Read Meltwater (Fire and Ice) for Free Online

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 hat.’
    ‘And the snowmobilers?’
    ‘No – I didn’t get a good look at them. I was looking at the volcano. It really was amazing. One of the most incredible things I’ve seen in my life.’
    ‘Of course. So what did you do at the top?’
    ‘We gawked. Nico told me some stuff about volcanoes. Then he and I went to look at a stream of lava flowing down over to the side. It had just started to snow.’ Erika was
concentrating hard, making sure she told her story clearly. ‘I don’t know where the man came from. I didn’t see him at all, but Nico did. He shouted something like:
“Hey!” I turned to see this guy swinging a rock towards my head. He would have hit me too if Nico hadn’t dived for his arm.’
    ‘Then what happened?’
    ‘The guy dropped the rock and jumped back. Nico lunged at him. Then Nico kind of jerked and gave a little cry of pain. Not a scream or anything. I saw his face; he looked surprised. Then
he slid down to the ground and I saw the other guy was holding a knife. I’m sure Nico hadn’t seen it.’
    ‘What did you do?’
    ‘I screamed. And then I ran. I headed back around the rim. The guy was following me. I go running a lot, I’m pretty fit and I was really scared, so although the guy was catching me I
managed to keep ahead of him. The visibility was really bad by this stage.
    ‘I saw Dieter and ran toward him. I tried to tell him what was going on. Then the guy who had stabbed Nico appeared through the snow. He saw us and came toward us holding out the
knife.’
    Erika swallowed. ‘I could see Nico’s blood on it. Anyway, Dieter picked up a rock and squared up to him. I could tell Dieter was scared, but he’s big. Then Dúddi showed
up and the guy with the knife disappeared back into the snow. I guess he figured three was too many to take on, even with a knife.’
    ‘Did you see where he went?’
    ‘No, he ran down the slope by the volcano, but I couldn’t see the cars at the bottom because of the poor visibility. So I don’t know what he did when he was down there. And I
couldn’t hear either, with the noise of the volcano.’
    ‘What can you tell me about the guy? Was he young or old? Tall, small, fat, dark?’
    Erika hesitated. ‘Tallish. Fit and strong. Not a kid, but not middle-aged either. He was wearing a bright red jacket and the hood was up, but he had dark hair.’
    ‘Would you recognize him again?’
    ‘Probably not, no.’
    ‘Did he look like an Icelander?’
    ‘He wasn’t fair or red-headed, if that’s what you mean. But quite a lot of Icelanders have dark hair, don’t they? Come to think of it, his complexion was darker than most
of them.’
    ‘Mediterranean? Asian? Indian?’
    ‘I don’t know. I said I didn’t see him clearly.’
    ‘But he definitely wasn’t one of your group?’
    Erika’s eyes flashed. ‘That’s a dumb question.’
    ‘I like to ask dumb questions,’ said Magnus calmly.
    Erika raised her eyebrows. ‘No, he definitely wasn’t one of our group. Bigger than most of them except Dieter, and I don’t think the others had red jackets. Of course he
wasn’t one of our group.’
    ‘OK,’ said Magnus. ‘I understand. So what did you do then?’
    ‘We went back down to check out Nico. He was bleeding badly from the stomach. He was still alive when we got to him, but then . . .’ A tear ran down Erika’s cheek. She sniffed.
Tried to say something and couldn’t. Fell silent.
    Magnus waited.
    ‘Then . . . then he wasn’t alive any more.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ said Magnus.
    ‘I studied medicine for years. I should have been able to do something to save him. But there was so much blood.’ She looked down at her hands, which were now washed clean, but there
were brown stains on the cuffs of her sweater. And all over her coat, no doubt. ‘I tried to stanch it.