Meltwater (13 page)

‘Were you followed when you arrived here yesterday?’

‘No, I don’t think so. I did look. But of course, if people like the CIA really don’t want you to see them, you won’t.’

The ideal adversary for the paranoid. An enemy so clever you could never detect them. A little bit like Iceland’s hidden people; you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of them.

‘Why are you smiling?’ asked Erika. ‘I
know
I have been followed in the past. And, as you say, someone died yesterday.’

‘Sorry,’ said Magnus. She had a point. ‘There’s one more possibility we should add to this list of enemies.’

‘Who?’

‘Whoever will be upset by what you are working on right now,’ Magnus said.

‘We’ve agreed not to discuss this,’ Viktor said. ‘Rannveig?’

Erika held up her hand. ‘The attack on Nico and me has nothing to do with that,’ she said.

‘How do you know?’

‘Because the people we are about to expose don’t know we are about to expose them. That’s why we are not telling you who they are.’

‘Are you sure they don’t know?’

‘Absolutely sure.’

Magnus looked at her doubtfully. ‘How can you be?’

‘We’re good with secrets,’ Erika said.

Magnus wasn’t convinced, but he changed tack. ‘OK, what about people within Freeflow? Do you have any enemies? Did Nico?’

Erika raised her eyebrows. Magnus could tell the idea had genuinely never occurred to her. ‘No. We’ve had disagreements about policy, plenty of disagreements. And I tend to get my way on those. We’ve had a couple of volunteers drop out last year. But no one who would have a reason to kill.’

‘What about the people here? Are any of them your enemies?’

Erika laughed. ‘No. Dieter and I have worked closely together since Freeflow started. I came here to Iceland last November and that’s when I met Dúddi and Viktor. We’re very much on the same side.’

‘And Nico?’

Erika allowed herself a small smile. ‘Everyone liked Nico. And we all needed him. He was the guy who drummed up the cash.’

Magnus nodded. ‘Tell me about Franz. What do you know about him?’

‘Very little,’ said Erika. ‘He comes from Zurich. I think he’s a friend of Dieter’s. He’s just a typical volunteer. This is the first time I’ve met him.’

‘And Zivah Malach? Why do you have an Israeli on the team?’

‘Our volunteers come from all over the world,’ said Erika. ‘It’s the same story with her. And the Icelandic priest. Never met either of them before.’

Magnus studied Erika. That left him looking for a couple of Italian heavies, probably called Luigi and Salvatore, wandering around a glacier in raincoats with their hats pulled over their eyes, making offers that Freeflow couldn’t refuse.

Well, they would follow that line of inquiry, but Magnus was sure it wasn’t the only one.

‘OK, Erika. Thanks for your help.’

Erika stood up from the bed. As she was leaving the room, Magnus stopped her.

‘One more thing. I strongly suggest that you and your team spend as much time as possible indoors,’ he said. ‘We’ll have people watching the house. Whoever tried to kill you before may try again. No need to make it easy for them.’

Magnus noticed the fear flash in Erika’s eyes, but then it was gone. One brave woman, he thought.

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘And that will give you the perfect opportunity to keep an eye on us.’

‘So it will,’ said Magnus with a grin. But he was glad she wasn’t dumb enough to turn down the offer of protection.

Magnus checked downstairs. The searchers hadn’t found anything apart from some ash in the bathroom. Burned paper, they said. Magnus was not amused.

Computers were propped up next to other computers, whirring away. A guy of about thirty in jeans and a T-shirt was crouching down beside them. It took Magnus a moment to realize that he was with the police rather than Freeflow.

‘Hi,’ he said when he saw Magnus. ‘My name is Ossi. Computer Forensics.’

Magnus shook his hand. ‘Magnús.’ He lowered his voice so the Freeflow team couldn’t overhear him. ‘Do you think you’ll recover anything?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Ossi. ‘It’s all password protected, of course. Ordinarily that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but I suspect that simply typing in “1, 2, 3, 4” won’t open sesame with this lot.’

Magnus glanced over to the Freeflow group sitting at the dining table drinking coffee. The big German guy, Dieter, shook his head, smiled and winked at them.

‘No, I have a feeling it is not going to be easy to get into these machines,’ Ossi said. ‘Keep your eyes open for passwords when you search the house.’

Magnus left him to it, and instructed Vigdís and Árni to interview Zivah and then Dúddi in one of the other rooms.

‘Franz Freitag?’ Magnus addressed the Swiss student. ‘Come with me, please.’ He led the student and Rannveig back upstairs. Viktor began to follow them.

‘Sorry,’ Magnus said. ‘You can’t join us.’

‘But I’m his lawyer.’

‘No, you are Erika Zinn’s lawyer. Perhaps Freeflow’s lawyer. But you are not Mr Freitag’s lawyer.’

‘Come on! There can’t possibly be a conflict.’

Franz had stopped on the stairs and was watching the discussion with interest. They were speaking in English.

‘There certainly can,’ said Magnus. ‘Your client was nearly killed yesterday. This man spent some time unaccompanied on the volcano at the time she was attacked.’

‘Are you saying he’s a suspect?’

‘Not yet. But he might become one. In which case he shouldn’t have you acting for him. Right, Rannveig?’

Rannveig nodded. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll ensure we keep to our agreement. But there could be a clear conflict between your client’s interests and the witness’s.’

Viktor looked nonplussed. ‘Then he should have his own representation.’

‘If he wishes,’ said Magnus. ‘That will, of course, take a while to set up.’

Viktor’s frown deepened. Magnus knew Viktor and Erika wanted the police out of the house as soon as possible so that they could get on with whatever they were there to do.

‘I tell you what, let’s ask him,’ Magnus said. ‘Do you want us to find you a lawyer, Franz?’

Franz glanced at Viktor and then turned back to Magnus. ‘You said I might be a suspect. I’m not a suspect, right?’

‘It all depends what you tell us,’ Magnus said.

Franz took a deep breath. ‘I don’t need a lawyer, actually. Once I tell you what happened I’m sure you’ll realize I’m not involved.’

‘Let’s go then,’ said Magnus.

The bedroom felt less cramped with only three people rather than four. Magnus examined Franz’s red Swiss passport with its little white cross in the top right-hand corner. François André Freitag, born Genève, 23 October 1985. The photograph must have been taken when Franz was eighteen, but he didn’t seem to have aged much in the last six years, except perhaps put on some weight. His round pale face was more that of a kid than a young man.

‘Tell me how you got to know Freeflow?’ Magnus began.

‘When I was at high school I had gotten interested in Darfur,’ Franz said. ‘It was a cause I got really fired up about. I still am, actually. Like I can’t believe that the world can watch while hundreds of thousands of people sit in camps in the desert waiting to die of hunger or cholera or be raped by gangsters.’

‘I can see that,’ said Magnus.

‘So, when Freeflow came out with the leak about the British, French and Americans agreeing not to intervene, I was really angry. And I took some notice where the leak came from. I began to follow what Freeflow were doing; I thought it was pretty cool. Eventually I got in touch with them to see if I could help. I’ve done a few things for Dieter over the last year or so: cleaning up some of the links on the site, making sure the formats are consistent, proofing the content.’

‘Do you know him well?’

‘Reasonably well – but only online. This is the first time I’ve met him offline. I think he trusts me now, which is why I am here. A couple of days ago, he asked me to come to Iceland. It was short notice, but I thought it was a great opportunity for me.’

‘What about the others? Erika? Nico?’

‘I’ve read about Erika, of course, but never met her until yesterday. Same with Nico.’

‘What about work?’

‘There’s not much of that around,’ Franz said. ‘I graduated from university last summer. Since then I’ve been waiting tables and doing some work for a video-production company in Zurich. Music videos, mostly. Cheap ones.’

‘You speak pretty good English,’ Magnus said. ‘Where did you learn it?’

‘University. I spent a year at Ohio State in Columbus. I had a blast.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ said Magnus. ‘And what do you do for Freeflow?’

‘I’m what you might call a general-purpose hacker,’ Franz said. ‘I’m no genius like Dieter, but I know my way around computers and I can pull all-nighters if necessary.’

‘And have you had any disputes with Freeflow over anything?’

‘No,’ said Franz, puzzled. ‘What kind of disputes?’

Magnus let it drop. ‘OK, can you tell me exactly what you did up by the volcano yesterday?’

Franz went through the drive up the glacier to Fimmvörduháls, and how he followed the others up towards the rim. He said that he dawdled at the foot of the bank of cooling lava because he was fascinated by it. When he got up to the rim, he was a bit of a distance away from the others. As soon as it started to snow he went right back down to the jeep. On the way he bumped into the two snowmobilers.

‘Did you talk to them?’

‘Yeah,’ said Franz. ‘Didn’t say much, just how cool the volcano was.’

‘Can you describe them?’

‘Sure. They were both in their thirties, I would say. One was an Icelander, the other was French. The Icelander was, like, medium height, round glasses. The French guy was older, a bit taller, with a bit of a gut, you know? Dark hair, I think, but he was wearing a hat. Wore a bright red ski jacket.’

‘Did you see where they had come from, where they were going to?’

Franz shook his head. ‘They were kind of going around the volcano, I think. I don’t really remember.’

‘Would you recognize them again?’

‘I think so. Probably the French guy. Not sure about the Icelander. It was hard to see much of his face in those conditions.’

‘How do you know he was French?’ Magnus asked.

‘We spoke in French. I mean I started off in English, but he wasn’t very good at it and I could tell he had a French accent. The Icelander spoke French too.’

‘And you?’ Magnus was aware that French and German were spoken in Switzerland, but he wasn’t sure whether everyone spoke both.

‘My father is Swiss German, but my mother was a French speaker. François is a French name, of course, but I call myself Franz.’

‘I see.’ The French weren’t on the list of Freeflow’s victims. ‘Is there any chance that this man could have been an Italian speaking French?’

‘No, his accent was perfect. And he looked French, if you see what I mean.’

Magnus had no sense of what a Frenchman on a volcano would look like as opposed to an Italian, but he believed Franz did, or at least thought he did. In fact, Franz was turning into quite a credible and helpful witness.

He had an idea.

‘Rannveig, I wonder if you could see how the search is getting on?’

The assistant prosecutor didn’t miss a beat. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘You seem to be doing fine here.’

After she had left, Magnus stared hard at Franz. ‘We only have your word about where you were on the mountain. Until we locate the snowmobilers we can’t corroborate your story.’

Franz frowned. ‘You don’t really think I killed Nico? I mean, Erika saw the guy who did it, didn’t she? And it wasn’t me.’

‘That’s right. But you could have spoken to the people who did. Like your so-called Frenchman, for example.’

Franz thought for a moment. ‘All I can do is tell you the truth. I have to rely on you to figure out that it is the truth.’

Dead right, thought Magnus. But he needed to up the pressure a bit. ‘Until we’ve confirmed your story we might have to take you into custody.’

‘Is that why you got rid of the lawyer?’ Franz said. ‘To threaten me?’

‘Not exactly,’ said Magnus. ‘We need to know what Freeflow is working on right now.’

‘I won’t tell you that,’ said Franz. ‘It would be betraying the others.’

‘They wouldn’t know it came from you,’ said Magnus. ‘I can guarantee that.’

‘And why should I trust your guarantee?’ said Franz.

‘Let me tell you how things work in Iceland,’ Magnus said. ‘People who are arrested on a murder charge don’t get bail here. If I were to arrest you in the next couple of minutes, you’d go to the prison at Litla Hraun where they would throw you into solitary confinement. We’d keep you there for three weeks, and then, if a judge says so, we’d keep you for another three weeks, and another.’