House of Evidence(78)

While Halldór was at Birkihlíd opening the safe, Egill and Marteinn rented a car to make the long drive to Ólafsvík. They got a relatively new Land Rover, and the man at the rental office lent them a rope and an old shovel in case they hit heavy snow.

Setting off from town just after four o’clock, Egill drove as fast as he could, stopping for coffee, just under an hour later, at a café next to the oil storage tanks in Hvalfjördur.

Marteinn was worried. “How are we going to find this guy in Ólafsvík?” he asked.

“He’ll no doubt be holed up in some fish-workers’ accommodation somewhere,” Egill said breezily.

“Shouldn’t we tell someone that we’re on our way?”

“That might be a good idea,” Egill agreed, after some thought.

Egill used the café’s phone to ring the police officer on duty in Ólafsvík. He told him about their business there and asked him to make inquiries about Sigurdur in the meantime.

By the time they resumed their journey, it was dark and icy, slowing their progress, and the Land Rover was certainly not built for speed. Driving past Mount Hafnarfjall and up Borgarfjördur, the lights of Borgarnes, on the other side of the fjord, appeared tantalizingly close.

“They’re planning to build a bridge here, apparently,” Marteinn said, gazing longingly across the fjord. It took them another half hour before they’d made their way around the inlet and were buying gasoline and hot dogs in Borgarnes.

At nine o’clock they reached Fródárheidi, but the snow was falling fast and had formed deep drifts in the road.

“Let’s see how this thing drives,” Egill said, accelerating up the first slope.

The vehicle sloshed its way up the snow-covered road, but the drifts quickly became too deep for them to negotiate. Egill tried reversing, but the wheels just spun futilely in the deep snow.

“Better grab that shovel,” Egill grumbled to Marteinn. An hour later, they had progressed a mere twenty meters, when a pair of bright lights from a large road grader appeared in the drifting snow in front of them.

“Are you the cops from Reykjavik?” the driver asked, jumping out of his rig and trudging up to the passenger window of the Land Rover.

“Yes,” Marteinn replied.

“I’m glad I found you. Officer Helgi reckoned you would get into trouble when the weather got worse, and asked me to come looking for you.”

He turned the grader around, which had chains firmly attached to all four wheels, and hitched a thick rope to the Land Rover.

“Right boys, let’s be off,” he cried.

The powerful grader pulled the vehicle across the snowdrifts of the heath like a toboggan.

It was nearly eleven o’clock when they finally arrived at the police station in Ólafsvík, and were met at the door by a plump officer.

“Welcome you two, I’m Helgi,” he said cheerfully, extending his hand.

“Have you found out anything about Sigurdur’s whereabouts?” Egill asked by way of a greeting.

“Yeah, he’s here.”

“Here?”

“Yeah, I went to the fish-workers’ hostel and told him to pack his stuff, that you were coming to pick him up. He came as soon as he was ready, and he’s been waiting here since.”

Egill didn’t believe Helgi’s story at first—surely he had the wrong man—but once inside the station, Egill saw him; the young man they had met in the Old Town was sitting by the officer’s desk, ready to go.

“You’ll stay the night given the situation,” Helgi remarked. “According to the weather forecast, it’ll improve toward morning. I’ll make sure the grader opens up the road over the heath for you first thing.”

Egill sat down in front of Sigurdur, pulled himself up straight, and in his most serious tone said, “You probably know what we want to talk to you about.”

“Nope,” Sigurdur replied casually.

“Then why have you been running away?”

“I haven’t been running away.”

“You ran away from us the night before last, at your apartment.”

“I was supposed to play at a high school gig. They’d set up all the gear and sold lots of tickets, and I didn’t have time to go with you to headquarters.”

“Why did you come here, then?”

“I had another gig here last night, and then I was planning to do some work in the freezing plant for a few days, but it’s great that you came.”

“Oh?” Egill replied, surprised.

“Yeah, I’ve been asked to play with a band in the city next weekend. We have to practice beforehand, so it’s great to get a lift back to town,” he explained. “What was it you wanted?”