Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)

Magnus grimace. ‘Not an enjoyable trip for you, I seem to remember.’
    ‘Not really.’
    ‘I apologize for Grandpa. He behaved appallingly.’
    Magnus nodded. ‘I haven’t been to Iceland since.’
    ‘Until now?’
    ‘Until now.’
    ‘Let’s get a cup of coffee and you can tell me all about it, eh?’
    They walked down the hill to a funky café on Laugavegur. Sigurbjörg ordered a slice of carrot cake with her coffee, and they sat down next to an earnest man with glasses who was plugged in to his laptop.
    ‘So you came back from Canada?’ Magnus said. ‘Weren’t you in graduate school?’
    ‘Yes. At McGill. Actually, I had just finished when I saw you. I stayed on in Iceland. Got a law degree: I’m a partner in one of the law firms here. I’ve also picked up a husband and three kids.’
    ‘Congratulations.’
    ‘Dad and Mom are still in Toronto. Retired, of course, now.’
    Sigurbjörg’s father, Magnus’s Uncle Vilhjálmur, had emigrated to Canada in the seventies and worked as a civil engineer. Like Magnus, Sigurbjörg had been born in Iceland but spent most of her childhood in North America.
    ‘And you? I had no idea you were in Iceland. How long have you been here?’
    ‘Only two days,’ Magnus replied. ‘I stayed in Boston. Became a cop. Homicide detective. Then my chief got a call that the National Police Commissioner of Iceland wanted a body to come over here and help them. He picked me.’
    ‘Picked you? You didn’t want to come?’
    ‘Let’s say I had mixed feelings.’
    ‘After your last visit?’ Sigurbjörg nodded. ‘That must have been rough. Especially just after your dad died.’
    ‘It was. I was twenty and I had lost both parents. I wasn’t handling it well – I was drinking. I felt alone. After eight years I had almost fit in the States and suddenly it felt like a foreign country again.’
    ‘I know what you mean,’ said Sigurbjörg. ‘I was born in Canada, but my family are Icelanders and I live here. I sometimes think everywhere is a foreign country. It’s not really fair, is it?’
    Magnus glanced at Sigurbjörg. She was listening. And she was the one member of his family who had shown any sympathy during that awful couple of days. She was the one he had felt closest to, perhaps because of their common North American experiences, perhaps simply because she had treated him like a normal human being.
    He wanted to talk.
    ‘I needed some kind of family, other than just my brother Óli. All Icelanders do, you know that. It might be OK for Americans to live out their lives alone, but it wasn’t for me. I had lived with Grandpa and Grandma for a few years and I guess I thought they would welcome me back after what had happened. I thought they’d have to. And then they rejected me. More than that, they made me feel like I was responsible for Mom’s death.’
    Magnus’s face hardened. ‘Grandpa said Dad was the most evil man he had ever known and he was glad he was dead. That brought back all the pain of those last years before Dad took me away with him to America. I was glad to leave and I swore I’d never come back.’
    ‘And now you’re here,’ said Sigurbjörg. ‘Do you like it?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Magnus. ‘I guess I do.’
    ‘Until you met me?’
    Magnus smiled. ‘I do remember how sympathetic you were to me, even if the rest of the family wasn’t. Thanks for that. But do me a favour. Don’t tell them I’m here.’
    ‘Oh, they can’t do anything to you now. Grandpa must be eighty-five, and Grandma’s not much younger.’
    ‘I doubt they’ve mellowed in their old age.’
    Sigurbjörg smiled. ‘No, they haven’t.’
    ‘And, from what I remember, the rest of the family was just as hostile.’
    ‘They’ll get over it,’ said Sigurbjörg. ‘Time has passed.’
    ‘I don’t see why they were so angry,’ Magnus said. ‘I know my father left Mom, but she made his life hell. Remember, she was an alcoholic.’
    ‘But that’s the whole point,’ said Sigurbjörg. ‘She only became an alcoholic after she discovered the affair. And it was from that that everything else followed. Your father leaving. Her losing her job. And then that awful car crash. Grandpa blames your father for all that, and he always will.’
    A noisy group of two men and a woman sat down next to them and began to discuss a TV programme they had seen the night before.
    Magnus ignored them. His face had gone blank.
    ‘What? What is it, Magnus?’
    Magnus didn’t