Summerchill by Quentin Bates Read Free Book Online

have upset someone?’
    Stefán shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t be unusual. But neither of us have done any door work for a few months.’
    ‘Any particular reason?’
    ‘It’s not fantastically well paid, it goes on until past daybreak and you’re on the receiving end of all kinds of shit from drunks and arseholes. Now this place is doing better, neither of us needs the hassle any more.’
    ‘I see.’
    ‘You must have been in uniform at some point,’ Stefán said, his jaw jutting towards Helgi. ‘You must know as well as anyone what fun Friday and Saturday nights are.’
    Helgi smiled to himself, recalling evenings and nights patrolling the centre of Reykjavík on summer’s nights when the party was in full swing.
    ‘Better than most, I’d guess,’ he said. ‘Tell me about Axel Rútur. Was he in any trouble? Any feuds? Disputes? Any disaffected former staff here?’
    ‘Nothing that I know about,’ Stefán said and looked down at the floor.
    ‘He has a record. Assault, threatening behaviour.’
    ‘Yeah. So do I. We were kids and it was a long time ago.’
    ‘Six years. Not that long ago.’
    ‘It was when we were first working as bouncers. Some fuckwits from out of town decided they wanted a ruck, so we gave them one.’
    ‘And one of them came away from that with a fractured skull. So which of you is the one with the temper?’
    Stefán sighed and looked up as an athletic-looking woman in Lycra looked around the door, smiled and waved.
    ‘See you Sunday, Silla,’ Stefán said.
    ‘Was that . . . ?’ Helgi asked. ‘Whatshername, the high-jump champion?’
    ‘Yep. Silla Steinthórs. She trains here twice a week.’
    ‘Hell. I’d have got her autograph for my kids if I’d realized quicker.’
    ‘Then come back on Sunday,’ Stefán said.
    ‘I might well do that if I haven’t found Axel Rútur by then. What do you know about what he does when he’s not here?’
    ‘Not a lot these days. We used to hang around together all the time when we were younger. But now he’s snuggled up with Aníta Sól, and he’s a lot less tense.’ He looked at his fingers and screwed up his face for a moment. ‘He’s clean now as well.’
    ‘In what way? What was he doing?’
    ‘For a while he was into bodybuilding and he took steroids. But now he’s with Aníta Sól that’s come to an end.’ Stefán scowled. ‘I shouldn’t tell you this, but they were affecting his libido. Couldn’t get it up, if you know what I mean.’
    ‘So he gave up muscles for a healthy sex life? I can understand perfectly.’
    ‘Yeah. Pretty much. He’d been told already to pack it in, so I guess he knew he was on borrowed time on that score.’
    ‘Doctor’s orders?’
    ‘Yeah. Some of us were worried about him and we finally got him to go to a doctor about it, before it became a real problem. He seems OK now and Aníta Sól’s getting what she likes.’
    ‘So back to my question. What does he do when he’s not here?’
    ‘Sits on his rowing machine at home, goes to the movies and lets Aníta Sól massage his back. That’s about it, I reckon.’
    ‘Anything unusual about him being out late of an evening? Another woman, maybe?’
    Stefán thought, and Helgi decided that the fact he needed to think about it spoke volumes.
    ‘No. I don’t think so. A year or two ago, maybe, when he was still a bit wild. But not now.’
    It was late. The Polish boys had gone and Logi walked around the showroom to give it a final check before going home himself. The studwork for the walls was already up and he was sure they might even be able to get the job finished tomorrow. The wallboards would have to go on in the morning, and after that he and Tadeusz could hang the doors and fit the window while Marek ran a few spurs from the electrics to put in a couple of sockets and to separate the showroom lights from the two lights in the office ceiling.
    He wondered why Rafn had wanted the long wall to be so thick; he’d made it plain that that was