Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

atmosphere in the house was deflated, as they were reminded of their former colleague. And in Viktor’s case, his niece.
    ‘So what happens now?’ asked Zivah, after a pause.
    ‘Dieter and Apex send the video out to our partners: the Washington Post, Reuters, the Guardian , Der Spiegel. And to Tamara’s sister. I fly out to Glasgow and we
give the press conference tomorrow morning in London.’
    ‘That’s when we publish?’ Zivah asked.
    ‘That’s when we publish.’
    ‘And when do we get out?’ Zivah’s voice quivered. Erika had spoken to her at length the night before, tried to calm her down. She thought she had succeeded, at least
partially.
    ‘As soon as flights open up,’ said Erika. ‘And I’ve no idea when that will be. Sorry, Zivah.’ Apex had refused a wholesale assault on Icelandair’s reservation
system to grab seats for the three other foreign members of the team: Franz, Zivah and Dieter. Erika knew it was unfair, but now everything was done, she couldn’t wait to get out of the house
herself.
    ‘You sure we don’t have to tell the cops I’m leaving the country now?’ Erika asked Viktor.
    ‘I’m sure they’d like to know. They won’t be expecting it with the ash cloud. Give me a call when you are boarding the plane, and I’ll inform them. But
there’s nothing they can do to stop you.’
    ‘Thanks, Viktor. I know my flight’s not till two o’clock, Dúddi, but do you think we could leave earlier? Maybe go to the Blue Lagoon? I could use a long hot
soak.’
    ‘Sure,’ said Dúddi, with a broad grin. ‘And don’t worry, guys, I’ll look after you until you can escape. We’ll go out tonight. You guys deserve a
Saturday night in Reykjavík.’
    ‘Do you think it’s safe, Erika?’ asked Dieter.
    For a second Erika hesitated. But she was too tired to worry. ‘Of course it’s safe, Dieter. I’ve got to get to the airport somehow, and this Blue Lagoon thing will be full of
tourists. I’ll be fine.’
    The conference room was full. The Commissioner was even present this time: the involvement of the late Bishop had raised the political stakes to the point where he had to keep
himself informed. But Chief Superintendent Thorkell ran the meeting.
    Magnus started off going through new developments in the Nico Andreose investigation. The ruling out of some of the Canadian and Italian tourists, the introduction of a possible Dutch and
Belgian angle through the Suzuki Vitara and Ásta’s to-do list. He mentioned for the first time that he had had a message from Apex which suggested Dieter might be jealous of Nico.
    Edda presented some of the evidence from the Vitara found parked in Árbaer, the same one that had been rented for cash by the Dutchman. There were plenty of fingerprints, and they had
made a match with one of the many sets in the church. They were still analysing fibres from the driver’s seat to see if they matched the single fibre found on the stone by the volcano. But
they couldn’t get DNA samples to Sweden for analysis until the ash cloud died down.
    ‘The prints sound like a pretty conclusive link to me,’ said Magnus. ‘The assailant rented a car similar to that seen on the volcano, and was in the church the night
Ásta died. Did you check for a Jaap Peters on the Icelandair flight on Sunday, Árni?’
    ‘Yes. No luck.’
    ‘But none of that explains the link with the Bishop,’ said Baldur.
    ‘Perhaps that was just another leak,’ said Magnus. ‘To add to the long list of people Freeflow has pissed off.’
    ‘Can you bring us up to date with your investigations into that?’ Thorkell asked Baldur.
    Baldur spoke for fifteen minutes. No one in the Church had admitted anything, but it was pretty clear that the late Bishop had done quite a lot of things that he shouldn’t have done to
quite a lot of women. Magnus could see the Commissioner frowning. This was going to be a major political headache for him. Magnus hoped to God that he wouldn’t try to tell the police to look
the other way. Nothing screwed up a murder investigation more than powerful people trying to shut down particular lines of inquiry, and succeeding.
    Except that in this case, Magnus had the feeling Ásta’s leak had nothing to do with her death. He tried to make the point, but Baldur was having none of it.
    As Magnus and Baldur left the meeting, a uniformed constable was waiting for them. ‘We’ve got someone to see you downstairs,’ he said. ‘A