Frozen Assets

Erna opened one eye and lifted her head from the pillow, dropping it down again as sunlight filtering through gaps between the curtains pierced her eyeballs. She quickly screwed her eyes shut again.

‘Hi,’ she mumbled.

‘Your head hurts?’ Hardy inquired gently.

‘Yeah. Sleep more,’ she mumbled.

Hardy nodded, swung his legs from the bed and padded from the room. Erna vaguely took in the sound of running water as she drifted back to sleep.

An hour later he returned to wake her, mugs of fragrant tea, two aspirins and slices of toast spread with honey on a tray that he balanced in one hand as he slid back into the bed alongside her.

‘Good morning again.’

‘And to you.’

‘Feeling better now?’

‘Yes, thanks.’

Hardy put the tray down on his lap and passed her one of the mugs.

‘My mother told me not to accept drinks from strange men.’

‘Maybe I’m not a strange man any more?’

Erna sipped and gulped down the two little white tablets.

‘What time did we get back here?’ she asked.

‘Around two.’

‘An early night, then. What time is it now?’

‘Ten.’

‘Have a good time last night?’ she asked, crunching toast over the tray to catch crumbs.

‘Of course. I take it you mean the ceremony, or do you mean the party afterwards?’

‘Was there a party afterwards?’ Erna asked blankly.

‘The party that you and I had here.’

‘Oh, that.’

‘Both of them were pretty good.’

‘That’s good.’ Erna yawned, curling back beneath the covers and sending exploring fingers towards Hardy’s thigh. ‘I need to get up but I’m too lazy. It’s great to stay in bed for a change.’

‘When are you usually up?’

‘Never later than seven on normal days. Maybe eight on a weekend. Depends on the kids.’

‘How many do you have?’

‘Two.’ Erna yawned again.

‘They’re not here today?’

‘They’re with their fathers for a change for a couple of weeks. One lives in Chicago, the other one’s here in town.’

‘Peace and quiet then?’

‘For the moment. But I’ll miss them soon, I expect. How about you? Children? Girlfriend? Wife, maybe?’

Hardy chuckled. Erna placed her head on his chest and could hear his laughter deep inside.

‘Nothing. Nobody. There’s just me. A single man with no ties.’

‘Then there must be something wrong with you if no woman has snapped you up yet.’

The hair of his chest tickled her nose and she ran a hand through it.

‘I like this,’ she said softly. ‘Icelandic men shave everything. They think it’s sexy but some of us like a man who has some hair. It’s more, y’know. .’ She struggled for the English word. ‘Like a cave man, you know what I mean?’

‘Primeval?’

‘I guess so. Hey, I have to shower. Do you want to fuck again before or after?’

***

Bára cupped the phone in her hand, pursing her lips in irritation. She shook her head as Gunna lifted a questioning eyebrow.

‘Yes, I am fully aware of that,’ Bára continued. ‘And no, I didn’t know that the PR Federation awards were held last night. Look, I’m sorry that your boss may have a hangover, but this is an important investigation into a serious matter. .’

Bára paused and listened for a moment to a flood of complaint before she cut through the voice again. ‘Excuse me, but this is a police investigation. I need to speak to Sigurjóna Huldudóttir urgently. Now, are you going to tell me where I can find her?’

The voice chattered into Bára’s phone and she lifted it up, shrugging her shoulders. She waited for it to go quiet before she continued.

‘Excuse me, I repeat, this is a police investigation. Look,’ she said quickly, pre-empting the voice on the other end before it began to complain again. ‘You need to speak to my superior officer. Hold on, please.’

Bára covered the mouthpiece with her hand. ‘I can’t get any sense out of this woman at all. She just yells at me that Sigurjóna’s not in the office today, refuses to release her mobile number and then said something about harassment. Will you speak to her?’

Gunna stood up and walked around the desk. She picked up the handset, pressed the loudspeaker button and put the handset down, leaning forward to speak to the machine in the middle of the desk.

‘Who am I speaking to, please?’ she asked as smoothly as she could.

‘This is Ósk Líndal, Sigurjóna’s personal assistant,’ a haughty voice crackled through the speaker in reply. ‘She’s not here today and isn’t contactable.’

‘Fine, now listen, Ósk. This is Gunnhildur Gísladóttir and I’m at the Keflavík police department,’ she said, her voice hardening gradually. ‘I understand that my colleague has been trying to reach Sigurjóna Huldudóttir this morning without much success, which I also understand is due largely to a lack of cooperation on your part.’

‘Do you really think this is something so serious that it warrants my ignoring her explicit instructions to leave her alone?’ the voice snarled back.

‘If it wasn’t important, it could wait until Monday. But it is and it can’t,’ Gunna snapped back. ‘So, are you going to tell me where she can be reached, or better still, where she is right now, or is the wife of a government minister unwilling to cooperate in an investigation that carries the highest priority?’