Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

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thing that did seem certain was that none of the Freeflow group on the mountain had attacked Nico and Erika.
    Edda reported on the forensics results so far. All the men in the room stared as she spoke, and despite his night with Ingileif, Magnus had to struggle to focus on what she was saying.
    Which was nothing new. The blood on Erika’s clothes was Nico’s blood type – big surprise. They had analysed the fibre on the rock that the assailant had handled and were
searching for a match with commercially available gloves. There was no match yet with any of the clothes from the Freeflow group. The autopsy had been carried out and although the report
wasn’t quite ready yet, the conclusion was that Nico had died following a single stab wound to the abdomen with a knife whose blade was at least eight centimetres long. Once again, no
surprise.
    Ossi and his computer forensics team had been unable to recover anything at all from the mirrored laptop hard drives. The encryption was impregnable. If they were to get anywhere they would need
help from a major intelligence agency, and even then it might prove impossible.
    Magnus divided up tasks. Tracking down and interviewing all Italian and Israeli tourists in the country. More research through Interpol into the Freeflow leaks in Belgium, Luxembourg and
anything from the United States and Britain. And greater efforts to track down the snowmobilers.
    ‘I’m sorry, Magnús, I can only spare you three men,’ said Gudjón, the uniformed inspector.
    ‘What?’
    ‘They need help over in Hvolsvöllur.’
    ‘But this is a murder investigation!’
    ‘I know. But we are talking about one man who is already dead, compared to dozens who might be.’
    Magnus took a deep breath. ‘I understand.’
    ‘Good. I’m sorry. As soon as I can free up resources I will. Now, I have to go.’
    As the inspector left, Magnus reflected on how well the Icelanders dealt with the kind of natural disaster that would have paralysed an American police department, whereas a complex murder
investigation failed to excite them. Not surprising, really. And that was, after all, why he was there.
    ‘Can I make an observation?’ It was Baldur, who had been silent throughout.
    Magnus nodded.
    ‘In my humble experience, assault or murder is usually committed by someone close to the victim. If a woman is attacked, it’s the husband or the boyfriend who did it. I know that
there are all these exciting international secrets involved in this case, but are we not forgetting the basics?’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I mean, was the killer someone Erika knew? A rival? A boyfriend? Or perhaps Nico was the real target after all, in which case was it a jealous husband? Or someone he knew?’
    Magnus took a deep breath. It was important to encourage participants in an investigation to question assumptions at every stage, but he hated to be questioned by Baldur, especially when he had
a good point.
    ‘We’ve found no sign of any jealous lovers or husbands,’ Magnus said. ‘Or of any internal antagonism among the people at Freeflow.’
    ‘Perhaps you haven’t looked hard enough,’ said Baldur.
    ‘It’s a point worth bearing in mind,’ said Magnus. ‘OK, let’s go to it.’
    He went straight from the meeting into a press conference. With the new eruption, there were fewer journalists present than there might have been, but nonetheless Magnus was nervous. Although he
had spoken to the press many times in Boston, it was not something he was used to in Iceland.
    There were plenty of questions about Freeflow, none about Israel, and he focused once again on the snowmobilers who had been on the volcano at the same time as the Freeflow team.
    He wound things up as soon as he could. Ossi was waiting for him.
    ‘What’s up?’ Magnus asked.
    Ossi led Magnus out of the room, where some journalists were still packing up their stuff. ‘I was working on our system at three o’clock this morning when I spotted an
intrusion.’
    ‘Someone broke into the station?’
    ‘No. Someone broke into the computer system. More particularly, they broke into your account. I don’t know what they were doing there. As soon as they realized I was logged on and
had spotted them, they left.’
    ‘Have you any idea who it is?’
    ‘Whoever they were, they were accomplished hackers. There is an obvious suspect, of course.’
    ‘Freeflow?’
    ‘Precisely.’
    ‘Can they get in again?’
    ‘I’ve closed the