Page 32 of Midnight Sun
“It’s still early. Can we go back to bed?” Jamie mumbles against his shoulder.
“Sure,sæti. You should get some more sleep.”
Jamie stumbles getting up, and allows Finn to drag him back to bed with an arm slung around his waist.
They curl up together again, and Jamie is asleep immediately. Finn lies on his back and watches the shadows move over the ceiling. He needs a plan.
It’s the second time in under a week that Finn is driving out into the Highlands. To his relief, Jamie accepted his offer to stay in his apartment and didn’t move back into the hotel after their return to Reykjavík. Finn doesn’t know how he would’ve endured, leaving Jamie to fend for himself. But today Jamie has an appointment with Hrafna, and they surely will be gone the whole day. So Finn called Dagur as soon as he learned about the plan, and they decided to meet at Hrafna’s lodge.
The weather is clear, and it hasn’t rained in days, therefore Finn is making good progress on the gravel mountain roads. When the lodge finally comes into view, he immediately spots Dagur’s SUV sitting in front of it. Finn parks next to him and lets Snjór jump out of his kennel.
He hears heavy steps approaching, and then Dagur rounds the cabin, his two dogs at his heels, barking and wagging their tails. Finn crouches down to scratch their heads, and to let them sniff him.
“I think your stalker left his car at the hiker’s parking lot down at the lake and came up here on foot. They may have even spent a night in a tent.”
“Hello to you, too.” Finn hugs his brother, who blinks at him in mild surprise. Dagur becomes less sociable with each year that he lives alone in his little cottage, manning the Ísafjörður police station. In addition to that, Dagur looks like he’s been sleeping in his car, his brown hair unkempt and his beard noticeably longer than a hip three-day stubble.
“It’s nice to see you,” Finn says. “Did you sleep in the car, or did you drive overnight?” Finn is well aware that the trip from the Westfjords must’ve taken his brother at least eight hours.
Dagur bumps their shoulders and buries his hands in the pockets of his worn parka. “Yeah, I came as soon as you called. Björk covers for me if there’s an emergency.” Dagur’s eyes crinkle in a way that makes it clear that there aren’t any emergencies to be expected. “I wanted to have some time to take a look at the place on my own.”
His brother’s gaze wanders over the landscape, eyes as blue and piercing as Finn’s own.
“I told my colleagues to drive by and have a look at the mess as soon as you told me about the ram. They took the head with them, but otherwise animal cruelty isn’t their first concern.”
Finn feels anger rear its head at Dagur’s statement regarding the authorities. This dismissive attitude is exactly what keeps Jamie from looking for help. He’s probably aware that he’s likely to get a lot of unwanted media attention and no proper investigation. Finn lets his gaze wander over the lodge. The bloodstains are still visible on the white porch, but they’ve already started to fade.
“Did anything strange happen to you in Reykjavík?” Dagur asks, petting Snjór absentmindedly behind the ear.
“No. Either the stalker doesn’t dare approach Jamie when he isn’t alone or they don’t know where I live.”
“But they knew when your boyfriend’s plane landed in Keflavík, and they also knew that you would stay out here.”
Finn feels a flush creeping over his face. “He isn’t officially my boyfriend. Yet.”
Dagur tilts his head in a way that tells Finn he probably regrets getting lost in the intricacies of social interactions again.
“Is he not?” There is a teasing glint in Dagur's eyes.
Finn nudges him good-naturedly. “You have no right to poke fun at me when you haven’t been laid in months.”
“Touché.”
“Did the dogs pick up a trail?” Finn changes the subject. He wants to be home again in the evening, but he isn’t willing to return to Reykjavík empty handed.
Dagur hums. “Not yet. But we can try again. I think it’s reasonable to believe they came from this direction,” Dagur indicates the area behind the lodge where a small path leads into the wilderness. “Maybe we’ll be able to find their camp.”
“Do you think they spied on us?” Finn feels a shudder run down his spine at the thought of someone lurking in the shadows, watching Jamie, following him around. He’s definitely driving home tonight.
Dagur frowns. “Would they have been able to spy on you?”
Finn shakes his head after a moment of consideration. It’s a relief to talk the topic over with Dagur, who understands the gift and who doesn’t know how to not take Finn seriously.
“I’m surprised that they got to the lodge without me noticing earlier. I only sensed something was off when we were almost back. But we trained pretty far away that day, and I guess they didn’t plan to go after Jamie directly, otherwise…”
It’s Dagur’s turn to nod, his expression grim, as if he understood implicitly what Finn feels in his bones: Jamie is his, Jamie is family, Finn won’t let him get hurt.
“Not your boyfriend, my ass,” Dagur grumbles under his breath. He whistles for the dogs and turns towards the narrow path. Geri and Freki, with their gray and black pelts, disappear like shadows between the rocks. The dogs pick up a trail, especially Freki has his nose on the ground most of the time.