Quentin Bates - Cold Steal

‘Not a lot. Is that all there is?’

‘The reply reads: Can’t meet. Been arrested.’

‘Any more?’

‘There’s a message back again that says: We’ll be quick. Same place.’

‘And?’

‘That’s it.’

‘And the number it came from?’

‘An unregistered pay-as-you-go mobile.’

Gunna walked faster, turned and walked back towards Eiríkur and Tinna as she talked. ‘Can you trace the locations?’

‘Your friend’s mobile has been on the same mast since four this afternoon. The other one’s somewhere downtown and hasn’t been moving about either.’

‘And our friend hasn’t replied?’

‘Hold on.’ Gunna could hear the clicking of a keyboard and Siggi’s heavy breathing into the phone jammed under his chin. ‘Just now. He sent one back that said: Time? There’s been no reply to that one yet.’

‘All right. Thanks, Siggi. Let me know as soon as something happens with either of them, will you?’

‘I will. I’ll brief my relief when he arrives as well. This has priority, right?’

‘Absolutely. Our friend’s friend is someone we definitely don’t want walking the streets. So top priority, please,’ Gunna said and ended the call. ‘Eiríkur!’

‘Yes, chief?’ he said, looking expectant.

‘It seems Orri’s meeting someone in the morning, and I have a feeling it’s the guy who abducted Jóhann.’

‘You know when?’

‘That’s the fun part of it all,’ Gunna said. ‘We don’t know when and we don’t know where.’

‘Gunna.’

She heard the voice calling her from a distance. A soft, welcoming voice that begged her to open her eyes.

‘Gunna.’

This time it was more insistent, firmer, and she resisted the temptation to find out who wanted her so badly. She rolled her shoulders and huddled deeper into the borrowed anorak when the hum of an engine starting up reminded her that she wasn’t asleep in her own bed and a heavy hand shook her shoulder.

‘Gunna, our friend’s on the move.’

She was awake in an instant on the back seat of one of the car pool’s unmarked Golfs. Big Geiri, who had been watching the door of the block of flats where she had delivered Orri the previous afternoon, was taking the car along the track towards the main road with the lights off. Looking through the windscreen she could see Orri’s rust-coloured Toyota in the distance in the glow of the street lights. Drizzle fizzed in the dim spheres of light around them and the wipers swept the windscreen clean.

‘Keep behind him, but not too close,’ Gunna instructed needlessly. ‘What time is it?’

‘Six ten.’

‘Hell, he must be going to work.’

‘Where’s that?’

‘Off Reykjanesbraut, just outside Hafnarfjördur.’

‘That fits, he’s going right.’

‘Don’t lose him, Geiri, this one’s important,’ Gunna said and Geiri put his foot down as soon as he had a chance, keeping his eyes on the lights of Orri’s car while Gunna clicked her communicator.

‘Zero-four-fifty-one, ninety-five-fifty. Eiríkur, you there?’

Ninety-five-fifty, zero-four-fifty-one. Got you.’

‘Heading for Reykjanesbraut. Our friend’s moving.’

‘Orri?’ Eiríkur asked sleepily.

‘My guess is he’s going to work. Any movement at Sunna María’s place?’

‘This early? Nothing.’

‘All right. Give her an hour and then bang on her door. Make sure she’s still in one piece.’

‘Will do.’

Gunna leaned over the seat to peer through the windscreen. ‘You can still see him?’

‘Right there,’ Geiri growled. ‘And over the speed limit in this weather.’

‘Definitely looks like he’s going to work. I’ll duck behind the seat if you want to get closer. We can’t let him see me.’

The Golf spun through the sheets of water forming on the roads and Orri’s car came gradually closer until Geiri caught up with it at an intersection outside Hafnarfjördur. As the lights changed he ran a light that had just gone red to keep up and then allowed another car to filter across between them, still keeping Orri in sight.

With Hafnarfjördur behind them, Orri’s car sideslipped onto a feeder road and Geiri took his foot off the pedal to create some space between them.

‘He’s coming off.’

‘I thought he would. Keep an eye on him as far back as you can.’

Geiri slowed and waited until Orri was already down the sloping curve before he followed, letting himself lose sight of Orri’s car for a few seconds, and at the same time letting Orri lose sight of anyone who might be following. Now it was obvious where he was going and Geiri pulled up in the parking lot of a neighbouring building between a couple of vans, far enough from the Green Bay Dispatch unit to be inconspicuous.

‘What now?’

‘I need another half hour with my eyes closed,’ Gunna said, handing him the pair of small binoculars from the back seat. ‘Our boy will probably come out and drive off in one of those vans. When he does, wake me up.’

Gunna’s communicator came to life at the same time as the Golf did and she felt the car move as ‘Ninety-five-fifty, zero-four-fifty-one’ crackled in her ear.

‘Zero-four-fifty-one, ninety-five-fifty,’ Gunna answered as she looked around. ‘What’s happening, Geiri?’

‘Our friend’s moving off. The white Trafic up there.’ He pointed with a thick finger to the van in the distance.

‘OK, good, don’t lose him,’ she said blearily and clicked her communicator again. ‘Eiríkur, what news?’

‘Nobody home, chief. No answer when we banged on the door and the home phone isn’t answering either. Nothing to be seen through the windows.’

‘Hell. Where’s the damned woman got to?’

‘I’m starting to wonder if it was her we saw last night.’

‘Why do you think that?’

‘It was someone who knew their way around, I reckon, and slipped away in the dark. We were looking for someone going to her house, not someone coming from it.’

‘Use your discretion. Get inside if you can without doing too much damage and check if she’s there or not. If there’s any comeback, we can truthfully say that we were concerned for her well-being. All right?’

‘Sure, chief. After sitting here all night, Tinna really likes the idea of breaking Sunna María’s windows.’

Gunna wanted to laugh, but stopped herself. Her head was starting to pound. ‘Up to you, dear boy. But you’ll have to answer for any damage. Let me know when you’ve had a look.’

The van was making sedate progress back along Reykjanesbraut towards the city through the swelling rush hour traffic that Gunna reflected she would also be in the middle of on a normal day. Geiri hummed to himself, easily keeping the high-sided Trafic in sight as the streams of cars stopped and started, pushing his way across into the other lanes when he needed to and once flooring the accelerator when the van took an unexpected turn, pressing Gunna into the seat in the back.

She reflected that it was as well Orri drove fairly responsibly, and wondered why she was still in the back like a passenger in a taxi. As the van approached the intersection with Vesturlandsvegur and Geiri watched Orri join the lane of traffic heading for the city’s northern region and the countryside beyond, Gunna’s communicator clicked.

‘Gunna, you there?’ she heard Eiríkur call, for once forgetting proper communications protocol.

‘Yep, I’m here. What’s the score?’

‘The house is empty. Nobody here.’

‘Sure she’s not been dumped in the freezer?’

‘Already checked. She must have gone out the back door, around the house and walked away. There’s a footpath between the two houses and she must have gone up there.’