Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

who rented the Suzuki Vitara was actually Belgian?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ Magnus sighed. He was tired. It was getting late. The investigation was charging off without him. ‘You’ve had a bad day, Vigdís.’
    She nodded.
    ‘Want a beer?’
    Although it was nine o’clock on a Friday evening, 46 in Hverfisgata was only half full. It was still early for Reykjavík, which didn’t really get going until
midnight.
    Magnus carried a beer and a large glass of wine back to Vigdís. She was sitting on a high stool at a small table in front of a large abstract painting. 46 liked to call itself
‘Gallery 46’, but the crowd included a number of the regular drinkers from the Grand Rokk, which had closed a couple of months before. It had been Magnus’s regular haunt in
Reykjavík. 46 wasn’t as cosy, but it would do.
    ‘What a day,’ he said. ‘You know, I liked Ásta.’
    ‘Me too. From what I saw of her.’
    ‘I prefer it when I haven’t had time to get to know the victims.’
    Vigdís sipped her wine. ‘Do you really think someone in the Church shut her up?’
    Magnus gulped his own drink. That felt good. ‘No,’ he said.
    ‘Because clergymen don’t kill people?’
    ‘Actually, I think they probably don’t,’ said Magnus. ‘But that’s not it. It’s too much of a coincidence for Ásta and Nico’s death not to be
connected. And I can’t see why anyone trying to protect the Bishop’s reputation would want to kill Nico and Erika.’
    ‘But isn’t it also too much of a coincidence that Ásta had such explosive information?’
    ‘Not really,’ said Magnus. ‘In fact that’s the whole trouble with this case. Freeflow deals in information that people want to cover up. That’s what it does. And
it’s why every time we pick up a stone we find something new and nasty underneath.’
    ‘That video was nasty,’ said Vigdís. ‘I hope they get to publish it.’
    ‘If it’s genuine,’ said Magnus.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Magnus didn’t reply. He drank his beer.
    ‘Magnús?’
    ‘The CIA thinks it’s a fake.’
    ‘The CIA? How do you know what the CIA think?’
    ‘Because I’ve spoken with someone.’
    ‘Magnús!’ Vigdís looked genuinely shocked. ‘Don’t tell me you work for them after all?’
    ‘No,’ said Magnus. He saw the doubt in Vigdís’s brown eyes and it disturbed him. He didn’t want to lose her trust, or Árni’s. They were unfailingly
loyal to him. ‘No. A couple of days ago a CIA agent approached me. He wanted me to tell him what Freeflow was working on. I told him to piss off.’
    ‘Good.’
    Magnus smiled quickly. ‘Then I saw him again today.’
    ‘Árni said you had been talking to strange men.’
    ‘He knew about the Gaza video. He didn’t know for sure that Freeflow was working on it, but he said there were rumours about a video going around and that it was faked.’
    ‘How could it be faked?’
    ‘Strictly speaking the audio is faked.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘The CIA agent said to disrupt the peace process. He said it might be the Palestinians. Or it could even be the Israelis themselves. A lot of the hard right in Israel don’t want to
give the Palestinians anything in peace negotiations. The CIA wants me to tell Freeflow this.’
    ‘And have you?’
    ‘Not yet.’
    ‘Will you?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Magnus.
    Vigdís frowned. Magnus wasn’t sure if it was disapproval at him talking to the CIA, or if she was thinking. He waited.
    ‘You know they could be bullshitting you,’ she said.
    ‘The CIA? Why?’
    ‘Isn’t that what the CIA do?’
    ‘I suppose so. But why would they make something like that up?’
    ‘So that you tell Freeflow and Freeflow don’t publish it. The video is genuine after all, but the CIA buy some more time. The spook asked you to shut down publication the first time
he saw you. He’s just asking you again, but in a different way.’
    Magnus could feel himself blushing. Why hadn’t he thought of that?
    ‘Of course, it might be fake,’ Vigdís said. ‘We just don’t know.’
    ‘Screw it,’ he said, draining his glass. ‘I need another drink. You?’
    ‘Sure,’ said Vigdís, emptying hers.
    It didn’t take long to return with refills. Gunni, a big tug-boat captain Magnus knew from the Grand Rokk, was trying to chat Vigdís up, but she brushed him off expertly.
    He winked at Magnus as he stumbled back towards the bar.
    ‘One of your buddies?’ Vigdís said.
    ‘He’s OK,’ said Magnus.
    ‘He