Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals

"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."