Free The Polar Bear Killing by Michael Ridpath

was a small brass-coloured metal object.
    Egill’s eyes turned to the bag.
    ‘Did you know, Egill, that our scientists can examine a rifle and determine whether it was the one that fired this bullet? With 100 per cent accuracy.’
    Egill shook his head, still concentrating on the bullet. His left hand fiddled with one of his ears, pulling it out even further from his head.
    ‘We’ve come to ask you for your rifle,’ Magnus said slowly. ‘So our scientists can examine it. See if it was the weapon that fired the bullet that killed Halldór. Can you fetch it for me?’
    Egill didn’t move. He stared at the bullet. Then looked up at Vigdís and Magnus. He sat back in his chair.
    ‘You know I told you about that polar bear in Grímsey? The man the bear saved was one of my ancestors.’
    ‘It may be wrong to shoot polar bears,’ Magnus said quietly, ‘but it’s very wrong to shoot people.’
    ‘That policeman risked Anna’s life just so he could get the credit for killing a bear,’ Egill said, his eyes suddenly on fire. ‘So he shot the bear through the eye, but that was just because the bear was moving slowly.’ He leaned forward. ‘If the bear had charged – and it could easily have charged – then it would have been almost impossible to hit it with that accuracy. If he had hit the bear in the chest or the neck with a .22, Anna would be dead now. So Icouldn’t understand why everyone was treating the man like a hero when he had almost killed a child.’
    ‘How did you get him up to the henge?’ Magnus asked.
    ‘I spoke to him on the telephone. I told him what I had seen. Said I needed to talk to him and suggested we meet at the henge by one of the stone gates there. I made him think I was going to blackmail him. I waited a short distance away from the henge and shot him. Through the eye. He was standing still.’
    ‘You had your dog with you, didn’t you?’ said Vigdís. ‘We saw the tracks from its three paws in the mud on the way up the hill.’
    ‘Yes, he comes everywhere with me,’ said Egill. ‘Couldn’t leave him behind.’
    ‘I think you had better show us where you keep your rifle,’ Magnus said.
    Egill nodded. He bent down and scratched the ears of the dog at his feet. The animal rolled on to his side, so that the rear right stump where his leg had once been was visible. His tail thumped the kitchen floor.
    ‘Sorry, Bjartur, old fellow. I’m going to have to leave you now. Perhaps Anna will look after you.’
    For the first time, a tear appeared in the old man’s eye.

CHAPTER NINE
    M agnus stood under the newly hewn arch of the Arctic Henge and looked down at the little town of Raufarhöfn waking up.
    A series of clouds were gathering over the Melrakkaslétta plain, preparing an assault on the stone circle. It was chilly this early in the morning.
    Only a few feet away from him, Halldór had stood and waited for a bullet to thud into his brain, fired from the rifle of a mad old man. Halldór may have been wrong to shoot the polar bear. He was definitely wrong to risk the little girl’s life. But Magnus hated cop killers. Always.
    He saw a police Skoda drive the short distance out of town and park at the foot of the low hill on which the henge stood. A lone man got out and began to jog up the hill. Ólafur.
    He paused about a hundred metres away. ‘Magnús!’ he yelled.
    Magnus stepped forward. ‘Yes!’
    ‘Come down here!’
    ‘I want to show you something!’
    ‘I said, come to me!’
    Magnus shrugged and trotted down the hill slope. Ólafur looked wary, glancing from side to side.
    ‘You know Halldór was killed coming to a meeting like this right here?’ he said.
    Magnus held up his hands. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that. But I do want to show you something.’
    ‘Why didn’t you report to me when you got in last night?’ Ólafur was not happy.
    ‘It was late and I had had a long journey,’ said Magnus. ‘Come and look at this.’ He led