"Nothing," said Thora, looking up in frustration from her computer screen. She and Matthew had dropped by her office after visiting Hugi to check for a reply to her e-mail to the mysterious Mal.
Matthew shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe you'll never get a reply."
Thora refused to give up as easily as Matthew. "Harald might have some information about him on his computer."
Matthew raised his eyebrows. "Do you keep information about your friends on your computer?"
"Oh, you know what I mean, a contact list, address book."
Matthew shrugged again. "Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Maybe Harald had one. You never know."
Thora turned her computer screen back to its normal position. "Why don't you give the police a quick call to ask about Harald's computer?" She looked at the clock on the screen. "It's only just past two so the office is open." The letter requesting the case documents was not in Bella's tray that morning, so everything suggested it had been posted the day before. It had probably arrived, but that didn't mean it had been dealt with. It would be sensible to wait a day or two and then phone about the computer and the documents at the same time. But Thora's curiosity outweighed her common sense at the moment. She could see little else to do in the situation. In the Internet directory, Thora had already checked Harald's friends' mobile phone numbers and managed to find Marta Mist, Briet, and Brjann. They had all refused to talk to herBriet half hystericallyand pointed out that they had all made statements to the police. So Thora and Matthew had little to work on for the time being. "Phone," she insisted.
Matthew gave in, and it turned out they could indeed collect the computer from the police. An officer by the name of Markus Helgason would be there to meet them.
At the police station Markus greeted Thora in Icelandic, then addressed Matthew in English with a strong Icelandic accent: "We've met twice before. Once when we searched the flat and then when you went to see my boss, Arni Bjarnason." The officer smiled awkwardly. "You didn't exactly hit it off, so they decided to send me this time. I hope you don't mind."
He was a youngish man, wearing the blue shirt and black trousers of the police uniform. Markus was fairly short; he must have joined the force after the minimum height requirement was abolished. In other respects he was very ordinary-looking, neither handsome nor ugly, blond with unremarkable gray eyes. When he smiled as he shook their hands, Thora's initial impression of him changed completely. He had beautiful white teeth and Thora hoped for his sake that he always had plenty to smile about.
When Matthew and Thora assured him that they didn't mind not meeting his superior, the young officer gladly carried on. "I'd like to have a chat with you. We understand you're looking into the circumstances of the murder, and since our investigation isn't formally over it would be normal for us to have a little talk." He hesitated, embarrassed, then added: "The computer's being packed in a box now with some other evidence we were supposed to return. So you'll have to wait a while anyway. We can sit down in my office."
Thora darted a sideways glance at Matthew, who shrugged to indicate that he did not mind. She knew that the explanation about packing the computer was mere pretensea one-handed man could do the job in no more than three minutes. But with a smile she played along and said it was fine. Visibly relieved, Markus showed them into his office.
There were no personal articles apart from a coffee mug with a Manchester United logo. Markus invited Thora and Matthew to take a seat and waited until they were comfortable before sitting down himself. No one said anything while they went through these motions, and the silence had become uncomfortable by the time they eventually got themselves settled.
"Well, that's that," the police officer said, pretending to sound jolly. Thora and Matthew just smiled but neither said a word. Thora wanted Markus to speak first, and judging by the tight line of Matthew's mouth he felt the same. The officer got straight to the point. "We understand that you went to the prison this morning and met Hugi Thorisson."
"Yes, that's right," said Thora curtly.
"Quite," said Markus. "What came out of this meeting?" He looked expectantly at each of them in turn. "It's a rather strange position to claim to represent the family as you do here and also to assist the prime suspectwhich I understand you did this morning at the prison."
Thora looked at Matthew, who waved his hand to indicate that she should answer. "Let's just say that the situation is strange and unconventional and we're simply acting on that. But we're obviously still working for Harald's family; Hugi Thorisson's interests just happen to coincide with theirs." She paused briefly to allow the officer to protest, which he did not. She continued: "We're not at all convinced that he's guilty. If anything, our talk with him this morning reinforced that belief."
Markus raised his eyebrows. "I must admit, I don't understand how you can be quite so certain. Everything that our investigation has revealed points in the opposite direction."
"We feel there are many questions unanswered, I suppose that's the main reason," replied Thora.
The officer nodded, apparently in agreement. "Actually that's quite true, but as I say, our investigation is not entirely over. But I'd be surprised if anything was found to overturn the theory that Hugi Thorisson murdered Harald." He counted on his fingers. "First, he was with the victim just before the murder was committed. Second, Harald's blood was found on the clothes he was wearing that evening. Third, we found a T-shirt hidden in his closet that had been used to wipe up a considerable amount of blood, which also came from the victim. Fourth, he was a member of the murdered man's black magic cult, so he was familiar with the magic symbols carved on the body. And fifth, he was stoned enough to be able to gouge out the eyes. Believe meno one in their right mind does that. He was a dealer and presumably planned to smuggle drugs into the country. The murdered man had plenty of money to finance that and a sizable sum vanished from his account shortly before the murder was committed. Without a trace. That doesn't happen in normal business transactions. You can always trace them somehow." The officer looked down. He was gripping his left hand tightly with his right. "In all honesty, most convictions are made on a lot fewer counts. All we lack is a confession, which I readily admit would normally have been made under such circumstances."
Thora tried to look nonchalant. The blood on Hugi's clothes had caught her off guard. She had seen nothing about it in the police reports or the other documents in her possession. She spoke quickly so Markus would not notice that he had unnerved her. "Doesn't it bother you that he hasn't confessed to the murder?"
The officer looked at her candidly. "No, not at all. You know why?" When Thora did not seem likely to answer him, he carried on. "He can't remember. So he clings to the hope that he didn't do it. Why should he confess to an act that he can't even remember when there's so much at stake?"
"How do you explain the body being transported to the university?" asked Matthew. "This dope dealer hardly had access to the facilities there. It was a weekend, and presumably everything was locked."
"He stole Harald's key. Very simple. We found a bunch of keys on the bodyincluding a key to the department, or rather an access key, because there's a security system. From the system we could see that the key was used to enter the building just after the murder."
Matthew cleared his throat. "What do you mean, just after the murder? Couldn't it just as easily have been before the murder? The timing in this case isn't that precise."
"In fact it isn't, but that's not the point," answered Markus, more dryly than before.
Matthew went on, not willing to let him off the hook so easily. "Let's assume that Hugi stole the key and transported the body from his home, which is in the neighborhood, to the university building. What sort of transport do you suppose was used? You can't put the body of an adult male in your pocketor take it with you in a taxi."
Now the police officer smiled. "He transported the body on his bike. It was found outside the Manuscript Institute, and, what's more, Harald's DNA was found on it. His blood was on the handlebars. Fortunately it had been thrown aside into the shelter so that it didn't get snowed on."
Matthew said nothing, so Thora spoke up. "How do you know it was Hugi's bike?" She quickly added: "And even if it was, how do you know it was left there on the night in question?"
The officer smiled, even more pleased than before. "The bike was thrown away over by the trash cans. The garbage was collected on Friday and the local garbagemen are adamant that there was no bike there at that time. Hugi recognized the bike himself and admitted it had been lying untouched in the bicycle storage in his apartment complex on that Saturdayand a woman who lives there stated that the bike was in its place when she took her stroller out of the storage around dinnertime to go shopping with her child."
"How on earth can a witness remember what was in a certain place and what wasn't? I've lived in an apartment complex before and I don't think I could have said what was in the bicycle room, although I often walked through it," said Thora.
"The bike was noticeable because he used it a lot. Winter, summer, autumn, and spring. He didn't have a driver's license, so he didn't have much choice. And he wasn't the most considerate of people about storing it awaythat weekend he'd left it resting on the woman's stroller. She remembers it well because she had to move it to get the stroller out."
Matthew cleared his throat. "If Hugi stole the key for the security system, I presume a code or PIN number went with it. How could Hugi guess that?"
"That's exactly what we wanted to know," Markus replied. "When Harald's friends were questioned it turned out that he had told the number to all of them."
Thora looked at him in disbelief. "Who do you expect to believe that? Why on earth would he do that?"
"It seems the number amused him. He was allocated 0666, which apparently appealed to him because of his strange obsession with devil worship."
"Actually it was an obsession with magic and has nothing to do with the devil," Matthew said. Then he quickly changed the subject to avoid a long discussion on the nature of magic. "You might be able to tell us one thing. We came across a printout from Harald's e-mail, a short note sent to a certain Mal. Did you find out anything about that?"
The officer looked blank. "I must admit I don't remember that. We went through hundreds of documents. If you want I can look it up and let you know."
Thora outlined the e-mail to him, even though she did not expect to gain much from the police on this point. Markus would surely have remembered if it had produced anything. He promised to check whether steps had been taken to identify the recipient, but played down the importance of whatever it was that Harald thought he had found at last. "He must mean some girl he was chasing after, that sort of thing," he said. "But to change the subject, are you going to stay on this case much longer?" He looked at Thora and Matthew in turn.
"As long as is necessary," Matthew said, frowning. "I'm still not convinced you're holding the right manin spite of what you said. Of course, I might be wrong."
The officer gave a faint smile. "We'd be grateful if you let us keep tabs on you, as the investigation is still ongoing. We don't want any clashes and it would be better if we could cooperate."
Thora seized her opportunity. "We've received some of the case documents, but by no means all of them. I sent you a letter, which will probably arrive tomorrow, asking to have all the documents handed over on behalf of the familydo you see any objection?"
Markus shrugged. "Not as such, but it's not my decision. It's an unusual request but I still expect a positive answer. It could take some time to gather it all together. Of course, we'll try" A knock on the door interrupted him. "Come in," he called, and the door opened. A young female officer stood in the doorway with a cardboard box in her arms. A black computer was sticking out of the top.
"Here's the computer you asked for," the young woman said, walking in. She put the box on the desk and took out a transparent folder with a piece of paper inside. "The monitor's down in reception; it's coming straight out of storage because we didn't need it. Actually it was quite stupid to take it along in the first place," she said rather self-importantly to her colleague. "It might be worth pointing out to the teams who search houses that although the documents appear on the monitor, they aren't literally there. They're all in the computer and they come up on any screen." She tapped the top of the computer.
Markus did not appear too pleased at being told off by the young woman in front of Thora and Matthew. He glared at her. "Thank you for that information." He took the folder from her and took out the piece of paper. "Can you sign this receipt, please?" he said to Matthew. "The other papers that were removed are in there too."
"What papers?" asked Thora. "Why weren't they returned with the others?"
"They were papers that we felt deserved a close examination. In fact they revealed nothing. I don't know if you'll find anything juicy in there, but I doubt it." He stood up to indicate that the conversation was over.
Thora and Matthew stood up and Matthew picked up the box after signing the receipt. "Don't forget the monitor," said the female officer, smiling at Thora. Thora returned her smile and assured her they would take it.
They walked out to the car, Thora with the monitor in her arms and Matthew carrying the box. Thora pulled out the wad of documents before getting into the passenger seat. She flicked through them quickly while Matthew started the car.
"What the hell is this?" she said in amazement, turning to Matthew.