| |
Time was running out. Tomorrow would be Sunday and everyone, other than the people staying for the Snow Jeep tour would be leaving. And Dani would be arriving on Monday. He wanted this cleared up to not impose on her vacation.
Hawke called Böðvarsson.
“Did you get the surveillance tapes from around the Harpa area?” he asked as soon as the detective answered.
“Yes. The prosecutor understands the need to get this wrapped up before people scatter.”
“Good. Can you send a car to pick me up at the Harpa? Also, I have some new information.” He went on to tell Böðvarsson what Riku had told him.
“His friends? I don’t think they would kill Nonni.”
“Neither do I, but they all knew Billy Weston was here. They mentioned something about a meeting. I think that’s enough to ask them to come in and talk with us.”
Böðvarsson sighed. “I agree. I’ll have an officer call and request they come in this afternoon.”
“And send a car for me.”
“Yes. I will send a car for you.”
The connection went silent.
Hawke hurried out to the front of the Harpa. He didn’t want to miss the police car picking him up and miss out on Nonni’s friends being questioned.
<<>><<>><<>>
Hawke sat in a room with Böðvarsson and Bragi. He had been the first of Nonni’s friends to arrive at the police station.
“I don’t understand why you think I would know anything about Nonni’s death.” The young man drew rings on the top of the table with a fingertip, keeping his gaze cast downward.
Böðvarsson nodded to Hawke.
“We’ve learned that Billy Weston and Nonni had a meeting. And that you and the rest of his friends knew about it.”
Bragi’s shoulders drooped. He slowly raised his gaze to Hawke’s. “Nonni told us not to tell anyone. He was trying to make the problem between the Westons and his family go away. They, Nonni and his father, set up the place where Billy is staying.”
Hawke slapped a hand on the table.
The young man jumped and leaned back.
“You all knew where he was staying, and yet, I had to wait until the next morning for Katrín to send me the address?” Hawke stood and paced back and forth. What kind of friends withheld information that would expose their friend’s killer? “I’d told you that I believed his killer was here with the conference, that we had to catch him before everyone headed home.” He sat back down. “You all knew who he was before I showed you the photo and asked you to help me find him.” He glared at Bragi. “Did you take me to all the other bars, hoping I’d give up?”
“No! We didn’t know which bar he was at.”
“But you knew where he was staying!” Because he rarely lost his composure, Hawke stood up, waved to Böðvarsson to continue, and stepped out of the room. How could the group have been so stupid to not tell him the truth from the beginning? Nonni was dead, breaking a promise would help them find his killer. He paced up and down the hall until he was back in control and walked into the room.
Böðvarsson stood. “I’ll have your statement printed out and will bring it in for you to sign.” He put a hand on Hawke’s shoulder. “You back in control?”
“Yeah.” Hawke sat, crossed his arms, and leaned back in the chair, staring at Bragi.
The young man squirmed.
“Did Nonni and Billy meet on Wednesday?”
Bragi shrugged. “I’m not sure. I know they planned to meet up this week, but I don’t know if it was Wednesday.”
Böðvarsson walked back in with a sheet of paper. “Read, make sure it is your words, and then sign.” He nodded for Hawke to exit the room with him.
Out in the hall, the detective asked, “Can you keep it together for the rest of them?”
“Yeah. He blindsided me with already knowing where Billy was staying and withholding the information. I thought they wanted to help me. I think they’ve been mucking things up keeping Nonni’s promises.”
“I agree. They are very loyal to the victim, even if they could be helping a killer.” Böðvarsson sighed and walked back in the room. He exited with Bragi. “Don’t say a word to your friends about what we talked over when you leave.”
The young man glanced at Hawke and nodded.
“Ready for the next one?” Böðvarsson asked.
“Yeah.”
Sindri said the same about knowing Billy was in Iceland and that Nonni planned to meet with him to help out his father. He was given his statement to read and sign and moved along.
Hawke glared at Katrín, sitting across the table from him. “You pretended to not know where Billy was staying. Didn’t you want to help find out who caused Nonni’s death?”
She ducked her head. “We all promised Nonni we wouldn’t tell anyone what he was doing.”
“But he ended up dead. That promise should have become tell everyone so we could find out what happened to him.” Hawke leaned back in his seat. “And it makes the four of you guilty of withholding evidence and hiding a suspect.”
She inhaled and stared, wide-eyed at him.
“From now on when you are asked a question that pertains to Nonni’s death, I want a straight answer, promises or not. Understood?”
“Yes.” She batted her eyes and a tear trickled down one cheek.
Hawke hated tears, especially on women. But he wasn’t going to crumble to female shenanigans. This woman and her friends had to learn sometimes you had to break promises when lives were at stake.
“Was Ásta jealous of other women Nonni had for friends?”
Katrín lowered her lashes enough he couldn’t see what was going on behind her eyes. She raised her chin and peered at him. “She is the jealous type. Even though she would go with other men, she didn’t like Nonni to be with other women.”
“How jealous is she? Would she rather kill Nonni than let another woman have him?”
She gasped. “Ásta didn’t kill Nonni. She loved him.”
“What you said doesn’t sound like love. It sounds like control. Is Ásta controlling you, Bragi, and Sindri?” He’d picked up a nervous vibe from the group when Ásta talked. As if the others wanted to make sure they knew her thoughts on everything. As if they feared not pleasing her. “Is she why no one told me where to find Billy? Did she come up with the game of taking me to all the bars?”
Katrín nodded slightly. “She has always wanted to be the leader of our group, but we all looked up to Nonni. Now that he is gone, she has been telling us what we could say, who we could see.”
Hawke nodded. “Thank you for coming in.”
Böðvarsson went over getting the recording of her statement printed. He stood, saying he would bring it in for her to sign. Only this time, as he moved to the door, he motioned for Hawke to follow him out of the room.
“Where are you going with this knowledge about Ásta?” the detective asked.
“She may have made an alliance with Billy.”
The detective nodded. “I’ll have her put in the room next door, so she and Katrín do not pass in the hallway.”
Hawke walked into the empty room. He rehashed the times he’d been with the group. The night he spoke with Nonni at the bar, Ásta had made it look as if she and Nonni were a couple. He wondered if Nonni had confided in her about his father and Sigga or if he hadn’t trusted her with that information? But then why pull all of them into his attempt to appease the Westons if he didn’t trust her?
The door opened. Ásta entered followed by Böðvarsson.
“Please have a seat. Information has come to us that we would like to ask you about,” the detective said as they both sat.
She smiled at Hawke and sat casually in the chair. “What information is that?”
“That you took me on a wild goose chase trying to find Billy Weston when all four of you knew where he was.” Hawke remained leaned back in his seat, his arms crossed, watching the young woman.
“We didn’t take you on a chase. We didn’t know which bar he was in.” She stared him in the eyes.
Hawke returned her stare. “But you already knew where he was staying. When I showed you his photo and mentioned his name, why didn’t any of you tell me what I’m just finding out today?”
“Nonni told us to keep his secret.”
“The secret was void when Nonni ended up dead.” Hawke leaned forward. “Did you help Billy kill Nonni?” It was blunt but it got a reaction.
“No! I would never help kill Nonni!” She shoved away from the table and acted as if she were going to stand.
“Not even to keep him from falling for someone else?” Hawke said it quietly.
Her body deflated against the back of the chair. “Katrín has loose lips. She thinks I am jealous, but I’m not. I only wanted what was best for Nonni.”
“Was that you?” Hawke asked.
“No. I wasn’t good for him, but I could keep him happy until the right person came along.” She smiled. “I thought he was in love with Wanza. He always talked about how he sent her an email about school and he obsessed when she stopped replying to his emails. But then I saw him with Riku and I knew that was who he really loved. It showed on his face and in his eyes.”
“What did you do about that?” Hawke asked.
She stared at him. “Nothing. I was going to wish them both well when we met at the bar on Wednesday night. But that never happened.”
“And Billy Weston. How do you feel about him?” Hawke asked.
Ásta narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Were you on his side or Nonni’s?”
“That’s a stupid question. I was on Nonni’s side.”
“But you like Billy?” Hawke studied her.
She licked her lips and shoved at her hair with a hand, stalling. “What has Billy said about me?”
There it was. She had been seeing Weston. “He told us you spent the night with him on Tuesday and he used your car on Wednesday.”
“That’s a lie! I wasn’t with him then and he didn’t have my car.”
Böðvarsson cleared his throat. “That was a different Ásta.”
She shot to her feet, spouting words that sounded profane in Icelandic. From Böðvarsson’s chuckle Hawke had a feeling Billy would be safer with them than the scorned woman.
The detective said something and Ásta sat, clamping her mouth closed.
“From that outburst, I believe you do have feelings for Billy. Did you help him plan to kill Nonni?”
“No! He didn’t kill Nonni and I didn’t help him.” She glanced from Böðvarsson to Hawke and back. “What time was Nonni killed?”
Böðvarsson gave her the estimated time.
She smiled. “Billy was with me.”
“You just said you didn’t lend him your car or spend the night with him the night before,” Hawke was ready to catch her up in a lie.
“I didn’t. He picked me up, we had lunch, and then drove back to his place for the afternoon.” She smiled. “He couldn’t have killed Nonni.”
“Where did you have lunch and did anyone see you going to his place?” Böðvarsson asked.
She recited a restaurant and acknowledged the person who owned the house saw them when they were getting out of the car. He’d told Billy to park differently.
Hawke shoved to his feet and walked out of the room, leaving Böðvarsson to repeat about the recording and signing the form. He had a feeling their only suspect was going to be exonerated by the restaurant and his landlord.