Where the Shadows Lie fai-1

by Michael Ridpath

  He tapped out an angry e-mail to Deputy Superintendent Williams, via Agent Hendricks, telling him what had happened and asking him where the hell the protection that he had promised Magnus was.

  If the Boston PD couldn’t protect Colby, then Magnus would fly over and do it himself. It wasn’t as if he would be allowed to do anything useful in Iceland.

  Ingileif waited in Mokka, toying with a latte. She liked the cafe, one of the oldest in Reykjavik, on the corner of Skolavordustigur and Laugavegur. Small, wood panelled and cosy, it was famous both for its waffles and for its clientele: artists, poets and novelists. The walls acted as a kind of rotating art exhibition for local artists, changing once a month. In March it had been her partner from the gallery’s turn.

  There was a newspaper lying on the table, but she didn’t pick it up. It had been a good afternoon – she had sold six vases worth several hundred thousand kronur. But she had also had an awkward conversation with one of her partners about the delay in payments due from Nordidea.

  She hadn’t exactly lied, but she hadn’t exactly told the truth, either.

  The whole business with the saga and Agnar’s death had made her think again about her father. She could clearly remember the last morning she saw him. He had been walking out of the house with his rucksack when he had paused, turned and kissed her goodbye. She could remember what he was wearing – his blue anorak, his new lightweight hiking boots. She could remember the smell of him, the mints he used to like to suck. She also remembered her feelings of irritation towards him because he had forbidden her to sleep over at her friend’s house the night before. She hadn’t really forgiven him that dreadful morning.

  There were all those questions now swirling around the death of Agnar, but there had been very few about her father. In Iceland, a man stumbling to his death in a snowstorm was an all too common occurrence, a feature of Icelandic life over the centuries.

  Perhaps there should have been more questions. Perhaps there should be more questions now.

  ‘Hi, Inga!’

  The other patrons of the cafe stared at the man who addressed her, but only for a couple of seconds, before returning to their conversations and their newspapers. Icelanders were proud of their ability to let famous people get on with their lives in public. Although of course there was only one truly famous Icelander, and that was Bjork, but the people of Reykjavik let her go as she pleased in their town.

  ‘Tomas! How good to see you!’ She stood up and kissed him on the cheek.

  ‘Hang on a moment,’ said the man. ‘Let me get myself a coffee. Do you want another?’

  Ingileif shook her head and her companion went up to the counter to order a double espresso. His features were very familiar to Ingileif: the round glasses, the buck teeth, the bulging cheeks, the thinning brushed-back mousy hair. Partly, it was true, this familiarity was from seeing him once a week on TV, but it was also the result of a childhood spent together.

  He returned to her table. ‘How’s things?’ he said. ‘I went into your gallery the other day. I missed you, but you have some lovely stuff. It must sell well.’

  ‘It does,’ said Ingileif.

  ‘But?’ Tomas had noticed the doubt in her voice. He was perceptive like that.

  ‘Too well,’ Ingileif admitted. ‘Our biggest customer went bust last month and they owe us a lot of money.’

  ‘And the bank isn’t being much help?’

  ‘You’re right there. A couple of years ago they were throwing money at us, and now they can’t get it back fast enough. They gave us one of those foreign currency loans that just keeps on growing.’

  ‘Well, good luck with that,’ said Tomas. ‘I’m sure you will thrive.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Ingileif smiled. ‘How about you? Your show seems to be going very well. I love the way you skewered the British Ambassador last week.’

  Tomas smiled broadly, his cheeks bunching up like a squirrel’s. ‘He deserved it. I mean, using anti-terrorist legislation to grab our country’s biggest bank. It was bullying, pure and simple. How would the British like it if the Americans did the same thing to them?’

  ‘And that banker the week before. The one who paid himself a four-million-dollar bonus three months before his bank went bust.’

  ‘At least he had the grace to come back to Iceland to face the music,’ Tomas said. ‘But that’s the problem, you see. I won’t get any more bankers on the show for a while, or ambassadors for that matter. I have to tread a fine line between being disrespectful to please the viewers and not being too aggressive so that I scare the guests away.’

  He sipped his espresso. Fame suited him, Ingileif thought. She had always liked him, he had a warm approachable sense of humour, but he used to be a bit shy, lacking in self-confidence. Now he was a household name, some of that shyness had disappeared. Not all of it though. That remained part of his charm.

  ‘You heard about Agnar Haraldsson?’ Tomas asked, peering at Ingileif closely through his glasses.

  ‘Yes,’ she said simply.

  ‘I remember you and he had a bit of a thing going.’

  ‘We did,’ Ingileif admitted. ‘Big mistake. Actually, it was probably only a little mistake, but a mistake none the less.’

  ‘It must have been a bit of a shock? His death. I mean I was shocked and I scarcely knew the guy.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ingileif, her voice suddenly hoarse. ‘Yes, it was.’

  ‘Have the police been in touch?’

  ‘Why should they be?’ Ingileif asked. She could feel herself reddening.

  ‘It’s a big case. A big investigation. They have, haven’t they?’

  Ingileif nodded.

  ‘Are they getting anywhere? Hasn’t there been an arrest?’

  ‘Yes. An Englishman. They think he was involved in some dodgy deal with Agnar. But I don’t think they have much evidence to prove it.’

  ‘Had you seen him recently?’

  Ingileif nodded again. Then when she saw Tomas’s raised eyebrows, she protested. ‘No, not that. He’s married, and he’s sleazy. I have better taste than that.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Tomas. ‘You’re way out of his league.’

  ‘That’s so kind of you to say,’ said Ingileif with mock politeness.

  ‘So what were you talking to him about?’

  For a second Ingileif considered telling Tomas all about the saga. It would all come out in the open soon anyway, and Tomas was such an old friend. But only for a second. ‘Why do you want to know?’

  ‘I’m curious. It’s been all over the papers.’

  ‘It’s not for your show, is it?’

  ‘Good God, no.’ Tomas saw his denial wasn’t strong enough. ‘I promise. Look, I’m sorry if I have been too direct with my questions. It’s become a habit.’

  ‘It must have,’ said Ingileif. Tomas had always had the ability to get people to confide in him. He seemed harmless and he seemed interested. But something told Ingileif to be careful. ‘Just a social call,’ she said. ‘Like this.’

  Tomas smiled. ‘Look, I have to go. I’m having a party on Saturday, do you want to come?’

  ‘Will it be as wild as your parties used to be?’ Ingileif said.

  ‘Wilder. Here, let me give you the address. I moved a few months ago.’ And he took out a business card emblazoned with the logo of RUV, the state broadcaster, and wrote down his home address, somewhere on Thingholtsstraeti.

  As he left the cafe, drawing one or two surreptitious stares after him from the customers, Ingileif couldn’t help asking herself a simple question.

  What the hell was all that about?

  Vigdis accepted the cup of coffee and began to sip it. It was her fifth of the day. Interviewing people in Iceland always involved lots of drinking coffee.

  The woman opposite her was in her late thirties, wearing jeans and a blue sweater. She had an intelligent face and a friendly smile. They were sitting in a handsome house in Vesturbaer, a smart area of Reykjavik just to
the west of the city centre. The family Range Rover blocked the view to the quiet street outside.

  ‘I’m sorry to take more of your time, Helena,’ Vigdis began. ‘I know you have answered plenty of questions from my colleagues. But I would like to go through everything that you can remember from the day of the murder, and the couple of days before. Any tiny little detail.’

  It was Helena and her family who had been staying in one of the other summer houses on the shore of Lake Thingvellir and whose children had found Agnar’s body. After speaking to Helena, Vigdis planned to visit her husband in the office of his insurance company on Borgartun.

  ‘By all means. I’m not sure there is much else I can tell you.’

  But Helena frowned as she finished the sentence. Vigdis noticed it.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Um… It’s nothing. It’s not important.’

  Vigdis smiled, coaxing. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ she said. She showed Helena the pages of her notebook, covered with neat handwriting. ‘This book is filled with unimportant stuff. But just a little of it will turn out to be very important.’

  ‘My husband didn’t think we should mention it.’

  ‘Why not?’ asked Vigdis.

  Helena smiled. ‘Oh, well, you decide. Our five-year-old daughter, Sara Ros, told us this story at breakfast yesterday. My husband is convinced it’s a dream.’

  ‘What was the story?’ asked Vigdis.

  ‘She says that she saw two men playing in the lake at night.’

  ‘Lake Thingvellir?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That sounds interesting.’

  ‘The thing is Sara Ros makes up stories. Sometimes it’s to get attention. Sometimes it’s just for fun.’

  ‘I see. Well, I think I should speak to her. With your permission, of course.’

  ‘All right. As long as you bear in mind that she might have made the whole thing up. You’ll have to wait until she gets back from kindergarten.’

  ‘No,’ said Vigdis. ‘I think we had better talk to her now.’

  The kindergarten that Helena’s daughter attended was only a few hundred metres away. The principal grudgingly gave up her office to Vigdis and Helena and went to fetch the girl.

  She was a typical Icelandic five-year-old. Bright blue eyes, pink cheeks and curly hair that was so blonde it was almost white.

  Her face lit up when she saw her mother and she curled up next to her on the sofa in the principal’s office.

  ‘Hello,’ said Vigdis. ‘My name is Vigdis and I am a police officer.’

  ‘You don’t look like a policeman,’ said Sara Ros.

  ‘That’s because I am a detective. I don’t wear a uniform.’

  ‘Do you come from Africa?’

  ‘Sara Ros!’ her mother interjected.

  Vigdis smiled. ‘No. I come from Keflavik.’

  The little girl laughed. ‘That’s not in Africa. That’s where the airport is when we go on holiday.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Vigdis. ‘Now, your mummy said you saw something last week at your summer house by the lake. Can you tell me about it?’

  ‘My daddy says that I am making it up. He doesn’t believe me.’

  ‘I believe you,’ said Vigdis.

  ‘How can you believe me when you haven’t heard what I am going to say?’

  Vigdis smiled. ‘Good point. I tell you what. You tell me the story, and I’ll tell you whether I believe you or not at the end.’

  The girl glanced at her mother, who nodded. ‘I woke up and it was the middle of the night. I wanted to go to the toilet. When I came back I looked out of my window and I saw two men playing in the lake just outside the professor’s house. They were splashing about a bit. Then one of them got tired and fell asleep.’

  ‘Were they both splashing?’

  ‘Hm,’ said the little girl, thinking hard. ‘No they weren’t. One of them was splashing and the other one was all floppy.’

  ‘And did the man fall asleep in the water, or on the lake shore?’

  ‘In the water.’

  ‘I see. What did the other man do?’

  ‘He got out of the lake and then he got in his car and he drove away.’

  ‘Did you see what the man looked like?’

  ‘Of course not, silly. It was dark! But I think he had his clothes on, not a swimming costume.’

  ‘What about the car? Did you see the colour of the car?’

  The girl giggled. ‘I said it was dark. It was night time. You can’t see colours in the dark.’

  ‘Are you sure about this?’

  ‘Yes, I am quite sure. And I know it’s true because I saw the man asleep in the lake the next day when Jon and me went down there to play. Except then he was dead.’ The little girl went quiet.

  ‘Did you tell anyone about this?’ Vigdis asked.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because nobody asked me.’ She looked straight at Vigdis with her bright blue eyes. ‘Well, I told you my story. Do you believe me?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Vigdis. ‘Yes, I do.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Magnus took a last look around Room 208, trying to place himself in the shoes of Steve Jubb. Where would he hide something as small as a ring?

  He couldn’t think of anywhere. He had been over every inch of the room, and he was leaving quite a mess. He didn’t care. Relations between the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police and the management of the Hotel Borg had taken a bit of a dive over the last couple of hours. The management had been upset at Magnus’s insistence that the current occupant of the room, a German businessman, should be turfed out an hour before he was ready to check out. So had the businessman.

  The cleaner, a young Polish woman, was more helpful. She was quite certain that she hadn’t seen a ring, or anything that might contain a ring, as she had told the police a few days before. Unfortunately for Magnus, she seemed a reliable, observant girl.

  The ring definitely wasn’t there. Arni’s interpretation of Jubb’s text message to Isildur was probably right – Jubb hadn’t taken it, but Jubb thought Agnar had it.

  Next stop, the summer house on Lake Thingvellir. Again.

  Magnus took the stairs down to the lobby. His thoughts drifted back to Colby. Was he serious about flying back to Boston?

  At least he would be doing something. But finding Pedro Soto would be difficult. Killing him even more difficult. Magnus would be much more likely to give Soto the opportunity to finish him off. That would solve Soto’s problems, take the pressure off the Lenahan trial, keep his narcotics import and distribution businesses going.

  What about finding Colby and protecting her? That, too, might be difficult. Colby had sounded determined to disappear. She was a capable woman: when she was determined to do something she usually did it. She would be hard for Magnus to find. And for the Dominicans. But if Magnus charged around looking for her, he ran the risk of leading the Dominicans right to her.

  Like it or not, Magnus’s best shot at hurting Soto and protecting Colby was to lie low, stay in Iceland, and testify at Lenahan’s trial.

  He handed the key card to the receptionist. As he was leaving the hotel, he passed a small man with a scruffy beard coming in, wheeling a suitcase behind him. The man was wearing a green baseball cap proclaiming ‘Frodo Lives’.

  Magnus held the door open.

  ‘Oh, er, thank you very much, sir,’ the man said, nervously. The language was English, the accent American.

  ‘No problem,’ said Magnus.

  The Hotel Borg shared a square with the Parliament building, the site of the weekly Saturday afternoon demonstrations over the winter. As Magnus walked across it towards the police-department silver Skoda that he had signed out that morning, he wondered about the cap. Strange, he had never thought about Lord of the Rings memorabilia before. Was he going to be stopped short by every Gollum or Gandalf T-shirt he came across? Were there really that many of them?

  No. There w
eren’t.

  He turned on his heel and returned to the lobby in time to see the elevator door closing behind the wheeled suitcase.

  ‘What was the name of the guest who just checked in?’ he asked the receptionist.

  ‘Mr Feldman,’ she said. Then, glancing at her computer screen. ‘Lawrence Feldman.’

  ‘Which room?’

  ‘Three-ten.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  Magnus gave Feldman a minute to get himself into his room and then took the elevator up to the third floor. He knocked on the door of Room 310.

  The man answered.

  ‘Isildur?’ said Magnus.

  Feldman blinked. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘My name is Sergeant Detective Jonson. I’m working with the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police. Can I come in?’

  ‘Er, I guess so,’ said Feldman. His suitcase and his jacket were on the bed, together with the baseball cap. Magnus could hear the sound of the lavatory cistern refilling from the bathroom.

  ‘Take a load off,’ said Magnus, indicating the bed. Feldman sat on it, and Magnus pulled out the chair behind the desk.

  Feldman looked tired. His brown eyes were quick and intelligent, but rimmed with red blood vessels. His skin was a waxy pale underneath the scrappy beard.

  ‘Just flown in?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘You followed me in from the airport?’ said Feldman. ‘I guess you knew I would check in at the Borg.’

  Magnus just grunted. Feldman was right, they should have known there was a good chance that he would show up in Iceland sooner or later. They should have been checking the airports. And the Hotel Borg was the natural place to stay. But Magnus decided not to explain to Feldman that it was just dumb luck that he had spotted him.

  He thought about Arni, currently high over the Midwest on his way to California. It was all he could do not to smile to himself.

  ‘Should I get a lawyer here?’ Feldman asked.

  ‘Good question,’ said Magnus. ‘There’s no doubt you’re in deep shit. And if this was the States, then I would definitely advise it. But here? I don’t know.’

  ‘What do you mean?’