‘Jón Oddur, what are the implications for the Minister’s position? Will he have to resign?’
‘What about the allegations of intimidation and bribery? What’s Spearpoint’s response?’
The barrage fell silent as the glass door swung shut behind him, and Jón Oddur could feel rivulets of sweat running down his back as he made for the lift at the trot.
‘Bullshit,’ Jonni Kristinns announced with delight as he returned to his car. ‘Bullshit from start to finish.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Bára asked.
‘What else could they say? He didn’t say anything at all that says anything. No facts, no information, just business as usual. I reckon it’s a smokescreen to keep the lid on things while they salvage what they can from the wreck,’ he said with satisfaction.
Gunna nodded and looked up at Spearpoint’s windows high above. ‘It doesn’t sound right, does it? Is denying everything flatly like that normal practice, Jonni?’
‘Yeah. It’s the normal bullshit. This has to be a face-saving exercise while they try to keep the stock exchange happy. Spearpoint is privately owned, but I’ll bet you a shag to a bag of shit that ESC’s share value is going to plummet.’
‘Er. No thanks, Jonni. Maybe later, all right?’ she said as he launched himself into his car and beat the unwilling engine into life. ‘Jæja, Bára. Maybe we should have brought Snorri along as well. He would have enjoyed all that. Come on, let’s see if we can track down Sigurjóna.’
Ósk Líndal was more imposing than Snorri’s description of her had even hinted. She stood two metres tall in flat shoes, looking down at Gunna and Bára. Her arms were folded underneath a bosom that jutted alarmingly into free space. Robustly built herself, Gunna felt pleasantly petite standing opposite her and Bára’s slight frame was little more than a wisp alongside the two of them.
‘Sigurjóna is not available,’ Ósk announced sternly. ‘I thought your officers had already been given all the available information they asked for yesterday.’
‘They were,’ Gunna replied equally sternly. ‘But we have some more questions for Sigurjóna.’
‘I’m here in her place while she’s out of the office. You can ask me anything relevant to the company.’
‘What exactly is your role here?’ Gunna asked.
‘I am the operations manager. I handle the day-to-day running of the company. If you have questions, I can do my best to help,’ she barked, looking anything but helpful.
‘Where is your boss right now?’
‘She’s not here.’
‘I wasn’t asking where she isn’t.’
‘I’m not at liberty to divulge her whereabouts.’
‘You would be if I come back with a warrant.’
‘In that case, our lawyers will be waiting for you.’
‘If that’s the way you want to play it, that’s fine with me. Now, I want to speak to some of your staff.’
‘Who?’
‘To begin with, I want to talk to that boy with the red face who was outside just now.’
‘We don’t have a meeting room available right now.’
‘In that case he can come down to Hverfisgata and we can talk there, and you can send the rest of them down at thirty-minute intervals.’
Gunna lifted herself to her maximum height, bringing the top of her head level with Ósk’s nose.
‘It’s past five o’clock. People will be going home shortly,’ she protested.
‘Then you’ll just have to tell them that they can’t.’
‘All right. You can use the canteen if you must. I’ll ask the receptionist to clear it for you and make sure nobody disturbs you.’
‘Is that Dísa?’
‘Dísa? No, she left. Ill health, depression.’
Jón Oddur had not recovered from his ordeal outside. The office lights weren’t doing him any favours, she noticed. The man’s skin looked blotchy and there were bags under his eyes.
‘Tell me about the party,’ Gunna prompted.
‘What about it?’
‘Who was there. What went on.’
He groaned and slouched back in his chair. ‘All right. It was the PR Practitioners’ Awards night. Sigurjóna was slated for an award, so we needed a presence.’
‘So this is a PR company, right?’ Bára asked. ‘How come Spearpoint is involved in managing a construction site?’
‘It basically evolved into a project management operation. Sigurjóna had been doing PR work for a long time and when she got involved with InterAlu, she was asked to lay on fixers and interpreters. It all snowballed from there and the company has been growing really fast over the last year and a half.’
‘All work with InterAlu?’
‘Yeah, and ESC, and more foreign companies are coming to us all the time now.’
‘ESC and Spearpoint aren’t the same thing?’
‘The offices of both are here. But Spearpoint is privately owned and ESC is a limited company.’
‘Owned by?’ Bára asked.
‘Sigurjóna, her husband, a few other people, and InterAlu.’
‘And if InterAlu pull out, Spearpoint loses its biggest customer?’ Bára asked and Jón Oddur nodded again.
‘And ESC becomes worthless. Worse than worthless, actually,’ he said, squirming in his seat.
‘Look,’ he groaned finally. ‘You didn’t hear this from me, but you’ll hear it soon enough anyway. On Friday Glitnir Bank will inform the Central Bank that it’s unable to service its debts. It’s not ESC’s bank, but that one isn’t in any better position. It’s just a case of when.’
Startled, Gunna wondered what to say, but settled for glaring into Jón Oddur’s face.
‘They probably won’t announce it until after the weekend, but just wait and see. Everyone knows something big’s about to happen after the currency’s been on the slide for months. It’s only a few of us know what’s really happening.’
‘And this affects ESC?’
‘Of course it does!’ Jón Oddur yelped. ‘It affects every business in the country! But ESC is due to be financed for the big phase of the Hvalvík Lagoon project by the bank, and some of us know that the bank doesn’t have anything left to lend.’
Gunna drew a deep breath. ‘Well, young man. I hope you’re wrong.’
‘So do I. But this isn’t just happening in Iceland. This is all over the world. I tell you, Iceland is looking at unemployment and inflation, big time,’ he added gloomily.
‘In that case, I’m sure that the police force will be able to fill a few vacancies,’ Gunna said tartly, shocked at Jón Oddur’s prediction and forcing herself to keep her mind on the job. ‘Now, the awards night.’
Jón Oddur deflated and slumped in the chair. ‘OK. There were half a dozen of us from here went to the ceremony. We booked rooms at the hotel and there was a party afterwards in Sigurjóna’s suite.’
‘Who attended?’
‘Er, me, Sigurjóna. Ósk was there but she left early. Sigurjóna’s sister was there as well and a few other guests,’ he gabbled as Bára scribbled down names in her folder.
‘And the one you haven’t mentioned?’ Gunna said gently.
Jón Oddur was suddenly on the defensive. ‘Who’s that?’
‘This guy.’
Gunna placed the printout of the pages from Hot Chat on the table. Jón Oddur looked up and then down again in surprise at seeing the photo of himself.
‘Oh, him. Yeah, he was there as well. Sigurjóna invited him. This is . . . where did you get it from?’
‘You didn’t mention him. Why?’ Gunna demanded, ignoring Jón Oddur’s question.
‘I don’t know. Just forgot. We don’t normally have anything to do with him anyway.’
‘Tell me about this man. Do you know where he lives?’ Gunna probed.