‘Could it be a tramp?’ asked Flóvent, peering round the room. ‘No one’s keeping an eye on the property any longer.’
‘Maybe,’ said Thorson. ‘Someone might have been camped out here for a while. Made themselves at home.’
‘Wouldn’t we have noticed all this the last time we were here?’
‘I guess.’
‘And shouldn’t there be old brennivín bottles lying around if it’s a tramp?’ said Flóvent. ‘Or meths... or bottles of baking essence?’
‘You’re saying it’s not necessarily a vagrant...?’
Flóvent prodded at the Nazi flag with his toe. ‘It looks more like a hideout than a tramp’s dossing place. Don’t you think?’
‘A hideout? You mean...?’
‘I don’t know, but it’s possible.’
‘You think Felix Lunden broke in here?’
‘It’s no worse a hideout than anywhere else,’ said Flóvent, picking up the flag. ‘Felix doesn’t have many places to turn. Perhaps he reckoned on this being the last place we’d look for him.’
‘Do you think he could still be in the building?’
‘Perhaps we’d better check.’
They embarked on a systematic search of the consulate, starting with the cellar, then the ground floor, opening the doors one after the other, peering into every cupboard and storeroom. They did the same upstairs and in the attic, but it appeared that the uninvited guest had kept to the cellar: they found no trace of him anywhere else in the house.
About half an hour later they were back where they had started, standing by the mattress in the boiler room. Thorson shone his torch into every nook and cranny and eventually the beam caught something in the narrow space behind the boiler. Getting down on his hands and knees, he reached into the space and pulled out a metal tube of toothpaste. Thorson got up again and showed the tube to Flóvent.
‘Isn’t that the brand he was selling?’ Thorson asked.
Written on the tube, which was squeezed flat in the middle, were the words Kolynos Dental Cream. Flóvent unscrewed the lid and sniffed at the toothpaste.
‘Do you think he carried a tube with him?’
‘Why not?’ said Thorson. ‘“For whiter, brighter teeth”.’
Flóvent smiled.
‘Who else could it be?’ Thorson went on. ‘Surely Felix has been hiding here.’
‘We certainly can’t rule it out,’ said Flóvent, screwing the lid back on the tube and putting it in his pocket.
‘You’re right. He must have thought it wouldn’t ever occur to us to look for him here,’ said Thorson.
‘He must be getting pretty desperate,’ said Flóvent. ‘If this was the only place he could find.’
48
Brynhildur Hólm still couldn’t sleep in her prison cell, so she was awake when the guard opened the door and escorted her out to the interview room, explaining that she had visitors. Waiting for her in the room were Flóvent and Thorson, who apologised for disturbing her at such a late hour but said they felt their business was too urgent to delay. Brynhildur took a seat facing them, an apprehensive look on her face, and they told her about the break-in at the German consulate and how they believed Felix had been hiding there since he’d fled from his father’s surgery. An unobtrusive police guard had now been posted at the consulate in case Felix returned. They wanted to ask her if she knew where else he could be hiding.
‘No, I have no idea,’ Brynhildur said.
Flóvent removed the tube of toothpaste from his pocket and showed it to her. ‘Was he carrying this with him? Do you know?’
‘It’s possible,’ replied Brynhildur. ‘I didn’t check his pockets.’
She reached for the tube in order to examine it, but Flóvent withdrew his hand.
‘For goodness’ sake,’ she said indignantly. ‘Did you think I was going to eat it?’
‘We found it at the German consulate,’ said Flóvent, putting the toothpaste back in his pocket. ‘He’d been camping in the cellar. I repeat, have you any idea where he might go next? Where else might he think of taking refuge?’
‘I can’t help you with that,’ said Brynhildur. ‘I don’t know of anywhere else, except...’
‘What?’
‘There... Some years ago Rudolf bought a hut on the coast at Vatnsleysuströnd with the idea of converting it into a summer house. Then he had his accident, and he’s never been back there or done anything with the property since. Felix... I don’t know... perhaps he’s hiding there. But I really have no idea.’
‘Flóvent tells me that you knew Felix was working for the Germans,’ said Thorson. ‘That his uncle, Hans Lunden, recruited him.’
Brynhildur nodded. ‘Felix has a high opinion of Hans, and I’m fairly sure they discussed spying and that Hans provided him with contacts in Germany and Denmark. But when I asked Felix, he refused to confirm or deny it. I know he’s always been a committed Nazi. Like Ebeneser and Rudolf.’
‘But they abandoned the faith, didn’t they?’ said Flóvent.
‘Yes, but Felix didn’t. His attitude hardened, I think, when the Germans started overrunning one country after another, though he kept his thoughts to himself.’
‘Do you believe his stint as a travelling salesman was merely a cover for his spying activities around the country?’
‘It’s possible. But I’m not the person to ask about such things.’
‘He didn’t tell you why there was a price on his head?’
‘No. I assume it’s because of his “activities”.’
‘Did he offer any hints as to the identity of these people?’
‘No, he wouldn’t tell me who they were.’
‘But you said he had other theories about the murder. Wasn’t he telling you something about Eyvindur’s girlfriend — that she may have wanted to get rid of him because she was mixed up in the Situation?’
‘Felix felt he couldn’t rule that out,’ said Brynhildur. ‘Really, he was as mystified as you are.’
‘Who would have wanted to eliminate Felix?’ asked Thorson. ‘If we work on the basis that he was the target. Had he given himself away? Had someone here got wind of the fact that he was a spy?’
‘That was one possibility he was considering, but he wouldn’t talk about it. Wouldn’t say who these mysterious people were or why they were after him, but it didn’t seem that far-fetched to me — that he was frightened of something like that. He thinks they’re out to kill him — there’s no question of that. That’s why he’s on the run. That’s why he won’t turn himself in.’
‘You mentioned that he talked about some “outsider” being hired — when Eyvindur was killed?’ said Flóvent.
‘Yes, but sadly I couldn’t get any more out of him,’ said Brynhildur. ‘I’ve no idea what he meant. But I did get the feeling that he was terrified of someone here in the garrison. Maybe even someone he was in contact with, who provided him with information. At least, I get the impression that someone was feeding him information. But Felix was very vague. He wouldn’t tell me anything. He was deliberately evasive, just started stammering. But that was my impression after I pressed him about the matter. That he was terrified of someone in the defence force.’
‘Let’s move on to the letter Rudolf received about the experiments, the blackmail letter.’
‘What about it?’
‘Didn’t you say you thought it might have had something to do with Eyvindur’s death? That he might have gone to put pressure on Felix but the visit ended in disaster?’