Whumptober 2024 Day 3: Fingerprints

[rosanicus]

No. 3: SET UP FOR FAILURE
Fingerprints | Wrongfully Arrested | "I warned you."

291 words, Biggles & Algy (with mentions of von Stalhein), pre-Hatchet

“This has his fingerprints all over it,” warned Algy, voice dripping with distaste. “I bet you any money, the next corner we turn we’ll run right into our old enemy. And when he tries to shoot at us….”

Biggles did not reply. They were standing at the mouth of a dingy alleyway, rain soaking into both their shirt-collars. It was early evening in Reykjavik, and Biggles had been looking forward to a serviceable dinner and a good night’s sleep before their journey home. The mission was a long and exhausting trek through tundra and he was glad to be shot of it - but now, looking at the corpse laid out in the alleyway, he had a feeling it wasn’t over yet.

He stepped forward and knelt by the body, feeling the slight sense of detachment which sometimes comes with proximity to the dead. The skin was cold and waxy, and the eyes stared sightlessly upwards. A neat circular hole was driven into the forehead, ringed with powder burns - one bullet, shot at point blank range.

The victim was, of course, the man who had blown the whistle on the illegal smuggling operation that the Special Air Police had been called to investigate. And Biggles supposed, as he stood on suddenly weakened knees, it wasn’t impossible that von Stalhein had something to do with it. There had been no sign of his involvement in this case until now, but he had developed a habit of popping up when he was least expected. It was almost like clockwork.

He looked back down at the body. It was washed out and death-white against the paving stones. The open eyes…

“You’d lose your money,” said Biggles, with cold certainty. “Come on. We’d better call Ásmundsson.”

Comments

[philomytha]

Oh Biggles! He really is the best. And I love all the little hints of his Icelandic adventure, they've obviously had a busy time.

[rosanicus]

Interestingly the reason it's set in Iceland is that I asked my partner for a 'Central European city' and the first one she came up with was Reykjavik (which I spelt on my first try while writing, was very smug at the time) and is definitely not Central European. Either way I do think they should have an Icelandic adventure!

[sholio]

Oh, I love this! The vaguely Scandinoir-ish atmosphere and Biggles's slightly detached POV is great (along with his possibly not wholly reality-based conviction that EvS Just Would Not). And now I want an entire Iceland adventure for them; it's such a good setting for a Biggles casefic ...

[rosanicus]

Casefic always excellent, perhaps this will be added to the Endless WIP List... I do think Biggles is right in this instance but it's not because of logic or reason it's just fortunate that EvS is off in South East Asia doing different crimes at the time.

[black_bentley]

This is great, and I now want an entire Nordic noir AU please and thank you. I also very much want to know if EvS was involved, or if Algy is just being as weird about him as Biggles is but in a different way...

[rosanicus]

They're both weird about him, it's true. I think Biggles is right but neither of them are operating from a place of pure logic, let's just say that.

[ysande]

Oooh! This was so good! So atmospheric and the very justified comment by Algy, and the unease of not knowing whether Biggles really does 100% believe EvS could not/would not have done this, or whether he’s saying it because that’s what he wants to believe… so tightly and tensely written!

[rosanicus]

Thank you!! Biggles and Algy have been through quite a bit on this case and this twist is not ideal for either of them, whether EvS is involved or not...