Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals

No reaction. Thora continued. "We wanted to see you because we're not convinced you had any part in the murder." She took a deep breath to emphasize what she was about to say. "We're looking for Harald's murderer and we think it's quite conceivable that it wasn't you. Our aim is to find the person who killed Harald and if it wasn't you, then it's in your interests to help us." Hugi looked up at Thora. When he did not open his mouth or show any other desire to express himself, she continued. "You presumably understand that if we manage to prove that someone other than you killed Harald, then you're more or less off the hook."

"I didn't kill him," Hugi said in a weak voice. "Nobody believes me, but I didn't kill him."

Thora went on. "Hugi, Matthew here is from Germany. He knows all about investigations but he doesn't speak Icelandic. Do you feel up to speaking English with us so that he can understand? If not, that's fine. We want you to understand our questions and be able to answer them without any language problems."

"I can speak English," came the reply, half muttered.

"Good," said Thora. "If you don't understand anything we say or have trouble answering, we can simply switch back to Icelandic."

Thora turned to Matthew and told him they could continue in English. Without a moment's hesitation he leaned forward and spoke. "Hugi, you can start by sitting up straight and facing us. Get rid of that whining voice and act like a man, if only for the short while that we're here."

Thora sighed: what macho bullshit! She almost expected the young man to stand up, burst into tears, and demand to leave, which they would have to accept, since he was here of his own free will. But she had no chance to interrupt because Matthew marched straight on. "You're in big trouble, I don't need to rub your nose in that. You're sitting in front of your only hope of getting out of that trouble, so you should do all you can to help us and answer honestly. Self-pity's easy in your position so it's vital to act like a grown-up, not a kid. Do as I say, sit up straight, look me in the face, and give a conscientious answer to all our questions. You'll feel better if you act like a man. Just try it."

Thora watched in surprise as Hugi obeyed Matthew's words. He shifted out of his fetal position and did his best to put on a manly show. His teenage looks made it hard for him, but there was some transformation. When he spoke his voice was clearer and more mature. "It's hard for me to look you in the eye all the time. I'm on some medication that makes me confused." Thora could tell from his eyes; they fluttered and had a dull look most likely produced by tranquilizers. "But I'll try to answer your questions."

"How did you and Harald meet?" Thora asked.

"I met him partying in town. Talked to him and he turned out to be a fun guy. I introduced him to Dori just after that."

"Who's Dori?" Thora asked.

"Halldor Kristinsson. He's a medical student," replied Hugi, almost with a hint of pride in his voice. "We've been friends since we were little kids. We lived next door to each other in Grafavogur. He's incredibly bright but not a scholarly type, always up for partying."

Thora scribbled notes; although she had turned on her Dictaphone she was worried that the device would not record properly. Halldor was the young man who missed the party Harald had attended the night of his murderthe one who decided to wait for the partygoers in the downtown bar. "Were you good friends, you and Harald?"

Hugi shrugged. "Sure. Not as close as Harald and Dori, though. I sometimes sold Harald" Hugi suddenly stopped in midsentence with a worried look on his face.

"Nobody gives a damn about your dealing now. Go on," said Matthew sharply.

Hugi's Adam's apple bobbed up and down before he decided to resume. "Okay. Sometimes he called me his best friend; but that was just a joke when he wanted to score dope off me. He was fun, though, completely different from everyone else I know."

"In what way?" asked Thora.

"For a start, he was rolling in money and never minded buying you a drink and stuff. And he had this awesome flat and car." He thought for a moment before proceeding. "But that wasn't the issue. He was so much cooler than other people. He wasn't afraid of anything, always found crazy stuff to do and swept everyone else along with him somehow. He was megacool with all that body artnone of us dared try to copy him. Not even Dori, who really wanted to. He thought it would ruin his career prospects and really regretted the one little tattoo he had on his arm. But Harald didn't give a shit about the future."

"And it turned out that he didn't have to," said Matthew. "What did you do, what did you talk about?"

"I can't remember what we talked about."

"Did he ever talk about his studies or burning witches at the stake?" Thora asked hopefully.

"Witchcraft." Hugi snorted. "No one talked about anything else to begin with. When I started hanging out with them Harald invited me to join their witchcraft society."

Matthew butted in. "Witchcraft society? What witchcraft society?"

"Malleus something. It was supposed to be a society for people interested in witch hunts and historical stuff." He avoided Thora's glare, blushed slightly, and addressed Matthew. "But it was totally different. It wasn't Harry Potter, believe me. It involved four things. Sex, black magic, drugs, and more sex." He smiled. "That's why I liked going around with them. I couldn't care less about history or witchcraft or those magic symbols and incantations they did. I just wanted to have fun. The chicks were pretty." Hugi lost his thread for a momentpresumably reminiscing about an adventure with the "pretty chicks." "But some of the witchcraft stories were actually pretty cool. I remember one where this pregnant woman got thrown into a fire and she gave birth in the flames. The priests got the baby out alive but decided it might be infected with the mother's magic, so they threw it back in. Harald said that was absolutely true."

Thora pulled a face to bring Hugi back to earth. "Who was in this society? What were the 'pretty chicks' called?"

"Harald was the boss, then Dori, who was his right-hand man really; me; Briet, who was studying history at the universityshe was the only one who was seriously interested in all this, I think; Brjansi, or Brjann, who did history too; Andri, who was studying chemistry; and Marta Mist, who was in gender studies. She was awful, always moaning about injustice against women. Sometimes she'd ruin the fun with her bitching. Harald was always messing with her, always calling her 'Nebel,' which really got on her nerves. It's German for 'mist,' get it?" Thora indicated that she understood but Matthew sat poker-faced. "That was the core of the group. Occasionally new members joined but we were the only ones who stuck it out. I didn't really follow what they did that closelyas I said I wasn't interested in black magic, just in what went with it."

"You say Dori was his right-hand man. What do you mean by that?" asked Thora.

"Those two were always up to things. I think Dori helped him with translations and stuff. And it was obvious Dori would take over when Harald went back to Germany. Dori was well pleased with that; he was infatuated with Harald."

"Is Dori gay?" Matthew asked.

Hugi shook his head. "No, no way. He was just starstruck, you know. Dori comes from a poor family, like me actually. Harald threw money at him, expensive presents and praise, so Dori worshipped him. You could tell Harald enjoyed that. Actually he wasn't always nice to Dori; sometimes he humiliated him in front of us. But he always made sure to make up for it so that Dori wouldn't get fed up and bail out on him. It was quite a weird relationship."

"You said Dori was your childhood friend. How did you feel seeing him so infatuated with Harald? Weren't you jealous?" asked Thora.