Jósep shook his head.
‘Eyvindur had started asking questions about what went on. It seems he found out.’
Jósep avoided Flóvent’s gaze.
‘What did your father do, Jósep?’ asked Flóvent, reaching into his breast pocket for the photograph taken long ago in the school grounds.
Jósep kept his eyes lowered.
‘I did a quick check. Your fathers knew each other, didn’t they? Your dad and Eyvindur’s. They did time together. Isn’t that right, Jósep?’
‘Yes,’ muttered Jósep, so quietly that Flóvent could barely hear him.
‘It wasn’t the only time he was behind bars, was it?’
‘No,’ whispered Jósep. ‘He was a... bastard.’
‘Did Eyvindur tell you that Felix and Rudolf Lunden had committed a crime and that you were one of the victims? That you could try and blackmail them?’
Jósep shook his head.
‘This is an extremely serious matter, Jósep.’
The young man seemed tormented by the barrage of questions, but Flóvent had no alternative but to keep up the pressure.
‘Did you write a letter to Rudolf, threatening to expose him unless he paid you a substantial sum of money? Did you tell him to leave the money by the cemetery gate on Sudurgata?’
‘Not... it wasn’t...’
‘Did you or did you not write that letter, Jósep?’
‘Eyvindur told me to do it,’ Jósep whispered. ‘He didn’t dare do it himself. He was always such a coward. He said I had to do it and fetch the money and all the rest. I just did what he told me. He was going to give me half. He promised. But the money didn’t come. Then... then he got killed. But it wasn’t my fault.’
‘What did he say, Jósep? What did Eyvindur say to you?’
‘He needed money because of that... that woman,’ said Jósep, still staring at the ground. ‘He thought he could win her back if he got hold of some cash. She’d walked out on him. He said we could squeeze some money out of those people. He told me what to write, and I took it round, but... nothing happened.’
‘Was he going to talk to Felix, do you know? Eyvindur had a key to Felix’s flat. Have you any idea how he got his hands on it?’
‘He stole it. In the West Fjords. When Felix was plastered.’
‘What was he planning to do with the key?’
‘Break into his place and...’ Jósep didn’t finish.
‘What?’
‘He thought Felix kept money in his flat.’
‘Why did he think that?’
‘Because he was working for the Germans. That’s what Eyvindur thought. He was going to find proof.’
‘Then what? Was he going to blackmail Felix? Or expose him?’
‘I don’t know. He was sure Felix was a spy. He spied on us and now he was spying for the Nazis. Eyvindur said he was a bloody Nazi.’
‘And Eyvindur was going to prove all this by breaking into his place?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did he tell you about the experiments?’
‘He said they were illegal — done in secret. Those people didn’t want anyone to find out about them; Felix had let the cat out of the bag. Eyvindur said Felix used to spy on us when we were kids and tell his father everything. He wasn’t our friend; he only pretended to be. So there was nothing wrong with making them pay. They owed us. Owed us a load of money. Specially...’
‘Specially what?’
‘Specially Rikki’s mum. Eyvindur told me to write that in the letter. He told me to mention Rikki specially.’
‘Rikki? Who’s Rikki?’
Jósep went silent again. Flóvent waited, but when no answer was forthcoming, he held out the school photograph and asked if he recognised the people in it. At first Jósep kept his head turned away, but when Flóvent pushed the pamphlet into his hand, Jósep finally looked at it. He was quick to avert his eyes again, but then he seemed to pull himself together and held the leaflet up for a closer look.
‘What happened to Rikki, Jósep?’
Jósep hesitated a moment longer, then put his finger on the fourth boy in the picture.
‘That’s Rikki,’ he said. ‘Felix was always bullying him. Saying he was skinny and had a small head and that he was thick... That was nothing new. He was always saying stuff like that to us.’
‘About how thick you were?’
Jósep nodded. ‘Felix was always trying to impress his dad. We talked about that, Eyvindur and me, after he found out about those experiments. How Felix’s dad had ordered him to behave like that because he wanted to see what Felix could make us do.’
‘What sort of things did he make you do?’
‘Felix gave Rikki a pill that he said came from the doctor. Told him it was the latest scientific development. It could make people fly. Specially little boys, like Rikki, who didn’t weigh anything.’
‘What happened?’
‘Rikki believed him.’
45
Billy Wiggins tapped his fingers on the table in front of him as he smoked, cool and unconcerned. Thorson had decided to have him recalled from Hvalfjördur where he was working on the construction of the naval base at Hvítanes. The sergeant hadn’t offered any resistance but had reacted with surprise and wanted to know why they were taking him to Reykjavík. They asked him to be patient; all would be explained in due course, so he accompanied the two military policemen out to their jeep without any fuss and sat quietly in the back seat all the way to town.
Once there he was taken to an interview room that the military police had at their disposal in the detention camp at Kirkjusandur. He accepted a coffee, and someone gave him some cigarettes, as he had finished his own on the journey to Reykjavík. He was stubbing one out when Thorson entered the room and sat down in the chair opposite his. Wiggins recognised Thorson from his visit to the laundry but didn’t seem at all surprised to see him, just grinned, straightened up in his seat and flapped away a cloud of blue smoke.
‘I guessed as much,’ he said. ‘Are you going to tell me what this is all about?’
‘What exactly did you guess?’ asked Thorson.
‘That I’d bump into you again,’ said Wiggins. ‘Did you really have to drag me all the way back from Hvalfjördur? Was it really that urgent? Or were you just trying to embarrass me? Get me into trouble? There were plenty of people around when the police picked me up.’
‘That was unavoidable,’ said Thorson. ‘We need to wrap up this investigation, and we believe we’re onto something. Your name has cropped up more than once in connection with Vera and Eyvindur, and I wanted to talk to you—’
‘Are you arresting me?’ Wiggins interrupted. ‘Am I under arrest?’
‘No, you’re not under arrest. Can you tell me more about your relationship with Vera? What are your plans for the future? Have you discussed them at all?’
‘I didn’t touch that bloke. I thought I’d made that clear the last time we met. I didn’t know him. Never met him. It was Vera’s decision to leave him. These things happen. I was more than willing to help her move out. We had nothing to do with his death. Couples do often break up without killing each other, you know.’
‘Sure,’ said Thorson. ‘And Vera has a pretty impressive record. Has she told you about her fiancé? The man she was with before she met Eyvindur?’
‘I’m not interested,’ said Wiggins. ‘I don’t care about her past.’
‘So you don’t know what she did? How she got even, when he went back on his word?’
Wiggins shook his head, apparently indifferent to Thorson’s question.
‘Do you want to hear?’
‘It’s none of my business,’ Wiggins said.
‘She has a history of manipulating men,’ said Thorson. ‘Men like you, Wiggins.’