Thin Ice: An Inspector Gunna Mystery (Gunnhildur Mystery Book 5) Read online

  ‘Miss Cruz knows this is a priority?’

  ‘I didn’t have to tell her. This one goes to the front of the queue, along with everything else she was supposed to have done by last week,’ Helgi said bitterly. ‘She’s trying to identify what kind of tool was used.’

  ‘The Laxdal’s threatening to put Sævaldur on to this with you.’

  Helgi groaned. ‘No, please. Sæsi’s fine harassing hoodlums, but we don’t need bull-in-a-china-shop tactics here. Not yet, anyway.’

  ‘I’d agree with you on that. What’s Eiríkur up to?’

  ‘He was questioning anyone and everyone he could find yesterday who might have known the victim, and I think the landlord came across as suspicious. Eiríkur’s in at twelve today, I think.’

  ‘And where are you taking this?’

  ‘You know, I’m damned if I know. Doing the same as Eiríkur and hoping that somebody saw something or someone that morning. Here, Gunna?’

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘You have a contact who’s a taxi driver, don’t you?’

  ‘Do I? Oh, yes. I know who you mean.’

  ‘Can you put me on to him, find out if there’s any gossip about Árni?’

  Gunna thought. ‘I’m not sure he’d talk to anyone else.’ She checked her watch. ‘I’ll tell you what. I know where this character goes for his lunch break. I’ll go and surprise him and let you know what I find out.’

  Erna stood with her hands to her mouth and screeched.

  ‘What the hell happened?’

  Tinna Lind appeared behind her and looked from her mother to Magni and Össur to the corpse of the man in the blue overalls on the ground between them. The pistol in Össur’s hand told the story by itself and Tinna Lind took her mother’s arm to lead her inside the hotel.

  Össur’s teeth chattered. ‘What the fuck do we do now?’

  ‘You’re asking me? Christ on a bike, Össi,’ Magni spluttered in fury. ‘You’re the gangster here. You’re the man with the experience. How about you come up with an idea of your own?’

  In the face of Magni’s outburst, Össur’s face reverted to its usual impassive look. ‘Sort it out, will you? I’m cold. I’m going inside.’

  Magni stood speechless and helpless in the yard as snow continued to fall around him and settle on the lifeless man in the blue overalls. He knelt by the man, rolled him onto one side and felt with two forefingers in a fold of his neck for a hint of a pulse, hoping that somehow Össur’s shots had missed anything vital and that the man had merely been stunned. Flakes of snow fluttered slowly downwards, melting as they landed on the man’s face and collecting in his thick dark hair. The resolute refusal of his fingers to find a pulse, the man’s open eyes and the face that was surprisingly peaceful in death were enough to convince him he was wasting his time.

  He laid the man in as dignified a position as he could, closed his eyes and stood for a moment before going inside. Erna sat huddled on the sofa, her legs folded beneath her, rocking in Tinna Lind’s arms. Magni looked questioningly at her, wanting to ask a dozen questions. Tinna Lind looked back at him, lifted a finger to her lips and shook her head briefly without stopping her gentle rocking motion.

  In the office he went to the filing cabinet, took out one of the bottles and poured himself a finger of whisky that he threw back in one, thought about another and decided against it.

  He put on a coat and a pair of gloves that he had found in the shed at the back, pulled a wool hat down to his eyebrows and went back outside. The man in the blue overalls had driven from where? He wondered if the man had come from Reykjavík or Selfoss, or maybe even from Akranes? It was impossible to say and it wasn’t as if he could ask him now, he reflected bitterly.

  The man’s car had been parked at the side of the road, further down the curving road that put the hotel out of sight, and as Magni approached it, he could see why it hadn’t been driven all the way into the yard. A drift of snow snaked across the road, a little more than knee high but still enough to warrant caution. The man’s car was a small van, but Magni saw it had been fitted with robust tyres with heavy treads and studded with nails, and he guessed the van was made for the terrain with four-wheel drive.

  He had no idea what to do. For the first time, Magni was struck by indecision. The van was bright red and would be easily spotted. He had no idea where he could safely dispose of it, or even if he could hide it effectively. The keys had been left in the ignition. The engine fired first time and the radio blared into life at the same moment, making him fumble for a button to switch it off. Unable to find one, he settled for turning the volume down low and manoeuvred the van in an awkward series of turns to spin it around and drive down the track.

  He was surprised at how quickly he found a place to leave the van, thankful that there would be no overly long walk back. He realized that there were narrow tracks forking off at long intervals, each one leading to a summer house hidden among rocks and trees. Choosing one at random, he bumped the van down a track to a summer house that had conifers planted around it, their branches heavy with snow, and tucked the van underneath the largest of the trees, where he knew it would be out of sight of the road, and hoped it would be out of sight from the air as well.

  He left the keys in the van, as if the owner had just got out of it, trudged back along the track to the road and towards the hotel. He found the going harder than he’d expected. The unmade road under a thick coating of hard snow was unpredictable. Several times he lost his footing, and with the thickening snow falling through still air, he could see no more than a few dozen yards ahead. He trusted that the road he was following would lead him back to the hotel.

  ‘Looking good, Matti.’ Gunna leaned over to kiss his cheek. ‘Good to see you’re looking after yourself.’

  ‘Thanks. I’m trying. It’s Marika’s doing really.’

  The lunchtime trade at Grandakaffi was brisk. Gunna and Matti sat in the glass-sided extension with a view over the dock and the handful of taxis parked opposite while their owners addressed themselves to the day’s meat soup.

  ‘Not eating, Matti?’ Gunna asked, nodding at the counter.

  ‘If you’re buying, then why not?’

  ‘Fair enough. You go and get them and I’ll pay.’

  The soup with its heavy chunks of mutton was one of those traditional staples that she and Matti had grown up with, something that their mothers both served at least once a week.

  ‘Not bad, is it?’ Matti said appreciatively once he was halfway through his dish.

  ‘As good as your mum’s?’

  ‘Don’t talk stupid. Nothing’s as good as Mum makes.’

  ‘How’s Marika? Keeping you under control?’

  Matti grunted. ‘Yeah. She’s doing well. Assistant manager at that place now.’

  ‘Where’s she working? Remind me?’

  ‘Travel firm that runs coach trips. It’s quiet this time of year, but she was rushed off her feet last summer. How’s your brood keeping? I understand congratulations are in order?’

  Gunna sighed. ‘Gísli has two boys now, with two different women, six weeks apart.’

  ‘Yeah. I heard that. Tough position,’ Matti commiserated. ‘So is he settled down with one of them? Your brother’s girl, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Svanur’s stepdaughter. That’s the situation at the moment, but I guess it could all change in five minutes. He’s living with Drífa, which doesn’t do a lot for family harmony. But there was an episode last year with a girl from New Zealand.’

  ‘Wow! He gets about, my cousin does.’

  Gunna scowled. ‘That’s as maybe, but he has two children to support now. Anyway, the girl from New Zealand didn’t last long. I think she figured out pretty quickly that a guy with two small children to support was never going to be much of a prospect. A shame, a very smart young woman. It’s Laufey I’m more concerned about these days.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘Ach, probably worrying about nothing. She just doesn’
t seem able to settle. Dumped the boy she’d been knocking about with and hasn’t found new friends.’

  ‘She’ll be all right,’ Matti said unconvincingly. ‘You want a coffee?’

  Gunna leaned forward, arms crossed. ‘Listen. You have your ear to the ground.’

  ‘Not as much as I used to.’

  ‘Árni Sigurvinsson,’ she said, and knew as she saw Matti blanch that she’d hit the target.

  ‘Árni’s dead.’

  ‘He’s not just dead. He was murdered.’

  ‘Yeah. I heard that.’

  ‘And? Any thoughts? What was Árni up to?’

  ‘I suppose I should have come and seen you, but I didn’t know what to say.’

  ‘Matti, are you involved in this?’ Gunna asked in alarm.

  ‘No, not as such.’ Matti looked out of the window at the rain pattering into the puddles in the street outside, grey water on a greyer street. ‘There was a whisper going round. No names, no comebacks. Understood?’

  ‘Understood,’ Gunna assured him over her mug of coffee.

  ‘Look, there was someone looking for a driver for a job last week. Cash payout. That’s all I know. I turned it down. Didn’t have to think twice.’

  ‘Why? How come you turned it down?’

  Matti scratched his neck and fiddled with a corner of his moustache. ‘It was just too . . . woolly. You know what I mean? I don’t know who had the job, but the message came through someone I’d be wary of trusting. Anyway, too many unanswered questions and I guess too many things to go wrong. Anyway, I’m straight these days, keeping my nose clean, and Marika wouldn’t be impressed if I were to get a year in Litla Hraun. Done that, don’t want to do it again.’

  ‘Very commendable, and not before time, cousin Matti.’

  ‘Thank you, cousin Gunna.’

  ‘A changed man, I’m pleased to see. I’m sure your mother is delighted.’

  ‘You know what our mothers are like. It’s not as if either of them is easily pleased.’

  ‘True enough. Any idea what this job was supposed to be? If it was last week, has it been done, and is that why Árni came out of it so badly?’

  Matti shifted uncomfortably in his chair and glanced around to reassure himself that nobody was listening.

  ‘Thursday afternoon last week. Somebody stitched up Alli the Cornershop good and proper.’

  ‘That old bastard? Good for whoever did it.’

  ‘I don’t suppose Alli’s been along to report a robbery to the police, but the word is that a couple of hundred thousand euros disappeared and Alli’s on the warpath.’

  ‘Ah. Definitely not small potatoes.’

  ‘Far from it. I’ve no idea if Árni had anything to do with it, but to my way of thinking it’s a bit too much of a coincidence. Not that I’m selling the tale any dearer than I bought it, if you get my drift.’

  ‘How about a name?’

  Matti scowled as if he’d felt a sudden stab of pain and Gunna wondered if she’d pushed him too far, as her phone chirped and she looked at the screen before answering.

  ‘Gunnhildur.’

  ‘Can you hear me, chief?’ Helgi said, standing somewhere outside where the wind snatched at his words. ‘That Ford Explorer you were looking for has turned up. Unlocked and keys in the ignition.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘The car park behind the Digranes Church.’

  ‘Great stuff. Get a forensic team on it right away, and I don’t care how busy they are with something else. I’ll be right there.’ She looked back at Matti and stood up. ‘I need to get back to work and I guess you do as well?’

  ‘Should be back on the rank already, but it’s quiet today so no harm done.’

  She put a hand on his shoulder and pecked him on the cheek.

  ‘Good to see you. Look after yourself.’

  ‘And you, Gunna. Don’t forget, you didn’t hear anything from me,’ Matti said, shrugging on his thick fleece. He dropped his voice. ‘And you definitely didn’t hear me mention anyone called Össi.’

  * * *

  Össur locked the bridal suite’s door behind him and sat on the bed. What had been a pristine white duvet was now grubby and grey, and he sat in the patch where his feet had left black marks. Moving as if in a trance, he felt numb, as if he were looking down on himself from above as he sat cross-legged on the bed where he had been for most of the last few days, surrounded by shreds of tobacco and grass scattered across the duvet. A brimming ashtray sat on a corner of the bed and a half-litre glass of water was on the bedside table. The contents of both had overflowed, leaving trails that Össur hadn’t noticed.

  The dead man outside was something he had to think about. How to get out of this place was something he had carefully not been thinking about, other than dreaming about a carefree existence somewhere where Alli the Cornershop would never dare venture. But he realized with a sinking feeling that now there was stuff he would have to deal with – the last few days had been a blissful idyll of non-stop television and one spliff after another, with the occasional noseful to adjust the balance.

  He also noticed with regret that he could see the bottom of the bag of Alli the Cornershop’s finest quality homegrown grass, probably produced in some big old house with heavyweight hydroponics, converted for the purpose and still not discovered by the filth. Not that Alli would be too worried. He never came anywhere near this stuff in person, and by the time the law caught up with the production side of things, he would have another workshop up and running somewhere else.

  It was time to take charge again. These last few days he had kicked back and taken it easy. He had allowed Magni to take decisions, although he admitted to himself that the boy was no fool, contrary to what he had expected when he’d offered him an easy payday and a holiday in return for an hour’s work. He found the sober and capable Magni a threat, much preferring the more amiable and compliant man he had got to know in the Emperor, the Magni who liked to take the edge off the day with a couple of cold ones.

  This efficient and practical character was someone new, as far as Össur was concerned, and he didn’t like it. Yes, it was definitely time to assert himself again, he decided. But first, a quick smoke to settle his nerves. It’s not every day that you get to shoot someone dead, and Össur wasn’t sure this was going to end happily. But the bastard had pushed him, hadn’t he? Sent him flying. So that had to be self-defence. Magni and the girl with the weird hair, who he was sure Magni had been screwing these last few nights, had both seen it. Even the dried-up old bag had seen it. What was her name again? Erla? Or Erna? Not that it mattered, but dear God how that woman had screeched. He’d wanted to give her a slap, but fortunately the girl had taken her inside and Magni had hidden the guy’s car away where nobody would be any the wiser.

  He lay back and dragged the fragrant smoke deep, holding it there as he felt his toes and fingertips tingle and then go numb. It was definitely time to leave, but now the snow was coming down hard, and while that would stop them travelling, it would also keep unwelcome visitors away. He’d have to go downstairs and take charge soon, throw his weight about. But first he’d have a puff, he told himself. Magni and the girl were pretty capable, after all. They’d sort things out. As soon as the weather let up, they’d be away.

  ‘Nobody’s touched anything, have they?’

  The white Ford Explorer was parked as far from the road as it comfortably could be.

  ‘The patrol that checked it out opened the door and then shut it up tight,’ Helgi said. ‘It was the priest who reported it. Said it wasn’t parked here yesterday but it was when he turned up here this afternoon.’

  Gunna looked around. ‘It’s pretty well hidden, isn’t it? Any idea when it showed up here?’

  ‘Not yet. We’re knocking on doors but nothing’s turned up so far. Late last night’s my guess.’

  ‘The forensic team on the way?’

  ‘Should be here any minute.’

  ‘Good. Fingerprints to start with
. I don’t believe for a second that Erna Björg Brandsen and her daughter parked this thing here, so the absolute priority is to find out who did. The second there’s a match, I want to know. I have to give something to the Laxdal today, and he has to be able to report something upstairs to keep all hell from descending onto his shoulders, which will in turn . . . You get the picture?’

  ‘Vividly, thanks.’ Helgi looked up and screwed up his eyes. ‘They’re here,’ he said.

  ‘Good. Then I’m off. Where’s Eiríkur?’

  ‘With the fire investigation team at the house fire scene in Hafnarfjördur,’ he said, as the two forensics investigators got out of their van and began pulling on sterile clothing. ‘It’s this white one,’ he called to them. ‘And it’s urgent.’

  ‘It always is,’ one of them grumbled as he pulled on a mask and lifted the hood of his white suit.

  ‘Leave them to it,’ Gunna said, taking his arm and leading him away from the parked Explorer. ‘You can chivvy them once they’ve got started. Listen. About Árni Sigurvinsson, a fairly reliable contact tells me that Alli the Cornershop got seriously rolled last week. Somebody stuck him and his goon up with a pistol, grabbed a bag of cash and ran for it. He seemed to think that Árni might have either been involved or could have known something about it.’

  ‘Shit,’ Helgi fretted. ‘A prize scumbag like that’s all we needed to make things more fun. You think it might be a revenge thing?’

  ‘No idea, and my contact didn’t really want to talk about it.’

  ‘But you forced it out of him?’

  ‘Let’s say I got as much as I’m likely to out of him.’

  ‘You want to pay Alli the Cornershop a visit?’

  Gunna pondered. ‘No. Not yet at any rate. Listen, our man left this car here and the next we see of him he’s in a Skoda and on his own. So where did he go from here? Check stolen cars, all right? We know when he bought fuel, so we have a pretty good idea when the car must have been parked here, so let’s knock on doors and ask questions before we turn up at the Cornershop.’

  * * *