‘And you remember what I said about a safe distance,’ he said. ‘The delay is only about forty seconds, unless you use a longer fuse.’

‘OK.’

Anton stood with his hand holding the bag, but Oddur continued to hold it tight. Anton didn’t want to wrench it from his grasp.

‘Anything you want to ask?’ said Oddur.

‘No.’

Anton made as if to leave, pulling on the bag a little, telling Oddur that it was time to let go. But he still seemed reluctant to let it out of his hands.

‘You want me to go over all that again?’

Anton grinned and patted Oddur’s shoulder.

‘Take it easy, man! It’s not that hard. I got it all the first time. Now we’re all square, right?’

Oddur finally let go and Anton folded the bag under one arm.

‘See ya!’ he said, turning and walking away, but Oddur came jogging up behind him.

‘Hey … I was just wondering.’

Oddur shivered, his hands thrust deep into his pockets.

‘What?’

‘You’re not going to use this to kill anyone, are you?’

58

It was early in the day when Agla stood outside the prison building, taking deep breaths of cool air. Freedom was as refreshing as a cold drink on a hot day; in fact it was a surprise how much fresher the air seemed outside than it did in the little exercise yard at the heart of the prison complex. She went to the turnstile gate, pushed her way through with her suitcase in her arms, put it down and went back through the gate to fetch the box and her computer case. It was unbelievable how much junk she had accumulated over a few months, even though she had brought only essentials into prison with her. She put the case on top of the box and stood outside the inner gate. She glanced each way along the road, but there was no sign of Elísa.

She wondered whether she ought to make the two trips through the outer gate and up to the road, wait with her belongings there, but it would be a nuisance to have to keep ringing the buzzer to be allowed in and out; it would only attract attention that she could do without. After a while she checked her watch. Elísa should have been here to meet her twenty minutes ago. The suspicion crawled into her mind that maybe Elísa wasn’t coming. She decided to give it another ten minutes; half an hour would account for a traffic jam or having to recharge the Tesla. She had no desire to go back inside the prison building. She should have had the lawyer collect her, she told herself. He would have brought her phone and some decent clothes. Instead she was standing here like an idiot in tracksuit bottoms, not even able to call herself a taxi.