Meltwater Read Online Free PDF Page B

get killed at some point. But not like this.’
    ‘Witnesses?’
    ‘The group are all here in the station. Four journalists and two Icelanders. One of them is a priest.’
    ‘A priest? Really? What was he doing there?’
    ‘It’s a she. And we haven’t interviewed them in any depth yet.’
    ‘Good,’ said Magnus. ‘What about other witnesses?’
    ‘We’re looking. They say there was a couple in a jeep and two snowmobilers up by the volcano. They passed other vehicles coming down on their way up the glacier, but the weather was so bad by the time they got there there was scarcely anyone around.’
    ‘We should appeal for witnesses to come forward. A press conference first thing in the morning.’
    ‘I can arrange that.’
    ‘OK, Vigdís, you interview the Icelanders,’ said Magnus. Vigdís didn’t speak English. ‘I’ll interview the foreigners with Árni. Can you lend us a man to join Vigdís?’ he asked Kristján.
    ‘I can do it if you like?’
    Magnus almost laughed. In Boston a chief superintendent would never have offered to sit in as an assistant to a mere sergeant detective, but this was Iceland. This guy was clearly smart, and he wanted to be helpful.
    ‘Sure. Please do. So where are these people?’
    Kristján showed Magnus through to a kind of common room where half a dozen figures were huddled miserably around a table, drinking coffee in silence.
    Magnus addressed them in English. ‘Hi, my name is Sergeant Magnus Jonson of the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police,’ he said. He used the American form of his name. Since his father was Ragnar Jónsson, he had been born Magnús Ragnarsson. However, when he had joined his father in Boston at the age of twelve, that had all become too complicated, so he had lost the accent on the ‘u’ and taken an Anglicized form of his father’s last name.
    He introduced Árni and Vigdís. ‘I know you have all been through a terrible experience, and you must be very tired, but we will have to interview all of you now. As soon as we’ve finished you will be free to go.’ Magnus turned to the chief superintendent. ‘Is there a hotel in town?’
    He nodded. ‘I’ll find them rooms. If the hotel is full we’ll find somewhere for you.’
    ‘Thanks,’ said Magnus. Then, turning back to the group, ‘Erika Zinn?’
    A thin, pale woman in her thirties with shoulder-length black hair looked up. Despite the fatigue, her brown eyes were piercing. It took Magnus aback. ‘Can we start with you?’

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    T HE STATION HAD a small but comfortable interview room. Árni and Magnus sat opposite the woman.
    ‘All right,’ Magnus began. ‘Let’s start with some basic details. What’s your full name and address?’
    ‘Erika Sarah Zinn.’ She gave an address in Chappaqua, New York. Árni wrote it all down.
    ‘Profession?’
    ‘I’m a journalist.’
    ‘Do you have your passport?’
    Erika dug the blue document out of her bag. Magnus glanced at it – the name checked, and the place of birth was given as New York, USA. It was thick: extra pages inserted and nearly every one of them stamped. Erika liked to travel.
    He handed it back. ‘Here to cover the volcano?’ he asked.
    She nodded.
    ‘So, what happened?’
    Erika told Magnus about the trip up to the volcano and how they had climbed up to the rim.
    ‘Did you see anyone else up there?’ Magnus asked.
    ‘We did notice two people right up by the volcano when we got out of the jeep,’ Erika said. ‘I don’t remember seeing them when we were up there.’
    ‘These were the snowmobile riders?’
    ‘I guess so,’ said Erika. ‘There were two snowmobiles parked down at the bottom, I remember that. And there was a couple, a man and a woman, who climbed up the lava bank after us. They had been waiting in their car for the weather to clear. But I don’t think they stayed at the rim for as long as we did.’
    ‘Can you describe any of these people?’
    ‘No. Wait, the woman had a bright blue woolly