Michael Ridpath: Where the Shadows Lie

Williams looked Magnus right in the eye. ‘Which is why we have to figure out what to do with you.’

Magnus saw Williams’s point. But full witness protection would mean starting up a new life with a new identity on the other side of the country. He didn’t want that. ‘Got any ideas?’ he asked Williams.

‘Matter of fact, I do.’ Williams smiled. ‘You’re an Icelandic citizen, right?’

‘Yes. As well as US. I have dual.’

‘Do you speak the language?’

‘Some. I spoke it as a child. I moved here with my dad when I was twelve. But I haven’t spoken it since he died.’

‘Which was when?’

‘When I was twenty.’

Williams allowed a brief pause to express his sympathy. ‘Well, I guess you speak it better than most of the rest of us, then.’

Magnus smiled. ‘I guess so. Why?’

‘An old buddy in the NYPD called me a couple months ago. Said he’d heard I had someone who spoke Icelandic in my unit. He’d just had a visit from the National Police Commissioner of Iceland. He was looking for the NYPD to loan him a detective as an advisor. He didn’t necessarily want someone senior, just someone experienced in the many and varied crimes that our great country has to offer. Apparently, they don’t get many homicides in Iceland, or at least they didn’t until recently. Obviously, if that detective happened to speak Icelandic, that would be a bonus.’

‘I don’t remember anybody telling me about this,’ Magnus said.

Williams smiled. ‘They didn’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Same reason I’m telling you now. You’re one of my best detectives and I don’t want to lose you. Except now I would rather have you alive in an igloo in Iceland than dead on a sidewalk in Boston.’

Magnus had given up long ago telling people that there were no igloos in Iceland. Nor were there any Eskimos, and only very rarely polar bears. He hadn’t been to Iceland since just after his father’s death. He had his doubts about going back, severe doubts, but at that moment it seemed like the least bad option.

‘I called the Icelandic Police Commissioner an hour ago. He’s still looking for an advisor. He sounded very excited by the idea of a detective who speaks the language. So, what do you think?’

There really was no choice.

‘I’ll do it,’ Magnus said. ‘On one condition.’

Williams frowned. ‘Which is?’

‘I take my girlfriend with me.’

Magnus had seen Colby angry before, but never this angry.

‘What do you think you are doing, getting your goons to kidnap me? Is this some kind of joke? Some kind of weird romantic gesture where you think I’m going to take you back? Because if it is, I can tell you right now it’s not going to work. So tell these men to take me back to the office!’

They were sitting in the back seat of an FBI van in the parking lot of a Friendly’s restaurant. Two agents had cruised by the offices of the medical-equipment company where Colby was in-house counsel and whisked her away. They were gathered around their car fifty feet away, with the two agents who had driven Magnus.

‘They tried to kill me again,’ Magnus said. ‘Almost succeeded this time.’

He still couldn’t believe how stupid he had been, how he had let himself be led off the main street down an alley. Since the shooting he had been interviewed at great length by two detectives from the Firearm Discharge Investigative team. They had been told they would only have one chance to talk to him, so they had been very thorough, focusing especially on his decision to pull the trigger when there was an innocent civilian in the line of fire.

Magnus didn’t regret that decision. He had traded the near certainty of his own death for a small probability that the woman would be harmed. But he had a better answer for the detectives. If the gangsters had shot him, they would probably have shot the woman next, as a witness. The Firearms Discharge guys liked this idea. They were careful not to ask him whether he had thought of that before or after he had pulled the trigger. They were going to do things by the book, but they were on his side.

This was the second time he had shot and killed someone while on duty. After the first, when he was a rookie patrol officer in uniform two months into the job, he had suffered weeks of guilt-filled sleepless nights.

This time he was just glad to be alive.

‘Too bad they failed,’ muttered Colby. Two tiny red dots of anger sizzled on each cheek; the corners of her brown eyes glistened with fury. Her mouth was set firm. Then she bit her lip, pulling strands of dark curly hair back behind her ears in a familiar gesture. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. But it’s got nothing to do with me. I don’t want it to have anything to do with me, that’s the whole point.’

‘It already does have to do with you, Colby.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The chief wants me to go. Leave Boston. He doesn’t think the Dominicans will stop until they’ve killed me.’

‘That sounds like a good idea.’

Magnus took a deep breath. ‘And I want you to come with me.’

The expression on Colby’s face was a mixture of shock and contempt. ‘Are you serious?’

‘It’s for your own safety. If I’m gone they might go after you.’

‘What about my work? What about my job, dammit?’

‘You’ll just have to leave that. It’ll only be for a few months. Until the trial.’

‘Was I right the first time? Is this just some weird way for you to get me back?’

‘No,’ said Magnus. ‘It’s because I’m worried for you if you stay.’

Colby bit her lip again. A tear ran down her cheek. Magnus reached out and touched her arm. ‘Where would we go?’

‘I’m sorry, I can’t tell you until I know you will say yes.’

‘Will I like it?’ She glanced at him.

He shook his head. ‘Probably not.’ They had discussed Iceland many times during their relationship, and Colby had been consistent in her distrust of the country, its volcanoes and its bad weather.

‘It’s Iceland, isn’t it?’

Magnus just shrugged.

‘Wait a minute, let me think.’ Colby turned away from him and stared out over the parking lot. A large family of four waddled out to their car carrying tubs of ice cream, smiles of anticipation on their faces.

Magnus waited.

Colby turned and stared him right in the eye. ‘Do you want to get married?’

Magnus returned her stare. He couldn’t believe she was serious. But she was very serious.

‘Well?’

‘I don’t know,’ Magnus hesitated. ‘We could talk about it.’

‘No! I don’t want to talk about it, we’ve talked about it for months. I want to decide right now. You want me to decide to drop everything and go away with you. Fine. I’ll do it. If we get married.’

‘But this is totally the wrong way to make a decision like that.’

‘What do you mean? Do you love me?’

‘Of course I love you,’ Magnus replied.

‘Then let’s get married. We can go to Iceland and live happily ever after.’

‘You’re not thinking clearly,’ Magnus said. ‘You’re angry.’

‘You bet I’m angry. You’ve asked me to commit to going away with you, and I’ll do it if you commit to me. Come on, Magnus, decision time.’

Magnus took a deep breath. He watched the family climb into the car which sagged on its axles. They pulled out past the other FBI vehicle, the one that had picked up Colby. ‘I want you to come with me for your own safety,’ he said.

‘So that’s a no, then?’ Her eyes bored into his. Colby was a determined woman, that was one of the things Magnus loved about her, but he had never seen her this determined. ‘No?’

Magnus nodded. ‘No.’