Far North - Michael Ridpath [69]
‘Let me guess. The woman was tall and thin with dark curly hair?’
‘You’ve got it. In her thirties. Quite attractive. Or attractive enough for Claudia to be suspicious.’
‘You don’t have a photo of Harpa, do you?’
‘No, but if you send me one I can get Claudia to ID her.’
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
HARPA LOOKED NERVOUS as she sat in the interview room. One hand was tugging and twisting the curls in her hair.
Magnus had called Vigdís, who was still on duty, and asked her to bring Harpa in and take her photograph. A copy had already been sent by e-mail to Piper in London.
Magnus and Vigdís had hatched a plan for the interview.
‘Hi, Harpa, thank you for coming in,’ Magnus said. ‘Have you been offered some coffee?’
Harpa shook her head.
‘Would you like some?’
‘No thank you.’ Harpa glanced at both detectives suspiciously. ‘Why am I here?’
Magnus smiled. ‘We’ve got a couple more little questions to ask you. Things come out in an investigation like this, and we have to go back and check them out with witnesses. Sorry, but that’s just the way it works.’
Harpa seemed to relax a bit. ‘OK. What do you want to know?’
‘Have you travelled abroad in the last few months?’ Magnus asked.
Harpa didn’t answer right away. At that moment, Magnus was sure that Harpa was the woman that Claudia had seen. Magnus and Vigdís waited expectantly.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I went to London in July. Just for a couple of days.’
‘Ah, I see. And why did you go?’
‘Oh, you know, shopping.’
‘Shopping?’ Magnus raised his eyebrows. ‘That might have made sense a year ago. But now? Everything is so expensive abroad now, isn’t it? And you can’t have very much money or you wouldn’t be working in a bakery. In fact how many weeks’ wages did the trip cost?’
‘It’s true. It was expensive,’ Harpa said. ‘But I needed a holiday really badly.’
‘I’ll bet,’ said Magnus.
‘What did you buy?’ Vigdís asked.
‘Oh, um, nothing in the end,’ Harpa said, trying to sound casual. ‘You are right. I hadn’t realized how expensive things are there until I was actually in the shops.’
‘Did you visit any friends?’ Magnus asked.
‘Er. No,’ said Harpa.
‘So you didn’t see any other Icelanders?’
Harpa glanced at the two detectives. Magnus could see that she understood the trap. She didn’t know how much they knew. How far she would have to tell the truth in order to avoid being caught out.
‘I did see one Icelander,’ she said, carefully.
‘And who was that?’ Magnus asked innocently.
‘Óskar,’ Harpa said. ‘Óskar Gunnarsson.’
‘Huh.’ Magnus didn’t mention the fact that Harpa had left that information out of their previous discussions. Not yet. ‘And what did you talk with Óskar about?’
‘Er, well, I don’t remember. I suppose I was a bit lonely in London and I wanted to see an old friend.’
‘And how long did you spend with him?’
‘Twenty minutes. Half an hour. He was busy, he had somewhere to go.’
She must have figured out that Claudia had seen them together.
Magnus leaned forward. ‘How much money did you ask him for?
‘What? I, er, I didn’t ask him for money.’
‘Yes you did, Harpa. How much? A million krónur? Ten million? Perhaps something every month?’
‘I don’t know what you are talking about. Why would I ask him for money?’
‘To pay for his son, Harpa. To pay for his son.’
‘No, no that’s not right,’ Harpa said, her voice rising. ‘He never knew Markús was his son. He never knew that. I told you that.’
‘You told us a lot of things, Harpa, and frankly I don’t believe many of them. Now, how much did you ask for?’
Harpa was breathing heavily. ‘Am I under arrest?’
‘Not yet,’ said Magnus. ‘But we can fix that if you like.’
‘I won’t say anything more unless I have spoken to a lawyer. I have a right to speak to a lawyer, don’t I?’
‘You do,’ said Vigdís, nodding towards the tape recorder. Magnus understood. This all had to be done according to the book, if the evidence was going to be admissible. It was just a slightly different book than he was used to. ‘Do you