‘Eva,’ she called after her; she turned and bent down to the window. ‘Would you speak to Adolf and make sure he erases that picture he took of me in the helicopter. I was like a drowned rat when he took it; it would be just like him to spread it around.’ Eva nodded. ‘And maybe you could also find out why he was there at all?’

‘I asked the Coast Guard guys and they said that he’s been their main point of contact at the ministry, so they decided to invite him along. I’ll tell him to erase the picture.’

Úrsúla lay back in the seat. She was exhausted, and all the exertion, and the hot cocoa the Coast Guard team had given her after, had left her with a feeling of relaxed wellbeing. If she were to close her eyes, she would be asleep immediately.

‘Are you OK with stopping off at the shop on the way home?’ she asked Gunnar. ‘I have to cook tonight as Nonni’s teaching a course until half past seven.’ 183

79

Gunnar didn’t even have time to curse himself for letting Úrsúla have her own way and walk from the car to the shop alone before he was hurrying after her. As he ran he pressed the button on the hands-free communicator that connected him to the car’s emergency radio. She had wanted him to park some distance from the entrance, as she felt it would be odd to pull up right by the door in the gleaming-black ministerial car. In fact, he had agreed with her, as it could look out of place, but now, as he raced across the car park in the hope of reaching her ahead of Pétur, who had come running from the other direction, he bitterly reproached himself. What the hell had he been thinking?

‘Úrsúla!’ he called out, instinctively rather than because he had thought things through.

She turned towards him and his voice, her back to Pétur, who grabbed her from behind, lifted her off her feet and spun her round, just as Gunnar took hold of him. He caught Pétur in a headlock, gripping one arm and twisting it high behind his back to force him to crouch down. This pushed Úrsúla to her knees, as Pétur was still holding on to her with one hand. She managed to pull herself free and stood up.

The old man yelled an endless litany that could hardly be understood, about her father and the devil. In fact he seemed to be indicating that Úrsúla herself was the devil.

Gunnar clicked handcuffs onto Pétur’s wrists and holding him in a restraint posture, he used the communicator to call for police assistance. Úrsúla’s breath came shallow and fast, clouds of vapour formed in the cold air around her head and lit up like a halo in the glow from the shop’s lights.

‘What on earth do you want with me, Pétur?’ she snapped. Several customers leaving the shop stopped to watch the spectacle. ‘What the hell is all this about?’ Úrsúla asked, her voice quieter now. 184