Where the Shadows Lie

by Michael Ridpath

  ‘I said, no.’

  They sat in silence, staring at each other. Then Magnus smiled. ‘I know you and I haven’t started out very well together.’

  ‘You can say that again.’

  ‘But just give me twenty minutes. You can be there too. You’ll know if we’re making progress, if there’s an opening. If I get nowhere, then we’ve lost twenty minutes, that’s all.’

  The corners of Baldur’s lips were turned down, scepticism was written all over his long face. But he was listening.

  He took a deep breath. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Twenty minutes. Let’s go.’

  Tómas Hákonarson looked exhausted, as did his lawyer, a mousy woman of about thirty.

  Baldur introduced Magnus. Tómas’s tired eyes assessed him.

  ‘Don’t worry, I don’t want to talk to you about Agnar,’ Magnus began.

  ‘Good,’ said Tómas.

  ‘It’s another murder I want to discuss with you. One that took place seventeen years ago.’

  Tómas was suddenly awake, his eyes focusing on Magnus.

  ‘Know whose murder I’m talking about?’

  Tómas remained motionless. Magnus felt that he wasn’t trusting himself to speak. A good sign.

  ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Dr Ásgrímur. Seventeen years ago your father pushed Dr Ásgrímur off a cliff. And you witnessed it.’

  Tómas swallowed. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

  ‘I’ve just come back from Hruni where I interviewed your father. And I went to Álfabrekka and spoke to the farmers who helped him go back and find Dr Ásgrímur. They saw you.’

  ‘They can’t have done.’

  ‘They saw a thirteen-year-old boy sneak by their farm in the snow.’

  Tómas frowned. ‘That wasn’t me.’

  ‘Wasn’t it?’

  ‘Anyway. Why would my father kill the doctor? They were friends.’

  Magnus smiled. ‘The ring.’

  ‘What ring?’

  ‘The ring you went to talk to Professor Agnar about.’

  ‘I have no idea what you are talking about.’

  Magnus leaned forward. He spoke in a low urgent voice, only a fraction above a whisper. ‘You see, the farmers saw your father wearing an ancient ring. We know that your father pushed Dr Ásgrímur off a cliff and took the ring. You witnessed it and ran away.’

  ‘Has he admitted it?’ Tómas asked.

  Magnus could see that the instant he had uttered it, Tómas regretted his question, with its implication that there was something to admit.

  ‘He will. We are going to arrest him shortly.’

  He paused, watching Tómas as he fiddled with the empty coffee cup in front of him. ‘Tell us the truth, Tómas. You can stop protecting your father. It’s too late for that.’

  Tómas glanced at his lawyer, who was listening intently. ‘OK.’

  ‘Talk to me,’ said Magnus.

  Tómas took a deep breath. ‘I wasn’t there,’ he said. ‘I don’t know who your farmer witness saw, but it wasn’t me.’

  Magnus was tempted to argue, but held his tongue. Best to coax out the entirety of Tómas’s story and then pick holes in it.

  ‘I don’t even know for sure whether my father did kill him, I really don’t. But I do know that he has the ring, Gaukur’s ring.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘He told me. About five years later, when I was eighteen or so. He said that he was looking after it for me. He told me the whole story of the ring, how it was the very same ring of Andvari from the Volsung Saga, about how Ísildur had taken it back to Iceland and how Gaukur had killed his brother for it, and had then hidden it. He showed it to me once.’

  ‘So you’ve actually seen it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did he tell you how he got it?’

  Tómas hesitated. ‘Yes. Yes, he did. He said that he and Dr Ásgrímur found it that weekend, and that Dr Ásgrímur was wearing it when he fell off the cliff. He said that he had taken it off Dr Ásgrímur’s finger.’

  ‘While he was lying dying at the bottom of the cliff?’

  Tómas shrugged. ‘I guess so. I don’t know. It was either then, or when he came back for him with the farmers and found him dead. But it would have been quite difficult to take the ring then, I would expect.’

  ‘Didn’t that shock you?’

  ‘Yes, it did.’ Tómas swallowed. ‘My father was always a bit strange. But he became much stranger after the doctor died. I was scared of him, in awe of him. I still am, if the truth be told. And, well …’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had done something awful like take a ring off a dying man’s finger.’

  ‘What about killing that man?’

  Tómas hesitated. Magnus glanced at Tómas’s lawyer. She was listening intently, but letting him speak. As far as she was concerned her client was going some way towards exonerating himself.

  Baldur was also listening closely, letting Magnus get on with it.

  Tómas took a deep breath. ‘Yes. Like killing the doctor.’

  ‘Did he admit he had done that?’

  ‘No, not at all. Never.’

  ‘But you suspect he did?’

  ‘Not at first,’ said Tómas. ‘It didn’t occur to me. I had always believed my father about everything. But then the suspicion did begin to nag at me. I hoped it wasn’t true, but I couldn’t help asking myself, what if Father had pushed the doctor?’

  ‘Did you confront him?’

  ‘No, absolutely not.’ It was clear that the last thing on earth Tómas would do was confront his father. ‘But one day I overheard something. It was Father talking to my mother, this was several years after they had separated. It was Birna Ásgrímsdóttir’s wedding. Father was officiating. They were talking about how messed up Birna was. Father said something like: “It’s hardly surprising when her father was murdered.”

  ‘I don’t know whether Mother noticed. She didn’t say anything. I could tell Father had realized he had made a mistake by the way he glanced at her immediately. I don’t think he knew I was listening.’

  ‘That’s not exactly hard evidence,’ Magnus said.

  ‘No,’ Tómas admitted.

  Which was no doubt why Tómas had told them. Magnus still wasn’t convinced that Tómas wasn’t there and hadn’t witnessed the whole thing. But he’d come to that later.

  ‘All right. So why were you visiting Agnar?’

  ‘Can I have some water?’ Tómas asked.

  Magnus nodded. To Magnus’s surprise Baldur went to the door to ask for some. A minute later a police officer returned with a plastic cup and a jug.

  Tómas drank gratefully. Gathering his thoughts.

  ‘Agnar approached me. We knew each other vaguely, we’d met at parties, had one or two mutual friends, you know how this town is?’

  Magnus nodded.

  ‘We met at a café.’

  ‘Café Paris,’ Magnus said, remembering his conversation with Katrín, about her seeing them together.

  Tómas frowned in surprise.

  ‘Go on,’ Magnus said.

  ‘Agnar said that he had been approached by a wealthy American to buy Gaukur’s ring. I acted dumb, but Agnar went on. He said that he had just come back from Hruni, where he had spoken to Father. He said that although Father denied he had the ring, Agnar was sure he was lying.’

  ‘Did he say why?’

  ‘He did. It was ridiculous.’ Tómas smiled to himself. ‘He said it was because Father looked much younger than his age. In Gaukur’s Saga the warrior who bears the ring, Ulf something, is actually ninety, but looks much younger, and Agnar’s theory was that the same thing was happening to Father, he wasn’t getting any older.’

  ‘I see what you mean,’ said Magnus. ‘That is a little weird.’

  ‘I know. The problem was I laughed at him. It was a problem because right then Agnar could tell I knew what he was talking about.’ />
  ‘But you didn’t actually admit it?’

  ‘No. Then he claimed that Father must have murdered Dr Ásgrímur. Obviously, I said that was wrong. But Agnar persisted. He seemed very sure of himself. Basically, he tried to blackmail me. Or us.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘He said that unless Father sold him the ring – and Agnar promised he would pay a high price – then he would go to the police and tell them, I mean you, about the ring and about Dr Ásgrímur’s murder.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘I called Father. I told him what Agnar had said.’

  ‘How did he take it?’

  ‘He wasn’t having any of it. We agreed how absurd it was that Agnar should think that Father had murdered Dr Ásgrímur. But, of course, Father knew I knew he had the ring. He said we should call Agnar’s bluff. So I went to look for him. I went to the University first, and then a student said he was at a summer house on Lake Thingvellir. I actually knew the house, I interviewed Agnar’s father there a few years ago. You know he was a cabinet minister?’

  Magnus nodded.

  ‘So I drove out to Lake Thingvellir. I told Agnar that my father had no idea what he was talking about. I urged him to drop the blackmailing.’

  ‘Urged?’ said Magnus. ‘Or threatened.’

  ‘Urged. I pointed out that if Agnar went through with it, his clients almost certainly wouldn’t get the ring. I kind of admitted I knew that Father had it.’

  ‘What did Agnar say?’

  ‘He looked at me for several seconds, thinking. Then he suggested that if Father was too stubborn to give up the ring of his own accord, I should steal it from him. That way I would keep him out of jail.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said I would think about it.’

  Magnus raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Agnar had a point. I knew Father would never give up the ring, but I didn’t want him to go to jail. I knew where Father kept it, and it would be easy to take it and sell it to Agnar.’

  ‘So did you?’

  ‘Steal the ring? No. I drove straight home, and sat down and thought about it. In the end I decided to tell Father what Agnar had suggested. I called him that evening.’

  ‘And what did your father say?’

  ‘He was angry. Very angry.’

  ‘With you?’

  ‘With Agnar and with me. He was upset that I had as good as admitted that he had the ring. He didn’t seem at all grateful that I had stood by him, that I had called him instead of taking the ring myself.’ There was anger in Tómas’s voice. ‘He lost it, basically.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘I was wound up. I had a drink or two to calm myself down.’ Tómas winced. ‘I ended up drinking most of a bottle of whisky. I woke up late the next morning, still not sure what to do. Then I heard about Agnar’s death on the radio.’

  Tómas swallowed.

  ‘What’s the timing on all this?’ Magnus asked. ‘When did you get home from Lake Thingvellir?’

  ‘About half-past five or so. Like I told your colleague.’ Tómas’s eyes flicked towards Baldur.

  ‘And what time did you call your father?’

  ‘About half an hour later, maybe an hour.’

  ‘So that’s about six, six-thirty.’ The obvious question framed itself in Magnus’s mind. ‘So your father could have gone to Lake Thingvellir later that night? To shut Agnar up?’

  Tómas didn’t answer.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ he said. But it was quite clear that the thought had occurred to him too.

  ‘One other question,’ said Magnus. ‘Where does your father hide the ring?’

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ‘WELL DONE,’ SAID Baldur as they left the interview room and walked rapidly towards his office. He didn’t smile, he didn’t even look at Magnus, but Magnus knew he meant it.

  ‘Shall we go arrest Hákon?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘We’ll get the Selfoss police to arrest him and bring him here for interview,’ said Baldur. ‘They’ll get there more quickly. And I’ll ask them to search for that damned ring.’ He paused as he reached the door to his office. ‘I’d like you to join me when they bring Hákon in.’

  ‘While you’re talking to the Selfoss police, can you ask them to check their reports on Dr Ásgrímur’s death in 1992?’ Magnus asked.

  Baldur hesitated, and then nodded curtly.

  When Magnus got back to his own desk, Árni was there, looking exhausted.

  ‘How’s the Gubernator?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘Very funny. I hear things have been happening back here.’

  ‘Baldur’s just sending the Selfoss police to arrest the pastor of Hruni now.’

  ‘Do you think he killed Agnar?’

  ‘Him or Tómas,’ said Magnus. ‘We’ll find out which pretty soon.’

  ‘So Isildur and Steve Jubb are innocent?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ said Magnus. And he explained all that had happened while Árni had been thirty-five thousand feet up in the air.

  Magnus was expecting to wait three hours before Hákon was brought in, but it was less than an hour before Baldur strode into the room, his face like thunder.

  ‘He’s gone,’ he said.

  ‘Has he taken his car?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘Of course he has.’

  ‘And the ring?’

  ‘Gone as well. If it ever existed.’

  It had been a frustrating twenty-four hours for Isildur. He was beginning to have his doubts about Axel, the PI he had hired. Pétur Ásgrímsson had been spectacularly unhelpful, his sister Ingileif seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth and Axel hadn’t succeeded in finding out very much from his supposed contacts in the police. Tómas Hákonarson was under arrest for the murder of Agnar, there was evidence that he had been at Lake Thingvellir on the night in question, but the police were dismissing rumours of magic rings as mythology.

  Morons!

  He and Gimli were waiting in the Hótel Borg for a call from Axel. In separate rooms. Despite the fact that they had formed such a close bond in the virtual world, in the real one they had little in common. Isildur was rereading the Volsung Saga and Gimli was watching repeats of a handball match. He had explained that whenever he went to a foreign country he liked to watch the local sports on TV.

  Isildur’s cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID. It was Axel.

  ‘I’ve found her,’ the PI said.

  ‘Where is she?’

  ‘At her apartment.’

  ‘Great! Let’s go talk to her.’

  ‘I’ll pick you up in five minutes.’

  Isildur summoned Gimli and they waited outside the hotel. The square was empty, other than the pigeons. The parliament building squatted on the south side, a tough building made of blackened stone. It was slightly smaller than the branch of Isildur’s local bank in Trinity County, and stood next to what must have been the tiniest cathedral in the world.

  Axel drew up in his old banger and they crammed inside. They were soon outside Ingileif’s building. Once again, Isildur took the lead and rang the bell.

  A pretty blonde woman answered the door with half a smile.

  ‘Hi,’ said Isildur, confident by now that a young Icelander would speak English. ‘My name’s Lawrence Feldman. I’m the guy who was all set to buy your saga. Can we come in?’

  The half smile disappeared. ‘No you may not,’ said Ingileif. ‘Go away. I want nothing to do with you.’

  ‘I would still be willing to pay a very good price for the saga, Miss Ásgrímsdóttir.’

  ‘I’m not going to discuss it with you.’

  Isildur persisted. ‘And if by any chance you know of the where-abouts of the ring itself, I will pay you for that information. Or for the ring, if you have it.’

  ‘Fuck off,’ said Ingileif in crisp English, and slammed the door in his face.

  ‘Funny. That’s exactly what her brother said,’ said Gimli
with a chuckle.

  But Isildur did not see the funny side. He had been hoping for a breakthrough from Ingileif. In his experience, if you waved enough money, you could usually get what you wanted.

  But not necessarily in Iceland, it seemed.

  They crossed the street, back to the car.

  ‘What now?’ asked Gimli.

  ‘Do you know much about electronic surveillance, Axel?’ Isildur asked.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Listening devices. Bugging phones, that kind of thing.’

  ‘That’s illegal,’ said Axel.

  ‘So is jaywalking, and we just did it. All that matters is that you don’t get caught.’

  ‘Actually, jaywalking isn’t illegal in Iceland,’ Axel said.

  ‘Whatever,’ said Isildur. ‘I want to know what that woman knows. And if she’s not going to tell us, we’re going to have to figure it out for ourselves.’

  ‘I guess so,’ said Axel.

  ‘There’s obviously a risk attached to it. Which means you deserve to get paid extra. For the risk.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  Árni drove back to his apartment. He was dog tired, too tired really to drive. He almost ploughed into the back of a van that stopped suddenly at a light.

  His mind drifted over the case and what Magnus had told him. There was something that wasn’t quite right, something nagging at his brain. It wasn’t until he was actually in his apartment and making himself a cup of coffee that he realized what it was.

  Oh, God. He’d made another mistake.

  He was so tempted just to forget about it, crawl into bed, trust to Magnus and Baldur to figure everything out for themselves.

  But he couldn’t. He had some people to talk to. And he had to talk to them right away. If he was lucky, he would be proved wrong. He probably was wrong after all, he usually was. But he had to check.

  He needed caffeine first. As soon as he had finished his coffee he grabbed his jacket and headed back out to his car.

  Diego was not happy.

  He had spent the bulk of the day knocking around the Hlemmur bus station, directly opposite police headquarters. He hadn’t seen Magnus go in or out of the building. But then he didn’t know for sure that Magnus wasn’t in there, because in addition to the two entrances at the front, he was pretty sure there was an entrance in back, where the parking lot was.