Fire & Ice 02.5 - Edge of Nowhere

by Michael Ridpath

  People shouldn’t live here. No wonder those that did were driven crazy like Davíd, or crushed by the land itself like Gústi. They should leave it to the trolls and the elves.

  What had Baldur called this place? The edge of nowhere.

  Magnus shivered again and set off back into town to the guesthouse. The sooner he sorted out Gústi’s death and got back to Reykjavík the better.

  4

  Magnus was just finishing his breakfast, alone in the small dining room of the guesthouse, when Tómas strode in.

  ‘Good morning, Tómas. Have some coffee. They have a whole urn full and only me to drink it.’

  ‘I just got a call from a witness who said that he had information about Gústi’s death.’

  ‘An elf nut?’ asked Magnus.

  ‘No. Not really. Let’s just say he’s a reliable man. Very reliable.’

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Haraldur, the postman.’

  Magnus imagined that a postman would be a good source of information in a small town. Perhaps he too had seen Arnór loading his truck.

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘He said he needed to tell us in person. And I thought it was probably best if you were there in any case.’

  Tómas had learned from his mistake with the stuffed toy the day before. ‘Thank you,’ said Magnus, gulping his coffee. ‘Let’s go.’

  It was still dark outside: it wouldn’t get light until after eleven o’clock. Haraldur was half way through his round, so they met him at the petrol station. In Icelandic towns and villages the petrol station is one of the centres of social activity. There are always half a dozen Formica tables, a vending machine and a microwave. And coffee.

  Haraldur was waiting for them, with a cup, and Tómas introduced Magnus, before buying two more. A girl of about seventeen served him: Arnór’s wife hadn’t started work yet. Haraldur was a small, serious-looking man with a neatly trimmed beard and deep-set, bright blue eyes. He was probably in his early thirties.

  ‘What have you got for us, Haraldur?’ Tómas asked.

  ‘I have some information about Rós,’ Haraldur said. He spoke deliberately and with a quiet authority. His voice was surprisingly deep.

  ‘I wasn’t sure whether to give it to you. It relates to your investigation of Gústi’s death.’ He paused.

  ‘Yes?’ said Magnus mildly. He could sense Haraldur’s reluctance, but he waited patiently. Now the postman had got them there, he would talk, in his own time.

  ‘You know that they have recently constructed a tunnel on the Ísafjördur road?’

  Magnus nodded.

  ‘Well, the construction company’s equipment broke down several times when they were finishing the tunnel. There were demands that they cancel the project, demands led by Rós. She claimed the hidden people didn’t like it, and they were the ones breaking the machinery.’

  ‘So I heard,’ said Magnus.

  ‘It wasn’t the hidden people. It was Rós.’

  ‘Really?’ said Magnus. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I just know,’ said Haraldur, glancing at Tómas.

  Tómas shifted in his chair. ‘Do you have any evidence, Haraldur?’ There was anxiety in his voice, which Magnus didn’t quite understand.

  Haraldur turned his attention back to Magnus. ‘Rós was a good friend of my grandmother, Sigga. You could say that she was her disciple. My grandmother could …’ he hesitated. ‘She could see things. And Rós believed that she herself had picked up the knowledge of how to do this. I used to visit my grandmother quite often before she died, and I got to know Rós well. She grew up in Dalvík. Her father was a mechanic, he owned his own garage. She used to help him out: she knows a lot about engines. And braking systems.’

  ‘I see,’ said Magnus. ‘So she would know how to sabotage the equipment?’

  ‘Precisely.’

  ‘Interesting.’ But not quite enough, Magnus thought. ‘So she had a motive – to protect the homes of the hidden people – and she had the capability. But do you have any proof that it was she who sabotaged the equipment?’

  ‘Proof? No,’ said the postman shaking his head. He hesitated, and then looked straight at Magnus. His deep blue eyes bore right into the detective, unsettling him. Magnus had been stared at by all kinds of nasties in the past: murderers, rapists, gang leaders. But none was quite like this little village postman. ‘I know she did it.’

  ‘Did she tell you she had done it? Did you see her do it? Did anyone else tell you she had done it?’

  Haraldur sucked in his breath and stood up. ‘No. No, none of those things. I ought to go back to my round now.’

  He paused at the door of the service station, and then turned slowly back to Magnus. ‘But I also know she didn’t murder Gústi. That’s why I wasn’t sure whether to tell you about the machinery. I didn’t want to lead you down the wrong path.’ With that he was gone.

  Magnus turned to Tómas. ‘What was all that about? You said he was reliable. He’s a nutter like the rest of them.’

  Tómas rubbed his chin. He was almost squirming in his chair. ‘The information that Rós’s father was a mechanic is interesting, isn’t it? I knew she came from Dalvík, but I didn’t know that. Haraldur’s theory makes perfect sense.

  ‘It does,’ Magnus had to admit. ‘And I really like the idea that the machines were broken by a real person. But what else is going on here? How can Haraldur be so sure? Perhaps he has a grudge against Rós?’

  ‘Haraldur doesn’t go in for grudges,’ said Tómas.

  ‘Why are you looking so uncomfortable?’ Magnus said. ‘What’s going on here, Tómas?’

  Tómas sipped some of his coffee and stared into his cup.

  ‘Tómas?’

  The constable took a deep breath and faced Magnus. ‘Haraldur has a lot of credibility in this town. He doesn’t talk much, but when he does talk, people listen.’

  ‘He does have a kind of authority about him,’ Magnus said.

  ‘It’s not just that. Rós makes a lot of noise about what she learned from Sigga, and about the hidden people, and the dead people she can talk to. You get none of that from Haraldur. But people say he has inherited his grandmother’s skills.’

  Magnus rolled his eyes. ‘Here we go. Not you, too, Tómas.’

  ‘There are many things. For example, a couple of years ago a lot of people in town started to invest in the stock market. Haraldur knew the kreppa was coming: he suggested to people quietly that they should sell their bank shares. The people who believed him are OK, those that didn’t lost a lot of money.’

  ‘So he can read the stock market. He should get a job on Wall Street. Get a grip, Tómas, we’re investigating a possible murder here.’

  ‘OK. OK,’ said Tómas. ‘I’m sorry. But you have to admit that the idea that Rós sabotaged the machinery herself is interesting.’

  ‘You’re right. I like that. Tell me what happened.’

  ‘It was during the summer, July. There was a big construction company involved, a joint venture between Icelandic and Danish firms: they used Bolungarvíkur Engineering as subcontractors. Most of their stuff was kept at Ísafjördur, but they kept quite a few machines here at Bolungarvíkur Engineering’s yard. A digger had its brakes sabotaged. No one was hurt, but the company placed a guard on the yard. Then two bulldozers were damaged, and finally another digger. It looked accidental. Of course there was lots of talk from Rós and others about the hidden people. After the third episode, the construction company put a whole squad of guards on the yard and the damage stopped.’

  ‘So, the sabotage happened in the night?’

  ‘Yes, if it was sabotage. They couldn’t prove it. It could just have been faulty parts.’

  ‘Did the guard see anything?’

  ‘No. I interviewed him. He’s a local guy – Jonni Gudmundsson.’ Tómas paused, his face suddenly stricken. ‘Oh, God, why didn’t I think of that?’

  ‘What is it?’ said Magnus.

  ‘Jonni
lives next door to Rós.’

  ‘Does he now? But this is a small town. Couldn’t that just be a coincidence? I mean Arnór lives opposite the Mayor. Everyone lives near everyone else.’

  Tómas shrugged. ‘That’s true.’

  Magnus thought. ‘OK. So what have we got? We know Rós hates the construction companies because she wants to protect the elves. We also know she understands how these machines work. So she breaks into the compound in the middle of the night, sabotages one of the machines and claims it’s the elves. The company puts a guard on the gate, but he is a neighbour of Rós’s, so she tells him to look the other way while she does it again. And again. Make sense?’

  ‘Makes more sense that Rós broke those machines rather than the hidden people,’ said Tómas.

  ‘Quite. But the construction company doesn’t give up and they complete the tunnel. Rós is really upset by now. And when she tries to apologize to her elf friends, Gústi drives his digger through the ceremony, spoiling everything. She wants to avenge the elves and so she plants some bait under some loose rock, where Gústi will go and check it out. He falls for the trap, she starts the landslide, and all the elves are happy, even if Gústi isn’t.’

  ‘Sounds plausible.’

  ‘But we have nothing that amounts to proof yet.’

  ‘Shall we go and speak to Rós?’

  ‘No,’ said Magnus. ‘The more evidence you’ve got when you confront a suspect, the better. Let’s talk to Jonni first.’

  Bolungarvík Engineering’s yard was on the edge of town. They found Jonni dismounting from a snowplough. He was in his early twenties, wiry under his bulky winter clothing, with a toothy smile under a yellow hard hat.

  ‘Jonni, this is Sergeant Magnús Ragnarsson from Reykjavík,’ Tómas said grimly. ‘He has come to ask you some questions relating to Gústi’s death. We would like you to accompany us to the station.’

  Magnus was happy to see the look of concern, verging on panic, that crossed Jonni’s previously cheerful face.

  They slung Jonni in the back of Tómas’s jeep for the small trip to the police station, and let him stew. Magnus gave him twenty minutes waiting in the interview room before striding in with Tómas. They turned on the tape recorder and Tómas introduced the interview.

  ‘Jonni,’ Magnus said. ‘It’s looking increasingly likely that Gústi’s death was murder and not an accident. We believe you have information that will help us determine how he was killed. It’s very important that you answer my questions fully and honestly. Otherwise, if it turns out that this does become a murder investigation, you will be in big trouble. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jonni, his voice hoarse. ‘But I don’t know anything about Gústi’s death. I was supposed to come over and help him later on that morning, when I had finished ploughing. But I wasn’t there when he died, I promise.’

  ‘No. I want to speak to you about the machinery that broke down this summer. When you were guarding the yard overnight.’

  ‘Oh.’ Jonni threw Tómas a worried glance. In that moment, Magnus knew the man had lied to the constable.

  ‘You live next door to Rós, don’t you?’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Jonni.

  ‘And she asked you to look the other way when she broke into the yard at night to sabotage the equipment?’

  ‘No,’ said Jonni defiantly. ‘No, no she didn’t.’

  Magnus leaned back. ‘You see, this is what I’m talking about, Jonni. You’ve got a big choice right now. You can either stick to the story you told Tómas over the summer or you can tell us the truth. If you tell us the truth, I can’t guarantee that you won’t get in any trouble; lying to the police is a crime. And your testimony is important so we won’t be able to pretend we didn’t hear it. But I’ll put in a good word for you and the trouble shouldn’t be too bad. I know you are not a real criminal and so will everyone else. But, as I said, if you stick with the lie, and we know it’s a lie, you’ll be in big, big trouble. You’ll be going to jail.’

  Jonni’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

  ‘So, I’m going to ask you the question again. And take your time answering. Think about it. Think about it carefully. Did Rós ask you to look the other way while she sabotaged the construction equipment?’

  Jonni opened his mouth, but Magnus raised his hand. Jonni shut it again. He put his face in his hands.

  Magnus waited. It was only a minute, but it seemed to take forever.

  ‘Jonni?’ Magnus said.

  Jonni breathed in and nodded. ‘Yeah, you are right. Rós asked me to leave the yard for half an hour at two o’clock in the morning, both nights the machines were broken.’

  ‘Did you see her?’

  ‘No. No I didn’t. I didn’t see anyone.’

  ‘Why did you do what she asked? Why didn’t you report it afterwards?’

  ‘My mother was a good friend of Rós’s. She died about five years ago. Rós used to speak to her sometimes.’

  ‘Speak to her? You mean after she died.’

  Jonni nodded. ‘Yes. There were sometimes messages for me or my Dad, or my sisters. But then Rós said she had a message from Mum that I should leave the yard unguarded.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Magnus, barely managing to suppress his irritation.

  ‘Because Mum said that the hidden people were going to sabotage the equipment. And they didn’t want me to see them do it.’

  ‘Uh huh,’ said Magnus. Until that moment, Jonni had seemed a normal, rational twenty-two year old. But he was serious.

  ‘So I did what Rós asked. And the hidden people did what they said they would do.’

  ‘The hidden people did it!’ Magnus could suppress his irritation no longer.

  Jonni swallowed. ‘Yes. My mother had spoken to them occasionally when she was alive. And Rós spoke to them all the time.’

  ‘Didn’t it occur to you that Rós might have sabotaged the machinery?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘No. Besides, Rós couldn’t have done that. It was complicated stuff, brake pads loosened, problems with the fuel pump. I like Rós but she is completely scatty. She wouldn’t know how.’

  ‘Did you know that her father owned a garage and she used to help him out with fixing the cars?’

  ‘Er, no,’ said Jonni. He began to blush. ‘Oh, God. You mean she conned me?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Magnus. ‘She conned you. I’m not saying that there are or are not hidden people who live in the rocks by the tunnel. What I am saying is that Rós lied to you about them.’

  A tear appeared in Jonni’s eye. He wiped it. ‘I’m such a fool. It’s just my mother believed in them, used to talk to them. And she was a good person, and honest person. And what Rós said she was saying to us, the whole family, made perfect sense. Do you think that was all lies too?’

  ‘I don’t know, Jonni,’ Magnus said, his irritation replaced by sympathy. He had lost his own mother when he was a child. ‘Let’s not speculate here. It’s very important now that you just tell us the truth, say what you know happened, and we’ll figure out the rest.’

  5

  Magnus studied the woman in front of him. They were in the interview room in the police station, with the tape running. Rós had placed her multicoloured woolly hat on the table next to her, letting her red hair fall around her shoulders. Her lips were pursed, her expression tense, but she was also brave, determined, as if she knew she was in for a hard time and had steeled herself to see it through.

  In the States, Magnus would have already read her her rights at this stage, but in Iceland they were allowed to question a suspect for twenty-four hours before getting a warrant from a judge, and lawyers were only for those who insisted on one.

  Magnus had patiently explained the case against Rós, the testimony of Davíd, her knowledge of engines and auto parts. It seemed pretty convincing to him.

  ‘So, Rós, you see we know that you sabotaged the construction equipment in the summer. And that you killed Gústi yesterday morning.’
<
br />   ‘But I didn’t,’ said Rós.

  ‘OK. Then who did?’

  ‘It was the hidden people,’ she said. ‘I told you that.’

  Magnus took a deep breath. Normally the best tactic to frustrate a detective was silence. No one had tried ‘the elves did it’ on him before, and he didn’t like it.

  ‘Now, Rós. We know that you asked Davíd to leave his post at the yard for half an hour in the middle of the night. Do you deny that?’

  ‘No,’ said Rós. ‘No, that’s perfectly true.’

  ‘And do you deny that you crept into the yard when he had left it unguarded?’

  ‘Of course I do. I was sound asleep. The hidden people came in, just like I told Davíd they would.’

  For a second Magnus was tempted to ask why the hidden people cared whether there was a guard around since they were invisible, but he decided against fighting the battle on Rós’s terms.

  ‘Rós, you and I both know that’s ridiculous,’ he said reasonably.

  A thought seemed to have struck Rós. She frowned.

  ‘What is it, Rós?’

  ‘Actually, I might have to plead guilty,’ she said.

  Magnus sighed. At last! ‘All right. Tell me the whole story.’

  ‘To conspiracy to cause criminal damage. There is no doubt that I helped the hidden people, I must admit to that. And that’s probably a crime, isn’t it? Can we do a deal? If I plead guilty to that.’

  Something snapped. Magnus picked up the papers in front of him and slammed them down on the table. ‘All right! That’s it! No more talk of elves and leprechauns and hidden people.’ He leaned over the table so that his face was only a few inches from the woman, who suddenly looked very scared. He jabbed a finger at her. ‘I know you sabotaged those machines, Rós. And more importantly, I know you killed Gústi. Not many people seem to have liked him, but he was a real live human being and now he’s dead. You may not care about that, but I do. And if you killed him, which I’m damned sure you did, you will go to jail for a long long time.’

  Rós’s eyes were wide with fear. ‘I didn’t kill Gústi, I swear I didn’t! I know nothing about his death!’