Tainted Blood - By Arnaldur Indridason Page 0,85

hates himself," El铆n said. "He says he isn't the person he used to be any more, but someone else, and he blames himself for what happened. No matter what I said, he wouldn't listen to me."

Erlendur looked down at the photo album, at the girl in the hospital bed.

"Why did he want to meet you?"

"He wanted to know about Audur. All about Audur. What kind of girl she was, how she died. He said I was his new family. Have you ever heard the like?"

"Where could he have gone?" Erlendur said, looking at his watch.

"For God's sake try to find him before it's too late."

"We'll do our best," Erlendur said and was about to say goodbye but sensed that El铆n had something else to say. "What? Was there anything else?" he asked.

"He saw when you exhumed Audur," El铆n said. "He found out where I was and followed us to the cemetery and saw you take the coffin out of the grave."

41

Erlendur had the search for Einar stepped up. Photographs of him were sent to police stations in and around Reykjavik and the main regional towns; announcements were sent to the media. He ordered that the man was to be let alone; if anyone sighted him they were to contact Erlendur immediately and not do anything else. He had a short telephone conversation with Katr铆n who said she didn't know where her son was. Her two elder sons were with her. She had told them the truth. They didn't know anything about their brother's whereabouts. Albert had stayed in his room at Hotel Esja all day. He made two phone calls, both to his office.

"What a bloody tragedy," Erlendur mumbled on his way back to his office. They hadn't found any clue in Einar's flat as to where he might be staying.

The day passed and they shared out the duties. El铆nborg and Sigurdur ?li talked to Einar's ex-wife while Erlendur went to the Genetic Research Centre. The company's large new premises were on the West Country Road outside Reykjav铆k. It was a five-storey building with strict security at the entrance. Two security guards met Erlendur in the impressive lobby. He'd announced that he was coming and the director of the company had felt compelled to talk to him for a few minutes. The director was one of the company owners, an Icelandic molecular geneticist, educated in Britain and America, who had championed the idea of Iceland as a base for genetic research targeted at pharmaceutical production. Using the database, all the medical records in the country could be centralised and health information processed which could help to identify genetic disorders.

The director was waiting for Erlendur in her office, a woman aged about 50 by the name of Kar铆tas, slim and delicate with short, jet-black hair and a friendly smile. She was smaller than Erlendur had imagined from seeing her on television, but cordial. She couldn't understand what the CID wanted from the company. She offered Erlendur a seat. While he looked at the walls adorned with contemporary Icelandic art he told her bluntly there were grounds for suspecting that someone had broken into the database and retrieved potentially damaging information from it. He didn't know exactly what he was talking about himself but she seemed to understand perfectly. And she didn't beat about the bush, to Erlendur's great relief. He had been expecting opposition. A conspiracy of silence.

"The matter's so sensitive because of data privacy," she said as soon as Erlendur finished speaking, "and that's why I have to ask you to keep this completely between the two of us. We've known for some time about unauthorised accessing of the database. We've made an in-house inquiry into the matter. Our suspicions are directed at one particular biologist but we've been unable to speak to him because he seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet."

"Einar?"

"Yes, that's him. We're still designing the data-base, so to speak, but naturally we don't want word to get out that the encryption can be cracked and people can waltz through it as they please. You understand that. Although in fact it's not a question of encryption."

"Why didn't you inform the police about the matter?"

"As I say, we wanted to sort it out ourselves. It's embarrassing for us. People trust that the information in the database isn't passed around or used for dubious purposes or simply stolen. The community is extremely sensitive about this as you perhaps know and we wanted to avoid mass hysteria."

"Mass