Last Rituals

'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?'