The Devil's Star

  ‘So you think you know me, do you, Harry?’

  Harry shook his head as he searched for his packet of cigarettes. In vain. He may have lost them when he fell from the roof.

  ‘I don’t know you, Wilhelm. Or any others like you. I’ve worked with killers for fifteen years and I still know only one thing: that they’re searching for someone to reveal their secrets to. Do you remember what you made me promise in the theatre? To find the killer. Well, I’ve kept my promise. So let’s make a deal. You tell me how you did it and I’ll tell you the proof we’ve got.’

  Wilhelm studied Harry’s face. One hand stroked the mattress.

  ‘You’re right, Harry. I want to tell you. Or to be more precise, I want you to understand. From what I know of you, I think you can take it. You see, I’ve been following your progress ever since this case started.’

  Wilhelm laughed when he saw Harry’s face.

  ‘You didn’t know, did you.

  ‘It took me longer than I thought it would to find Sven Sivertsen,’ Wilhelm said. ‘I made a copy of the photo Lisbeth was sent and travelled to Prague. I trawled through the cafés and bars in Mustek and Perlova showing the photo and asking if anyone knew a Norwegian called Sven Sivertsen. Nothing. But it was obvious that some of them knew more than they were willing to divulge. So, after a few days I changed my tactics. I began to ask if there was someone who could procure some red diamonds for me. I knew that it was possible to get hold of some in Prague. I took on the identity of a Danish diamond collector by the name of Peter Sandmann and I made it apparent that I was prepared to pay very well for a special diamond that had been cut into the shape of a five-pointed star. I said where I was staying and after two days the telephone in my room rang. I knew it was him as soon as I heard the voice. I disguised my voice and spoke in English. I told him I was in the middle of negotiations for another diamond and asked if I could phone him later that evening. Did he have a number where I could be sure to get hold of him? I could hear how he was trying not to sound keen and thought how easy it would be to meet him in some dark back street that evening. I controlled myself, though, like the hunter who has to control himself when he has the prey in his sights, but must still wait until everything is perfect. Do you understand?’

  Harry nodded slowly. ‘I understand.’

  ‘He gave me his mobile phone number. The next day I returned to Oslo. It took me a week to find out what I needed about Sven Sivertsen. Identifying him was the easiest. There were twenty-nine Sven Sivertsens on the national register, nine of them the right age and only one without fixed residence in Norway. I noted down his last known address, got the telephone number from directory enquiries and rang.

  ‘An old lady answered the phone. She said that Sven was her son, but that he hadn’t lived at home for many years. I told her that myself and a couple of others from his old school class were trying to get everyone together for an anniversary reunion. She said he lived in Prague, but that he travelled a lot and didn’t have a fixed address or telephone number. On top of which, she said, he wouldn’t be very interested in meeting any of his old classmates. What did I say my name was? I said that I’d only been in his class for six months, so it was doubtful whether he would remember my name. And if he did, it was probably because I’d landed myself in a spot of bother with the police at the time. Was the rumour true that Sven had, too? His mother’s tone became a bit sharp then and she said it was all a long time ago, and it was not so strange that Sven became a bit rebellious, considering the way we treated him. I apologised on behalf of the class, put down the phone and called the Law Courts. I said I was a journalist and asked if they could tell me what sentences Sven Sivertsen had received. An hour later I had a pretty good idea what he was up to in Prague. Smuggling diamonds and weapons. A plan began to take shape in my mind, based on what I now knew: that he made his money through smuggling; the five-pointed diamonds; weapons; his mother’s address. Do you begin to see the links now?’

  Harry didn’t answer.

  ‘When next I rang Sven Sivertsen, three weeks had gone by since my trip to Prague. I spoke Norwegian in my normal voice, went straight to the point and told him that I’d been looking for someone to procure weapons and diamonds for me for a long time and I didn’t want any middle-men involved. I said I thought I had found someone: him, Sven Sivertsen. He asked me how I’d got hold of his name and number and I answered that my discretion could also benefit him. I suggested that we didn’t ask each other any further unnecessary questions. That wasn’t particularly well received and the conversation almost came to a halt there and then. Until I mentioned the sum of money I was willing to pay for the goods, up front and into a Swiss bank account if required. We even had the classic film dialogue where he asked me if I meant kroner and I answered in a somewhat surprised tone that of course we were talking euros. I knew that the sum of money alone would dispel any lingering suspicion that I might be a policeman. You don’t need an almighty sledgehammer to crack a nut like Sivertsen. He said everything could be arranged. I said I’d get back to him presently.

  ‘So while the rehearsals for My Fair Lady were in full swing, I put the finishing touches to my plan. Will that do, Harry?’

  Harry shook his head. The sound of the shower. How long was she planning to stay in there?

  ‘I want details.’

  ‘They’re mostly technical things,’ Wilhelm said. ‘Aren’t they tedious?’

  ‘Not to me.’

  ‘Very well. The first thing I had to do was to give Sven Sivertsen a personality. The most important thing you have to do when unveiling a character to an audience is to show what motivates the person, what the character’s innermost wishes and dreams are: in a nutshell, what makes this person tick. I decided that I would present him as a murderer without any rational motive, but with a sexual need for ritual killings. A little commonplace maybe, but the vital ingredient was that all the victims except Sivertsen’s mother had to appear to have been chosen at random. I read up about serial killers and found a couple of amusing details I elected to use. For example, the stuff about mother fixation and Jack the Ripper’s choice of murder locations, which investigators took to be a code. So I went to the City Planning Department where I bought a detailed map of Oslo city centre. When I returned home I drew a line from our own apartment building in Sannergata to the house where Sven Sivertsen’s mother lives. From this one line I then drew a precise pentagram and found the addresses closest to the tips of the other star points. And I admit that it did give me an adrenalin rush when I put the point of the pencil down on the map and I knew that there – right there – lived someone whose fate had just been sealed that very second.

  ‘For the first few nights I fantasised about who it could be, what they might look like and how their lives had been so far. I soon forgot them though. They weren’t important – they were the scenery, the extras, the non-speaking parts.’

  ‘Building materials.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘Nothing. Go on.’

  ‘I knew that the blood diamonds and the murder weapons would be traced back to Sven Sivertsen when he’d been arrested. To strengthen the illusion of ritual deaths I threw in a few clues: the severed fingers, five days between each murder, five o’clock and the fifth floor.’

  Wilhelm smiled.

  ‘I didn’t want to make it too easy, but not too difficult either. And I wanted a little humour. Good tragedies always have a little humour, Harry.’

  Harry told himself to sit completely still.

  ‘You received the first gun a few days before you killed Marius Veland. Is that right?’

  ‘Yes. The gun was in the litter bin in Frogner Park, as arranged.’

  Harry took a deep breath: ‘And how was that, Wilhelm? What was it like to kill?’

  Wilhelm pressed his lower lip forward and appeared to be considering the question.

  ‘They’re right, the people who say the first time is the most difficult. I slipped into the
student block without a problem, but it took much more time than I had ever imagined to seal the rubber bag I put him in with the heat gun. And despite having spent half of my life lifting up well-nourished Norwegian ballerinas, it was a tough job carrying the boy up into the loft.’

  Pause. Harry cleared his throat.

  ‘And afterwards?’

  ‘Afterwards I cycled to Frogner Park to pick up the second gun and the diamond. The German half-breed Sven Sivertsen proved to be as punctual and greedy as I’d hoped. The technique of placing him in Frogner Park at the time every murder was committed was a good touch, don’t you think? After all, he was committing a crime himself, so he would take care not to be recognised and make sure no-one knew where he’d been. I simply made sure that he would not have an alibi.’

  ‘Bravo,’ Harry said and ran his finger across wet eyebrows.

  He felt as if there was damp and condensation everywhere, as if the water was driving in through the walls, through the roof from the terrace, and then there was the shower.

  ‘But everything you’ve told me up to now I’d worked out for myself, Wilhelm. Tell me something I don’t know. Tell me about your wife. What did you do with her? The neighbours saw you on the terrace at regular intervals, so how did you manage to get her out of the flat and hide her before we came?’

  Wilhelm smiled.

  ‘You’re not saying anything,’ Harry said.

  ‘For a play to retain some of its mystique the author should refrain from explaining too much.’

  Harry sighed.

  ‘OK, but be so kind as to explain this much to me. Why did you make it so complicated? Why couldn’t you have simply killed Sven Sivertsen? You had the chance in Prague. It would’ve been less bother and much safer than killing three innocent people in addition to your wife.’

  ‘First of all, I needed a scapegoat. If Lisbeth had disappeared and the case was never cleared up, everyone would have thought it was me. Because it’s always the husband, isn’t it, Harry? But primarily I did it this way because love is a thirst, Harry. It needs to drink. Water. A thirst for revenge. It’s a good expression, isn’t it? You know what I’m talking about, Harry. Death is no revenge. Death is a delivery, a happy ending. What I wanted to make for Sven Sivertsen was a true tragedy, suffering without end. And I’ve achieved that. Sven Sivertsen has become one of the restless spirits wandering along the banks of the River Styx and I’m the ferryman, Charon, who refuses to ferry him across to the kingdom of the dead. Is that all Greek to you? I sentenced him to life, Harry. He’ll be consumed by hatred as it consumed me. Hating without knowing whom you hate makes you turn your hatred onto yourself, onto your own miserable fate. That’s what happens when you’re betrayed by the one you love. Sitting behind lock and key, sentenced for something you don’t know you did. Can you imagine a better revenge, Harry?’

  Harry rummaged in his pocket to see if the chisel was still there.

  Wilhelm chuckled. The next thing he said gave Harry a sense of déjà vu.

  ‘You don’t need to answer, Harry. I can see it in your face.’

  Harry closed his eyes and listened to Wilhelm’s voice rumbling on.

  ‘You’re no different from me. It’s passion that drives you, too. And passion, like lust, always finds . . .’

  ‘. . . the lowest level.’

  ‘The lowest level. But now I think it’s your turn, Harry. What’s this proof you were talking about? Is it anything I should be concerned about?’

  Harry opened his eyes again.

  ‘First you’ll have to tell me where she is, Wilhelm.’

  Wilhelm gave a low laugh and placed a hand against his heart.

  ‘She’s here.’

  ‘You’re blathering,’ Harry said.

  ‘If Pygmalion was capable of loving Galatea, the statue of a woman he had never met, why could I not love a statue of my wife?’

  ‘I don’t follow you, Wilhelm.’

  ‘You don’t have to, Harry. I know it isn’t easy for others to understand.’

  In the silence which followed, Harry could hear the water beating down in the shower downstairs with undiminished force. How would he get this woman out of the flat without losing control of the situation?

  Wilhelm’s deep voice blended into a blur of sounds.

  ‘The mistake was that I thought it was possible to bring the statue back to life again. But the person who was to do that refused to understand. That illusion is stronger than what we call reality.’

  ‘Who are you talking about now?’

  ‘The other one. The living Galatea, the new Lisbeth. She panicked and threatened to ruin everything. Now I can see that I’ll have to be content with living with the statue. But that’s fine.’

  Harry could feel something was on its way up. It was cold and came from his stomach.

  ‘Have you ever felt a statue, Harry? It’s quite remarkable how the skin of a dead person feels. It’s not really warm, and it’s not really cold.’

  Wilhelm stroked the blue mattress.

  Harry could feel the cold freezing his insides, as if someone had given him an injection of ice water. He felt his throat constrict when he said: ‘You know you’re finished, don’t you?’

  Wilhelm stretched out across the bed.

  ‘Why should I be, Harry? I’m just a storyteller who’s told you a story. You can’t prove a thing.’

  He stretched over for something on the bedside table. There was a flash of metal and Harry’s muscles went taut. Wilhelm raised it in the air. A wristwatch.

  ‘It’s late, Harry. Shall we say visiting time is over? It doesn’t matter if you go before she’s out of the shower.’

  Harry didn’t move. ‘Finding the killer was only half the promise you made me make, Wilhelm. The other half was that I should punish him. Severely. And I think you meant it. Part of you is longing to be punished, isn’t that right?’

  ‘Freud has passed its sell-by date, Harry. Just like this visit.’

  ‘Don’t you want to hear the proof first?’

  Wilhelm sighed with irritation.

  ‘If it’ll make you leave, go on.’

  ‘I really should have known everything when we received Lisbeth’s finger with the diamond ring in the post. Third finger on the left hand. Vena amoris. She was the one the murderer wanted to love him. Paradoxically enough, it was also this finger that gave him away.’

  ‘Gave away . . .’

  ‘To be precise, the excrement under the nail . . .’

  ‘With my blood. Yes, but that’s old news, Harry. And I’ve already explained that we liked to . . .’

  ‘Yes, and when we found that out, the excrement was investigated more carefully. Usually this does not reveal a great deal. The food we eat takes twelve to twenty-four hours to travel from mouth to rectum and in the course of this time the stomach and the network of intestines has turned the food into an unrecognisable waste product. So unrecognisable that even under the microscope it is difficult to determine what a person has eaten. Nevertheless, there are still some things that manage to pass through the digestive tract unscathed. Grape pips and –’

  ‘Can you skip the lecture, Harry?’

  ‘Seeds. We found two seeds. Nothing special about that. So it was only today, when I realised who the killer might be, that I asked the laboratory to examine the seeds closer. And do you know what they found?’

  ‘No idea.’

  ‘There was a complete fennel seed.’

  ‘So what?’

  ‘I had a chat with the chef at the Theatre Café. You were right when you told me that it was the only place in Norway where they make fennel bread with complete seeds. It goes so well with –’

  ‘Herring,’ Wilhelm said. ‘You know I eat there. What are you getting at?’

  ‘Earlier you said that the Wednesday Lisbeth disappeared you had herring for breakfast at the Theatre Café as usual. Somewhere between nine and ten o’clock in the morning. What I’m wondering is how the seed got from y
our stomach to under Lisbeth’s nail.’

  Harry waited to be sure that Wilhelm was taking everything in.

  ‘You said that Lisbeth had left the flat at about five o’clock. So, around eight hours after you ate herring for breakfast. Suppose that the last thing you did before she went out was to make love and she penetrated you with her finger. However efficiently your intestines worked they would not have been able to shift the fennel seed to your rectum within eight hours. It’s a medical impossibility.’

  Harry noticed a slight twitch in Wilhelm’s open-mouthed face as he enunciated the word ‘impossibility’.

  ‘The earliest the fennel seed could have reached the rectum is at nine o’clock. So you must have had Lisbeth’s finger inside you at some point in the evening, the night or the following day. All after you had reported her missing. Do you understand what I’m saying, Wilhelm?’

  Wilhelm stared at Harry. That is, he was staring in Harry’s direction, but his eyes were fixed on a point a lot further away.

  ‘That’s what we call forensic evidence,’ Harry said.

  ‘I understand.’ Wilhelm nodded slowly. ‘Forensic evidence.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘A specific, irrefutable fact?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Judges and juries love that sort of thing, don’t they. It’s better than a confession, isn’t it, Harry.’

  The policeman nodded.

  ‘A farce, Harry. I thought it was all a farce. People rushing on stage and then off again. I made sure we stayed on the terrace so that the neighbours over the way would see us before I asked Lisbeth to come into the bedroom with me where I took a gun out of the toolbox and she stared – yes, just like in a farce – with widening eyes at the long barrel with the silencer.’

  Wilhelm took his hand out from underneath the duvet. Harry stared at the gun with the black lump round the barrel, which was now pointed at him.

  ‘Sit down, Harry.’

  Harry felt the chisel sticking into his side as he dropped down onto the chair again.

  ‘She misunderstood me in the most amusing way. It would have been such poetic justice. To have her riding on my hand as I ejaculated hot lead into where she’d let him come.’