‘OK, what are you doing? You sound like something fromStar Wars.’
‘We are going to do breathwork.’
‘I know that. Because I’ve been doing breathwork over many kilometres since we got here,’ Kat said with a shudder.
Chloe smiled. ‘Not like this. Dress warm.’
45
MAGNÚS’S SCHOOL
Gunnar leapt from the truck and raced across the icy play space/car park at the front of the building, his heart hammering, his eyes on the roof. He reached a tape cordon he was going to break right through but his progress was halted by two police officers determined to make him stop.
‘Let me go!’ Gunnar yelled. ‘I have had a phone call. My family is involved in this and no one is telling me anything!’
‘You are?’ one of the officers asked.
‘I am Gunnar Eriksson. I am Hildur’s… I don’t know… but she lives with me.’ He put a shaking hand through his hair. ‘And I am Magnús Ólafsson’s guardian.’
‘I am afraid we must ask you to stay behind the cordon for now,’ the other policeman instructed. ‘For your own safety.’
‘I do not care about my own safety! I care about the safety of my family!’ Gunnar yelled, drawing the attention of the numerous onlookers.
‘It is our job to keep everybody safe. Not yours.’
Gunnar could feel his blood becoming like lava. He had heard similar before, when the authorities had tried to stop him and others from going into the area affected by the volcano eruption. He hadn’t listened then and he had saved Magnús. He was not going to listen now.
‘OK,’ he said, holding his hands up in some show of surrender as he backed up a little. ‘OK.’
He waited a few beats, until he saw the policemen really drop their shoulders, dismiss him just long enough… and then he bolted. Sprinting underneath the tape, he headed for the door of the school and the way to the roof.
‘You can’t go up there!’ the receptionist shouted at him. ‘Wait! Stop! Somebody!’
Gunnar wasn’t waiting. Because all he had been told on the phone was that Magnús was on the roof with an old woman and an old man…
Finally, at the top of the stairs he caught his breath. What was he going to find behind the door, on the roof of the building? He literally had no idea. But he knew, whatever it was, he had to be there, had to help sort out whatever was going on. He pushed on the door and the strength of the swing spat him out onto the roof and into the middle of one of the most ridiculous sights he had ever seen. Hildur, Magnús, and a man he did not recognise tied to a chair. It was like a scene from an awful movie.
‘Hildur!’ Gunnar exclaimed, walking forward. ‘What is going on?’
‘Stay back!’ Hildur ordered. ‘I told everybody to stay back.’
Gunnar stopped walking and held his hands up like he had for the policemen. He looked to Magnús who was holding something in his hands. Was that a pair of scissors?
‘Please, will you tell this crazy woman to untie me?’
It was the old man speaking and, as he spoke, he shifted and rocked in the chair, every movement walking the seat closer to the edge of the roof.
‘“Crazy woman”? Is that any way to talk to the sister of your late wife?’
What? This man was Hildur’s brother-in-law? Gunnar refocussed. ‘Magnús, please, come away from the edge.’
The boy shook his head. ‘No. Hildur says this is the best way to make everything better for everybody.’
‘And I am right,’ Hildur said, nodding. ‘All this talking and not listening. All this not getting to the heart of the matter. And, we would not be here on the roof if you had listened to me in the first place!’
What was going on? Gunnar was at a complete loss and someone needed to start filling in the gaps.
‘OK, Hildur, tell me,’ Gunnar started. ‘Who really is this person and why is he tied to a chair?’
