Frozen Assets

Dísa shook her head. She pulled on and huddled inside a thick checked shirt several sizes too large that Gunna guessed had once belonged to Einar Eyjólfur.

‘No. Not at all. Sigurjóna’s fine.’

‘How about the others? It’s quite a small company and you must have all worked closely together.’

‘Sigurjóna’s not happy. Everyone knew that Einar Eyjólfur wasn’t about. Fjóla the accountant is really shocked as well. She’s quite old, almost forty, and Einar said she was a bit like his mum except younger.’

Gunna wondered if Dísa even had any coffee in the flat.

‘Well, forty’s not that old, you know,’ she said softly.

Dísa sniffed. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude, but everyone at Spearpoint is young except for Fjóla.’

‘That’s OK. No offence taken.’

‘How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking?’

‘Me? Thirty-six.’

Dísa nodded dumbly and Gunna took a deep breath. ‘We identified Einar Eyjólfur from the national register. The E-three tattoo we figured out stood for EEE, and there aren’t that many people with those initials. You’d recognize that tattoo?’

‘Yeah. I’ve got one the same,’ she said, shrugging a shoulder out of the thick shirt to reveal the book and letters just below the nape of her neck.

‘And V-two?’

‘That’s me. VV. Dísa is short for Vigdís. Vigdís Veigarsdóttir.’

‘That explains it.’

Dísa huddled back inside the shirt.

‘So. What can you tell me?’ Gunna asked.

‘I don’t really know.’

‘How about starting at the beginning? What’s your background?’

‘I was brought up here.’

‘In Vogar?’

‘In this street. This is my uncle’s house. Dad and my uncle built their houses at the same time. This flat is here because they expected my grandmother to come and live here one day when she was too old to live on her own. But then she died and the place stayed empty. When I started going out with Einar Eyjólfur and we decided to live together, my uncle said we could live down here.’

‘And your parents live close to here as well?’

‘Just Mum. Dad left ages ago. He’s got another wife and small children now. They live in Reykjavík.’

‘How long had you known Einar when you moved in together?’

‘Not long. Five or six weeks.’

‘And how long did you live together?’

‘Almost a year.’

‘Did you meet at work?’

‘Yes,’ Dísa said hollowly. ‘Jón Oddur bet him he wouldn’t ask me out, and he did. So he told me about the bet and it was like a private joke between us that we’d have a couple of dates and then split the winnings.’

‘And what then?’

‘Well, we just liked each other, I suppose.’

‘Can you tell me anything about him, what sort of a character he was?’

Dísa puffed her cheeks out and thought for a moment. ‘He was one of those people who is lovable and infuriating at the same time. You know what I mean?’

‘Precisely.’

‘He would do the stupidest things. Like, completely idiotic. He’d put potatoes and ice cream in the same dish, things like that. But at the same time he was really clever and could do all kinds of things. He could speak English and Danish and bits of other languages as well, and he could do anything with the computer and electronic stuff.’

‘Was he a bit of a nerd, if you don’t mind me using that word?’

‘He was a nerd and he was proud of it. Sometimes he could be totally thoughtless and at other times he could be so considerate as well.’

‘And what happened? Why did you split up?’

‘Mum didn’t like him much, and he didn’t like her either, so that didn’t help. He really missed his friends being out here in Vogar and it’s a pain getting into town, because he said he didn’t want to own a car.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘He said that the combustion engine is destroying the earth and he didn’t want to contribute to it. But all that meant was that I drove us everywhere instead.’

‘A man of principle?’

‘When it suited him.’

‘But you were still close at the time he disappeared?’

‘We were.’

‘And when did you last see him?’ Gunna asked.

‘The day before he was found. He stayed here all weekend and had to meet some people on the Monday, so he went to town with me on Monday morning and went to his place and I went to work as usual. I thought I’d see him the next day, but he didn’t come in to work. Then you called on Wednesday to talk to Ósk.’

‘And you answered the phone?’

‘Yeah. And I knew right away something was wrong.’

‘Did he say anything about the people he was meeting?’

‘Not really. But he didn’t get off on drinking and always complained about having to take clients around the nightlife.’

Gunna nodded. ‘Was there anything you noticed in the time up to his disappearance that was different? Changes in his behaviour or habits? Sigurjóna says that there was nothing she noticed in his work that was any different.’

Dísa shook her head. ‘Sigurjóna’s a strange woman. Some things just completely pass her by and other things she watches like a hawk. If he hadn’t been doing his work, she would have noticed straight away.’

‘But there was nothing you noticed?’

‘There was something and I didn’t want to say anything about it at the office. Y’know, there wasn’t time and, it’s, like, work.’

‘Go on.’