‘Because the man’s being transferred all the bloody time. No. I want someone a lot younger than that idiot.’
Sour-faced, Vilhjálmur consulted his laptop. ‘You can have one officer on permanent secondment.’
‘Who?’
‘You can have Snorri Hilmarsson or Bára Gunnólfsdóttir. They’ve both been seconded to you occasionally, I believe.’
Gunna thought quickly. She knew and liked both officers. Bára was small, fair and quick-witted with an ability to get straight to the heart of things, while Snorri was the beefy, likeable young man with an endless reserve of good humour who was normally the one sent to help out at Hvalvík. Gunna knew him as tenacious but without Bára’s spark of fierce intelligence. She had seen plenty of both of them and paused over a less than easy choice.
‘Snorri,’ she decided.
‘Why?’
‘He’s a plodder. Methodical, gets on with it. Country copper material. Bára has a great future in CID, as long as you can keep her on the force.’
Vilhjálmur winced at the reference to the police force’s retention rate.
‘All right. I’ll interview Snorri when he comes on duty and we’ll see if he’s prepared for a transfer to Hvalvík.’
‘Oh, he is. He lives in Hvalvík anyway, so he’s happy with it.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I’ve already asked him.’
‘Gunnhildur, you know you shouldn’t bypass procedure,’ Vilhjálmur admonished grimly. ‘Now, vehicles.’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s August now. How long are these vehicles you have going to last?’
‘Search me. I’m not a mechanic.’
‘I don’t have a vehicle for you. I can’t justify it.’
‘Come on. That old Volvo’s going to fall apart soon.’
He tapped his teeth with the pencil. ‘Make it last the summer. I’ll allocate you a jeep, but not until October.’
Gunna wanted to spit on her palm and shake his hand, but was still suspicious. It seemed to have all been too easy.
‘Done. Can I have Snorri from next week?’
Gunna used the CID room. She could have gone back to Hvalvík as soon as Vilhjálmur had agreed to let her have both Snorri and a jeep, but she felt the need of the buzz of colleagues around her rather than Haddi’s dry chuckle from the next room.
‘Hvalvík police,’ she heard Haddi answer gruffly after a dozen rings.
‘Hi, it’s me. Are you all right without me for a few hours?’
‘Yeah. I reckon I can maintain law and order for a while. Are you busy with that bloke?’
‘Pretty much. CID have better things to do, so this is down to us.’
‘That’s all right. Tomorrow’s going to be busy, though.’
‘Why’s that?’ Gunna asked.
‘They’re bringing some low-loaders through to the smelter site so we’ll have to close a couple of streets and escort them through.’
‘Shouldn’t be a problem. D’you want the good news?’
‘No news is normally good news.’
‘We have Snorri from Monday and get a jeep in October.’
Gunna heard Haddi snort, which she recognized as a laugh of sorts. ‘And what did you have to do to persuade Vilhjálmur? Did you beat him round the head or just threaten the old fool?’
‘Didn’t have to do either. Just set out the case and explained how busy we are. But he did try and palm me off with Viggó Björgvins.’
‘But you got Snorri instead?’
‘So he says. But I’ll wait and see if it’s Viggó who turns up on Monday morning.’
‘If he does, I’ll be asking for a transfer,’ Haddi growled.
‘Me too,’ Gunna agreed. ‘Anyway, I’ll see you later.’
Rather than use Bjössi’s desk, she sat herself opposite his empty place in the chair that would belong to the station’s second CID officer — when recruitment and financial constraints might allow the post to be filled.
It took more than an hour on the computer to plough through the national register that lists the full name, date of birth and legal residence of every Icelandic citizen and foreign resident. She emerged from the E section with ten candidates for men with the initials EEE, of whom six could not be ruled out by their age. Encouraged, she plunged into the V section of the register, but found that VV was a very common set of initials and decided to concentrate on E3.
Referring to the list of names and dates of birth on the pad next to her, she clicked the mouse on the telephone directory and began with the first of the names. She added the phone numbers given to the list on her pad, pulled Bjössi’s phone across the desk towards her and dialled the first number.
‘Hello?’ a woman’s voice answered.
‘Good morning. This is Gunnhildur Gísladóttir at Hvalvík police. Could I speak to Eiríkur Emil Eiríksson?’
‘He’s not here,’ the voice answered sharply.
‘Could you tell me where I could find him?’
‘You’re not his . . .’ There was a pause. ‘You’re not his bit on the side, are you?’ the voice continued with suppressed fury. ‘Because if you are—’
‘I’m an investigating officer with Hvalvík police and I assure you I’ve never met the man, but I’m trying to eliminate certain people from an inquiry. Can you tell me where I can find him? This is a serious matter.’
The voice on the line sighed. ‘He’s at sea as far as I know. But sometimes he doesn’t bother to come home when they’re ashore.’
‘And you’re his wife?’
‘I don’t know about that. I’m his kids’ mum at any rate.’
‘I see. I apologize, but I have to eliminate a series of people from an incident. Could you describe him for me? Height and hair colour?’
Gunna could hear the click of a lighter and a long exhalation.
‘Eiríkur’s about two metres, a bit over. Dark hair, going a bit bald at the back, big nose.’
‘In that case I don’t think I’ll have to trouble you any more as that doesn’t fit the description of the person we’re looking for. But can I have your name, please? It’s just in case I need to follow this up later.’
‘Aldís Gunnarsdóttir.’
‘And is that an Akureyri phone number?’
‘Dalvík.’
‘OK. Thank you for your help. I don’t expect we’ll need to trouble you any further.’
‘What’s he done?’ Aldís asked sharply.
‘Excuse me?’
‘What’s he done, the bloke you’re looking for? Eiríkur gets up to all sorts.’
‘Nothing as far as I know. It’s a missing person inquiry.’
‘Oh. Shame.’ The woman’s disappointment was palpable.
Gunna ended the call with relief, carefully noting names, numbers and the time of the call. She looked back at the list and dialled again.
‘Good morning. This is Gunnhildur Gísladóttir at Hvalvík police. Could I speak to Elmar Einar Ervík, please?’
It was long past midday when Gunna realized that she would have to be quick getting back to Hvalvík before the station closed its doors at six. But she consoled herself with a job well done that left only one name unaccounted for on the list she had started with. One person had not answered his home phone or the mobile number that the telephone company’s website listed. She reflected that this was nothing out of the ordinary, as the person could be out of the country, at sea, a meeting or simply asleep. Out of curiosity, she opened a search engine on the computer, typed in Einar Eyjólfur Einarsson and clicked the search box.
The personnel page of a company website was at the top of the list that appeared within seconds. Gunna followed the link to the site and scrolled down the list of staff to the name she was looking for. Some entries had a picture alongside the staff listing, but there was no picture of Einar Eyjólfur Einarsson, just the name and the mobile phone number she had already called unsuccessfully twice.