Read Online 66° North by Michael Ridpath - Free Book Online

better off with Claudia.’
    ‘The Venezuelan?’
    ‘Yes. She is much more like him. She has money from her own divorce. She’s actually a year older than him, although she wouldn’t want anyone else to know that. Óskar was much more relaxed around her. I only met her twice, in London, but she was good for him.’
    ‘Did he know many Russians? Apart from Tanya?’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ Emilía said. ‘He probably met friends of hers socially.’
    ‘What about clients of the bank?’
    Sigurbjörg, the lawyer, coughed.
    Emilía glanced at her. ‘I’m afraid I can’t comment on clients of the bank.’
    ‘Were there any Russian clients that Óskar dealt with personally?’
    Emilía didn’t answer.
    Magnus persisted. ‘Any money laundering? Russian businessmen who lost money dealing with Ódinsbanki?’
    Sigurbjörg interrupted. ‘These are sensitive issues. The Special Prosecutor is examining the files of all the bank’s customers. Emilía doesn’t want to prejudice that examination.’
    Magnus ignored her. ‘Your brother is dead, Emilía. Someone killed him. I want to help the British police find out who that person was. We need to know if there was a Russian connection, especially one via Iceland.’
    ‘Don’t worry, Sigurbjörg,’ Emilía said. ‘There were no Russian clients. Maybe one or two small ones, but nothing major. Óskar didn’t trust them, it was as simple as that. It was a bank rule: no Russian exposure.’
    ‘Could Tanya have introduced him to some dodgy businessmen looking for places to park money?’
    ‘Possibly. Not that I know of. And I would rather doubt it. Those are exactly the kind of people that Óskar would have avoided. I said he was besotted with Tanya, but he never really trusted her.’
    ‘OK.’ Magnus was half convinced. ‘And your family? Any tensions there?’
    ‘Oh, Óskar was the golden boy as far as our parents were concerned.’ Emilía said this without rancour or jealousy.
    ‘Even after the
kreppa
struck?’
    ‘Even then. I have another brother and a sister. My brother is pretty tense about suddenly realizing that he isn’t as rich as he thought he was. But he basically idolizes Óskar.’ She swallowed, realizing her mistake. ‘I mean idolized.’
    She closed her eyes. A tear ran down her cheek. The cool façade crumbled in front of Magnus. She sniffed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Is that everything?’
    Suddenly an image of Latasha, a sixteen-year-old girl from the projects in Mattapan came into Magnus’s mind. Her fifteen-year-old brother had been shot in the face on the street just behind their building a few hours before Magnus interviewed her. She was proud, she wasn’t going to help no cops. She was brave. She was cool. Her mother was off her head on crack in the bedroom, her sister needed her diaper changing. It was only when Magnus was about to leave the apartment that a tear ran down Latasha’s cheek and she asked Magnus to find whoever had killed her little brother.
    It didn’t take Magnus long: it was her brother’s fourteen-year-old best friend. An argument over a stolen iPod.
    Whether it was a kid from the projects, or a cool Icelandic businesswoman, Magnus sympathized with the victims’ relatives. Always.
    ‘Thank you, Emilía,’ he said. ‘We might come back and ask some more questions later.’
    Emilía nodded, tears leaking from both eyes now, and Magnus and Árni left.
    Sigurbjörg caught up with Magnus by the lifts. She was several years older than him, about forty, with short red hair and a broad face. Although the hair was a different colour, she reminded him a little of what he remembered of his mother, but she looked older. His mother had only been thirty-five when she had died.
    ‘Is he your client too, Sibba?’ Magnus asked, nodding at the Viking on the Harley. ‘At least
he
doesn’t say much.’
    ‘I’m sorry about my intervention in there,’ Sigurbjörg said in English. She had been brought up in Canada, and