Quentin Bates - Frozen Assets

‘The identification is only preliminary at the moment, as we’ll need someone to identify him formally. But as he had his initials tattooed on his arm, identification wasn’t difficult. I need to know a little more about him and what his work was, what he was working on. Can you tell me when he came in to work last?’

Sigurjóna opened a slim laptop on the desk in front of her and tapped with swift fingers.

‘He was here last week,’ she said slowly, circling a finger on the mouse pad. ‘Here. Last Friday. I know he had a meeting on Monday this week but I’d have to ask Ósk about that. He was due to meet the same client in Copenhagen on Wednesday, and never showed up. The client called us and we had to reschedule. Luckily it wasn’t anything delicate, only a preliminary meeting with a new prospect, so no harm done.’

‘So, if you can tell me which airline he was travelling with, we can find out easily enough if he really did travel or not.’

‘Dísa can tell you that. She books flights for our people, but it was probably the Express airline.’

‘Cheaper?’

Sigurjóna nodded. ‘And more flexible.’

‘How had he been getting on here until last week?’

‘Fine. Like I said, he was a very competent and successful account manager.’

‘No tensions? Arguments?’

Sigurjóna flushed noticeably. ‘No. Not at all.’

‘Did Einar have any disagreements with you or his manager?’

‘Spearpoint is growing very fast,’ Sigurjóna said proudly. ‘But this is a small company and everyone reports to me. No, we did not have any disagreements. We got on very well. He was entertaining some Danish clients for a few days and was due to meet them again in Copenhagen on Wednesday, but didn’t show up. My assumption was that he had gone over there, found himself a nice little Danish lady and decided to stay. It’s hard to say. He could be impulsive.’

Gunna scribbled in the file. Noticing that this was making Sigurjóna uneasy, she also took the time to note down on the side of the page that she needed to buy butter, milk, bread and some fruit and vegetables in Hagkaup before driving back to Hvalvík.

‘Do you know if Einar had any enemies? Anyone who might wish to harm him? Anyone with a grudge?’

‘No idea. In personal terms, the others here had a closer relationship with him than I did. You might want to speak to them. Dísa probably knew him best and he often worked with Jón Oddur, so he might know something about his movements.’

‘I will need to, but at present I’m mostly trying to build up a picture of his movements so that we can establish a time of death and who the last people he saw were. Can you tell me what your movements were on and after the weekend?’

Sigurjóna’s eyes opened wide. ‘Surely you don’t suspect me of anything.’

‘Of course not,’ Gunna said smoothly, noting down that she would also have to stock up on toilet paper, so much cheaper in town than at the Co-op in Hvalvík. ‘Purely routine. We have to ask and I assure you I’ll want to know the movements of all your staff at the same time if that’s possible.’

‘I was with my husband in Akureyri. A business trip.’

‘Anyone other than your husband who will confirm that?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Just routine, you understand. Anyway, thank you for your time. But if you recall anything that could help the investigation, I’d appreciate it if you could give me a call. Now, it would be useful if I could talk to Jón Oddur and Dísa.’

She stood up and Sigurjóna did the same, coming around the desk to accompany her to the door. Gunna felt a whiff of something powerful on her breath as Sigurjóna held the door open for her and called out to the girl at reception.

‘Dísa, would you call Jón Oddur? This lady would like to speak to him,’ she instructed and closed the office door behind her.

At the reception desk, Gunna looked down at where Dísa sat at the switchboard, speaking quietly into the microphone of a headset. She pressed a button to finish the call and looked up with eyes that Gunna could see were full of concern.

‘Are you here about Einar?’ she asked immediately, with a backward glance to make sure the door was shut.

‘Yes. You knew him pretty well, Sigurjóna tells me.’

‘I did. Where is he?’

‘He’s dead, I’m afraid.’

Dísa dropped her head and looked down at the desk in front of her. Then she buried her face in both hands for a moment before sweeping them up and through her hair, looking up bright-eyed. ‘Do you know who killed him?’

‘Why do you ask? Is there anything you want to tell me about?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe,’ she said dully as the young man with the red face Gunna had seen earlier escaping from Sigurjóna’s office appeared.

‘What does the old witch want now?’ His harsh tone did nothing to hide the trepidation behind it. The expression on his face was briefly of panic when he saw Gunna standing by the desk.

‘It’s not the boss. This lady wants a word with you,’ Dísa said quietly.

‘That’s a relief. You’d better come to my office.’

Jón Oddur sat with his back to the window and fiddled with a laptop on his desk as he spoke.

‘Is it Einar Eyjólfur you’re here about?’ he asked nervously.

‘What makes you think that?’

‘We haven’t seen him for a few days and I can’t get through to his mobile.’

‘As it happens, we have every reason to believe that he drowned in Hvalvík harbour in the early hours of Tuesday morning.’

‘So it was him,’ Jón Oddur said with a sigh. ‘Dísa was right.’

‘When did you see him last?’

‘Monday,’ he replied promptly. ‘He didn’t come in, but we met in the evening with some clients from Denmark he was supposed to meet again on Wednesday.’

‘In Copenhagen? So he was due to fly out there on Tuesday?’

‘That’s right, Tuesday afternoon. He didn’t show up, so I’m going there next week to pick things up.’

‘What business is that?’

Jón Oddur smiled sourly for the first time. ‘It’s a Danish sweet company that manufactures chewing gum. They want to see if Iceland’s a market for them, so we’re doing market research, putting them in touch with retailers, that sort of thing.’

‘Sounds interesting.’

‘Yeah. Right,’ Jón Oddur said bitterly.

‘Not an exciting prospect?’ Gunna probed gently.

‘Einar Eyjólfur didn’t think so, and neither do I now that it’s been dumped on me.’

‘What was he doing before that?’

‘The Hvalvík smelter was his project. He’d been on that since it started. He wasn’t very pleased when he was taken off it and put on this chewing gum thing instead. What happened to him?’

‘Drowned,’ Gunna repeated. ‘In Hvalvík harbour.’

‘God. What the hell was he doing in that dump?’

‘That’s what we’d like to know. What do you know of his movements?’

‘We took the chewing gum guys to dinner at that Chinese place on Hverfisgata and then we went to a few bars after that.’

Gunna sat in silence, waiting for him to continue.

‘The Danes bowed out about eleven and went back to their hotel. We went for a few beers.’

‘A few?’

‘Yeah. Einar Eyjólfur liked a drink, but he didn’t have much of a head for it.’

‘Where did you go?’

‘Gaukur á Stöng. Then that really loud place with all the lights on Laugarvegur and then the Emperor.’

‘Quite a night, then. So when and where did you part company?’

‘At the Emperor. About one. I told him he needed to get some sleep if he was going to catch his flight in the morning, but he said it was an afternoon flight so he didn’t need to be up early.’