Майкл Ридпат - The Wanderer

‘Did you suspect they were fakes?’

‘No,’ said Einar.

‘Did anyone else?’

Einar hesitated. ‘Eygló, maybe. But Professor Beccari authenticated the letter. And the wampum was genuinely from Nantucket, I’m certain of that.’

‘Oh yes, it was. But it was planted by Nancy Fishburn herself nearly forty years ago in the open trench at Brattahlíd.’

‘Oh, great. I hope you have arrested her!’

‘We can’t. She was murdered on Friday morning before you all left for Greenland. In a hotel in Reykjavík.’

‘Oh God,’ said Einar. ‘I suppose you suspect me of that as well?’

‘When did you last see her?’

‘I don’t know. Three weeks ago in Nantucket, I suppose. When we were filming at the lagoon Gudrid and Thorfinn landed at.’ Einar winced. ‘The lagoon we thought they had landed at.’

‘What did you do Friday morning? Take me through that day up to the point I saw you at the City Airport.’

‘You do suspect me! I don’t believe it.’

‘What time did you wake up?’ Magnus asked, notebook at the ready.

Einar claimed he had stayed at home that morning. Suzy had asked him to meet the rest of them for breakfast so they could discuss what they were going to do in Greenland, but after his tense night with Rósa, Einar hadn’t bothered to show up. He had stayed at home until it was time to go to the airport. He doubted any of his neighbours would have seen him.

Rósa had gone to work as usual that morning, or she had said she had. Einar had no idea then that Rósa was going to jump on the plane to Greenland with him, and although she hadn’t told him this herself, Einar suspected she had booked her ticket at the last minute — probably that morning.

As for the Thursday morning in Snaefellsnes, Einar insisted he hadn’t gone to meet Nancy Fishburn — he didn’t even know she was in Iceland. Einar reminded Magnus that he had handed over his computer and phone at the police station in Ólafsvík that morning, and after that he had gone straight back to his own hotel. The others had driven off later to film at Ingjaldshóll, but that was well after the meeting with Nancy.

The door of the police hut opened and Paulsen reappeared with a constable, who led Einar away in handcuffs. Magnus followed them outside, where other police officers freshly arrived from Qaqortoq were busying themselves. Two of them jumped into an unmarked pickup truck and sped off up the road towards the Blomsterdalen.

‘We’ve set up an incident room in the school,’ Paulsen said. ‘There isn’t enough room in the hut.’

Magnus watched as the constable inserted Einar into a police vehicle and drove him away.

‘Did you ask Einar whether Rósa killed Carlotta?’ Paulsen asked.

‘He says he doesn’t know,’ Magnus replied. ‘But he suspects she might have. He knew she followed Carlotta to Glaumbaer — that’s where the murder took place. I’ll write up the interview as soon as I can.’

‘Thanks. I’ll talk to him myself again soon. Our working assumption must be that he thought Rósa killed Carlotta, and then he killed Rósa in revenge.’

Magnus nodded.

‘So we’ll need any evidence you have from Iceland that Rósa murdered Carlotta. Can you get on to your people there?’

‘Sure. Am I staying at Narsarsuaq tonight?’

‘Can we leave that open for now?’ said Paulsen. ‘I might need you in Qaqortoq for the prosecutor.’ Then she gave Magnus that oddly sweet smile she had flashed before. ‘Thanks for your help on this, Magnus. I know we were supposed to be helping you.’

‘No problem,’ said Magnus. ‘If we do this right we should both get a result.’

He retrieved his bag from the back of the police vehicle, where it was still stowed, walked the quarter-mile to the hotel and found a quiet corner of the lobby to make some phone calls and write up his interview with Einar on his laptop for Paulsen.

He called Vigdís and told her the news about Rósa. He also explained Paulsen’s theory about Rósa killing Carlotta and Einar killing Rósa. Vigdís liked the part about who had murdered Carlotta. Magnus wasn’t so sure, but he would keep an open mind; it was certainly the correct priority to pursue. He asked Vigdís to send summaries of the evidence in the Carlotta case to Paulsen in Greenland and to coordinate with Árni and Jón Kári in Saudárkrókur about building a case against Rósa.

Vigdís reported back on the investigation into Nancy’s murder: no forensic evidence of any note, and nothing from all the interviews the police had carried out. Now they would have to go back and ask the hotel staff if anyone had seen Rósa that morning. She could have gone to the hotel and murdered Nancy in her room before going on to the airport. But Magnus wasn’t clear why Rósa would have done that. To protect her husband from the scandal that his discoveries were a hoax? That didn’t sound right.

Gather the evidence and then make sense of it.

‘Did you see Tryggvi Thór?’ Magnus asked her.

‘I did. In hospital. He’s a bit of a mess. And he is a miserable old bastard.’

‘Do you think he was attacked?’

‘For sure. He didn’t admit it; he claims he must have fainted and fallen, but he was pretty comprehensively beaten up. Again. His daughter seems to think so too. She is one angry woman. She claims he needs protection.’

‘Can we give it to him? Will Thelma sign off on it?’

‘This woman says he needs protection from the police. It’s weird; I mean, she’s in the diplomatic service, she should know better. She has clearly lost it.’

‘What does Thelma say?’

‘Nothing. She hasn’t taken any interest. If I were you, I’d find somewhere new to live when you get back here.’

Magnus grunted. He could feel his stubbornness kicking in. He wasn’t going to be moved out of a perfectly nice house because its owner had been beaten up twice, even if the owner refused to admit to it. And in Tryggvi Thór he suspected his stubbornness had found a soulmate.

‘There’s something going on there, Vigdís. Can you ask around? Maybe an old-timer who was in the force when Tryggvi Thór was there?’

‘I don’t want to feed your paranoia,’ said Vigdís. ‘But if the police really are covering stuff up, we have to be careful who we ask.’

‘Maybe a retired policeman?’ Magnus paused to think. ‘What about Emil?’

Emil was a detective from Akranes whom Vigdís and Magnus had worked with when Magnus was last in Iceland. ‘He retired, didn’t he? If he’s still alive.’ Emil’s health had not been good.

‘Yeah. I can go and see Emil,’ said Vigdís. ‘I’m pretty sure he worked as a detective in Reykjavík before transferring to Akranes, in which case he might have known Tryggvi Thór well. He probably is still around; I think I would have heard if he had died.’

Magnus called Árni and repeated what he had told Vigdís. Árni and Jón Kári had been working on sightings of Rósa and her car. But it was already a week and people’s memories were fading. They had one sighting of Rósa from a resident of one of the farms around Glaumbaer, a young farm labourer who thought he had seen her waiting in a car, but he was hesitant about the time, or even the day. Árni promised he would step up the investigation of that angle.

Magnus wrote up his interview with Einar and then sent it by email to Paulsen. A muffled thudding roar erupted outside, as two red Air Greenland helicopters lined up to land — they seemed to be always buzzing in and out of the airport. Magnus could see the school the police were using as an incident room from the hotel, a shed distinguishable from the others by a swing and a see-saw outside it, and a mural of an elephant and a giraffe surrounded by sunshine and jungle on one of the walls. They looked cold.