‘I’ll drive you to the bus station,’ he said, and when he saw the boy hesitate, he repeated the speech he had given him that morning. ‘Olga must still be at work, so send her a message when you get to Canada. It’s better for her if she doesn’t know about this, because if you’re caught, she’ll be guilty as well. You don’t want her to be guilty, do you? After everything she’s done for you?’

Omar shook his head and looked downcast, like a scolded child.

He followed Grímur out to the car, walking stiffly, and Grímur told him to put his case in the boot. There was a towel over the back seat, which was still wet from being cleaned. He had finally gone to a car wash and used a high-pressure washer on the seat after he had soaked it with detergent. The bloodstain was no longer visible, but it would take a long time to dry out. On the way to the bus station, he lectured Omar on how he should behave in Canada.

‘Only use the credit and debit cards to buy stuff for small amounts, less than five thousand Icelandic krónur, so you don’t need to use a PIN. It’s enough to just put the card quickly into the reader, like I showed you. Buy as much as you can of food and necessities over the first couple of days, and then get rid of the cards and the passport. You can give the cards to someone who’s homeless. That’ll lay a false trail for the police when they come looking for you. And take the SIM card out of your phone now and throw it away. Buy yourself a new one in Canada.

‘OK,’ Omar said, fussing with his phone as he opened it, while his knee pumped frantically up and down, as if he was struggling to maintain control over his body and needed to release some inner tension.

‘And remember when you go to the departure gate, make sure you go to the one where there are manual checks. The automatic 228gates take a picture, and I don’t know if these are checked against passport photos. In any case, it’s easier to fool a person than to deceive a computer. And remember to breathe normally and walk tall, be confident. You have an Icelandic passport, so nobody should pay you too much attention.’

‘I’ll do that,’ Omar said, his leg still pumping.

‘Deep breaths,’ Grímur said.

They were at the entrance to the bus station when Grímur handed him Björn’s phone.

‘Take this with you and drop it in a bin somewhere as soon as you get to Canada. I don’t have the PIN to open it, so you can’t use it. But it’ll help if it can be traced out of the country.’