Last Rituals

CHAPTER 31

Thora regarded Halldor silently. He was sitting directly opposite her with his head down on his chesthe had not spoken a single word since she entered the interrogation room. After glancing up when she sat down, he immediately resumed laser-beaming a hole in the floor with his eyes. "Halldor," Thora said with a hint of impatience. "I can't stay very long. If you don't want to talk to me, I have other things to do with my time."

He looked up. "I want a cigarette."

"You can't," Thora said. "Smoking's not allowed in here. You're ten years too late if you've come here to smoke."

"That doesn't stop me wanting a cigarette."

"Maybe the police will let you have one somewhere else afterward. You're not allowed to smoke in here, though, so let's get to the point. Agreed?" He nodded wearily. "You know why you're in here, don't you?"

"Yes. More or less."

"And presumably you realize that you're in trouble. Big trouble."

"I didn't kill him," Halldor said, looking her straight in the eye without flinching. When she ignored this he began fiddling with a hole on the knee of his jeanswhich was certainly there when he bought them and had doubled their price.

"Let's get one thing straight before we say anything else." Thora waited for his full attention and did not continue until he looked up. "I'm working for Harald's family. That means that your interests and theirs are not necessarily the same. Especially now. I advise you to get another lawyer immediately. Meeting you here right now is all I'm going to do. I can give you the names of some good people who can provide you with all the assistance you need."

Halldor screwed up his eyes and thought for a moment. "Don't go. I want to talk to you. None of those cops believe me."

"Have you wondered whether that might be because you're lying to them?" Thora asked dryly.

"I'm not lying. Not about the main points."

"And I assume it's up to you to decide which are the main points and the minor ones?"

Anger flashed across his face. "You know perfectly well what I mean. The main point is that I didn't kill him."

"And the minor points? What are they?" asked Thora.

"This and that," he said, bowing his head.

"If I'm supposed to be of any use to you I want you to do one thing for me," said Thora, leaning across the sturdy table separating them. "Don't lie to me. I can tell when people are lying." She hoped she had managed to convey the same conviction as the police officer.

Halldor nodded, his expression still peevish. "Rightbut what I tell you is in confidence. Okay?"

"More or less," Thora said. "I've told you I won't act as your defense if you go to court, so you can tell me pretty much anythingexcept of course the crimes you're going to commit later in life. Don't mention those to me." She smiled at him.

"I'm not going to commit any crimes," he said gloomily. "You promise nothing else goes further?"

"I promise it won't go to the policeeven though it can only improve your standing with them. You're already in the doghouse; it won't get much worse than this. But if it makes you feel better, we can agree that we're only speculating about extenuating circumstances. Happy with that? Then you get help without actually saying anything."

"Okay," he said, but with a hint of doubt in his voice. Then he added huffily: "Ask me, then."

"Harald's eyes were found in your flat. How can you explain that?"

Halldor's arms twitched. Nervously he scratched the back of his left hand. Thora waited calmly while he decided whether to tell her the truth or deny having anything to do with them. She was determined to walk out if he chose the latter option.

"II"

"We both know who you are," Thora said impatiently. "Answer me or I'm leaving."

"I couldn't send them," he suddenly blurted out. "I didn't dare. The body had been found and I was afraid they'd be discovered in the mail. I was going to do that later when it had all died down. I used the blood to write the curse, and I put the letter in an envelope that Sunday. Then I dropped it in a box in town." After his confession he took a deep breath, then squeezed his lips tightly together as if he intended to say nothing else.

"Was it because of the contract?" asked Thora. "Were you really trying to honor that ridiculous contract about the revenge curse?"

Halldor glared at her, furious. "Yes. I swore I'd do it and I wanted to keep my word for Harald. It meant so much to him," he answered, red in the face. "His mother was a total scumbag."

"You realize that this is absolute madness?" Thora asked in amazement. "How could you even entertain the idea?"

"I just did," came the sheepish reply. "But I didn't kill him."

"Hang on, we haven't got that far yet," said Thora. He was getting on her nerves. "You removed his eyeshave I understood that correctly?"

Halldor nodded reluctantly.

"And you took them home?"

He nodded again.

"Where, if I may ask, did you keep them?"

"In the freezer. Inside a loaf of bread. I stuffed them inside the bread and put it in the freezer."

Thora leaned back. "Of course. Inside a loaf of bread. Where else?" With considerable effort she tried to erase the image from her mind. "How could you do it? The operation itself, I mean."

Halldor shrugged. "It was no big deal. I used a teaspoon. Carving the symbol was harder. It didn't go too well. I was really stonedI had to keep going over to the window for fresh air."

"No big deal," echoed Thora, perplexed. "Pardon me for doubting that."

He glared at her. "I've seen much more revolting things. And done much more revolting things. What do you think it's like, slicing your friend's tongue in half? Or watching surgical operations?"

Thora could not imagine, but she still doubted that it was as repulsive as plucking out someone's eyes with a teaspoon. From now on she would stir her coffee with a tablespoon. "Be that as it may, it can't have been pleasant."

"Of course not," Halldor shouted. "We were stoned out of our minds. I told you."

"We?" Thora asked, startled. "So you weren't alone?"

Halldor paused before answering. He picked at the hole in his jeans and started scratching the back of his hand again. Thora had to repeat her question before he answered. "No, I wasn't alone. We were all there: me, Marta Mist, Briet, Andri, and Brjann. We were on our way back from town. We were going back to the partyMarta wanted some dope and Briet said Harald had some Es hidden away in the common room."

"What about Hugi, wasn't he with you?"

"No. I didn't see Hugi that night. He left the party with Harald and we didn't see him again. Him or Harald. Alive, I mean."

"So you went up to the faculty building?" Thora marveled. "How did you get in? The security system didn't record any movements."

"It was out of orderI think it always is. And do you really think somebody marches around the whole building making sure no one else is in there? Not likely."

"Thorbjorn Olafsson, Harald's supervisor, insists that he switched the system on," said Thora. "He says that's definite."

"It wasn't on when we arrived. Harald's killer must have switched it off."

"But the building was still locked and you need an access code to get in," Thora said. "It all goes through a computer and the records show that no one went through the door." A printout from the security system had been among the evidence the police had sent to her, and she had seen it with her own eyes.

"We got in through an open window at the back of the building. It's always open, actuallythere's some moron with a room there who never remembers to shut it. That's what Briet says, anyway. We left through it too. She didn't have her key; neither did Brjann."

"And?" Thora said. "Was Harald there? Passed out? Dead? What?"

"I told you I didn't kill him. He wasn't crashed out when we got there. He was in the common room. On the floor. Dead. Fucking dead. Blue in the face with his tongue out. You didn't have to be a pathologist to see that he'd been choked." The tremor in Halldor's voice suggested he was not quite as cool as he pretended to be.

"Could he have choked while performing some sex act? Did you remove anything that could have implied that?"

"No. Nothing. There was nothing around his neckjust a nasty bruise."

Thora thought about it. Of course, he could be telling her a pack of lies, but if so he was certainly a damn good liar. "What time was this?"

"About five. Maybe half past. Or six. I don't know. I remember leaving the bar around four. How long we hung around, I can't say. We didn't care what the time was."

Thora took a deep breath. "And then whatyou just started removing his eyes and carving him up right there? And how did he end up inside the printer room?"

"Of course it wasn't the first thing I did. We stood there like a bunch of idiots. Didn't know what to do. Even Marta Mist was hysterical, and she's always supercool. We were desperate, off our heads, stoned and drunk. Then all of a sudden Briet started talking about the contract, latched onto me and said I had to honor it, otherwise Harald would haunt me. We'd signed it at one of our meetings in front of the othersjust for show, really, but Harald was serious about it. Hugi was the only one who didn't know about the contract. Harald always said he didn't take sorcery seriously."

"Was the contract only about the revenge curse?" asked Thora.

"Yesthe written one," Halldor replied. "Actually we made a second one. It was a love charm to enhance the effect of the first one by arousing Harald's mother's belated love for him, to make her mourning even tougher. That contract was verbal. I was supposed to make a hole at the end of Harald's grave and draw some symbols in it and write his mother's name. Then I'd put some snake's blood in the hole. Harald even bought a snake for the purpose. A week before he died he asked me to look after it and I've still got the bloody thing. It's driving me nuts. You have to feed it live hamsters and stuff. It makes me sick."

So Harald had bought the hamsters to feed the snake. Of course. "So he expected to die?" Thora asked.

Halldor shrugged and left the question open. "I just did what I had to do. I remember Marta Mist and Brjann puked their guts out while I got to work on the body. Then Andri said we had to get Harald out of the room or we'd be suspects. We used the common room a lot. We thought that was a good idea so we dragged him to that little room. We had to prop him up inside because there wasn't space on the floor to stretch him out. It took a lot of shuffling around and it was a real hassle. Then we got outwent back to Andri's, who lives quite close by. Marta Mist threw up in his bathroom the whole morning. The rest of us just sat paralyzed in the living room until we all crashed out."

"Where did you get the raven's blood to write with?"

Shame clouded Halldor's face. "We shot it. By the sea at Grotta. There was no other way. We'd been to the children's zoo to see if anyone there would give us or sell us a raven, and we'd talked to all the pet shops. But that didn't work. We had to write the contract in blood."

"Where did you get a gun?"

"I stole my dad's rifle. He goes hunting. He didn't notice, though."

Thora was lost for words. Then she remembered the box with the body parts. "Halldor," she said calmly. "What about the body parts at Harald's flat? Did you two have any use for them or did they just happen to belong to Harald?" It was not exactly appropriate to say "belong" in this context, but it would simply have to do.

Halldor coughed, then wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Um, yes, those," he said sheepishly. "They're not from corpses, if that's what you think."

"Think? I don't think anything," Thora snapped back. "Right now I'd expect you to say absolutely anything. You could tell me that you'd dug up coffins and I'd take it in stride"

Halldor cut her off. "That's just stuff from work. Stuff that was supposed to be thrown away."

Thora laughed mockingly. "I've been giving you the benefit of the doubt, but come on! Stuff that was supposed to be thrown away!" She pretended to lift something up and examine it with a sour face. "What's this foot? Bloody stuff everywhere. Just throw it out." She tossed aside the imaginary foot. "Don't be stupid. Where did it come from?"

Halldor stared at Thora, blushing furiously. "I'm not stupid. It was stuff that was supposed to be thrown awaynot literally thrown away, but incinerated. If the police investigate it, they'll find out it's all damaged body parts that had to be removed surgically. Part of my job is sending those things off to the incinerator. I took them home instead."

"I think it would be more correct to say it was your job, pal. I doubt that you'll be doing any more shifts there." Thora tried to get a grip on the countless thoughts and questions whizzing through her mind. "How can you keep a foot and a finger forhow long was it again? Doesn't human flesh get moldy if it's not preserved? Maybe you kept them in the freezer too?"

"No, I baked them," Halldor answered, as if nothing could have been more natural.

Thora gave another nervous laugh. "You baked body parts. Who do you think you are, Sweeney Todd? Jesus Christ, all I can say is I pity your lawyer."

"Ha-ha. Very funny. I didn't literally bake them." Halldor scowled. "I dried them over low heat in the oven. That way they don't rot. Or at least they rot a whole lot slower. By the way, decomposing flesh is said to rot, not 'get moldy.'" He flung himself back angrily in his chair. "We needed it for our spellsit made them much more fun."

"And the finger that was found in the faculty buildingwas that from your cooking sessions too?"

"It was the first one. I wanted to tease Briet with it and I put it in the hood of her coat. I expected it to slide down her face to freak her out, but it dropped out without her noticing. But fortunately they couldn't link it with us. I didn't play practical jokes with body parts after that, because we came very close to getting into big trouble."

Thora sat absorbing all this. She decided to change tack a littleshe'd had enough blood and guts for the time being. "Why did you lie to us about your trips to Strandir and Ranga? We know you went there with Harald."

Halldor looked down. "I didn't want anyone to connect me with the sorcery exhibition. It was there that Harald found the spells for our contract. Nothing much happened there. I waited outside on a bench while Harald talked to the curator. They got on well, I know that much, and they shook hands heartily when we left. I was incredibly hungover and felt like shit so I didn't want to go inside. A friendly raven stayed and kept me company."

"He didn't discuss it on the way home?" asked Thora.

"No, the pilot was with us."

"What about Ranga? What did he do there? I know you were with him there too."

Halldor blushed. "I don't know what he did. One thing's for certain, he didn't go hunting. I don't really know anything else. We stayed at the hotel and Harald went somewhere while I stayed in my room and read."

"Why didn't you go with him?" asked Thora.

"He didn't want me to," said Halldor. "He took me along because I'd told him I was up shit creek with one of my courseshe said he knew a place where there was nothing else to do and he'd lock me up with my books for the whole weekend. He kept his wordnot literally, but he refused to let me join him on his excursions. I don't know exactly what he did, but Skalholt's close by."

"You must have spent some time together then toodidn't you talk about it?" asked Thora.

"Of course we met up in the eveninghad dinner, then went to the bar," Halldor said, smiling at her. "We were discussing completely different things, though, you see."

"So why did you deny going there?" Thora asked in surprise. "And why on earth were you booked in under the name Harry Potter?"

"For a laugh," Halldor said in an irritated tone. "Harald booked me under that name. Nicknames amused him and that time I was the butt of his little joke." He paused. "And why didn't I tell you about it? I don't knowI just lied for the sake of lying. Okay?"

"Unfortunately I don't think the police were wrong. I think Hugi killed Harald and you took over, possibly without realizing. Maybe he had gone home, that could very well be true. But you're clearly a warped personalityand presumably he's just as crazy as you, so he killed Harald on account of some stupid thing that no one but him understands."

"No!" Halldor's anger had given way to desperation. "Hugi didn't kill Haraldthere's no way."

"A T-shirt with Harald's blood on it was found in his closet. Hugi hasn't managed to explain how it got there. The police think it was used to mop up Harald's blood." Thora looked at Halldor. "The T-shirt in question is the same one that someone was wearing when Harald's tongue job was done. It says '100% silicon' on it. Does that ring a bell?"

Halldor nodded eagerly. "That's the T-shirt Hugi was wearing. Some blood splashed onto it and he took it off. I used it to mop the floor after the operation." Sheepishly he added: "I didn't want to tell Hugi about it. I just threw the T-shirt in his closet. Hugi didn't kill Harald."

"Who, then, pal?" asked Thora. "Someone did, and I predict that Hugi will be found guilty of it, not to mention what's going to happen to you and your friends for abusing a dead body."

"Briet," Halldor said suddenly. "I think Briet killed him."

Thora pondered. Briet. That was the little blonde with the big breasts. "What makes you think that?" she asked calmly.

"I just do," Halldor answered in a weak voice.

"No, tell me. You must have some grounds for naming her in particular. Why her?" Thora asked firmly.

"Because. She slipped out of the bar when we were in town. She said she lost us, but we didn't leave the placesome of us anyway."

"That's not enough," Thora said. She couldn't be bothered to ask why he had not told the police about this. According to their testimonies, they all stayed more or less together.

"The teaspoon," Halldor said quietly. "She was supposed to get rid of the teaspoon but didn't. She can't have been so stupid as to put it in the drawer where the police claim they found itI can't believe that. Marta Mist disposed of the knife and that's gone. But now all of a sudden the teaspoon materializes. I don't think that fits."

"Why would she sneak it back in there? That doesn't exactly sound logical."

"She wanted to get me into trouble. She never held the spoon with her bare hands like I did. She was wearing mittens. She's mad at me for dumping her. I don't know." Halldor rocked in his chair. "She was acting a bit strange that night. When we found the body she was the only one who didn't howl and scream. She kept her cool. She just looked at it without saying a word while the rest of us completely freaked out. Not a word until she reminded me of the contract. She was going to set me up. Just ask the others if you don't believe me." He leaned forward and grabbed Thora's arm across the table. "She knew about the windowmaybe she climbed out of it earlier that evening, how should I know? She was mad at Harald for not talking to her the previous weekhe didn't talk to any of us, but that's beside the point. Maybe she got mad or something; she had a date with him and he stood her up. Whatever. Believe me, I've thought about this a lot and I know what I'm saying. Check it outtalk to her for my sake, if nothing else."

Thora freed her arm. "People react to shock in different waysmaybe she's the type that goes into a trance. I don't want to talk to her. Leave that to the police."

"If you don't believe she's crazy, ask around at the university. She did some project with Harald and fucked it up completely. Ask them." He fixed his eyes on her imploringly.

"What project, and what went wrong with it?" Thora asked slowly.

"Something to do with collecting and documenting all the contemporary accounts of Brynjolfur Sveinsson from different archives. She got this idea into her head that some documents had been stolen. It caused a hell of a scene. Then it turned out to be crap. She's such a nutter, I couldn't see it until now. Talk to the universityif nothing else."

"Who supervised this project?" Thora asked, and regretted her question immediately. She was sounding as though she was starting to accept this theory of his, which couldn't have any foundation.

"I don't knowit must have been that Thorbjorn guythey know at the university. Go and ask. Please, I promise you won't regret it."

She stood up. "See you later, baker boy. I'll find you a lawyer if you want."

He shook his head and stared into his lap. "I thought you'd understandyou wanted to help Hugi and I thought I could get you to help me too."

All at once, Thora began to pity him. Her maternal instinct kicked in. Or was it her grandmotherly instinct? "Who said I wasn't going to help you?" she said. "Let's see what I can find out. I wouldn't touch your defense with a ten-foot pole, but I'll be in court. I wouldn't miss the trial for all the tea in China."

He looked up with a faint smile. Thora knocked on the door and the police let her out. It was drawing to a close. She could tell.