Майкл Ридпат - The Wanderer

He drove straight to the airport. Eygló, Einar, Suzy, Tom, Ajay and Professor Beccari were all gathered there having checked in. Magnus pulled all but the professor into a police interview room at the terminal.

Suzy was not happy. ‘I hope you are not going to make us miss the flight.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Magnus. ‘I’ll be quick. I need to return Einar his phone and his laptop.’ He took them out of his bag and handed them to Einar. ‘Our forensics team has just taken copies, nothing has been interfered with, although both devices have been charged.’

Einar took them without a word. He looked just as drawn as he had in Ólafsvík. Magnus guessed his conversation with Rósa the night before must have been difficult. And it would take him more than a few days to recover from Carlotta’s death.

‘Once you have finished in Greenland we expect you to return here. That applies to all of you.’

‘That’s what our tickets say,’ said Suzy. ‘Return flights.’

‘I know. But no changes to destination. I have contacted the authorities in Greenland to keep an eye on you. That’s especially true of you, Einar. I’m sure we will have more to talk about when you return.’

‘OK,’ said Einar. ‘But won’t you have found the murderer by then?’

‘I hope so,’ said Magnus, trying to give his words a confidence he didn’t feel. ‘One last question for you all. Do any of you have any doubts about your documentary? I mean the evidence that Gudrid actually went to Nantucket? What do you think, Suzy?’

‘What has this got to do with the poor girl’s murder?’

‘Please answer the question.’

‘All right,’ said Suzy. ‘I did have some doubts when Eygló first told me about Einar’s discoveries. But the wampum and the Columbus letter back each other up. We might have had our doubts about each one individually, but the combination is convincing. I’m prepared to go with it.’

‘I see. Eygló?’

‘I think it stacks up. The sagas tell us that Gudrid and Thorfinn went somewhere on the east coast of America. There is now more evidence for Nantucket than anywhere else.’

‘Einar?’

The dullness left Einar’s eyes as he looked straight at Magnus. ‘Like Suzy, I am persuaded by the two pieces of independent evidence. We have checked them out as thoroughly as we can. I wouldn’t risk my academic reputation unless I was sure.’

‘What about Carlotta? What did she think?’

‘She was the most enthusiastic of all of us,’ Einar replied. ‘It was she who believed in the Columbus letter when the Vatican wanted to ignore it.’ He smiled sadly. ‘No, Carlotta was certain that Hóp was in Nantucket.’

‘All right, you can go now,’ said Magnus. ‘But if you think of anything that might cast doubt on any of this, let me know, will you?’

They mumbled their assent, and Magnus let them return to Departures.

He was about to follow them when he noticed a phone lying on the table. He picked it up to take it out to whoever had left it, and then he stopped himself.

He sat down and waited.

After a minute or so, there was a knock at the door. It was Eygló.

‘I left my phone,’ she said.

‘On purpose?’

Eygló nodded.

‘What have you got to tell me?’

‘I’ll tell you as long as you promise not to hold me here. I don’t want the others to find out.’

‘I can’t promise that, if what you tell me is directly related to who killed Carlotta.’

‘It isn’t. You asked if we had any doubts about the reliability of the evidence that Gudrid went to Nantucket. But, as I said, I’ll only tell you if you don’t keep me and you let me go back to the others.’

‘Are you scared of something?’ Eygló certainly looked anxious.

‘Look. Do you want me to talk, or do you just want to ask me questions?’

‘OK,’ said Magnus.

‘All right,’ said Eygló. ‘I’ll be quick. It was when we were filming in Nantucket two weeks ago...’

Magnus listened as Eygló explained quickly and succinctly about meeting Nancy Fishburn’s granddaughter and about Kelly’s father’s suspicion that Nancy had planted the wampum at Brattahlíd herself. Then Eygló explained that when Suzy had checked up on the story, Kelly had claimed her father was joking.

‘And you don’t believe her?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’

‘I said, no questions. Can I go?’

Magnus considered keeping Eygló back, or indeed keeping the whole lot of them back so they missed their flight. But there would be political consequences. And actually, although what Eygló had told him was interesting, it didn’t amount to proof that the wampum was fake.

‘Go on,’ he said. ‘And thank you.’

She picked up her phone and hurried out of the interview room.

He followed her out into the departures hall, and watched her join the other five through the gate and out on to the tarmac where the plane was waiting to take them to Greenland.

He turned and made his way to the terminal entrance, trying to decide what credence, if any, to place in Eygló’s information. All right, Kelly’s father’s conjecture that his mother had planted the wampum was just speculation, and third-hand speculation at that. But the fact that Nancy had stated that she had once visited Brattahlíd was interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Magnus’s brain scarcely registered that he recognized the woman rushing past him with her head down. He turned to see her showing her boarding card to the ground staff at the gate.

Rósa.

He hurried after her, calling her name.

At first she took no notice, but Magnus shouted louder and she was forced to stop and turn to meet him.

‘Rósa! Where are you going?’

‘Greenland. With my husband. I’ve taken a few days off work to join him.’

‘Why?’

‘A holiday. And the last few days have been tough for him. Tough for both of us, actually. But if you’ll excuse me, I’m late.’

‘No. You’ll have to get the next flight.’

‘Sir?’ The woman at the gate was preparing to intervene, but Magnus flashed his warrant card.

‘You have no right to stop me, unless you are arresting me. Are you arresting me?’

‘No, I merely want to ask you a few questions.’

‘You have let my husband on to the plane — he was in Saudárkrókur at the time of the poor woman’s murder. I was in London, as you know. Now, I’m a lawyer. Either you arrest me, or you let me get on that plane.’

Magnus stared at Rósa. She was calm but firm. She knew her ground.

He let her go.

‘You were a while,’ said Einar to Eygló in English as she joined them airside. ‘Did the cop ask you more questions?’

‘He tried to, but I wouldn’t let him,’ said Eygló. Out of her peripheral vision she saw Tom and Ajay a couple of metres away fiddling with some sound equipment, but she could tell from Tom’s bearing that he was concentrating on her reply. That was good: she had thought of a little story to explain her absence and she wanted him to hear it. ‘It took me a while to find him. He’d taken the phone and he was going to hand it in to the airport lost property. He could have come after us with it! I think he was just being difficult. It’s lucky I caught up with him or I would have had to go to Greenland without it.’

‘He seems suspicious about the Nantucket theory,’ said Einar. Beccari was safely out of earshot.

‘It’s his job,’ said Eygló. ‘He’s suspicious about everything. It would have helped if you had told him you knew Carlotta at the start.’ She knew she was being hypocritical; she too had kept things from the police that she shouldn’t have. But her comment had the desired effect of shutting Einar up until they were on the plane.