Thin Ice: An Inspector Gunna Mystery (Gunnhildur Mystery Book 5) (13 page)

‘Are you planning on staying long?’

‘Are you in a hurry to get away?’

‘Mmm, a bit,’ Tinna Lind said. ‘I can sort of imagine how worried my dad must be by now.’

‘You think he’ll have reported you missing?’

‘Oh, yeah. He probably did that on Friday when he got home and found my mum wasn’t there, or when she didn’t turn up by dinner time.’

‘So the police are going to be searching for you?’

‘Probably.’

‘What’s your dad like?’

‘He’s all right. He’s not my real father, though. Mum shacked up with him years ago. But he’s a decent guy. A bit dull, plays golf and that, but he’s a kind-hearted sort.’

‘What about your real dad?’

Tinna Lind giggled. ‘It’s a big secret. The olds never talk about it and they think I don’t know. Years ago Mum had an affair with her sister’s husband. It’s the big skeleton in the family closet and nobody’s allowed to know about it.’ She sat next to him on the sofa and cradled the glass in her hands, then she looked up at him with a sly smile. ‘Now you have to tell me a secret.’

Magni looked blank.

‘Well, I’ve led a pretty boring life so far. This is about the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.’

‘But you’ve been to sea on big fishing boats, haven’t you?’

‘Yeah, but that’s not exciting. Not mega-exciting, anyway. It’s pretty boring a lot of the time, like working in a factory but getting paid a bunch of money for it.’

‘No huge storms and wrecked ships?’

‘A few big storms. Quite a lot of them, really.’ He sipped his drink and looked at the ceiling. ‘All right. When I was a kid there was a teacher at school who really didn’t like me. He used to call me a thickhead and give me detentions all the time. So I got my own back on him.’

‘How?’ Tinna Lind asked dubiously.

‘I used to help out at one of the fish plants at weekends, and one day I managed to get hold of a catfish frame. You know, what’s left when the fish has been filleted? The head and the bones, right?’

‘And you put it through his letterbox or something?’

‘No, I wrapped it in tin foil, and then I wrapped the tin foil in a bit of chicken wire. And when it was dark I sneaked round to his house and fixed it to his car.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yep, crawled under his car and fixed the whole thing to the exhaust with some fencing wire, right under the driver’s seat. So he’d get in the car and drive somewhere, and the fish would start to get hot as the exhaust pipe warmed up and the car would fill up with this smell of hot, rotten fish. It drove him nuts. He had to drive everywhere with all the windows open. He couldn’t understand where the foul smell was coming from. He even took it to a garage and had them strip the seats out and search inside. But they never thought to look underneath.’

‘How long did this go on for?’

‘Oh, weeks and weeks. Months, until he gave in and scrapped the car.’ He reached back behind the sofa, retrieved the bottle and poured another finger each. ‘He couldn’t sell it because it stank so bad and he couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from.’

‘That’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?’

‘Probably not, but it was the most fun and I’ve never told anyone before that it was me.’

‘So your teacher bought a new car. You didn’t do the same to that one?’

‘I thought about it, but I reckoned he’d had enough punishment.’

Tinna Lind lifted her chin upwards. ‘Your friend. What’s the worst thing he’s ever done, do you think?’

Magni shuddered. ‘I’ll tell you now, he’s done plenty of nasty things, and I don’t know the half of it.’

He put the bottle away and left his arm draped along the back of the sofa. Tinna Lind reached up, grasped his hand and pulled the arm down to rest around her shoulder as she huddled into the hollow of his side.

Ragnar Sæmundsson looked down on them from his photograph on top of the bookcase. The camera had caught him just as he looked into the lens with a mischievous grin on his face, his Coast Guard cap pushed too far back on his head for the regulations, hair awry in the wind and with the sharp look of cheerful intelligence that Gunna had found herself bewitched by all those years ago.

The house was full to bursting and she wondered how many years it had been since quite so many people had gathered around the table. Steini sat at the end nearest the kitchen, his hand holding Gunna’s under the table. Laufey’s eyes shone with unshed tears and Gísli had his hands full with Ari Gíslason while Drífa held baby Kjartan.

Steini let go of Gunna’s hand and stood up awkwardly.

‘It’s the first time I’ve done this,’ he said and paused. ‘I knew Raggi well and he was a magnificent character. A true friend and I still miss him. Glasses, everyone.’

Gunna gulped and glanced sideways at Laufey, who was looking at the tablecloth.

‘Ragnar,’ Steini said and lifted his glass.

‘Ragnar.’

‘Ragnar.’

‘Raggi,’ Gunna said and swallowed a sob.

‘Dad,’ Laufey said in a small voice.

They all drank and placed their glasses on the table. Laufey turned and buried her face in Gunna’s neck. Gísli looked solemn as Ari tried to wriggle out of his grasp and Steini bit his lip.

‘We are going to get out of this place, aren’t we?’

‘Sure we are. Why shouldn’t we?’

Magni lay back practically horizontal, hands behind his head, his legs stretched out and his heels on a low table. Tinna Lind lay flat on her back, her head resting on Magni’s leg and her cornrow hair spread out around her.

‘I don’t know. Össur just seems dangerous, you know.’

‘He’s fucking nuts, that’s true enough. But we’re the ones who are in danger, not you and your mum.’

‘You think so?’

‘Hell, yeah. Össur’s scared shitless of what the old guy he robbed will do when he gets hold of him, and I guess he probably will sooner or later.’

Tinna Lind looked up at Magni and he saw the concern in her eyes.

‘And you?’

Magni scratched his head. ‘I don’t really know. I don’t reckon I’ll ever be on his Christmas card list,’ he said with a gurgling laugh.

‘I don’t want you to get hurt, Magni.’

He put out a hand and tousled the cornrows spread across his lap.

‘Don’t you worry, sweetie. I’m a big boy.’

‘I’m serious. I don’t want you to get hurt because of something Össur did.’

‘And something I did as well. The old guy had a minder, too, but his minder was smaller than Össur’s. Oh, and Össi has a gun. That helped.’

‘He still has a gun.’

‘And a knife, and he’d use either of them if he feels he needs to. I told you he’s nuts.’

‘And you’re not?’

‘No, not really. Maybe just enough.’

‘I think you have to be. If I was you I’d be terrified.’

Magni upended his glass and leaned forward to place it on the table. ‘I ought to be, and maybe I will be in a day or two, but right now I’m warm, I’m not hungry and there’s a glass in my hand,’ he said. ‘That’s to say there was a glass in my hand. I’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes because there’s nothing I can do about it now.’

‘I like you, Magni.’

‘Thanks. You’re all right yourself.’

‘No, I mean it. You’re not like the guys I know from college or around Reykjavík.’

‘Oh? How so? What are they like?’

Tinna Lind stretched and twisted onto one side, lifting her head and propping it up with a hand under her chin.

‘Serious, artistic. Hipsters, y’know what I mean? They all play guitars and dream of being in bands.’

‘Oh, right.’

‘And you know what I really like about you, Magni?’

‘No, go on.’

‘You’re practical. You can cook and fix stuff.’

‘Well. You pick that sort of stuff up.’

‘And you haven’t tried to get my knickers off. I like that.’

Magni was suddenly clear-headed.

‘Oh, right,’ he said.

‘Because you can, if you like,’ Tinna Lind said, lifting a hand and draping it around his neck to pull him down to her. ‘I think I’d like that.’

Erna’s voice was as harsh as grinding gears. Magni opened one eye to see Erna staring down at him, hands on her hips, and Tinna Lind’s face nestled in the thick mat of reddish hair on his chest.

‘This is a hotel, you know. You could at least have found a room.’

‘Shit . . . what time is it?’ Magni asked.

‘It’s almost nine,’ Erna said, and Magni closed his eyes again as her footsteps faded into the distance. He stroked Tinna Lind’s cheek with a finger. ‘Hey, sleepyhead. It’s daytime and your mum isn’t impressed.’

‘So? What’s new?’ Tinna Lind replied, eyes firmly closed and huddling deeper into Magni’s chest.

‘Sorry, sweetie. You’re going to have to move.’

‘Don’t want to. I like it here.’

‘Yeah. I really need to pee, and I don’t want to worry you but the pressure’s about to go critical down there.’

‘I suppose I’d better let you go.’

Tinna Lind opened one eye, reached up and planted a kiss on the end of his nose. She rolled off him, wrapping herself in the duvet as Magni struggled into his jeans.

He was halfway through his business at the urinal when an ear-splitting electronic alarm began wailing. Magni cursed, finished as quickly as he could and didn’t bother shaking off the drops before he ran to the kitchen, passing Tinna Lind on the sofa, her eyes now open in confusion.

‘What the fuck’s going on?’

Erna stood in the middle of the kitchen, her eyes darting around the room in confusion. Two ink-black slices emerged guiltily from the toaster.

‘I . . .’

‘Yeah,’ Magni yelled over the squealing alarm. ‘I know what you did. But how the hell do we switch it off?’

In the office he ran his eyes over the flashing lights of a grey control box. A loudspeaker above it continued to wail its deafening alarm as he searched for a reset button. He tried several of the unmarked buttons until a dialogue box appeared on a screen and he selected the flashing cancel/reset option. The wailing stopped and the sudden silence was deafening.

In the kitchen Erna stood forlorn. ‘I was only making some toast for breakfast.’

Magni saw her lower lip tremble briefly and guessed the inner turmoil was pushing her to limits she had never experienced before.

‘That’s OK,’ he said. ‘This stuff happens. Don’t worry about it.’

‘What the fuck’s going on?’

Össur stood in the doorway, the Baikal in his hand and fury on his face as he glared at them, taking in Erna and the barefoot and shirtless Magni standing next to her.

‘It’s all right, Össi, panic’s over. It was just the smoke alarm.’

‘Was that you?’ Össur snarled at Erna.

‘No, it wasn’t her,’ Magni answered quickly. ‘It was me. Just trying to make a bit of toast for a change. Now put that thing away, will you? Before you hurt someone.’

‘For fuck’s sake,’ Össur growled, lowering the pistol. ‘It’s off now, right?’

‘Well, it’s stopped making a noise.’

‘So that’s all right and I can go back to sleep.’

Magni scratched his head and yawned. ‘I hope so. I’m just concerned that it might be linked to the phone system. If it is, then the fire service will have had an alert as well and we might see a fire engine bumping up the road any minute. Or as soon as it takes them to get here from wherever the nearest fire station is. That’ll be Selfoss, I guess, which is an hour away.’

Össur’s eyes bulged for a second and he turned to leave the room, and then spun on his heel. ‘Check it, can you? See if it’s linked to the phone line?’

In the office Magni unscrewed the fire alarm’s front panel and surveyed the bundles of wires and sensors inside. He traced the phone line and followed where it went through a hole in the wall. His finger hovered over it as it went up the wall under many layers of paint and past the control box.

‘The phone line’s dead and I don’t think it’s connected,’ he said without a great deal of confidence. ‘Of course, it could be wireless, but I don’t think so. It’s quite an old system.’

‘Is the car still outside? You’d better hide it away again,’ Össur snapped. ‘Just in case some nosy bastard starts looking around.’

Helgi was at his desk early. He looked up and nodded as Gunna appeared, tapped at his keyboard and clicked the mouse before he sat back.

‘How was the game? Did they win?’

‘Slaughtered them, absolutely took them to the cleaners in the first round.’ Helgi grinned and rubbed the top of his head. ‘Then they lost in the second round, not by much, though.’

‘Your lad wasn’t disappointed, then?’

‘He was furious.’ Helgi laughed. ‘There’s a hell of a competitive streak there. Don’t know where he gets that from.’

‘That’ll be his mother, surely?’

‘Probably,’ Helgi said. ‘She always was good at wanting to keep up with the neighbours.’

‘And you weren’t?’

‘Not really. I never could see the point of splashing out on a new car just because Magga down the street’s husband had one. Hey, ho. That’s life, I suppose. Good weekend?’

‘Not bad,’ Gunna decided. ‘Not that it’s over yet. Today’s Sunday, in case you hadn’t noticed?’

‘I had, and I have been given to understand that it’s not a great day for a husband and father to be at work, but she’ll get over it.’

‘I do sometimes wonder if your Halla knew what she was letting herself in for with you, Helgi.’

Helgi coughed. ‘I sometimes wonder if I knew what I was letting myself in for, if it comes to that. You’d have thought second time around would be easy, but it’s no bed of roses.’

Gunna mumbled something non-committal. She knew that Helgi led a hectic life with two young children by his second wife, as well as two boys in their late teens with his first. He was constantly shuttling between the two families, much to his wife’s disquiet, as he did his best to not let the two older boys disappear from his life.

‘So what’s new?’ Helgi asked, leaning back dangerously far in his chair and stretching out his legs. ‘On the good news front, I can tell you that Halla and I are off for two weeks in January.’