Arnaldur Indridason - Arctic Chill

“Niran okay,” Virote said.

“Do you know where he is?”

Virote was mute.

“Do you know Niran’s whereabouts?”

Virote looked at Erlendur for a long time, then nodded.

“Why are you hiding him?” Erlendur asked. “You’re only making matters worse. We’re starting to think he must have attacked his brother. Your actions only support the idea. When you take him away like this, hide him.”

“It not like that,” Virote said. “He not do nothing to Elias.”

“We have to talk to him,” Erlendur said. “I know you’re trying to protect him but this has gone too far. You won’t gain anything by keeping him hidden.”

“He not attack Elias.”

“Then what? What do you mean by hiding him like this?”

Virote did not speak.

“Answer me,” Erlendur ordered. “What were you doing at your sister’s friend’s house?”

“I visit him.”

“Is Niran with him?” Erlendur asked.

Virote did not answer. Erlendur repeated his question. An icy wind whipped about them in the alleyway and it occurred to Erlendur that Virote must be freezing. His light trainers were wet through, and he was only wearing jeans, a thin windcheater, a scarf and a baseball cap besides. Sensing that Virote was wavering, Erlendur put the question a third time.

“You have to trust us,” Erlendur said. “We’ll make sure nothing happens to Niran.”

Virote looked at him for a long time, as if pondering what to do, whether to trust him. Finally he seemed to make up his mind.

“Come. You come with me.”

The mobile rang in Erlendur’s pocket. It was Elinborg to tell him about the meeting with Hallur and his parents. Erlendur asked her to call back later. Elinborg said that next she and Sigurdur Oli were going to visit Hallur’s cousin, Agust, who might possibly be able to give them some answers about the knife. They rang off.

Erlendur replaced the phone in his coat pocket.

“Where’s Niran now?” he asked.

“He with Johann,” Virote said.

“Where you were?”

“Yes.”

“Is Johann with him?”

“Yes.”

On the way Virote told him about Johann whom Sunee had met last spring. They had been seeing each other ever since but Johann was very hesitant and wanted to take things slowly. He was divorced, with no children of his own.

“Do they plan to live together, Sunee and Johann?” Erlendur asked.

“Maybe. I think they get married.”

“And Niran?”

“Johann help Niran. Sunee take to him.”

“Why?”

“Johann help Niran. He very angry. Very difficult. Then this happen.”

The parents of Hallur’s cousin Agust looked on as Elinborg grilled their son. The mother gasped and the father leaped to his feet in agitation when Elinborg asked the boy straight out if he had murdered Elias. Agust answered every question very much as Hallur had and their stories tallied in all the main details. Neither he nor Hallur had received a knife from Anton. Agust said he had only met Anton on that one occasion at his place and couldn’t explain why the boy was claiming that he had intended to swap a computer game for the wood-carving knife. He didn’t know him at all.

Agust attended a different school from his cousin Hallur but their circumstances were very similar. Agust’s parents seemed to have no shortage of money; they lived in an attractive detached house with two cars parked outside the garage.

“Do you know a boy by the name of Niran at your cousin’s school?” Sigurdur Oli asked.

Agust shook his head. Like Hallur he seemed quite unperturbed by the visit from the police, and gave the impression of being polite and well brought up. He was an only child and it emerged that he and Hallur were almost like brothers and were always messing about together. A quick check revealed that neither had ever been in trouble with the law.

“Did you know his brother Elias?”

Again Agust shook his head.

“Where were you when the murder was committed?”

“He was with his father up at Hafravatn,” the mother said. “We have a summer cottage by the lake.”

“Do you often go there midweek, in the middle of the day? Elinborg asked, looking at the father.

“We go there whenever we like,” he said.

“And you were both there all day?”

“Till evening,” the father said. “We’re doing up an old range at the cottage. Are you telling me that on the basis of a pack of lies told by a couple of youths, you come here late at night, in the middle of a blizzard, to ask a string of preposterous questions?”

“That’s what’s so odd,” Sigurdur Oli said. “Why should they lie about Hallur and Agust, boys they don’t even know?”

“Isn’t that something you should be looking into? It’s bloody outrageous to come here and pester the boy in the middle of the night with nonsensical questions based on information from some youths who sound to me as if they’re trying to get themselves out of trouble.”

“Maybe,” Elinborg said. “We’re only doing our job. You’re welcome to complain to our superiors.”

“I might just do that”

“Do you want me to call for you?”

“Stop it, Ottar,” the woman said.

“No, I’m serious,” the man said. “This conduct is bloody outrageous.”

Elinborg had taken out her mobile phone. It had been a long day and she would have given anything to be at home. She could have had a word with Sigurdur Oli and agreed to come back in the morning, apologising yet again for the intrusion, but this man was seriously aggravating her. Everything he said was correct but he was being deliberately provocative and getting on her nerves. Before she knew what she was doing she had selected Erlendur’s number and handed the man the phone.

“This is the man you want to talk to,” she said.

Erlendur approached the house with Virote. It had taken them ten minutes to walk up from the town centre. Virote pressed the bell, the door opened and a man whom Erlendur assumed was Johann appeared, clearly upset, and started talking in a rush to Virote. He did not notice Erlendur at first but when he stepped forwards the man started back and stared at them both in turn.

“Are you from the police?” he asked, looking suspiciously at Erlendur.

Erlendur nodded.

“You’re Johann, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“What’s going on here?”

“Sunee wanted it this way. I’m trying to help her.”

“Where Niran?” Virote asked.

“Niran’s disappeared,” Johann said.

“Do you know where he’s gone?” Erlendur asked.

“No.”

“Home, maybe?” Erlendur suggested.

“No, I called Sunee,” Johann said. “She’s desperately worried.”

“Where can he have gone?”

“Impossible to say. He’s been more agitated than usual today. He’s in a bad way. He feels he should have looked after Elias better.”

“When did he leave?”

“I didn’t hear him go out”

Johann showed Erlendur into the kitchen.

“Not more than fifteen, twenty minutes ago. I had to pop out to the shop and when I came back he was gone.”

There was no mistaking Johann’s anxiety. He was of medium height, fair-haired and lean, dressed in a blue denim shirt and black trousers, and had a neat beard that he kept stroking down from his mouth.

“I heard at work that the police have been asking questions about me,” he said.

“You and Sunee must have known each other for some time if she trusts you with Niran.”

“Yes, nine months, more or less.”

“But you’ve been keeping it pretty hush-hush.”

“No, I don’t know. Hush-hush. We wanted to be cautious. I got divorced four years back and have lived alone since. Sunee’s the first woman I’ve met since my divorce who I really like. She’s special.”