoff to the main road, the van carried on towards the trading estate where Green Bay Dispatch had its depot.
‘Back to the yard, it seems?’
‘I don’t like it. Why’s Sunna María going that way as well?’ Gunna growled, reaching for her mouthpiece. ‘Eiríkur? What’s the situation on backup?’
‘The squad car’s a few minutes behind you.’
Geiri again slowed down as the van took an unexpected turn at the roundabout at the edge of the trading estate. ‘They’re going along the Krýsuvík road.’
‘What the hell?’
‘That means we can’t easily tail them without being seen.’
‘Hang back as far as you can, then,’ Gunna said, and speaking into her mouthpiece. ‘Eiríkur? Is there another squad car available? Or anything?’
‘It doesn’t look like it.’
‘Can you re-route the traffic guys? It looks like we’re tailing them along the Krýsuvík road, and I’m trying to second-guess where the hell they might be going. Can you get the traffic guys to go down the Kaldársels road from Hafnarfjördur?’ she said, thinking fast and trying to remember the lie of the land on these little-used country roads. ‘That way we should be able to head them off if things start to get sticky.’
‘Yep. Will do.’
‘It’s not the same driver,’ Geiri said, shaking his head.
‘Sure? How so?’
‘This guy’s not as cautious as our boy. He’s throwing that van around as if nobody’s going to have to drive it ever again.’
The ink-black rocks with patches of lichen hanging on to them for dear life sped past as Geiri drove faster to keep the two vehicles in sight. Tangles of dormant trees, leaves long fallen and their buds waiting for some spring warmth before breaking into new life, were scattered by the roadsides at intervals, with the occasional forlorn evergreen conifer here and there. Now they were in open country where any kind of traffic was a rarity and the road was rough after a winter of heavy weather. It spat stones and water back at them while the Golf’s wheels struggled to get a grip on the wet road surface. In summer, this was a popular enough place with walkers and cyclists, but on a cold spring day with winter still very much in evidence, the area was deserted.
Unfamiliar with the district, Gunna tried to think where they might be going at such speed.
‘They’re throwing up that much water that they won’t be able to see anyone following,’ Geiri said. ‘Now they’re slowing, and turning again. That’s the road towards Hvaleyrarvatn.’
‘Eiríkur. You can see us on the tracker?’
‘Got you.’
‘They’re turning along the Hvaleyri road. Warn the traffic guys, will you?’
‘We have company,’ Geiri said. ‘Look in the mirror.’
Gunna leaned forward to see that a four-by-four in police colours could be seen in the distance, its headlights dipping and bouncing as it negotiated the pitted road, while Geiri again slowed as the brake lights on Sunna María’s Mercedes glowed bright beneath the layer of grime they’d already picked up along the way.
‘If we can see them,’ Gunna said, pointing back at the police four-by-four and forward to Sunna María’s car. ‘Then they can see us.’
‘If they’re looking, and I don’t imagine they are,’ Geiri said. ‘Another turn. If you want to head them off, now might be the time.’
‘Where are they heading now?’
‘That’s the road that passes south of the lake. There are only a couple of turnoffs to summer chalets and the like.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Sure enough.’
‘Eiríkur, they’re taking the road south of the Hvaleyri lake. Get the traffic guys onto it from the other end, will you? This has gone far enough, I want them stopped.’
‘Will do, chief,’ Eiríkur said and Gunna could hear him relaying instructions on the open channel. ‘Warn them to be careful. This guy may be nasty.’