Chilled to the Bone Read Online Free PDF

you need,” she said, straightening up from stacking packets in the fridge. “As long as … you know,” she finished, lips pursed in disapproval.
    “Yeah, I know,” he said morosely. “Just wondering what I’m going to do here. It’s not as if there’s a demand for my skills.”
    María dealt cutlery and crockery onto the table like a croupier. “There’s work for those that want it.”
    “I’m not fussy, but my CV doesn’t look great.”
    “You’ll find something,” María said, but Baddó caught the uncertain waver in her voice. “Sit down. I’m sure you’re hungry, aren’t you?”
    He munched a sandwich made with the heavy bread and solid, bland cheese that he remembered from his youth, while María spooned fragrant herring fillets onto a plate and sliced black rye bread, as thick and soft as any rich cake.
    “I expect you’ve missed this.”
    “María, I’ve been in prison for eight years,” he said. “I’ve missed everything.”
    “Dad’s not well,” she added, clearly wanting to change the subject. “I go and see him a couple of times a week now. There’s only so much he can do for himself these days.”
    Baddó nodded. Family matters were something he would have preferred to avoid discussing.
    “He wrote to me once. Sent it through the Foreign Affairs Ministry, or some such government department.”
    “Really?”
    “Aye. Just half a page to say that whatever situation I was in, it was nothing to do with him and that as far as he was concerned, I wasn’t his son any more. Just what you need when you’re looking at eight years of four concrete walls.”
    María said nothing, but Baddó could see that she was taken aback and the shadow of a tear slipped down her cheek.
    “So that’s that. How did they find you, then?”
    “It was someone from the prisons department. He said that you were being released and deported home. They’ve been keeping tabs on you, mostly because several of us have badgered the government to make sure you weren’t forgotten over there.”
    Baddó laid chunks of herring fillet on a slice of black bread and bit deep into it, lingering over the texture of the bread and revelling in the aroma of the pickled herring. He wondered if this was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted and thought that it might well be.
    “How’s Freyr?” He asked. “You hear from him?”
    A spasm passed over María’s face. “Sometimes. He said he doesn’t want to see you right away and that he needs to square things away in his mind that you’re back first.”
    Baddó nodded. “That’s more than I expected, I suppose. It’s not as if I’ve seen much of him.”
    “He changed his name. He’s Freyr Jónínuson now.”
    “Ach. Can’t say I’m surprised. Jónína always was a prissy bitch and I suppose she didn’t want him being Hróbjartsson after everything that happened back then. She found a new man, I suppose? Poor bastard, whoever he is.”
    “A WORD ?” M ÁR said to Jóel Ingi as he passed his office, smiling at Hugrún, the human rights and gender equalityofficer, as she bustled along the corridor with a smile for everyone.
    “
Hæ
, Már, could you let me have yesterday’s reports when they’re ready, please?” She asked, her smile fading. “Absolutely terrible what’s happened in Libya, don’t you think? It could be such a wonderful place if it were run properly. It could be Norway in Africa with all that wealth,” she said sadly, continuing past him and hurrying past Ægir Lárusson’s lair.
    With Hugrún having faded into the distance, Már hissed. “You have a handle on this, don’t you?”
    “Of course I do. Look, I’ve asked someone to help out, discreetly.”
    “You’re not serious, surely? Who?”
    “A friend,” Jóel Ingi said uncertainly. “It’s not as if we can expect the police to deal with this, can we? Or maybe we can? Just a friend. Someone who can be trusted.”
    “Jesus. I hope so. It had better be someone we can