Jo Nesbo - The Devil's star

Wilhelm Barli shook his head and his detumescent penis shook with it.

‘I can probably more or less imagine,’ Harry said. ‘Since I came in through the terrace door, I mean.’

‘No, Harry, you really can’t.’

Wilhelm stretched down over the edge of the bed to pick up the duvet off the floor and put it round him.

‘Sounds like you’re having a shower,’ Harry said.

Wilhelm shook his head and pulled a face.

‘Not me,’ he said.

‘Who then?’

‘I’ve got a visitor. A… woman.’

He smirked and pointed to a chair, which had a suede skirt, a black bra and one single black stocking with an elasticated top thrown over it.

‘Loneliness makes us men weak. Doesn’t it, Harry? We look for solace where we can find it. Some do it with a bottle. Others…’

Wilhelm shrugged his shoulders.

‘We willingly accept that we can make mistakes, don’t we, Harry? And, yes, I do have a guilty conscience.’

Harry’s eyes had focused and he could see them now, the trail of tears on Wilhelm’s cheeks.

‘Will you promise not to tell anyone, Harry? It was a lapse.’

Harry went over to the chair, hung the solitary stocking over the back of the chair and sat down.

‘Who should I tell, Wilhelm? Your wife?’

The room was suddenly lit up by a flash followed by the crack of thunder.

‘It’ll be right over us soon,’ Wilhelm said.

‘Yes.’ Harry ran his hand across his wet forehead.

‘So what do you want?’

‘I think you know that, Wilhelm.’

‘Say it anyway.’

‘We’ve come to take you away.’

‘Not we. You’re on your own, aren’t you. Completely on your own.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Your eyes. Body language. I can read people, Harry. You sneak in here and you’re dependent on the element of surprise. That’s not how you attack when you hunt in herds, Harry. Why are you on your own? Where are the others? Does anyone know you’re here?’

‘That’s not important. Let’s say I am on my own. You still have to answer for the murder of four people.’

Wilhelm placed a finger to his lips and seemed to be reflecting as Harry rolled off the names:

‘Marius Veland. Camilla Loen. Lisbeth Barli. Barbara Svendsen.’

Wilhelm stared vacantly in the air for a while. Then he slowly nodded and took his finger away from his mouth.

‘How did you find out, Harry?’

‘When I knew why. Jealousy. You wanted to take your revenge on them both, didn’t you. When you found out that Lisbeth had met Sven Sivertsen and they had been together during your honeymoon in Prague.’

Wilhelm closed his eyes and laid back his head. The waterbed gurgled.

‘I didn’t know that photograph of you and Lisbeth was taken in Prague until I saw the same statue in a photo I was e-mailed from Prague earlier today.’

‘And then you knew everything?’

‘Well, when the thought first occurred to me I rejected it as an absurd idea, but then gradually it seemed to make sense. As much sense as insanity can. It made sense that the Courier Killer was not a sexually fixated serial killer, but someone who stage-managed the murders to make them appear to be sexual crimes. To make the whole thing look as if Sven Sivertsen was the killer. The only one person who could stage-manage something like that was a professional, someone whose job and whose passion it was.’

Wilhelm opened one eye.

‘If I understand you correctly, you’re saying that this person planned to kill four people to take revenge on only one person?’

‘Of the five appointed victims only three were randomly chosen. You made the crime scenes look as if they had been determined by a randomly placed devil’s star, but in reality you designed the star from two of the points: your own address and the house belonging to Sven Sivertsen’s mother. Cunning, but simple geometry.’

‘Do you really believe this theory of yours, Harry?’

‘Sven Sivertsen had never heard of any Lisbeth Barli. But do you know what, Wilhelm? He remembered her well enough when I told him what her maiden name was: Lisbeth Harang.’

Wilhelm didn’t answer.

‘The only thing I don’t understand,’ Harry said, ‘is why you waited so many years to take your revenge.’

Wilhelm wriggled up the bed.

‘Let’s assume that I don’t understand what you’re trying to insinuate, Harry. I’m reluctant to make a confession and put both of us in a difficult spot. However, since I’m in the fortunate position of knowing that you cannot prove a thing, I don’t mind chatting for a bit. You know that I approve of people who can listen.’

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

‘Yes, Harry, it is correct that I knew Lisbeth was having an affair with this man, but I didn’t find out until this summer.’

It began to drizzle again. Raindrops spattered against the window.

‘Did she tell you that?’

Wilhelm shook his head. ‘She would never have done that. She came from a family where things were not talked about. It would never have come out if we hadn’t been doing up the flat. I found a letter.’

‘Yes?’

‘The external wall in her study is just bare brick. It’s the original wall from when the building work was done at the turn of the century. Solid, but it gets absolutely freezing in winter. I wanted to clad it with panelling and insulate it on the inside. Lisbeth objected. I thought that was weird, because she was a practical girl, brought up on a farm, not the type to become sentimental about an old brick wall. So one day, when she was out, I examined the wall. I didn’t find anything until I shoved her desk to one side. I still couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I poked at each of the bricks. One moved just a little. I pulled, and it came away. She had camouflaged the cracks round it with grey building mortar. Inside I found two letters. The name of Lisbeth Harang was on the envelope and a poste restante address I had no idea she had. My first reaction was to put the letters back unread and convince myself that I had never seen them. But I’m a weak man. I wasn’t capable of it. “ Liebling, you are always in my thoughts. I can still feel your lips against mine, your skin against mine” – that’s how the letter begins.’

The bed made a rippling noise.

‘The words smarted like lashes from a whip, but I kept on reading. It was eerie because every word that was written could have been written by me. When he finished saying how much he loved her, he went on to describe what they had done together in the hotel room in Prague in some detail. It wasn’t the description of their love-making that hurt me most, though. It was when he quoted what she had obviously said about our relationship. That for her it was just “a practical solution to a loveless life”. Can you imagine how something like that feels, Harry? When it turns out that the woman you love has not only deceived you, but she has never loved you. Not to be loved – isn’t that the essential definition of a failed life?’

‘No,’ Harry said.

‘No?’

‘Carry on, if you wouldn’t mind.’

Wilhelm gave Harry a searching look.

‘He’d enclosed a photo of himself. I presume she had begged him to send it. I recognised him. He was the Norwegian we met at a cafe in Perlova, a rather shady area of Prague with prostitutes and what were, to all intents and purposes, brothels. He was sitting in the bar when we came in. I noticed him because he was just like one of those mature, distinguished gentlemen that Boss uses as models. Elegantly dressed and old, actually. But with such young, playful eyes that men need to keep an extra careful eye on their wives. So I was not particularly surprised when the man came over to our table after a little while, introduced himself in Norwegian and asked us if we would like to buy a necklace. I thanked him politely and said no, but when he took it out of his pocket anyway and showed it to Lisbeth, she was swooning of course and said that she loved it. The pendant was a red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star. I asked him what he wanted for the star and when he gave me a price that was so ridiculously over the top that it could only be interpreted as provocation, I asked him to leave us. He smiled at me as if he’d just won a victory, wrote down the address of another cafe on a slip of paper and said that we could find him there at the same time the following day if we changed our minds. Naturally he gave the piece of paper to Lisbeth. I can remember that I was in a bad mood for the rest of the morning. But then I forgot everything. Lisbeth is clever at making you forget. On occasion she manages…’ Wilhelm ran his finger under his eye, ‘… to do that with her mere presence.’