Майкл Ридпат - The Wanderer

‘Suzy said you were inquiring about a murder of a tourist in the north of Iceland, but I had no idea who it was who had been killed,’ he explained to Magnus and Vigdís. ‘It was only when Einar came out of the interview with you that he told me it was Carlotta. Why he didn’t tell me before, I don’t know. I cannot believe it. Why would anyone kill her? Was it a rape? I didn’t think that kind of thing went on in Iceland? It’s appalling news. Appalling.’

‘Sit down, professor,’ Magnus said. ‘And let’s take this slowly. I take it you knew Carlotta?’

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’ The Italian tinge to his American accent had become stronger in his distress. The professor lowered himself into a chair next to the desk at which Magnus was sitting and with an effort composed himself. His hands briefly came to rest on his lap.

‘And how did you know her?’

‘She contacted me at Princeton a few months ago. Just sent me an email. I get approached by amateur historians all the time, and occasionally by graduate students who should know better. Usually I ignore them, but her message caught my interest for some reason, and I responded. And I’m glad I did.’

‘Why was that?’

‘Have you heard of Columbus’s letter to his brother about his voyage to Iceland? They are featuring it heavily in their television series.’

‘Yes,’ said Magnus.

‘Well, it was that. A friend of hers had stumbled across it in the Vatican Secret Archives. The Vatican said it was a fake, and I assumed it was too. But Carlotta’s argument was persuasive — that in fact the Icelanders knew all about Greenland and America, and if Columbus had indeed visited Iceland he would have known about it too. So the next time I was in Rome, I took a look at the original. The Vatican was reluctant to let me see it, but I have a certain standing on these subjects in Italy.’ The professor coughed in feigned modesty. ‘In the world, actually.’

Now he was talking about himself, Beccari seemed less agitated. More self-confident. His hands were almost still.

‘I looked at the letter and the scientific analysis, and, well, I wasn’t sure.’

‘You thought it was genuine?’

‘I thought it might be. You have to be careful when you have a reputation such as mine; it is easy to make a fool of yourself. You remember the Hitler Diaries?’

Magnus shook his head.

‘In the 1980s, Stern , the German magazine, claimed that they had discovered Hitler’s war diaries. Professor Trevor-Roper of Oxford University said they were genuine. He was wrong and his reputation never recovered; it destroyed his life. I have just taken over as Hildreth Professor of History at Princeton. I don’t want to follow in poor old Trevor-Roper’s footsteps. That would be a catastrophe.’

The professor’s eyes were wide with horror at the prospect of the demolition of his reputation.

‘Did you ever meet Carlotta?’

‘Yes. The day after I examined the letter in the Secret Archives she met me in Rome. She said that the BBC was doing a documentary on a Viking woman who had been to America, and was planning to use the Columbus letter. Would I vouch for its authenticity?’

‘When exactly was this?’ Magnus asked.

‘Sometime in April this year.’ Beccari pulled out his phone to check his diary. ‘The twenty-fifth of April.’

Magnus jotted the date down. ‘And how did you reply to Carlotta?’

‘I said no, of course. I have my reputation to protect.’

‘How did Carlotta take that?’

‘She was unhappy. She didn’t give up, she asked me to think about it. She understood about my reputation, but she was very persuasive. She said most of the truly ground-breaking discoveries in history were initially rejected by the academic establishment.’

Beccari cleared his throat. ‘I’m not sure she is entirely right about that, but I did see her point. She also hinted that I was scared of the other academics. I knew she was trying to provoke me, but once again she had a point.’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘This letter is going to be a big deal once it becomes public. A very big deal. A lot of Italian historians are not going to like it. A lot of Columbus experts.’ Beccari grinned. ‘They will hate to admit that Columbus knew of the existence of America and that it was the Icelanders who told him all about it.’

Magnus could see that although his peers might hate the idea, Professor Beccari was relishing it.

‘And so you changed your mind?’

‘Eventually, yes, I did. I did some research around the subject, especially on the Norse sources with which I was not familiar, but Carlotta was. And unlike the Hitler Diaries there were no large sums of money at stake here. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it might be genuine. So I agreed to appear on the programme.’

‘Carlotta must have been pleased.’

‘She was.’

‘When did you tell her?’

‘A few days ago. She said she wasn’t directly involved in the programme herself, so she asked me to contact Dr Thorsteinsson and Suzy Henshaw, the producer, directly. Which I did.’

‘How did you contact Carlotta? In person?’

‘No. Just by email.’

Magnus thought through what he had just heard. ‘So how many times did you actually meet Carlotta?’

‘Just the once. In Rome, at my hotel. But she made an impression on me then. She was a bright woman, and very persistent. Do you think the murder has anything to do with this documentary?’

‘Did Carlotta say much about Einar Thorsteinsson?’ Magnus asked.

‘Yes, she did. She described the wampum discovery she and Thorsteinsson had made in Greenland that backed up the implication in the Columbus letter that the Vikings had reached Nantucket. I checked out Thorsteinsson’s reputation; he is well respected in his field. And as I mentioned, he and I have been in email contact about this programme. I didn’t actually meet him or Eygló Halldórsdóttir or Suzy Henshaw until today.’

‘And none of them mentioned the name of the murder victim in Glaumbaer?’ Magnus said.

‘Not until just now.’

That was consistent with Einar and Eygló keeping their knowledge of Carlotta quiet.

‘Are you involved in filming anywhere else?’

‘I didn’t film with them in America, or in Glaumbaer. I will definitely be involved in Rome next month, although there are still some doubts as to whether we will be able to film actually in the Vatican Secret Archives themselves. And I am planning to go with them to Greenland in a couple of days. It’s not strictly necessary, but this whole thing intrigues me, and I would like to see where Erik the Red and his family lived.’

‘I wouldn’t count on that trip to Greenland going ahead,’ said Magnus. ‘At least not in the immediate future.’

After the professor left, Magnus and Vigdís summoned Suzy Henshaw. Suzy confirmed what Einar and Eygló had told them. She was surprised to hear that Einar knew Carlotta, but insisted that she had never heard of her herself. She was under the impression that the letter had been discovered by a graduate student named Federico Trapanese, whom they had tried and failed to fix up an interview with in Italy. She confirmed that Einar had had dinner with Eygló and her in Saudárkrókur the evening Carlotta had been killed.

‘You left dinner early?’ Magnus asked.

‘Yes. I felt a migraine coming on. I get them sometimes. I was feeling fine and then my vision started going, I saw zigzags in front of my eyes. I’ve learned the best thing to do is take a pill and lie down in a darkened room right away. Otherwise it can take me out of action for a whole day. And I couldn’t afford that.’