Haraldur was waiting for them, with a cup, and Tómas introduced Magnus, before buying two more. A girl of about seventeen served him: Arnór’s wife hadn’t started work yet. Haraldur was a small, serious-looking man with a neatly trimmed beard and deep-set, bright blue eyes. He was probably in his early thirties.
‘What have you got for us, Haraldur?’ Tómas asked.
‘I have some information about Rós,’ Haraldur said. He spoke deliberately and with a quiet authority. His voice was surprisingly deep.
‘I wasn’t sure whether to give it to you. It relates to your investigation of Gústi’s death.’ He paused.
‘Yes?’ said Magnus mildly. He could sense Haraldur’s reluctance, but he waited patiently. Now the postman had got them there, he would talk, in his own time.
‘You know that they have recently constructed a tunnel on the Ísafjördur road?’
Magnus nodded.
‘Well, the construction company’s equipment broke down several times when they were finishing the tunnel. There were demands that they cancel the project, demands led by Rós. She claimed the hidden people didn’t like it, and they were the ones breaking the machinery.’
‘So I heard,’ said Magnus.
‘It wasn’t the hidden people. It was Rós.’
‘Really?’ said Magnus. ‘How do you know?’
‘I just know,’ said Haraldur, glancing at Tómas.
Tómas shifted in his chair. ‘Do you have any evidence, Haraldur?’ There was anxiety in his voice, which Magnus didn’t quite understand.
Haraldur turned his attention back to Magnus. ‘Rós was a good friend of my grandmother, Sigga. You could say that she was her disciple. My grandmother could ...’ he hesitated. ‘She could see things. And Rós believed that she herself had picked up the knowledge of how to do this. I used to visit my grandmother quite often before she died, and I got to know Rós well. She grew up in Dalvík. Her father was a mechanic, he owned his own garage. She used to help him out: she knows a lot about engines. And braking systems.’
‘I see,’ said Magnus. ‘So she would know how to sabotage the equipment?’
‘Precisely.’
‘Interesting.’ But not quite enough, Magnus thought. ‘So she had a motive — to protect the homes of the hidden people — and she had the capability. But do you have any proof that it was she who sabotaged the equipment?’
‘Proof? No,’ said the postman shaking his head. He hesitated, and then looked straight at Magnus. His deep blue eyes bore right into the detective, unsettling him. Magnus had been stared at by all kinds of nasties in the past: murderers, rapists, gang leaders. But none was quite like this little village postman. ‘I know she did it.’
‘Did she tell you she had done it? Did you see her do it? Did anyone else tell you she had done it?’
Haraldur sucked in his breath and stood up. ‘No. No, none of those things. I ought to go back to my round now.’
He paused at the door of the service station, and then turned slowly back to Magnus. ‘But I also know she didn’t murder Gústi. That’s why I wasn’t sure whether to tell you about the machinery. I didn’t want to lead you down the wrong path.’ With that he was gone.
Magnus turned to Tómas. ‘What was all that about? You said he was reliable. He’s a nutter like the rest of them.’
Tómas rubbed his chin. He was almost squirming in his chair. ‘The information that Rós’s father was a mechanic is interesting, isn’t it? I knew she came from Dalvík, but I didn’t know that. Haraldur’s theory makes perfect sense.
‘It does,’ Magnus had to admit. ‘And I really like the idea that the machines were broken by a real person. But what else is going on here? How can Haraldur be so sure? Perhaps he has a grudge against Rós?’
‘Haraldur doesn’t go in for grudges,’ said Tómas.
‘Why are you looking so uncomfortable?’ Magnus said. ‘What’s going on here, Tómas?’
Tómas sipped some of his coffee and stared into his cup.
‘Tómas?’
The constable took a deep breath and faced Magnus. ‘Haraldur has a lot of credibility in this town. He doesn’t talk much, but when he does talk, people listen.’
‘He does have a kind of authority about him,’ Magnus said.
‘It’s not just that. Rós makes a lot of noise about what she learned from Sigga, and about the hidden people, and the dead people she can talk to. You get none of that from Haraldur. But people say he has inherited his grandmother’s skills.’
Magnus rolled his eyes. ‘Here we go. Not you, too, Tómas.’
‘There are many things. For example, a couple of years ago a lot of people in town started to invest in the stock market. Haraldur knew the kreppa was coming: he suggested to people quietly that they should sell their bank shares. The people who believed him are OK, those that didn’t lost a lot of money.’
‘So he can read the stock market. He should get a job on Wall Street. Get a grip, Tómas, we’re investigating a possible murder here.’
‘OK. OK,’ said Tómas. ‘I’m sorry. But you have to admit that the idea that Rós sabotaged the machinery herself is interesting.’
‘You’re right. I like that. Tell me what happened.’
‘It was during the summer, July. There was a big construction company involved, a joint venture between Icelandic and Danish firms: they used Bolungarvíkur Engineering as subcontractors. Most of their stuff was kept at Ísafjördur, but they kept quite a few machines here at Bolungarvíkur Engineering’s yard. A digger had its brakes sabotaged. No one was hurt, but the company placed a guard on the yard. Then two bulldozers were damaged, and finally another digger. It looked accidental. Of course there was lots of talk from Rós and others about the hidden people. After the third episode, the construction company put a whole squad of guards on the yard and the damage stopped.’
‘So, the sabotage happened in the night?’
‘Yes, if it was sabotage. They couldn’t prove it. It could just have been faulty parts.’
‘Did the guard see anything?’
‘No. I interviewed him. He’s a local guy — Jonni Gudmundsson.’ Tómas paused, his face suddenly stricken. ‘Oh, God, why didn’t I think of that?’
‘What is it?’ said Magnus.
‘Jonni lives next door to Rós.’
‘Does he now? But this is a small town. Couldn’t that just be a coincidence? I mean Arnór lives opposite the Mayor. Everyone lives near everyone else.’
Tómas shrugged. ‘That’s true.’
Magnus thought. ‘OK. So what have we got? We know Rós hates the construction companies because she wants to protect the elves. We also know she understands how these machines work. So she breaks into the compound in the middle of the night, sabotages one of the machines and claims it’s the elves. The company puts a guard on the gate, but he is a neighbour of Rós’s, so she tells him to look the other way while she does it again. And again. Make sense?’
‘Makes more sense that Rós broke those machines rather than the hidden people,’ said Tómas.
‘Quite. But the construction company doesn’t give up and they complete the tunnel. Rós is really upset by now. And when she tries to apologize to her elf friends, Gústi drives his digger through the ceremony, spoiling everything. She wants to avenge the elves and so she plants some bait under some loose rock, where Gústi will go and check it out. He falls for the trap, she starts the landslide, and all the elves are happy, even if Gústi isn’t.’
‘Sounds plausible.’
‘But we have nothing that amounts to proof yet.’
‘Shall we go and speak to Rós?’
‘No,’ said Magnus. ‘The more evidence you’ve got when you confront a suspect, the better. Let’s talk to Jonni first.’