‘No. That is why I have come to Iceland.’

‘Well, maybe the police have news of him. I can give you the name and phone number of the officer dealing with the matter.’

‘That would be kind. Thank you.’

Bjarni looked at his computer and jotted the information down on a hotel card. ‘I can contact the officer for you if you wish.’

‘There is no need to do that.’ Wada was hoping to avoid all contact with the police if she possibly could. They were likely to have more questions for her than she had for them. ‘On the phone, you mentioned other people have been seeking information about Mr Caldwell.’

‘Quite a few, Miss Wada. We have had several calls, in fact. It is strange. Most of the callers did not leave their name. Except one. I guess you may want to speak to that person, yes?’

‘I do.’

‘Well …’ He consulted some kind of day-book. A second hotel card was handed to her. ‘Here you are.’

‘Thank you.’ Wada looked down at what he’d written. An Icelandic-sounding name – Erla Torfadóttir – and a phone number. ‘Do you expect to hear from the police again?’

‘Possibly. You wish me to tell them where you are staying?’

‘I would prefer you …’

‘Not to?’

‘For now, yes. Until I have …’

‘Spoken to Erla, maybe?’

‘Yes.’ Wada smiled gratefully. ‘Exactly. Until I have spoken to Erla Torfadóttir. And then …’

Bjarni smiled back at her. ‘And then you let me know.’

THIRTEEN

AS SOON AS he arrived home, nick booked a flight to iceland for Monday and a four-night stay at a hotel in Reykjavík. It was all ridiculously expensive at such short notice, with Easter pending, but he no longer cared about such considerations. Nor had he decided exactly what he was going to tell Kate, but he had the rest of the weekend to persuade her he hadn’t lost his mind. He didn’t want her worrying about him, so there could be no question of revealing everything he’d discovered.

Kate’s family was a model of middle-class English normality. It was obvious her parents loved each other and neither of them had ever been married to anyone else. There were no children of a previous relationship, just level-headed Kate and her two level-headed sisters. Nick’s background was outrageously unconventional by comparison.

Around the time Kate’s flight was due to land at Gatwick, Nick settled on a version of events he thought she’d find it possible, if not necessarily easy, to understand. Martin Caldwell had decided the time had come to tell Nick who his real father was and that the man in question was going to be present at an auction in Reykjavík on Wednesday. Nick had decided to meet Caldwell in Reykjavík, attend the auction, introduce himself to his father and see what came of it.