After an interrogation lasting nearly three hours, Doddi finally confessed to Sigurdur Oli that he had stolen a carving knife from the school and used it to vandalise cars that he and his friend Anton passed on their way to school. Both boys flatly denied having touched Elias, however, claiming that they did not even know him and had no idea who killed him. It was more than a week since they had scratched the car belonging to the young woman whom they had seen dashing back inside her block of flats, leaving the engine running. They did not realise that she had spotted them. At first they meant to steal the car as it had been handed to them on a plate with the engine left running and all, but when it came to the point they couldn’t be bothered. Doddi walked along beside it, scraping the point of the knife along the paintwork, then they ran and hid. This was the first time they had seen the owner of one of the cars they had vandalised and it heightened the adrenalin. They waited for the woman to come out again in order to watch her reaction when she saw the scratch. She soon came dashing back out of the house and opened the car door but stopped dead when she saw the scratch along the bodywork. She bent down to take a closer look, then peered round, walked out into the car park and scanned in all directions, before taking a frantic glance at her watch, returning to her car and driving away.

The knife found at the recycling depot was in a box in the interview room and Doddi recognised it immediately. The police pathologist confirmed that it could well be the murder weapon.

Elinborg was in another interview room with Anton. The boys” statements matched in all the main details. Doddi had stolen the knife, and the initiative when it came to satisfying their destructive urge had largely been his.

“How did the knife end up in the recycling bin?” Elinborg asked Anton, who had been extremely cooperative ever since arriving at the police station.

“I don’t know,” Anton replied.

“Did you use it to attack Elias?”

“No,” Anton said. “I didn’t touch him.”

“Why did you throw the knife away?”

“I didn’t.”

“What about your mate, Doddi?”

“I don’t know. He had the knife last.”

“He says you had it.”

“He’s lying.”

“Did you know the knife was used to kill Elias?”

“No.”

“Do you know Niran, Elias’s brother?”

“No, not at all, except that he’s at my school. I don’t know him at all.”

In the other interview room similar questions were being flung at Doddi who claimed that Anton had had the knife last.

“How long is it since you took the knife from the carpentry workshop?” Sigurdur Oli asked.

“About ten days or …” Doddi thought. “Yeah, something like that. It was straight after the Christmas holidays.”

“Where did you last see it?”

Anton took it home with him.”

“He says you had it”

“He’s lying.”

“Do you know who Elias was?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know him?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Did you stab him to death?”

“No.”

“Did you stab him to death with the knife that you stole from the carpentry workshop?”

“No. I didn’t do anything.”

“Why did you scratch those cars?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“We were bored.”

In the other room, Elinborg stared at Anton for a long time without saying a word, then rose to her feet. She had been sitting still for too long and her whole body ached. She leaned against the wall and folded her arms.

“Where were you when Elias was attacked?” she asked.

Anton could not give a clear account of his whereabouts. At first he said he had been at home, that he had gone straight home from school. Then he suddenly remembered that he had gone to a computer-games shop with Doddi.

“You will both be charged with Elias’s murder,” Elinborg said. “You had the knife, you killed him.”

“I didn’t,” Anton said.

“What about your friend?”

“There’s no way he did either.”

“What’s your attitude to immigrants, foreigners, coloured people?”

“I don’t know.”

Doddi hesitated when asked a similar question. Sigurdur Oli repeated the question but Doddi just stared at him without answering. Sigurdur Oli asked a third time.

“I don’t have any attitude to them,” Doddi said at last. “I don’t give them any thought”

“Have you attacked any immigrant kids?”

“No, never,” Doddi said.

Neither he nor Anton had ever been in trouble with the law. Anton’s mother was a single parent with two children, who struggled to make ends meet on her meagre wages. Anton had a three-year-old half-brother. He saw his father briefly once a month or so. Doddi had two full siblings and a half-sister. He told them that his father, who had little to do with him, was a foreman on the Karahnjukar dam project.

“Why did you attack Elias?” Sigurdur Oli asked.

“I didn’t.”

“We’re going to charge you with Elias’s murder,” Sigurdur Oli said. “We have no other option.”

Doddi stared at him and it was clear from his expression that he fully grasped the implications of what Sigurdur Oli was saying. He was quite a tough nut. Sigurdur Oli had often questioned teenage boys who did not give a shit about anything or anyone and answered back with jeers and even threats against the police. He sensed that there was more to Doddi. He was not yet a hardened case. The vandalism of the cars was a brainless stunt but no more than that. At least for the time-being.

“He gave away the knife,” Doddi said.

“Gave it away?”

“I stole it but Anton had it last and he gave it away. I didn’t know it had been used in the murder. And I’m sure he didn’t either.”

Elinborg was still leaning against the wall with arms folded when Sigurdur Oli entered the interview room. He sat down in front of Anton and stared at him for a long time without saying a word. Elinborg refrained from asking any questions. Anton became restless, squirmed in his chair and fixed his gaze on Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg in turn. He was extremely uneasy.

“Do you know a boy called Hallur?” Sigurdur Oli asked.

Elinborg was leaving the interview room shortly afterwards when her mobile rang. It took her some time to work out who was on the other end but at last she came up with an image of the flamboyant tie belonging to the PR guy from the insurance firm where someone had been making calls to Sunee.

“I’ve been involved in a major investigation on your behalf,” the PR man said gravely.

“Really?” Elinborg said.

“Yes, really. I’ve spoken to a number of people here at the firm, all in confidence of course, and none of them is in a relationship with that woman, as far as I can tell.”

“No?”

“No. At least, nothing that can be confirmed.”

“What about unconfirmed?”

“Well, there are rumours about one man.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know him. He’s in his late forties and has worked in the claims department for years. The girls say he’s dating an Asian woman.”

“Which girls?”

“The customer service reps. Someone spotted him at a nightclub about a month ago. He was with one of those women.”

“One of what women?”

“Thai, maybe.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“No.”

“Good. What’s his name?”

“The girls want to know if he’s connected in any way to the mother of the boy who died.”

“Tell them to mind their own business!”