Unknown

There had to be something else, something hidden.

Knutas's next stop was Vivesholm, where he walked through the wooded area over to the birdwatching tower. That was the place where Martina's body had been hung from a tree. He would never forget the sight he had encountered on that morning.

He walked all the way out to the end of the promontory. The landscape was wild and barren. It reminded him of the heaths of Northern Ireland where he and his family had taken a driving vacation several years earlier. The wind forced him to squint, and the drizzling rain ran down his face when he looked up at the sky. The chilly gray weather made it feel like fall. He looked in the direction of the boathouses at Kovik. In the rainy mist he could hardly distinguish the outline of the solitary little chapel that he knew stood there. The funeral for one of his best friends had been held in that chapel barely six months ago. It was a small limestone building that stood all alone, with narrow windows facing the sea. Many a seaman had been buried out there over the years.

Deep in his subconscious something awoke as he stood there in the wind and the rain. He thought about what Agneta Larsvik had said about the murderer's modus operandi. Suddenly Knutas knew exactly what he needed to do.

Katja Ronngren didn't answer the phone. Johan left a message, asking her to call him as soon as possible.

He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. What did it mean that Katja had reported a theft, and that she had dropped out of the course but later returned? Maybe nothing, but the thefts were making him uneasy.

He sat down at his computer and logged on to the Internet. He plugged in various words and searched at random for things that might have to do with relics found on Gotland. He got a lot of hits, but most of them he could screen out as uninteresting. Then he gave a start. An American Web site purported to be selling ancient artifacts from Gotland. Objects such as tools, implements, coins, and jewelry were offered for sale, quite openly. There was also a contact address. Johan had an idea. He typed in a pseudonym and wrote that he was interested in buying some of the objects. He asked for a reply ASAP.

The phone rang. It was Katja Ronngren. She confirmed that she had filed a report with the police but that subsequently nothing had happened. She had no idea who might be behind the thefts. She couldn't even venture a guess. On the other hand, she told Johan that Martina had also discovered that an object they had excavated was missing, and she had talked about filing a report. Katja didn't know whether anything had ever come of it. She had the feeling that Martina suspected someone, although she wasn't willing to admit it.

The phone call gave Johan pause. So Martina had been about to file a police report but had never gotten that far. Maybe if she had, she wouldn't have been killed. Were the thefts the motive? Someone who wanted at all costs to continue to steal but had felt his activities threatened by the girls who were on his trail? If that was the case, then Katja should have been threatened, too. It would have been logical for her to be killed first, since she had actually taken steps to file a report with the police. How did Staffan Mellgren come into the picture? Was he mixed up in the plundering? Johan sensed that the identity of the murderer might be found by looking closer into how the whole theft operation had been set up. It must all fit together somehow: the burglary at the Antiquities Room and the thefts from the warehouse and the excavation site. Now it turned out that goods were even being sold on the Internet. As far as the police were concerned, this should clearly be considered a crime. How were the Americans getting hold of ancient Nordic relics unless they had been stolen?

Suddenly his computer beeped. He had received an e-mail. It was from the United States.

He sat down at his computer again to reply.

Back at police headquarters, Knutas phoned Agneta Larsvik in Stockholm. He was lucky enough to catch her between meetings.

'The part about the modus operandi,' he began, 'could it have something to do with a religion?'

'In what way?'

'Both Martina Flochten and Staffan Mellgren were interested in the Viking Age. They were excavating a Viking Age port area when they were murdered. The religion at that time had to do with a belief in the?sir gods-you know, Thor and Odin and all the others. The Vikings made offerings and sacrifices and the like. That's fairly common knowledge. You said that the modus operandi was ritualistic. Could it have something to do with a belief in the?sir gods? I mean, the way in which sacrifices were made to them?'

'I don't really know,' she said hesitantly. 'Unfortunately, I don't know much about the subject, but it's not out of the question. Could you hold on for a moment?'

'Of course.'

Knutas heard her put down the phone and leaf through some papers in the background. A few minutes later she was back.

'Are you still there? I know someone at Stockholm University who teaches the history of religion. He specializes in ancient Nordic religion and mythology. His name is Malte Moberg, and I'm sure he could help you.'

Knutas jotted down the number, and less than a minute later he had the historian on the line. He explained what he wanted to know and briefly described how the victims had been killed.

Malte Moberg spoke slowly, in a gruff, dry voice. 'There's something known as the 'threefold death,' meaning that a victim's life is taken in three different ways. This way of killing has its origin in the religion of Celtic and Germanic tribes, and it was utilized for a period from 300 b.c. to a.d. 300. When the victim suffered a threefold death by hanging, stabbing, and drowning, it was thought that each was dedicated to one of three different gods.'

The most important piece in the puzzle had now fallen into place. It was that simple. Knutas felt so elated that he could hardly sit still.

'What does this have to do with the ancient Nordic religion?' he asked eagerly.

'In the pre-Christian North, the offering of sacrifices was central to the religion. The creation myth of the?sir gods begins when Ymer the giant is sacrificed to give the world a body. Odin sacrificed one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom, and himself to achieve insight into the secrets of the runes. People most often offered food and drink to the gods, but animals were also sacrificed and, in rare cases, human beings. The type of death that you're describing in these murder cases also occurred in the ancient Scandinavian religion. The threefold death was dedicated to the gods Odin, Thor, and Frey-meaning the three most powerful gods in the ancient Nordic pantheon, which was prevalent during the Viking Age. In Nordic mythology, there are three families of gods: the?sir, the Vanir, and the Elves. The?sir, who included Odin and Thor, were most closely associated with power and warfare; the Vanir, who included Frey, were linked to fertility. How familiar are you with ancient Nordic mythology?'

'We studied it in school, of course, but that's a hundred years ago. Refresh my memory.'

'Odin is the original deity, the Almighty according to many-the most powerful of the gods, who ruled over all the other?sir. He was also the supreme deity of the human world. He is the oldest and the wisest and lives in the fortress Valhalla. He's the god of war, but also the god of poetry, and he's the one who created the runes. Thor is Odin's son, and he's also the god of war, although he's best known as the god of thunder. Thor has a hammer called Mjolnir, and when he uses it, he produces thunder and lightning. I'm sure you know all about that. Finally, Frey is the foremost god of fertility. People worshipped him in order to obtain a good harvest, peace, sensual pleasure, and bountiful livestock.'

'What about the idea that the perpetrator may have drained his victims of their blood? Does that fit in with ancient Nordic mythology?'

'Absolutely. The blood itself was an important part of the sacrificial rite. They would kill the animals, such as pigs, horses, and bulls, and then collect the blood in bowls. One feature of?sir worship was that they used blood to paint idols.'

Knutas let out a long breath.

'It all fits,' he said. 'The modus operandi, the emptying of the blood, all of it.'

There was just one more question he needed to ask. So far no mention of the horse's heads had reached the public, so Knutas told Malte Moberg about the two heads stuck on poles that had been left at the homes of Mellgren and Ambjornsson.

There was silence on the phone. It lasted so long that Knutas wondered if they'd been cut off. Then Moberg was back, and his voice had taken on a new tone.

'What you're describing is called a nidstang — a horse's head is stuck on a pole, often made of hazelwood,