Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)

risked getting his head blown off.
    Although he could have warned Magnus sooner.
    Magnus was really most angry with himself. He shouldn’t have breached the simple protocols that the FBI had set up. There was a reason they didn’t want him sending e-mails directly to anyone in the States. Turned out it was a very good reason.
    He deleted the half-written e-mail and replaced it with a simple ‘thanks for letting me know’. Johnny Yeoh would be in big trouble anyway, not for talking to the gangster, but for not reporting the fact that he had immediately. And all that would come out in good time.
    Magnus composed an e-mail to Williams describing what had happened the night before, omitting for the moment the information that Johnny Yeoh had pointed the Dominicans to Iceland.
    He was aware of a figure sitting in Árni’s chair opposite him. Snorri Gudmundsson, the National Police Commissioner of Iceland. The Big Salmon himself.
    He had expected a summons to the Commissioner’s office at some point. He hadn’t expected a visit.
    ‘How are you doing, Magnús?’ the Commissioner asked.
    ‘Hard to put into words,’ said Magnus. ‘I feel bad about Árni.’
    ‘Don’t,’ said the Commissioner. ‘I knew that your life was under threat. I knew that there was a chance that they would come looking for you. I didn’t think that one of my officers would get shot, but I was wrong, and that’s my responsibility, not yours.’ The Commissioner sighed. ‘Thank God he’s going to live.’
    ‘Are they sure?’ Magnus asked.
    ‘Not a hundred per cent, but it’s looking better by the hour.’
    ‘He’s a brave man,’ Magnus said. ‘A very brave man.’
    ‘He is.’
    ‘Look, Snorri, I meant to tell you. I heard from my chief the other day. The trial in Boston has been moved up to next week. I’ll have to fly over and testify.’
    ‘That’s good.’
    ‘I guess I won’t be coming back.’ ‘I guess you will.’ The Commissioner’s bright blue eyes twinkled.
    Magnus raised his eyebrows in surprise.
    ‘We discussed this when you arrived. I want you here for two years.’
    ‘Yes, but after all that’s happened …’
    ‘We got a result in the Agnar case. We know who the murderer is, all we have to do now is find him. From what I’ve heard, you were important in solving the case.’
    ‘What you’ve heard? Not from Baldur, surely?’
    ‘No. From Thorkell.’
    ‘He can’t be very pleased about his nephew getting shot up.’
    ‘He’s not. But he doesn’t blame you. And if he blames me, he’s not saying.’
    ‘What about Baldur? I’m sure he would love it if I went back to the States and never came back.’
    ‘You leave Baldur to me.’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Magnus. He had assumed that he would be done with Iceland within a matter of days. And he had assumed he would be very happy with that state of affairs.
    ‘You’re coming back,’ said the Commissioner, getting to his feet. ‘You have a moral obligation. That’s important to me, and I think that’s important to you.’
    As Magnus watched the Commissioner leave the room, two thoughts were uppermost in his mind.
    The first, the most insistent, was whether he should indeed stay in Iceland.
    The second, lower key, nagging, was that he wasn’t as sure as the Commissioner that the case was solved.
    Ten minutes later, Baldur prowled into the room.
    ‘What are you doing here?’ he growled when he saw Magnus.
    ‘It’s where I work. At least for now.’
    ‘We don’t need spectators here. Have you made your statement?’
    ‘Last night.’
    ‘Then go home and stay home where we can get hold of you if we need you to add to it.’
    ‘Have you found the Reverend Hákon?’ Magnus asked.
    ‘Not yet. But we will. He can’t get out of the country.’
    ‘Have you looked at Stöng? Or Álfabrekka?’
    ‘Why should we do that?’
    ‘We know that the ring has an enormous influence over Hákon. He’s a strange man, a romantic in his way. Where would he run to? I’m sure you’re watching all the obvious places, the airports, his relatives if he has any. But he might go somewhere that’s important to the ring. Somewhere like Stöng. Or the cave where the ring was originally found. I think the map Dr Ásgrímur drew is still in my car.’
    Baldur just shook his head. ‘If you think I am going to divert scarce resources into the middle of nowhere to satisfy your idiotic notions of what a ring “thinks” then …’ He trailed off in