There was a commotion outside the waiting room and Baldur strode in. Magnus had seen Baldur angry before, but never this angry.
‘How is he?’ he asked.
‘They’re operating on him now,’ Magnus said. ‘The bullet’s still in there somewhere and they’re trying to fish it out.’
‘Will he make it?’
‘They hope so,’ said Magnus.
‘He’d better,’ said Baldur. ‘Now I’ve got some questions for you.’ He turned to Katrin, disapproval all over his face. Although Katrin wasn’t in full regalia, there was a sprinkling of metal sticking out of her face. ‘Can you excuse us?’
Katrin frowned. Magnus could see she had taken an instant dislike to the policeman, and was not in the mood to be pushed around.
‘Let’s leave her here,’ said Magnus. ‘ She has as much right to be here as we do. More. We can do this outside.’
Baldur glared at Katrin. Katrin glared back. They moved out into the corridor.
‘Do you know why one of my police officers was shot?’ Baldur said, his face only a few inches away from Magnus.
‘Yes.’
‘Well?’
‘I’m a witness in a big police corruption trial in Boston. Some people there want me dead. Dominican drug traffickers. That’s why I came here. Looks like they found me.’
‘And why didn’t you tell me about this?’
‘The Police Commissioner thought that the fewer people who knew, the less chance there would be of a leak.’
‘So he knew about it?’
‘Of course.’ ‘If Arni dies, so help me I’ll…’ Baldur hesitated as he tried to think of a convincing threat.
‘I’ve apologized to Arni’s sister, and I will apologize to you,’ Magnus said. ‘I’m sorry that I led the hit man over here. I’m bad news. I should go.’
‘Yes, you should. Starting now. I want you to leave this hospital, you can’t do anything more here. Go back to the station and make a statement. They’re waiting for you.’
Magnus didn’t have the strength to argue. He badly wanted to stay and see how Arni was doing, but in a way Baldur was right. He was a distraction. He should go.
He put his head into the waiting room. ‘I’ve got to leave now,’ he said to Katrin. ‘Let me know if there’s news, one way or the other.’
‘The bald Gestapo officer sent you home, did he?’
Magnus nodded. ‘He’s a little wound up. Understandably.’
‘Huh.’ Katrin seemed unimpressed. ‘I’ll call you when there’s news.’
Magnus slept badly. No dreams, thank God, but he kept on expecting the phone to ring. It didn’t.
He got up at six and called the hospital. He didn’t want to ring Katrin’s cell phone in case she had managed to snatch some sleep and he woke her. They had completed the operation and extracted the bullet. Arni had lost a lot of blood, but he was alive. They were cautiously optimistic, with the emphasis on cautiously. But Arni was still unconscious.
Magnus walked down the hill to the police station. It was a grey, windy, dull Reykjavik day. Cold, but not very cold.
There were two or three detectives in the Violent Crimes room. He nodded to them and they smiled and nodded back. Although he was prepared to shrug off hostility, he was glad that it didn’t seem to be present.
Vigdis came over with a cup of coffee. ‘I expect you need this.’
‘Thank you,’ Magnus said with a smile. And then: ‘Sorry about Arni.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Vigdis said.
‘Do we know who the shooter is?’
‘No. He has a US passport, but we’re pretty sure it’s a fake. He’s not talking.’
‘He’s a pro. He won’t.’ Magnus had given the detective who had taken his statement the night before all the information he could, including whom to contact in the Boston PD. It had been made very clear that Baldur didn’t want him to interview the Dominican.
‘They might send another one, you know?’ Vigdis said. ‘Another hit man.’
‘It will take them a day or two before they realize things have gone wrong and they get someone else over here. And I’ll be gone soon.’
‘Keep your eyes open,’ said Vigdis. ‘Now you haven’t got Arni around to watch out for you any more.’
Magnus smiled. ‘I will.’ Vigdis was right. He was probably OK for twenty-four hours, but he ought to think of a place to lie low until he flew back to the States.
‘If you need any help with anything, just ask, OK?’
‘OK. Thanks.’
As Vigdis left, Magnus turned to his computer. He needed to tell the FBI and Williams what had happened himself. But before he began to type there was an incoming e-mail, direct, not via the FBI.
Hey Magnus,
There’s something I really ought to tell you. A guy broke into my apartment a couple of nights ago and shoved a gun in my mouth. He wanted to know where you were. I kinda told him about the Reykjavik police domain name on your e-mail address.
I feel real bad about this. I haven’t told the department, but I figured you needed to know so you could keep a look out for trouble.
Johnny Yeoh
Anger flared in Magnus. He hit the reply key and began typing, but after a couple of words he stopped. He couldn’t really blame Johnny. The gun was real, the threat was real, if Johnny hadn’t told the man what he wanted to know he 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 Arni’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, Magnus?’ the Commissioner asked.
‘Hard to put into words,’ said Magnus. ‘I feel bad about Arni.’
‘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.
