The Shadow Killer

50

There were no lights in the windows of the pebble-dash house when Flóvent drove up. He assumed Rudolf must be sound asleep and couldn’t decide if he should disturb him now or wait until morning. He walked softly up the path to the house but wasn’t aware of any movements around him. The street was quiet. All the neighbours seemed to be in bed, and there was no traffic to break the silence. Flóvent found the front door locked. He stole round the side of the house and noticed that the back door was slightly ajar. There was no sign of a forced entry, no damage that he could see in the dark. It appeared that someone had simply failed to close the door properly behind them.

Flóvent dithered for a moment, then warily pushed at the door. It opened noiselessly to reveal a small passage leading to the kitchen. He strained his ears but could hear no sounds in the house, so he tiptoed towards Rudolf’s study and peered inside. There was a figure silhouetted against the paler rectangle of the window. Flóvent immediately recognised the outline of Rudolf’s wheelchair.

‘Rudolf?’ he whispered.

‘Who’s there?’

‘The garden door was open. It looked as if someone had broken in,’ Flóvent said, in an attempt to excuse his presence. ‘It’s Flóvent. From the police.’

The wheelchair creaked and to Flóvent’s astonishment the man stood up, walked over to the desk and switched on a lamp. The light bathed his face in a warm radiance. Flóvent had only seen him for a split second before, but he knew immediately who he was. Their paths had crossed once before in the old surgery on Hafnarstræti.

‘Felix!’

‘I hope you’ve recovered after what happened in the surgery,’ said Felix. ‘I didn’t know who you were and thought I might have to defend myself so I just grabbed the first thing that came to hand and hid in the wardrobe.’

‘Are you armed?’

‘No. I don’t have any weapons on me,’ said Felix, raising his arms as proof. ‘I’m not going to cause any trouble. I’d been planning to give myself up after I’d had a chat with my father. You’ve nothing to fear. I’m the one who should be afraid. How did the police know I was here?’

‘We didn’t know you were here.’ Flóvent walked over to the desk. Felix didn’t protest when the detective frisked him for weapons. ‘I just wanted to check on Rudolf. Where is he?’

‘Asleep,’ said Felix. ‘I was about to go in and wake him up when you appeared. I wanted to say goodbye. I’m not sure I’ll ever see him again.’

‘After you’re tried, you mean?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Do you really think someone is trying to kill you? Brynhildur said—’

‘I’m not sure she’s in a position to tell you much,’ said Felix.

His calm and collected manner was at odds with Brynhildur’s description of a man descending into neurosis and paranoia. Flóvent guessed this was because he had made up his mind to surrender. Perhaps he was experiencing a certain serenity now that he’d decided to let go. His voice was tired, he looked pale and haggard in the lamplight, his eyes were dull and his thick dark hair was unkempt. He had a long face with small, slightly prominent eyes, thick lips and dark stubble covering his jaw. He was dressed in dark clothes and wore a thin jumper under his jacket.

‘She’s told us what she can — about you and your theories about what happened,’ said Flóvent.

‘I didn’t shoot Eyvindur,’ said Felix. ‘You’ve got to understand that. It wasn’t me.’

‘Then why didn’t you come forward and tell us that instead of going into hiding?’

‘Do you think it’s that simple? I’ve no idea who to trust any longer. For all I knew, they could have planted evidence against me. I don’t know what Brynhildur’s told you, but we discussed it a great deal and she... she helped me, but she hasn’t done anything wrong.’

‘Who could have planted evidence? What are you talking about?’

‘They’re working against me,’ said Felix. ‘Trying to make me look suspicious. You’ve got to understand that.’

‘Who?’

‘The people who’ve been using me all along.’

‘Who are they?’

‘I thought I’d got lucky,’ said Felix bitterly. ‘I should have been more careful, but I didn’t realise that until it was too late. Someone must have shopped me. Someone who knew what I was doing. Someone ostensibly on our side. Someone in the German secret service.’

‘German...?’

‘What has Brynhildur told you?’

‘Who do you think shopped you?’

‘It wasn’t...’

‘Have you come here to ask Rudolf about that?’

‘No, it... he knew absolutely nothing about it.’

‘Was it Eyvindur, then? He worked out that you weren’t just a travelling salesman but something else altogether. Felix Rúdólfsson. Did he hear you use your alias? Was that why you shot him?’

‘I didn’t shoot Eyvindur.’

‘Did you kill him out of revenge?’

‘I didn’t touch him,’ said Felix. ‘It wasn’t my fault. I’m completely innocent.’

Flóvent suddenly remembered his conversation with Rikki’s mother. ‘Isn’t that what you said when Rikki died?’

‘Rikki?’

‘Don’t you remember Rikki?’

‘What’s he got to do with this?’

‘We know about the research your father was doing behind closed doors. We know about the boys he was observing. We know about your role in the whole thing. About Eyvindur and Jósep and Rikki. How you and your father tormented Rikki until he threw himself off a roof. You had some kind of hold over those boys, and you deliberately exploited their weaknesses and their miserable family circumstances to humiliate or flatter them, according to your whim.’

‘Have you been talking to Jósep?’

‘He doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of you.’

‘You know Jósep’s a drunk who tried to blackmail my father for money? Him and Eyvindur. You should take all that with a pinch of salt. Rikki didn’t need any help from me. He was stupid enough to do it all on his own.’

‘You told him he could fly. For all Jósep knows, you may have deliberately pushed him. He can’t say for sure. He doesn’t know if you meant to take things that far, but the fact is you lied to Rikki and dared him to do it. Just like you dared the other boys to do whatever you wanted them to. You goaded him until he jumped. Perhaps he didn’t need any help from you, but he certainly got it.’

Felix’s face betrayed no emotion.

‘Was Rudolf behind it?’

‘You shouldn’t—’

‘He abandoned his research straight afterwards. He packed you off to Denmark, desperate to get you out of the way as fast as possible.’

‘Did Brynhildur tell you that?’

‘Then years later, when you bumped into Eyvindur on your sales trips, you couldn’t resist. Maybe he got on your nerves. Maybe you were drunk. But you couldn’t resist, could you? You talked about the experiments. About Jósep and Eyvindur and Rikki and the other boys, who you described as your father’s guinea pigs. You blurted it all out, doubtless to humiliate him. No change there. Eyvindur talked to Jósep. They remembered what had happened to Rikki, so they wrote your father a threatening letter. He was so upset that he burnt it.’

‘It was so easy...’ Felix shook his head. ‘Of course, none of them were very bright,’ he said. ‘None of them. And I soon discovered that I could make them do whatever I wanted. It’s a unique sensation. To have that kind of power over people.’

‘What did you give him? A hallucinatory drug?’

‘I didn’t think he’d do it.’

‘Was it —?’

‘Look, I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.’

‘Was that why Eyvindur came round to see you? Because of the letter? Had you arranged to meet? We know Eyvindur was boasting about coming into some money. Were you going to pay him off? Talk to your father? Make it all go away?’

‘Eyvindur was in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ said Felix. ‘Typical of him. He wasn’t the one they meant to shoot. The British made a mistake. The man they sent round to my place couldn’t tell us apart. That’s how professional they were. I expected better of them.’

‘We’ve heard that excuse as well,’ said Flóvent. ‘Anything to deflect the blame. Just as you shirked all the blame over what happened to Rikki.’

‘Excuse? What are you talking about?’ asked Felix.

‘We’ve heard your tales about spying. That your time as a salesman was just a cover. That you sent the Germans regular reports about the military build-up here. Reports on shipping. The number of troops. The locations of military facilities around the country. The developments in Hvalfjördur. We heard that your uncle, Hans Lunden, put you in touch with the German secret service. That you’re working for them.’

‘Did you hear that from Brynhildur as well?’ asked Felix. ‘So she believes me, then?’

Flóvent shook his head. ‘I think she’s trying to help you,’ he said. ‘She told us you’d found out that you were no more than a pawn. An errand boy. But she also knows just how manipulative you are. She doesn’t know what to think any more. And if Brynhildur doesn’t believe everything you say, why on earth should we?’

At that moment they heard a sound from the hall, as if someone was trying, with great difficulty, to shift a heavy object across the floor. Felix’s face remained impassive, but Flóvent went out to investigate. He got a shock when, through the darkness, he made out a man in a thick dressing gown dragging himself painfully towards the study on a pair of crutches. It was Rudolf Lunden.