Quentin Bates - Chilled to the Bone

Gunna stamped the snow from her boots and flinched as the overpowering heat of the hotel’s lobby hit her like a slap in the face. The door whispered shut behind her as she looked around, spying a man wearing a grey suit and a worried expression by the reception desk. He immediately hurried over to her.

“You’re from the police?” he asked in a voice laden with drama but kept so low as to be almost a murmur.

“That’s me. Look like a copper, do I?” Gunna replied brightly, shooting out a hand for the man to grasp and shake limply. “Gunnhildur Gísladóttir. And you are?”

“Yngvi Jónsson, I’m the duty manager. Where are the rest of you?”

“Only me to start with. Can you show me what’s happened?”

Yngvi wrung his hands as he scuttled toward the lift, which opened in front of them.

“Of course, we’ve had guests who’ve had problems before, and even people who have …” he gulped, “passed away on the premises. But never anything like this.”

“You know who the man is, I take it?”

“Of course. He’s stayed here a good many times in the past and has always been a real gentleman. It’s been such a shock …”

“And his family? He has a family, I presume?”

“I haven’t contacted anyone except the police. The staff are in the canteen, waiting for you.”

Gunna nodded. Yngvi continued to wring his hands and the lift played muzak until a soft voice warned them the third floor was approaching.

“This way, please,” he said needlessly, stepping out of the lift and hurrying along the corridor, with Gunna striding at his heels. He swiped a card through the electronic lock of a door, looked left and right along the corridor and pushed the door open.

“There,” he said, and Gunna stepped inside, pulling on a pair of surgical gloves as she did so.

The room was silent and dark. She carefully used the butt of a ballpoint pen to turn on the lights at the switch by the door and surveyed the room in front of her and the naked man stretched across the king-sized bed.

“Who’s been in here?” Gunna asked, calling over her shoulder and sensing Yngvi standing in the doorway.

“The cleaner who found him, me and the doctor.”

“Which doctor was that?”

“Sveinn Ófeigsson. He’s retired, but he’s staying here at the moment, and as he was in the bar. I asked him to come up with me. I don’t know if that was right or not, but it seemed quicker than calling out an ambulance.”

Gunna went along the side of the bed and crouched by the man’s head, lolling at an unnatural angle, his mouth blocked by a bright red ball held in place by straps around the back of his neck. The face looked vaguely familiar, a man in late middle age, with eyes half-closed and strands of thin hair in disarray, revealing a gleaming scalp. The pale arm that reached up behind him was tied securely at the wrist to the top of the bed frame. Standing up and retracing her steps, she saw that the man’s other hand and both ankles were tied in the same way with dark red scarves that almost matched the burgundy of the rich bedspread.

“Don’t touch anything, please,” Gunna told Yngvi, who had advanced a few steps into the room.

Gunna looked around, taking in as many details of the room as she could, but nothing appeared to be out of place. A suitcase lay open on a frame in the corner of the room, with rows of shirts and underwear neatly laid out and ready to be plucked for use.

The bathroom light shimmered into life automatically, just as she was looking for the switch to reveal sparkling marble tiles and a vast basin. A small sponge bag sat next to the sink, along with an electric razor. Gunna peered into the sink and spied a long black hair in sharp relief against the pale marble.

She nodded to herself and backed out to where Yngvi was waiting for her.

“That’ll do for the moment, thanks. I’ll get a forensic team to come and examine the room as soon as possible. Until then, it needs to be sealed.”

“But what about …?” Yngvi asked, gesturing toward the corpse on the bed.

“Don’t worry. He’s not going to run away. We’d best go back downstairs, and I’ll start asking questions. You said the girl who found him is still here?”

Yngvi nodded miserably.

“In that case, I’m going to have to borrow your office, probably for the rest of the day,” she said.

“I was wondering how long …?”

“How long, what?”

“How long all this will take? He was due to leave today and we’ll be needing the room for a guest tonight.”

“In that case, I think someone is going to be disappointed. This is going to take a while, so you might have to send your guest to Hotel Borg instead. Come on.”

Hekla’s new hair had a blonde sheen that gave her an allure and a confidence that she enjoyed. Everything was new, the expensively simple dress, the nails, the shoes, even her minuscule underwear was understatedly elegant and straight from the packet.

She sat in the hotel’s lobby and did her best to stay calm, forcing herself to breathe at a measured rate in order to numb the combination of anticipation and anxiety. This wasn’t something she could see as a job and detach herself from. It still took its toll and kept her awake at nights, especially since that scare before Christmas, though less often than before. In a small country like Iceland, she reflected, there simply wasn’t enough of a clientele. Sooner or later she would run out of men, be recognized on the street or else have to leave the country and maybe take her line of work with her.

Hekla sipped chilled water and delicately replaced the glass on the table in front of her. She could retire, she thought, and smiled at the prospect. The bank balance was piling up nicely. Debts had been paid off. She would be able to take it easy and perhaps get a proper job once the children were at school.

She hardly noticed the florid man in a dark business suit approach and stand looking sideways at her. Hekla looked up and reproached herself for a lack of awareness, giving the man a discreet smile and a nod.

“Sonja?” he asked.

“I’m Sonja. You must be Haraldur?”

“That’s me. Call me Halli. Shall we?” he asked, the eagerness in his voice unmistakable.

“Of course. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk here first for a little while. Think of it as an icebreaker.” She smiled. “Would you like a drink?”

Haraldur sat in the chair opposite her, at ease but still tense, although he hid it well. Hekla looked deliberately at the bar and caught the eye of the young man behind it, who quickly came across to them, his steps silent on the hotel’s lush carpet.

“Can I offer you anything?” he asked.

“What would you like, Haraldur?”

“Bacardi and Coke for me.”

“And I’ll have some tea, please. Chamomile if you have it.”

The barman almost bowed as he backed away.

“So, Haraldur. Are you in Reykjavík on business?”

“Yup. Here for two days, then back home.”

“You’re in the seafood business?”

“Actually, no. Transport and storage equipment. There isn’t much I couldn’t tell you about forklift trucks,” he said with a sharp bark of humorless laughter.

Hekla could see that he was becoming increasingly nervous, perhaps he was worried that someone would see him with an unfamiliar young woman. The hand that lifted the glass the barman brought him trembled slightly.

The barman placed a small teapot and a delicate china cup in front of her.

“Thank you. Charge to room four-oh-six, please,” Hekla said to the youth and smiled warmly at him as he backed away again.