‘Would that have bothered you?’
‘I would have warned her not to. Helga was always greedy. She was bad with money. I never realized she had got so many people involved with Thomocoin until after she died. She only did it for the commission.’
‘Didn’t your friend Sharp tell you about Helga’s investments?’
‘No. I had no direct involvement in Thomocoin myself, except a small investment.’
‘How much?’
‘About half a million krónur. Five thousand dollars at the time. It’s all I could afford.’
‘What might Thomocoin be wanting Dísa to do? Or to keep quiet about?’
Ómar sighed. ‘I really have no idea.’
‘And what about Krakatoa?’
‘You asked me before. I don’t know who or what Krakatoa is.’
‘Really?’ said Magnus, looking directly at Ómar. ‘Because if Krakatoa is the guy who is really running Thomocoin, then Krakatoa may well be trying to scare your daughter, or even kill her.’
‘You don’t know that,’ said Ómar.
‘Is Krakatoa your friend Sharp?’
‘No idea.’
‘Kata’s dead,’ said Vigdís. ‘Inspector Magnús and I saw her body yesterday morning. It was a terrible sight. Honestly. Horrible.’
This shook Ómar. ‘Well, for God’s sake find who did it then!’ he said. ‘Find this Krakatoa! Lock him up! But I’ve told you I can’t help you.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ said Magnus.
Ómar’s shoulders slumped, as if the brief outburst of outrage had exhausted him and despair had reasserted itself. He shrugged.
‘Do you have any idea where Dísa might be?’ Magnus asked. ‘We need to find her. If only to keep her safe.’
‘No.’
‘Think,’ said Magnus.
‘Does Dísa own a car?’ Vigdís asked.
‘No,’ Ómar said. He hesitated. ‘The only place I can think of is my summer house. It’s on Apavatn. I used to take the girls there when they were kids. I don’t know for certain she’s gone there now. But I know she was... thinking about it recently. I can give you directions. She could have taken a bus there from Selfoss, although it would be a good walk to the summer house from the bus stop.’
‘Do you believe him?’ asked Magnus afterwards as they got into the car.
‘No,’ said Vigdís. ‘He knows who Krakatoa is.’
‘When we get back to the station, get someone from Selfoss to check out the bus and the summer house. We need to find Dísa. Put out an active alert. And get on to the airport — we don’t want her leaving the country.’
‘What about bringing Ómar in for more questioning?’ Vigdís asked.
‘I was thinking about that. But we need a warrant for his computer and phone first. See if he communicated with Sharp or Thomocoin, or Dísa for that matter.’
‘I’ll get on to it.’
‘I wish we could speak to Sharp.’
‘In Panama?’ said Vigdís. ‘We could. Instead of all that warrant stuff, I could fly out there and have a little chat. What about it?’
Magnus grinned. ‘I’d have you on the next plane, Vigdís, but unfortunately, we have no jurisdiction there. Plus it’s hurricane season.’
‘I could wait it out. Lie by a pool until he cracked and confessed. It’s got to be worth a try. And Panama in a hurricane can’t be worse than Reykjavík on a windy Monday.’
‘Actually, I have an idea,’ said Magnus. ‘I’ll drop you at the station, and then I will go and see Iceland’s Miss Thomocoin.’
‘And who is that?’
‘Fjóla.’
Forty-Eight
Ómar slumped down into his chair in front of his computer. The numbers on his spreadsheet — a cash-flow forecast for a little company that did glacier tours and was in a bit of trouble with its bank — swam in front of his eyes.
Of course he knew who Krakatoa was.
But he was only now beginning to understand what Krakatoa had done.
He had been so proud of Jói when he had come up with his idea for a new cryptocurrency, and proud when he had introduced Jói to Sharp. He had been hurt that the two of them had seemed to freeze him out of Thomocoin, as Jói’s FOMOcoin was rechristened, but he thought it probably for the best. He had never been privy to the inner workings of the operation, and only recently had he realized that his son had the dominant role. He had been gratified when Jói had asked to stash his cold wallet at the summer house.
Ómar had been a banker. He understood the potential for Thomocoin, but he also knew there were risks. When they had failed to come up with the exchange they had promised which would convert Thomocoin into real money, these doubts had grown. He was glad he had only invested five thousand bucks: enough to make a decent profit if it all worked; not enough to wipe him out if he lost it all. His bitcoin profits had been good and he had taken most of those and spent them; if he lost all his Thomocoin, well, easy come, easy go.
He had become much more worried when Helga had started pressuring him for answers about the exchange and visited him in Reykjavík demanding answers and wheedling Jói’s role in Thomocoin out of him. It was only then that he realized how she had bet everything on Thomocoin and suckered in so many other people as well. He didn’t care about Helga, she deserved to lose her money, but he did care about Dísa and Anna Rós and their inheritance.
For a moment he had wondered about Helga’s death and whether Sharp might be responsible for it, but he couldn’t conceive of his friend doing anything like that to Helga, whom Ómar knew Sharp and his wife genuinely liked. So he was relieved when it turned out a local had done it. A local who had been his wife’s lover, before he himself had strayed with Bryndís.
Kata was dead. And Dísa was convinced that Krakatoa had killed her, or had had her killed. Because Krakatoa had said he would.
And now Krakatoa was threatening to kill Dísa.
His son was threatening to kill his daughter.
His instinct had been to protect Jói’s identity. Not to tell Dísa and certainly not the police who Krakatoa really was. Give himself time to think.
All right. Now was the time to think.
What he thought first was that Jói was incapable of killing Kata, let alone Dísa. Ómar’s son was not a murderer. First and foremost he needed to have faith in his son. Dísa, and the police, must be mistaken.
So, if it wasn’t Jói who had killed Kata and was threatening Dísa, who was it?
Sharp? Either it was Sharp, or Sharp would know who it might be.
Ómar would really have liked to talk to Sharp on the phone, but he decided it was better to use the end-to-end encrypted messaging system that Jói had set up over Telegram on his laptop. He was glad he hadn’t had time to hit the kill switch on that machine when the detectives showed up, as Jói had instructed him.
LAWRENCE: Are you in Panama?
LINDENBROOK: Hey, buddy. Good to hear from you. Yeah, got here last Sunday. Just in time. The British police raided my house the morning after I got out of London. I had to leave Ella and the kids there though. She’s not a happy bunny.
LAWRENCE: Have you heard what’s happening here?
LINDENBROOK: What do you mean?
LAWRENCE: Dísa’s best friend was murdered two days ago.
LINDENBROOK: Oh no! I’m sorry. Was it the girl who was with her at the funeral?
LAWRENCE: Yes. The police think it was Krakatoa.
LINDENBROOK: Oh, ignore the police. They’re just guessing.
LAWRENCE: Dísa thinks it’s Krakatoa too.
LINDENBROOK: Tell her not to worry.
LAWRENCE: No. You don’t understand. Krakatoa threatened Dísa. Said if she didn’t give him his bitcoin back, someone close to her would die. And someone did. Kata.