Across the car park, the pretty woman was taking her time arranging stuff in the boot of her car. Hell, it couldn’t take that long for her to sort out her shopping, could it? She had to be waiting to see if Ingimar stopped to speak to her. If he did, he’d have hooked her within a few minutes, and in an hour he would be getting out of her bed, and looking for ways both to escape and to rid her of any expectations about seeing him again. He couldn’t be bothered with it. Fate constantly sent him tempting offers, just like a buy-one-get-one-free avocado, but that didn’t mean he had to accept them all.

He took out his phone and called her.

Experience told him that whenever he felt there were too many signals from various directions flagging up how fantastic and smart and fortunate he was, it was time for some abuse.

‘Get yourself over here,’ she ordered. ‘I’ll be furious if you’re not here in thirty minutes flat.’

Once he had been flogged, he would be relaxed and satisfied with his lot, which in reality was no better or worse than anyone else’s. Then he would go home humbly and make the most of the evening with Anton, just like any normal man. Because he was just a normal man. Just a mortal man.

52

Agla found herself sliding into a deep depression as she watched Elísa finish packing her belongings. Agla fussed and repeated yet again all the things she had been through with her twice already.

‘Call as soon as you get to Vernd, and my lawyer will bring you the phone and the car. It needs to be charged up every four hundred kilometres, but to be safe it’s worth doing it when it’s down to twenty per cent. If you can’t plug it in somewhere, then just go to a fast-charging point. It doesn’t cost anything.’

‘I know,’ Elísa said and gave her a beautiful smile.

Agla wondered what it had been that had initially repelled her, as now she felt herself melting when Elísa smiled at her.

‘Work hard and make sure you’re back at Vernd for dinner at ten to six – be sure you’re not late. And aim to be sure you’re home at ten to eleven so there’s no chance of accidentally breaking the rules.’

‘I know it’s strict,’ Elísa said.

Agla realised that Elísa knew all this, but somehow felt that she wasn’t taking it seriously enough. There was something about the look on her face that indicated a disregard for the probation regulations. Breaking the rules even once would mean being fast-tracked back to Hólmsheiði.

‘I’ll be at Vernd in a week, and then we can help each other out,’ Agla said.

Elísa reached for her hand and pulled her to the corner, out of sight of the window. Agla felt herself flush with excitement as Elísa pressed herself against her, but was too flustered with concern to risk a hurried fumble. The prison officer would arrive any moment to drive Elísa to Vernd.