Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

by Michael Ridpath

  Silence.

  He wasn’t going to be shamed into giving money he didn’t want to. Tight bastard!

  ‘OK, everyone,’ Erika said eventually. ‘Get rid of the written evidence first. Then give your laptops to Dieter. And then we’ll get to work on the video.’

  The group broke up.

  ‘Oh, by the way,’ Erika said. ‘Just before he died, Nico came up with a code name for the video.’ She paused. ‘Project Meltwater.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  MAGNUS’S PHONE RANG. He grabbed it. He had been waiting for Rannveig’s call since he had returned from the Commissioner’s office.

  ‘OK, I’ve done a deal,’ said Rannveig. ‘I have a warrant to search the house and their computers.’

  ‘Well done!’

  ‘The agreement is that we can question the Freeflow team for a few hours today on the premises. They are not obliged to answer any questions about the project they are currently working on. We are not allowed to examine any documents or computer files relating to this project. After today we have to leave them alone unless there is a compelling reason to interview them again. And if we do that, we do it at the house, we don’t take them to the station. Unless they are under arrest, of course.’

  ‘Once we have mirrored their hard disks, I don’t see how they can stop us from figuring out what they are working on,’ said Magnus. ‘Just from file titles or e-mail subject lines. And that’s all we need. We don’t need the details.’

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ said Rannveig.

  ‘So, what are we waiting for?’ said Magnus. ‘We’re on our way.’

  ‘I’ll meet you there,’ said Rannveig. ‘Viktor is at the house and I’m sure he’s going to be hovering over you. I want to make sure he sticks to his side of the deal.’

  Magnus, Árni and Vigdís all went in one car, with Magnus driving. Árni was still sulking from the harsh words Magnus had had with him over his behaviour the night before. Magnus had promised the Commissioner he would talk to Árni, and talk to him he had. But Magnus knew Árni’s sulk wouldn’t last long: he got into trouble too frequently to let it bother him overmuch.

  ‘I wonder about that guy Franz,’ Magnus said. ‘I’m curious about where he was when the others were up on the volcano. Maybe he knows more about the snowmobilers.’

  ‘Now we’ve had the press conference we should hear from them soon,’ Vigdís said.

  ‘If they are innocent,’ said Magnus. ‘It will be more interesting if we don’t hear from them.’

  He turned up the hill towards the Hallgrímskirkja and braked as a woman on a bicycle shot out of a side road right in front of him at high speed. It wasn’t just the drivers in Reykjavík who were dangerous nutters.

  ‘I should get a transfer to the Traffic Department,’ Magnus said. ‘Sort some of these guys out.’

  ‘They’d pedal rings round you, Magnús,’ said Vigdís with a laugh. ‘You’d never catch them.’

  ‘So, is it this week you’re going to Paris, Vigdís?’ Árni asked.

  ‘Yeah. Tomorrow. Boy, am I looking forward to it.’

  ‘You meeting the guy from New York?’ Magnus said. ‘Daníel?’

  ‘Yes. And his name’s Davíd.’

  ‘Oh, yeah. Sorry.’ Davíd was some kind of television executive in New York, originally from Vigdís’s home town of Keflavík, although according to Vigdís they had only met for the first time the year before. ‘How’s that going?’

  ‘Transatlantic relationships are tough,’ said Vigdís.

  ‘Especially when you cancel on the guy all the time,’ Árni said. Davíd had come back to Iceland at Christmas, ostensibly to see his parents, but really to see Vigdís. Which he had failed to do. She had been caught up in a rape investigation that took a week of intense work to solve. She had got her man: the rapist had been found guilty in March, but it was clear Davíd hadn’t been impressed.

  ‘He understands,’ Vigdís said. ‘And I’ll make it up to him in Paris.’

  ‘Lucky guy,’ said Árni.

  Magnus agreed, but decided it was best not to say so. ‘Look, Vigdís. On the off chance we don’t have this case wrapped up by dinnertime, don’t cancel your trip. We’ll manage without you.’

  ‘Great to be missed,’ said Vigdís. But she couldn’t help a smile spreading across her face.

  ‘Here we are.’ Magnus pulled into a space a few yards from the house on Thórsgata. He saw Rannveig striding purposefully up the street from the other direction in her lawyer’s trouser suit. He rapped loudly on the door.

  It was opened by Viktor. Magnus suppressed the urge to barge past him and waited for Rannveig, who handed Viktor the warrant. He took his time reading it. Magnus slowed right down, controlled his impatience. He was not going to let this asshole wind him up.

  Viktor glanced at him. ‘All right, you may come in.’

  The living space was full of computer equipment. Magnus recognized everyone from the night before; he noted there were no new additions.

  ‘Right!’ he said. ‘Can I have your attention? In a few minutes a team will be here to search your house and any computers we find. We won’t take the computers away, but we will mirror the hard drives, which means taking a copy of everything on them. The sooner you cooperate with us, the sooner we can leave you alone. And, more importantly, the sooner we can find whoever it was who killed your friend.’

  Magnus turned to Viktor. ‘OK, everyone should wait in the kitchen area. Is there a bedroom where we can conduct the interviews? I’d like to start with Erika again.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Viktor.

  Magnus’s phone rang. He answered. ‘Magnús.’

  ‘It’s Edda.’

  Magnus picked up the hint of excitement in the forensics team leader’s voice. ‘What have you found?’

  ‘Much as we thought. There is a lot of junk under the snow, and we have no way of telling who dropped it. But we did isolate the rock the assailant tried to strike Erika with. And there is a fibre of some kind on it.’

  ‘Any chance you can get any DNA?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘Impossible to say with the naked eye. But you should take DNA samples from all the witnesses and bring in the clothes they were wearing yesterday, especially gloves.’

  ‘I’m with them now,’ said Magnus. ‘We’ll do that. Let me know if you find anything else.’

  There was another knock on the door: it was a team of uniformed police officers plus another member of the forensics unit. Magnus gave them instructions, and a couple of minutes later he was crammed into a small bedroom with Rannveig, Viktor and Erika. It looked out over a scrappy garden at the back. Some personal touches from the owners of the property remained: bright yellow curtains and some artistic photographs of Icelandic horses galloping along beaches. A sleeping bag was rolled up in a corner.

  Erika and Viktor sat on the bed, at different ends, and Rannveig and Magnus took the two chairs.

  Erika looked very cool and composed, as if she was just about to begin a difficult business meeting or negotiation.

  Magnus didn’t like that.

  ‘You were very nearly killed yesterday, Erika,’ he began.

  Erika nodded.

  ‘And your friend was killed.’

  ‘That’s right.’ And I couldn’t give a damn, her expression seemed to say.

  Well, Magnus gave a damn.

  ‘So I’d like you to do everything you can to help us find who killed him.’

  ‘Sure, I’ll do that.’

  ‘Provided you don’t ask her about what Freeflow are working on now,’ said Viktor.

  Magnus ignored him. ‘OK. I would guess that Freeflow has some enemies. Can we go through them?’

  ‘All right,’ said Erika. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. You’re correct; we have a lot of enemies. The Chinese, the Zimbabweans, the Sudanese, some people in Belgium, lots of powerful Italians, a big German bank, a whole bunch of American frat boys, and probably some other people we’ve pissed off along
the way. But the guy I saw on the mountain wasn’t Asian and he wasn’t African, so that narrows it down a bit.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Magnus. ‘But there’s nothing to stop these people paying a white guy to do their dirty work.’

  ‘I really can’t imagine the Sudanese doing that.’

  ‘Well, let’s go through them one by one. We’ll figure out the likely candidates once we’ve done that.’

  Magnus spent the next twenty minutes writing down details of the various entities Freeflow had exposed. It was an impressive list, and most of them deserved to have their dirty washing aired. There was no doubt that the Italians were top of the list of suspects. Stirring up corrupt politicians and organized crime in the land which gave the world the word ‘Mafia’ was clearly a dangerous activity.

  ‘Was Nico involved in the Italian leak at all?’ Magnus asked. ‘He was Italian, after all.’

  ‘No. It was before his time: he wasn’t part of the team then.’

  ‘OK. What about the Chinese?’ Magnus asked.

  ‘That’s an interesting one,’ said Erika. ‘The main reason they hate us is that we eavesdropped on their eavesdropping. They have been harvesting information from the Internet for years using weaknesses in the Tor nodes. We saw what they were getting and helped ourselves to it. Since then they have been trying to break into our own computer systems. You could say we are at war with them. But it’s a war in cyberspace, not the real world.’

  ‘I see. And the CIA? Nothing you have said so far seems to affect the CIA directly.’

  ‘No. But we know that it has also been trying to hack into our network. And I have been followed many times.’

  ‘Were you followed when you arrived here yesterday?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so. I did look. But of course, if people like the CIA really don’t want you to see them, you won’t.’

  The ideal adversary for the paranoid. An enemy so clever you could never detect them. A little bit like Iceland’s hidden people; you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of them.

  ‘Why are you smiling?’ asked Erika. ‘I know I have been followed in the past. And, as you say, someone died yesterday.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Magnus. She had a point. ‘There’s one more possibility we should add to this list of enemies.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Whoever will be upset by what you are working on right now,’ Magnus said.

  ‘We’ve agreed not to discuss this,’ Viktor said. ‘Rannveig?’

  Erika held up her hand. ‘The attack on Nico and me has nothing to do with that,’ she said.

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because the people we are about to expose don’t know we are about to expose them. That’s why we are not telling you who they are.’

  ‘Are you sure they don’t know?’

  ‘Absolutely sure.’

  Magnus looked at her doubtfully. ‘How can you be?’

  ‘We’re good with secrets,’ Erika said.

  Magnus wasn’t convinced, but he changed tack. ‘OK, what about people within Freeflow? Do you have any enemies? Did Nico?’

  Erika raised her eyebrows. Magnus could tell the idea had genuinely never occurred to her. ‘No. We’ve had disagreements about policy, plenty of disagreements. And I tend to get my way on those. We’ve had a couple of volunteers drop out last year. But no one who would have a reason to kill.’

  ‘What about the people here? Are any of them your enemies?’

  Erika laughed. ‘No. Dieter and I have worked closely together since Freeflow started. I came here to Iceland last November and that’s when I met Dúddi and Viktor. We’re very much on the same side.’

  ‘And Nico?’

  Erika allowed herself a small smile. ‘Everyone liked Nico. And we all needed him. He was the guy who drummed up the cash.’

  Magnus nodded. ‘Tell me about Franz. What do you know about him?’

  ‘Very little,’ said Erika. ‘He comes from Zurich. I think he’s a friend of Dieter’s. He’s just a typical volunteer. This is the first time I’ve met him.’

  ‘And Zivah Malach? Why do you have an Israeli on the team?’

  ‘Our volunteers come from all over the world,’ said Erika. ‘It’s the same story with her. And the Icelandic priest. Never met either of them before.’

  Magnus studied Erika. That left him looking for a couple of Italian heavies, probably called Luigi and Salvatore, wandering around a glacier in raincoats with their hats pulled over their eyes, making offers that Freeflow couldn’t refuse.

  Well, they would follow that line of inquiry, but Magnus was sure it wasn’t the only one.

  ‘OK, Erika. Thanks for your help.’

  Erika stood up from the bed. As she was leaving the room, Magnus stopped her.

  ‘One more thing. I strongly suggest that you and your team spend as much time as possible indoors,’ he said. ‘We’ll have people watching the house. Whoever tried to kill you before may try again. No need to make it easy for them.’

  Magnus noticed the fear flash in Erika’s eyes, but then it was gone. One brave woman, he thought.

  ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘And that will give you the perfect opportunity to keep an eye on us.’

  ‘So it will,’ said Magnus with a grin. But he was glad she wasn’t dumb enough to turn down the offer of protection.

  Magnus checked downstairs. The searchers hadn’t found anything apart from some ash in the bathroom. Burned paper, they said. Magnus was not amused.

  Computers were propped up next to other computers, whirring away. A guy of about thirty in jeans and a T-shirt was crouching down beside them. It took Magnus a moment to realize that he was with the police rather than Freeflow.

  ‘Hi,’ he said when he saw Magnus. ‘My name is Ossi. Computer Forensics.’

  Magnus shook his hand. ‘Magnús.’ He lowered his voice so the Freeflow team couldn’t overhear him. ‘Do you think you’ll recover anything?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Ossi. ‘It’s all password protected, of course. Ordinarily that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but I suspect that simply typing in “1, 2, 3, 4” won’t open sesame with this lot.’

  Magnus glanced over to the Freeflow group sitting at the dining table drinking coffee. The big German guy, Dieter, shook his head, smiled and winked at them.

  ‘No, I have a feeling it is not going to be easy to get into these machines,’ Ossi said. ‘Keep your eyes open for passwords when you search the house.’

  Magnus left him to it, and instructed Vigdís and Árni to interview Zivah and then Dúddi in one of the other rooms.

  ‘Franz Freitag?’ Magnus addressed the Swiss student. ‘Come with me, please.’ He led the student and Rannveig back upstairs. Viktor began to follow them.

  ‘Sorry,’ Magnus said. ‘You can’t join us.’

  ‘But I’m his lawyer.’

  ‘No, you are Erika Zinn’s lawyer. Perhaps Freeflow’s lawyer. But you are not Mr Freitag’s lawyer.’

  ‘Come on! There can’t possibly be a conflict.’

  Franz had stopped on the stairs and was watching the discussion with interest. They were speaking in English.

  ‘There certainly can,’ said Magnus. ‘Your client was nearly killed yesterday. This man spent some time unaccompanied on the volcano at the time she was attacked.’

  ‘Are you saying he’s a suspect?’

  ‘Not yet. But he might become one. In which case he shouldn’t have you acting for him. Right, Rannveig?’

  Rannveig nodded. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll ensure we keep to our agreement. But there could be a clear conflict between your client’s interests and the witness’s.’

  Viktor looked nonplussed. ‘Then he should have his own representation.’

  ‘If he wishes,’ said Magnus. ‘That will, of course, take a while to set up.’

  Viktor’s frown deepened. Magnus knew Viktor and Erika wanted the police out of the house as soon as possible so that they could get on with whatever th
ey were there to do.

  ‘I tell you what, let’s ask him,’ Magnus said. ‘Do you want us to find you a lawyer, Franz?’

  Franz glanced at Viktor and then turned back to Magnus. ‘You said I might be a suspect. I’m not a suspect, right?’

  ‘It all depends what you tell us,’ Magnus said.

  Franz took a deep breath. ‘I don’t need a lawyer, actually. Once I tell you what happened I’m sure you’ll realize I’m not involved.’

  ‘Let’s go then,’ said Magnus.

  The bedroom felt less cramped with only three people rather than four. Magnus examined Franz’s red Swiss passport with its little white cross in the top right-hand corner. François André Freitag, born Genève, 23 October 1985. The photograph must have been taken when Franz was eighteen, but he didn’t seem to have aged much in the last six years, except perhaps put on some weight. His round pale face was more that of a kid than a young man.

  ‘Tell me how you got to know Freeflow?’ Magnus began.

  ‘When I was at high school I had gotten interested in Darfur,’ Franz said. ‘It was a cause I got really fired up about. I still am, actually. Like I can’t believe that the world can watch while hundreds of thousands of people sit in camps in the desert waiting to die of hunger or cholera or be raped by gangsters.’

  ‘I can see that,’ said Magnus.

  ‘So, when Freeflow came out with the leak about the British, French and Americans agreeing not to intervene, I was really angry. And I took some notice where the leak came from. I began to follow what Freeflow were doing; I thought it was pretty cool. Eventually I got in touch with them to see if I could help. I’ve done a few things for Dieter over the last year or so: cleaning up some of the links on the site, making sure the formats are consistent, proofing the content.’

  ‘Do you know him well?’

  ‘Reasonably well – but only online. This is the first time I’ve met him offline. I think he trusts me now, which is why I am here. A couple of days ago, he asked me to come to Iceland. It was short notice, but I thought it was a great opportunity for me.’

  ‘What about the others? Erika? Nico?’

  ‘I’ve read about Erika, of course, but never met her until yesterday. Same with Nico.’