“Rules?” Jón roared. “What sort of rules say you have to snatch everything away from someone? Everything, not just the cash. There’s the dignity, self-respect, all that stuff. There’s nothing left, just more fucking debts. You’re nothing but lying, thieving bloodsuckers, the lot of you.”
Outside, a siren began to wail.
“The police will be here soon,” Hrannar ventured.
“That’s fine. I’ve all the time in the world now,” Jón said with the merest hint of a smile, the first one for weeks.
Gunna, Eiríkur and Steingrímur’s Special Unit looked over the bank’s interior. A technician dusted for fingerprints in the glass-walled interview room, wrinkling his nose at the smell.
“And? What’s happening?” Sævaldur Bogason demanded, bursting in through the front door.
“All over, mate,” Steingrímur told him. “Nobody’s hurt and our boy’s cuffed and on his way to Hverfisgata right now in the back of a van.”
“I came as soon as I heard,” Sævaldur said lamely, clearly furious that their man had been located and arrested quickly and with a minimum of fuss. “So what the hell happened?”
Gunna picked up a chair that had been sent flying when the bank staff had evacuated the building, stood it back on its legs and sat herself down on it.
“He was right there, pointing a shotgun at the poor bastard who had sold him a bunch of foreign currency loans. It seems that the lad was the focus of all that anger when he lost his house and his business,” Steingrímur explained. “But I’m sure that’ll all come out at the station. I have to say, I feel sorry for the poor bugger.”
“Sorry for him or not, what’s that fucking awful smell?” Sævaldur demanded.
‘Ah, it seems the lad he was threatening crapped himself with fright, right there in his office chair. He was gibbering when they drove him off to hospital. I reckon he might be off work for a while now,” Steingrímur said with satisfaction.
“And how did you find him so fast?”
“Gunna found him. You just have to look in the right places, I guess,” Steingrímur said with a smile that was guaranteed to provoke Sævaldur to further impotent rage.
“Well done, people,” he said through a forced smile. “Is he definitely the one we’ve been searching for over Bjartmar Arnarson?”
“I’d say so,” Gunna said. “Looks like he was going to give the personal financial adviser the same treatment as he gave Bjartmar, but thought better of it at the last moment.”
“Lucky bastard,” Sævaldur frowned. “Who was the arresting officer?”
Helgi grinned. “Tinna Sigvalds.”
“Her?”
“Yup. Tinna and Big Geiri were the first on the scene when the F1 went up. She walked in, asked him nicely to put the weapon down and come with her, and he did, easy as you like.”
“Hell and damnation. A little girl like that,” Sævaldur fumed, and Gunna felt her own anger boil up inside her.
“And what the hell’s that supposed to mean?” she barked.
“Tinna did a fucking magnificent job that takes a bloody sight more guts than most of us have, and all you can do is whine that it was some slip of a girl who took the gun off him! The man’s locked up and nobody’s hurt. If that’s not a result, then I don’t know what is.”
Sævaldur quailed at the virulence of Gunna’s outburst.
“Yes, well …” he blustered.
“You should be bloody ashamed of yourself,” Gunna continued. “The girl deserves a fucking medal.”
“Of course she did a fine job, but we all played our part in it.”
“We didn’t all play our part in it. You spent your bastard time in fucking meetings making sure you got noticed by someone upstairs while the rest of us did the legwork,” Gunna shouted.
Sævaldur paled. “We’ll continue this conversation at Hverfisgata,” he said finally as Gunna headed for the door with Eiríkur at her heels.
Eiríkur sat in silence while Gunna drove out of the city and towards the east. She was collected and hummed to herself, as if a gathering storm was the thing that brought her inner peace. Eiríkur wondered how long it would be before Sævaldur initiated a disciplinary procedure.
“You’re very quiet, Eiríkur. What’s eating you?”
“Well …”
“Well what?”
“I was just thinking how great it was that you should yell at Sævaldur like that,” Eiríkur blurted out.
“Ah yes,” Gunna sighed. “I’ll probably get a rap over the knuckles for that.” She smiled wanly. “But I’m a big girl and I can take it. It’s not as if it hasn’t happened before.”
“Is Sævaldur after Örlygur’s job?”
“Don’t know, but I’d be amazed if he wasn’t.”
“Shit.”
“Don’t you want to work for the big man, then?” Gunna teased. “He gets results, as we’re constantly being told.”
“I know. But he’s such a bastard.”