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

by Quentin Bates

  ‘And the rest is history?’ Steini asked gently.

  ‘Quite. You know the rest of the story. I did see him a few times after that, but he was never interested in Gísli and I suppose he had plenty of other children here and there that he should have been supporting. The last time I saw him he was in a cell at the Hafnarfjördur station, about twenty years ago. He was too drunk to realize who I was and I didn’t have the heart to say anything at the time.’

  ‘That explains a few things.’ Steini nodded slowly. ‘Now are you going to go back to sleep for a few hours?’

  * * *

  Tinna Lind lay with her head on Magni’s chest while his arm draped across her, fingertips tracing patterns on the soft skin of her belly.

  ‘You’re happy with all this, are you?’ she asked, turning onto her side to look along his torso to where he lay propped against a pillow, gazing fondly down at her.

  ‘Yeah. I’m easy with it.’

  ‘Sure? Walking away from everything? Friends, family?’

  ‘Yep. Mind’s made up. Here we come, new life.’

  ‘Good. Just thought I’d check.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Don’t stop,’ Tinna Lind giggled as Magni trailed his fingers along her side and paused at her hip bone. ‘I’m ready to go. Fed up with living on this cold rock.’

  The tips of Magni’s fingers travelled along her thigh. ‘Do you reckon we could ever come back?’ he murmured.

  ‘I don’t see why not, one day. There are limitations on most crimes, and after a few years I expect it would all be written off.’

  ‘Five years? Ten years?’

  ‘More like ten, I expect,’ Tinna Lind said. ‘We’ll see how good life is in the Mediterranean, shall we?’

  ‘Is that where you want to go?’

  ‘Yeah. I’ve been there before.’

  ‘What are we going to do there?’

  ‘Well, with a hundred thousand euros we should probably be able to buy a decent little bar somewhere near the sea.’

  ‘Sounds good.’

  Her expression hardened and she pulled herself up onto her elbows. ‘You know, Magni. With two hundred thousand euros we could buy a very nice bar right on the beach.’

  He grinned. ‘No change of plan?’

  Tinna Lind nodded and let her hair fall over his chest. ‘I’m just wondering what’s the best way to do it.’

  ‘You’ve noticed how much sharper he is now that he’s not puffing all the time?’

  ‘Yeah, and I couldn’t help seeing how much his hands shake.’

  ‘Össi keeps his money in his jacket, which is why I suppose he never takes it off.’

  ‘And his gun.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Magni agreed. ‘The fucking gun as well. We need to be rid of that.’

  ‘We need to get stuff tomorrow, and I don’t imagine he’ll let us go without him, do you?’

  ‘Össi? No, he doesn’t trust us an inch. It’s nothing personal. He just doesn’t trust anyone. Have you noticed how he never turns his back on either of us? We’re going to have to be very careful between now and parting company with him, because if he can screw us over, he will.’

  Tinna Lind let herself sink back on her side and Magni’s fingertips began a gentle traverse from neck to belly and back.

  ‘We’ll see. Maybe Össi will get unlucky and get left behind somewhere tomorrow?’ she said in a soft voice. ‘Preferably without his jacket.’

  9

  Friday

  Kamilla Oddsdóttir looked up the moment the lift doors opened and Gunna stepped out.

  ‘Kamilla? I’m Gunnhildur Gísladóttir. Thanks for coming in so early.’

  ‘That’s all right. My office isn’t far from here.’

  Gunna examined the face that had a flustered look to it and eyes that darted back and forth, declining to meet her gaze as they travelled upwards in the lift. The smart business suit and the stylish hair were at odds with the woman’s fingers, which fidgeted with the phone in her hand, and she sighed audibly.

  ‘So what’s this all about?’ she asked as Gunna closed the interview room door.

  ‘As I told you on the phone, we arrested a man just before midnight in your apartment in Gardabær. It is your apartment, isn’t it?’

  ‘In theory, yes. Hjalti and I bought it together, but I moved out a while ago and Hjalti lives there now, when he’s in the country.’

  ‘He’s abroad a lot?’

  ‘He’s an engineer on an oil survey ship and works for a company in Norway, so he’s not here very much. Since our relationship came to an end, he doesn’t always bother coming back to Iceland between trips.’

  ‘But you have joint ownership of the flat and you still have access to it?’

  Kamilla rolled her phone over and over between nervous fingers. ‘Yes,’ she said, looking up and into Gunna’s eyes for the first time. ‘I still have my legal residence there until I find something more permanent than where I’m living at the moment. I go to the flat every other week or so to make sure everything’s all right and to collect any mail for me or Hjalti. It’s quite amicable, even though we’re not together any more.’

  ‘Do you know a gentleman called Magni Klemens Sighvatsson?’

  Kamilla shrugged. ‘Magni’s an old friend of Hjalti’s. I haven’t seen him for a long time. They go back a long way. Magni used to live with a woman called Ína, and Hjalti used to be married to Ína’s sister Svava. Not that I know the full story and nor do I want to.’

  ‘Does he have access to the flat?’

  ‘I think so. I recall Hjalti gave him a key, and I don’t remember it ever being returned. So, yes. It could well be that Magni has access to the flat but you’d have to check with Hjalti, and at the moment he’s somewhere in Russia, as far as I know.’ She paused. ‘How did this person get into the flat?’ she asked, her voice betraying her disquiet.

  ‘He picked the lock. He had a set of picks on him and it’s easy enough when you know how.’

  ‘Did he take anything?’

  ‘Nothing at all, or so it seems. He had only been there a few minutes when we intercepted him.’

  ‘All right,’ Kamilla said, frowning and looking into space somewhere over Gunna’s shoulder. ‘Nothing stolen and no damage. Is there a problem?’

  ‘I would like you to press charges. The man had entered your property without permission.’

  ‘No,’ Kamilla said, her head shaking so vehemently that her stylish hair shivered. ‘I’m not pressing charges. I don’t see the point. I appreciate what you’ve done and I’ll have the locks changed, but I’m not prepared to get involved beyond that.’

  ‘You’re sure? This character certainly wasn’t up to any good.’

  ‘I don’t care. It’s Hjalti’s problem and I don’t want to be involved.’ Kamilla pushed her chair back and stood up. ‘And now I have to go. I need to get back to work.’

  They travelled down in the lift in silence. In the entrance lobby Kamilla again avoided Gunna’s eyes. She opened her mouth to speak and closed it again as Gunna gently took her arm and steered her out through the doors into the open air.

  ‘Kamilla, there’s nobody listening in and nothing being recorded.’ Gunna looked at her intently, forcing Kamilla to meet her eyes. ‘I’m guessing you’ve had a visit?’

  ‘I . . .’

  ‘Or a call? Sometime last night or early this morning?’

  Kamilla’s frightened eyes told her everything. ‘A call. At five this morning from a withheld number.’

  ‘Telling you to keep your mouth shut?’

  ‘Gunnhildur, my parents are quite elderly. I’m sure you understand?’

  ‘I don’t like it, but I understand,’ Gunna said. ‘I don’t imagine you’ll have any more problems with this man. Go and get the locks changed. But if you want the place to be more secure, don’t go for the cheapest option.’

  It was a quiet street of old houses built at odd angles, just as Magni remembered it when he and
Össur had jogged down the hill with a bag of money, wondering where Árni had got to.

  ‘Here. Stop here.’

  The house where Alli the Cornershop lived could be seen a hundred metres away up the gradual slope, an innocuous-looking building with its long blanked-out shop windows that had once displayed ironmongery and groceries thick with a quarter of a century of dust.

  ‘Cool down, will you?’ Magni said. ‘Look, Össi, this is dangerous for all of us, and it’s not just about you. Think, will you?’

  Össur brooded in silence in the back seat, the Baikal in his hand behind the seat and trained on Tinna Lind. Magni weighed up how easily he would be able to make a grab for the weapon and decided it would be hopeless. Össur would be able to fire far more quickly than he would be able to get a hand through the gap between the seats, and even then the gun could still be out of reach.

  ‘We can be out of here tonight, somewhere in Europe with a pocketful of cash,’ Magni said. ‘D’you want to risk that?’

  ‘We can still get out of here, Össi,’ Tinna Lind said. Magni looked sideways at her and could see the tension on her face. ‘We can get tickets for flights this evening easily enough.’

  ‘Yeah? How? Walk into a travel agent?’

  ‘I can do it on my phone.’

  ‘You have a phone?’ Össur demanded. ‘You told me you didn’t have one, you lying bitch.’

  ‘Fuck you, Össur,’ Tinna Lind spat back, her temper boiling over. ‘You think you’re the only one who can tell lies when it suits them?’

  She yelped as Össur jammed the muzzle of the Baikal hard into her side and Magni again wondered how easily he could snatch the pistol.

  ‘Where’s this phone?’

  Tinna Lind delved into an inside pocket of her coat and pulled out a smartphone. From another pocket she extracted the charger cable she had bought an hour earlier and plugged it into the lighter socket.

  ‘The battery died days ago, and in any case, there was no signal up at that hotel place,’ she said. ‘I can book flights easily enough using this if I can connect to wifi somewhere.’ She switched the phone on and watched the screen power up in front of her.

  Össur sat back and took a couple of deep breaths. ‘All right. But we still get even with Alli.’

  ‘You have a hundred and something thousand euros of Alli’s cash. Isn’t that enough? You still want to go and settle a score?’

  They sat in the car parked on a suburban street at the far end of the town. It was just close enough for Tinna Lind to log into the nearby golf club’s wifi and she peered at her phone screen.

  ‘Card?’ she asked.

  ‘Is this Össi’s flight or ours?’

  ‘His,’ Tinna Lind said without looking up. ‘Just read out the numbers. Whose card is it?’

  ‘Mine. I hope there’s enough credit on it,’ he said, twisting around in his seat. ‘Cash, Össi. How much is it, Tinna?’

  ‘Nineteen thousand.’ She thought for a second. ‘Call it a hundred and fifty euros.’

  Once Össur had peeled off a couple of notes and handed them over, Magni read out the sixteen digits on his card and Tinna Lind punched them in while Magni crossed his fingers and held his breath.

  ‘Expiry?’

  ‘Ten eighteen.’

  ‘Security? The three numbers on the back?’

  ‘One zero six.’

  ‘OK, wait a moment,’ she said, eyes on the screen. ‘It’s gone through. Congratulations, Össur, as far as the airline is concerned you’re Einar Pálmi Jakobsson and you’re on the afternoon flight to Alicante. So you need to be at the airport at three.’

  Össur grinned to himself in the back seat. ‘And when are you two lovebirds flying?’

  ‘Checking now,’ Tinna Lind said, eyes on the phone and scrolling back. ‘Hell, it’s a pain in the neck doing it on this tiny screen,’ she complained. ‘OK, we seem to be in now.’ She typed rapidly, using both thumbs to fill in the boxes while Össur and Magni sat in silence. ‘Right. We’re Ásta María Einarsdóttir and Jóhann Einarsson, and we’re flying at eight tonight. Card, Magni? Read the numbers out again, will you?’

  ‘Where are you two going with your loot, then?’ Össur asked. With his flight booked, he seemed immediately less tense, relaxed and happier than Tinna Lind had seen him.

  ‘We’re going to Zürich,’ she said, switching the phone off and dropping it into her pocket. ‘From there we can decide where to go next.’

  ‘Chief!’ Eiríkur came bounding down the stairs, his face alight with excitement. ‘Gunna!’

  ‘What’s the matter?

  ‘Comms called just now. Tinna Lind’s phone popped up.’

  ‘Shit . . . where?’

  ‘Hafnarfjördur. It was live for a few minutes, no calls or texts, then went offline again.’

  ‘Get every car and motorcycle you can find out there right now, but no sirens, and get the best fix you can on that phone right away,’ Gunna snapped. ‘I’ll be back in two minutes, be by the door in a car.’

  ‘Will do, chief. I’ve already had an alert out and diverted everyone we can find to look out for a grey Skoda, and comms are working on a position,’ he said, but Gunna had already disappeared. She was back well within the two minutes and strode outside to find Eiríkur waiting for her in an unmarked Golf.

  ‘This thing has lights and bells, doesn’t it?’

  ‘It does.’

  ‘Use them. Hafnarfjördur, right now, if you please.’

  ‘Ninety-five-fifty, comms,’ Gunna heard a few minutes later with the morning traffic parting unwillingly for them along Kringlumýrarbraut as her communicator buzzed in her ear.

  ‘Siggi, what do you have for me?’

  ‘The number was somewhere in the old part of Hafnarfjördur to start with when it logged on, then seems to have shifted south towards the back end of town between the port area and the golf club before it was switched off.’

  ‘But on the town side of Reykjanesbraut?’

  ‘Looks like it, and moving fast enough for it to have to be in a car.’

  ‘Can you pinpoint any better where it was when it first showed up and where it was switched off?’

  ‘I’d say it was switched on around Lækjargata, Austurgata, Hamarshraun – that sort of patch. And switched off somewhere on the other side of town.’

  ‘Good stuff, thanks Siggi. Let me know right away if it pops up again, would you?’

  The wail of a siren jerked Össur out of his silence in the back of the car. ‘Where the fuck’s that copper going?’

  ‘Relax, Össi, it’s probably an ambulance.’

  But the sight of a speeding patrol car decelerating off the main road and towards the town had Magni stepping on the brake and he made a squealing U-turn back up the hill.

  ‘Shit. We’d best keep out of sight, I reckon.’

  He accelerated and the Skoda surged up the slope, until Magni again trod hard on the brakes, turned into a side street and let the car roll gently to the end, where he shot across the intersection into a deserted residential cul-de-sac. Magni swung the car neatly into a space between two others.

  ‘Maybe they’re not looking for us?’ Tinna Lind said. ‘Maybe it’s something completely different?’

  ‘Could be, but we’d best not take a chance.’ Magni gnawed a knuckle and tapped at the wheel with his fingertips. ‘We can’t stick around here for long.’

  ‘Why not?’ Össur demanded.

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Össi. Look around you. Smart houses, kids on bikes. This is curtain-twitching territory. We’re going to get noticed by the Neighbourhood Watch here, and I’ll bet you there’s half a dozen local busybodies already writing the car registration on their kitchen whiteboards. I’m wondering how we can get back to the main road and go and hide out at the union place for a few hours until it’s time to go without being spotted. We’d have been clear if you hadn’t had to fuck about, Össi,’ he said angrily, turning round in his seat to face him.

 
‘You watch your mouth, boy,’ Össur snarled back. ‘And don’t you forget there’s a job to do before we leave.’

  ‘Before you leave, you mean. Do your own dirty work. I’ve done enough of that shit already.’

  ‘Boys, please. Keep it for later, will you?’ Tinna Lind said in a sharp voice that took them both by surprise. ‘Look, go back up the road towards the golf club. There’s an underpass under the main road that will bring us out on the other side.’

  ‘Can we get onto Reykjanesbraut there?’

  ‘No, but we can double back on the quiet side and get to the slip road that way instead of having to go back through town this side. Make sense?’

  Magni grinned. ‘My criminal mastermind,’ he muttered, and started the car.

  They went through the underpass and Tinna Lind turned around in her seat. ‘Össi, you’d best duck down.’

  ‘Why the hell should I?’

  ‘Because if they’re looking for us, they’ll be looking for a car with three people in it, not two.’

  With bad grace, Össur grunted and agreed that she was right as he lay down on the seat, clasping the Baikal hard against his chest. ‘No tricks, you two,’ he rasped.

  Eiríkur cruised through the streets of Hafnarfjördur while Gunna followed the traffic on her communicator. The three available motorcycle officers had stationed themselves at intersections around the town while two patrol cars combed the streets looking for the grey Skoda. Eiríkur took the unmarked Golf through the narrow streets of the old town and passed Alli the Cornershop’s house a couple of times, where Alli’s own Golf and a black van were parked next to each other. The second time Gunna had him stop outside while she inspected the place, her fingers rattling a tattoo on the dashboard as she wondered whether or not to knock and ask if there had been any visitors.

  The fact that Alli would undoubtedly tell her a lie that would be difficult to disprove was enough for her to decide not to bother and they continued to criss-cross the town.