Michael Ridpath - Where the Shadows Lie

Baldur stared at Magnus in disbelief. Magnus had dragged him out of the interview room where he was still working on Tomas. He was unhappy to be interrupted, but reluctantly led Magnus along to his office. He listened closely as Magnus described his interview with the Reverend Hakon and with the sheep farmers, but began to lose patience once Magnus related the old man’s story about trolls and rings and the hidden man he had seen.

‘I’m supposed to be the old-fashioned one around here. And then I have to listen to this elf and troll bullshit!’

‘Obviously, it wasn’t an elf,’ said Magnus. ‘It was Tomas. He was a tall thirteen-year-old.’

‘And the ring? Are you trying to tell me that the pastor was wearing an ancient ring belonging to Odin or Thor or someone?’

‘I don’t know whether the ring is authentic,’ said Magnus. ‘And frankly, I don’t care. The point is that seventeen years ago a small group of people did think it was important. Important enough to kill for.’

‘Oh, so now we’re solving another crime, are we? A death in 1992. Except this wasn’t a crime, it was an accident. There was an investigation: we know it was an accident.’

Magnus leaned back in his chair. ‘Let me talk to Tomas.’

‘No.’

‘I spoke to his father.’

Baldur shook his head. ‘Vigdis should have spotted they were father and son.’

‘Hakon isn’t such an uncommon name,’ Magnus said. ‘We must have interviewed dozens of witnesses; I’ll bet at least five of them have the same first names as someone else’s last name. She didn’t know Tomas had spent his childhood in Fludir, so there was no obvious connection.’

‘She should have checked,’ Baldur insisted.

Baldur might have had a point, but Magnus didn’t want to dwell on it. ‘I can tell Tomas the farmers saw him in the snowstorm. I can convince him that we know he was there.’

‘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.’

Tomas Hakonarson looked exhausted, as did his lawyer, a mousy woman of about thirty.

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

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

‘Good,’ said Tomas.

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

Tomas was suddenly awake, his eyes focusing on Magnus.

‘Know whose murder I’m talking about?’

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

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

Tomas 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 Alfabrekka and spoke to the farmers who helped him go back and find Dr Asgrimur. They saw you.’

‘They can’t have done.’

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

Tomas 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 Asgrimur off a cliff and took the ring. You witnessed it and ran away.’

‘Has he admitted it?’ Tomas asked.

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

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

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

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

‘Talk to me,’ said Magnus.

Tomas 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 Tomas’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 Isildur 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?’

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

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

Tomas 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.’ Tomas 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?’

Tomas hesitated. Magnus glanced at Tomas’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.

Tomas 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 Tomas. ‘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 Tomas 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 Asgrimsdottir’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.’