‘I’m wondering what I’ve done, or haven’t done, to deserve this. To be honest, it’s rather unexpected. Have I upset someone, or what?’
‘Not at all,’ he purred. ‘There’s a changing demographic in the east, a large immigrant population, and a major narcotics problem with smuggling that urgently needs to be addressed, so the Egilstadir Sheriff’s Office has put together an action plan with funding for additional officers to bolster their efforts on narcotics in particular.’
‘How long do I have to think about it?’
‘Not long. There are other candidates in the running.’
‘All right. I’ll think it over. Anyway, is that all?’
The man’s face was grey with fatigue, even under the orange cast of the lights in the interview room at Reykjavík’s Hverfisgata police station. All the pride had disappeared from Gústi the Gob as he leaned forward on the table, stubbled head in his hands.
‘Look. I’ve told you. I saw him that night in the bogs, told him and that other bloke to shut it or fuck off out. That’s it. End of story.’
Sævaldur sat back in his chair as Gunna stood uncomfortably by the door.
‘Come on, Gústi,’ Sævaldur said in a patient voice. ‘You’ve got plenty of form. You and your mates turned the guy over and dumped him out of town when it went wrong. Come on, come clean.’
‘No. No. No.’
‘Gústi, we’ve been here all day yesterday and all day today and we’ve got all night and all day tomorrow. And all day the next day.’
‘It wasn’t me.’ A hint of desperation crept into his voice as this time he smacked the table between them with the flat of one vast hand. ‘I’m telling you, it was nothing to do with me.’
Sævaldur’s voice hardened. ‘So where did the cash come from?’
‘Savings,’ Gústi mumbled. ‘I saved it all up.’
‘You mean you had a spending spree on Einar Eyjólfur’s credit card? Come on, Gústi. We found the receipts in your flat. We know it was you.’
‘’No. It wasn’t me did him in. I want a lawyer, now.’
Sævaldur tried to outstare him but failed.
‘All right,’ he admitted. ‘All right. We’ll get your legal eagle in. But it doesn’t look good for you, Gústi. You could get ten years for this. You did five years before, so you know what it’s like.’
‘It wasn’t me. I found the wallet in the bogs after we closed. All right, the old woman bought a few things with the bloke’s card, but that’s all.’
‘OK, so that’s your story.’
Sævaldur stood up, reached for the tape recorder and switched it off.
‘Now I’m going outside for a smoke and you’re staying here,’ he sneered, shoving his chair back. ‘D’you want to take over?’
Gunna shook her head. ‘I’d like a word outside. Can Viggó sit in for ten minutes?’
Sævaldur knocked on the door and it whispered open.
‘Viggó, would you?’ Gunna asked the thickset officer outside as he waddled into the room and sat down with the air of a man ready for the long haul.
‘Well, Gústi. Haven’t seen you for a while. How’s tricks, then?’ he asked as Gunna and Sævaldur left the room.
At the back of the building, Sævaldur and Gunna lit up. Although she had been inside the bowels of the building since the middle of the day, she was still surprised to see that night had fallen. It had started to rain and fat drops pattered around them.
‘I don’t like it,’ Gunna said. ‘It stinks.’
‘Come on. We have a crim with form and a link to the dead guy.’
‘Did you search his place yesterday?’
‘Yup. Found your guy’s credit card under the bathroom sink, receipts in the kitchen bin. It fits.’
‘It doesn’t fit. Einar Eyjólfur disappeared around midnight. We know that Gústi was on the door until after four in the morning.’
‘We can work around that. Gústi has mates.’
‘The barmaids confirmed Gústi was there until they locked up. Even that Thai girl who doesn’t speak Icelandic.’
Sævaldur ground out his cigarette against the wall. ‘What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want to get a result on this? Is this PMS week, or what?’
‘Oh, for crying out loud . . .’
‘No, come on, tell me.’
‘Inside. It’s bloody cold out here.’
In the empty cafeteria they sat face to face over a table and Gunna wondered if Sævaldur felt he was back in the interview room. In the far corner of the room a TV set showed a topical news programme with a Member of Parliament being interviewed. Gunna turned the sound down to a murmur.
‘So, what’s the problem?’ Sævaldur asked pugnaciously. ‘Crim. Link. Dead man. It adds up.’
‘It doesn’t add up. You won’t get a conviction without more evidence and I don’t think you’ll find any.’
‘We can make it fit. I can get a confession and a result on this,’ Sævaldur argued and Gunna noticed how ‘we’ had been replaced with ‘I’.
‘And whoever did this gets away while a brainless minor crim with a record of nothing but petty crime is banged up. That leaves someone very dangerous out there.’
‘Upstairs wants this sorted out quickly.’
‘Quickly doesn’t mean hanging a murder on an innocent man.’
‘Gústi the Gob isn’t innocent.’
‘He is of this, whatever else he may have on his conscience.’
‘He’s done plenty. Gústi doesn’t have a conscience.’
‘If you think you can get a confession out of him, good luck to you. There’s no evidence on Einar Eyjólfur’s body, no marks, no bruises, nothing to show any rough handling. I think you’re wasting your time.’
Sævaldur drained his mug and rattled his chair back as he stood up. ‘Well, I’m going to batter it out of him whether he likes it or not.’
‘Sit down, will you? There’s something I want to know about,’ Gunna said sharply and the tone of her voice prompted Sævaldur to do as he was asked.
‘What?’
‘Egill Grímsson. Tell me about him.’
‘Who?’
‘He was run over and killed in Grafarvogur in March.’
‘What the hell’s that got to do with anything?’ Sævaldur demanded, refilling his own mug but forgetting to offer Gunna a refill.
‘They were close friends, Egill Grímsson and Einar Eyjólfur. I’d like to know if there’s a link.’
‘Christ, what are you playing at? It’s staring us in the face. All we have to do is haul it out of Gústi the Gob without having to drag all kinds of other stuff into it,’ Sævaldur fumed.
‘Fair enough. Have you found the car or the driver responsible for Egill Grímsson’s death yet?’
‘Well, no. But whoever it was will show up soon enough.’
‘Have you ruled out a link between them?’
‘Between a schoolteacher in his forties and a nerd in his twenties? Come on, Gunna, talk sense, will you?’
‘There are links and we need to look into them. There’s more here than meets the eye, Sævaldur.’
He shifted back in his chair and swung his feet outwards to cross his ankles, throwing his head back in mock despair. ‘All right. If you want to follow trails that go nowhere, that’s up to you. As far as I’m concerned, we have our culprit right here and he just needs to be cracked.’
Gunna sighed. ‘OK. There’s enough to charge him with theft or fraud for the credit cards. That gives you plenty of time to try and get a confession out of him, but I don’t reckon you will.’
‘Why not?’ Sævaldur demanded with a sneer in his voice.
‘Because Gústi didn’t do it. Even if you charge him, you won’t get a conviction.’
‘You’re wrong. Gústi’s our man.’ Sævaldur levered himself to his feet. ‘What’s the matter with you, Gunna? Don’t you want a result on this? That’s what upstairs wants to see, and that’s what they’re going to get. Come and watch the master at work, you’ll see,’ he said and swaggered from the room, leaving his mug on the table for Gunna to pick up.