Summerchill Read Online Free PDF Page B

it?’
    ‘Ach, well. All these new streets look the same. Up in Árbær? Near the museum, d’you think?’
    ‘That’s the place. Why, what was that about?’
    ‘Got it. Looks like a cul-de-sac with a block of flats on each side,’ Helgi said. ‘A young woman’s worried about where her boyfriend has got to. She hasn’t seen him since he went out around eight last night, saying he’d be back in an hour.’
    ‘Name?’
    Helgi looked at his notes. ‘Axel Rútur Karlsson. Aged twenty-eight. Drives a silver Outlander, which is also missing.’
    Gunna yawned, looked at her watch and clicked save. ‘In that case, I’ll leave Axel Rútur Karlsson to you,’ she said as her computer powered down. ‘I need to get to Hagkaup and then home. You’d best run this guy through the system and put out an alert for his car.’
    ‘Doing it now,’ Helgi said. ‘And bingo . . . !’
    Gunna stretched, pulled on her jacket and walked over to stand behind Helgi as the missing man’s driving licence photo appeared on the screen.
    ‘A proper ugly bastard,’ Helgi said, tapping at the keyboard and looking at the black hair and thin beard on a beefy face. ‘And he has a record. How nice. One threatening behaviour and one assault.’ He scowled. ‘Sounds like a delightful customer.’
    ‘Come on, Helgi. Look at the dates. He’s been clean for seven years. Chances are those were some drunken exploits and he’s a squeaky-clean systems analyst today.’
    ‘We shall see, Gunna. We shall see.’
    ‘Good luck, anyway. Fill me in on it in the morning. I have an urgent appointment with poached salmon and home-made mayonnaise á la Steini, so the last thing I want is a crisis right now. If you can look after it, then some of us will be very happy.’
    ‘Caught it himself, I suppose?’ Helgi asked and Gunna waited for him to lick his lips before she waved and left.
    He was furious, telling himself yet again that anything that involved Danni was always bound to involve a cash-flow problem, plenty of excuses and delays and an unhappy customer somewhere. They had made good time with the job so far. The ceiling was up and Marek had the lights all working behind the frosted panels. The windows had been fixed and he had stopped the leaks in the vast showroom window that filled the front of the building. The doors had been rubbed down and painted, and all the locks had been changed.
    Logi counted out the keys onto rings, each one marked for the door it fitted, six keys to a ring. He patted his pocket where he had put the spare key for the side door. He wasn’t entirely sure why he had done it, but for some reason one of the locks had come with seven keys instead of the six that had been ordered, so he pocketed the extra one.
    The job looked like it was almost finished; the two Polish boys had worked hard. Now they were sweeping up, as they always did, after which there was a pause as the three of them waited for Danni to show up as promised.
    Tadeusz propped the broom against the wall and sat down on an upturned crate. ‘What’s the score, Logi? Do you know about these extra walls yet?’
    ‘Nope. No idea. Danni should be here by now. Is it a problem for you?’
    Tadeusz shrugged. ‘I don’t mind. Extra work is extra money.’
    ‘And Marek?’ Logi asked, dropping his voice slightly.
    ‘He’s flying home for a holiday the day after tomorrow. So I guess if there’s work tomorrow, fine. After that it’ll be just you and me.’
    When Danni did arrive, he wasn’t alone and he didn’t look happy. This time the headset guy took off his shades, smiled and shook Logi’s hand.
    ‘ Hæ , I’m Rafn.’
    ‘Logi. Sorry about the other day,’ he said gruffly.
    ‘No problem. Danni explained, and you were quite right. You didn’t know who I was.’
    He draped an arm around Logi’s shoulders and walked him away from the group, leaving Danni standing awkwardly with Tadeusz.
    ‘Listen, Danni hasn’t handled this quite as well as we were