‘The question,’ Skarre said, ‘is what you’re doing here when you work in the private sector. Why should we believe you want to help us?’
‘Well, why wouldn’t I help you, Skarre? I’ve been assigned to make sure — or at least increase the likelihood — that this case is solved. Not that I’m the one who solves it, necessarily. I can see that that concept is a little difficult for you to take in just like that, Skarre, so allow me to illustrate. If I’m tasked with saving people from burning to death in a building but the place is already ablaze, what do I do? Use my bucket or call the fire station located round the corner?’
Katrine suppressed a smile but noticed Sung-min did not.
‘So, you’re the fire brigade, and I’m on the phone. My job is to tell you what I know about where it’s burning. And as I happen to know a little about fires, I’ll tell you what I think is special about this particular fire. OK?’
Katrine saw some nodding of heads. Others glanced at one another, but no one objected.
‘Getting right to the point about what’s special,’ Harry said. ‘The heads. Or to be more precise, the missing brains. And the question — as always — is why? Why cut open or cut off the victims’ heads and remove the brains? Well, in some circumstances the answer is simple. In the Old Testament, there’s the story of Judith, a poor Jewish widow, who saves her city when it’s under siege by seducing the enemy general and cutting off his head. The point wasn’t to kill him, but to show his head to everyone, as a display of power, to frighten his troops, who, sure enough, run away. So, a rational act, with a motive recognisable throughout the history of warfare and which we see to this day when political terrorists spread video recordings of beheadings. But it’s difficult to see that our man needs to frighten anyone, so why? In tribes of headhunters — or at least in the myths about them — they often want the victims’ heads for themselves, as trophies, or to drive out evil spirits. Or to keep the spirits. Tribes in New Guinea believed you took possession of the victims’ souls when you took their heads. And that might bring us closer to what we’re looking at here.’
Katrine noticed that even though Harry was speaking in a neutral, almost flat tone and without facial expressions or dramatic gestures, he had the full attention of the room.
‘The history of serial killers is full of decapitations. Ed Gein severed the heads of his victims and placed them on bedposts. Ed Kemper cut the head off his mother and had sex with it. But perhaps our case has more parallels with Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed seventeen men and boys in the eighties. He met them at parties or clubs, got them drunk or gave them drugs. Something I’ll come back to that may have occurred in our case too. Dahmer then took his victims home. Murdered them, usually by strangling them while they were drugged. Had sex with the corpses. Dismembered them. Drilled holes in the head, poured in various fluids, like acid. Cut off the head. Ate selected parts of the bodies. He told his psychologist he was keeping the heads because he feared rejection, and in that way ensured they could never leave him. Hence the parallel to the soul collectors of New Guinea. But Dahmer went further, he made sure the victims remained with him by eating part of them. Incidentally, psychologists believed that Dahmer wasn’t insane in the criminal sense, they thought he only suffered from some personality disorders. Like most of us can and still function. In other words, Dahmer was a person who could have sat among us now, and we wouldn’t necessarily suspect him of anything. Yes, Larsen?’
‘Our perpetrator didn’t take Susanne’s head, but her brain. With Bertine he took both the head and the brain. So, is it brains he’s after? And in that case, do the brains serve as trophies?’
‘Mm. We differentiate between trophies and souvenirs. Trophies are symbols of you having defeated your victim, and in such cases, heads are much used. Souvenirs are used as mementoes of the sexual act and for sexual gratification afterwards. I don’t know if brains stand out in that regard. But if you were to draw conclusions based on what we know about sexually motivated, psychopathic serial killers, there are all manner of reasons for them doing what they do, just like there is for everyone. And that’s why there’re no common patterns of behaviour, at least not to a level of detail that allows us to easily predict their next move. Except for one thing, which we can assume with a large degree of probability.’
Katrine knew that this wasn’t a dramatic pause, it was simply that Harry had to draw breath and at the same time take an almost imperceptible step to the side to gain balance.
‘That they will strike again.’
In the silence that followed, Katrine heard hard, fast-approaching footsteps in the corridor outside. And she recognised their sound and knew who it was. Perhaps Harry heard them too and guessed his time was about to run out. At any rate, he sped up.
‘I don’t think this person is after heads, but rather the brains of the victims. Cutting Bertine’s head off only means he’s refining his method, also a typical feature of the classic, psychopathic serial killer. He’s learned from the last time that removing the brain at the scene of the crime requires time and is therefore risky. In addition, when he saw the result of sewing the scalp back on and knew it would be discovered, he realised that in order to hide the fact it was the brain he really wanted, it would be better to take the entire head. I don’t think he choked Bertine to death in an attempt to mislead the police into thinking Susanne was killed by someone else. If that was important, he wouldn’t have chosen Skullerud both times, and he wouldn’t have left both bodies naked from the waist down. The reason for the change in method of killing was practical. He got blood on himself when he cut Susanne’s throat, you can see that by the traces of blood spray. Blood on his hands, face and clothes meant he’d be noticed if he met anyone on the way back. And he’d have needed to throw away the clothes, wash the car and so on.’
The door opened. Sure enough it was Bodil Melling. She took up position in the doorway with arms folded, fixing Katrine with a gaze promising a gloomy outlook.
‘That was also the reason he brought her to a lake. There he could minimise the blood spill by holding her head underwater while cutting it off. In that sense, this serial killer is like most of us. The more often we do something the better we get. In this case that’s bad news for what may come.’ Harry looked at Bodil Melling. ‘Don’t you think, Chief Superintendent?’
The corners of her mouth turned up in the affectation of a smile. ‘What’s coming, Hole, is you leaving this building at once. Then we’ll discuss internally how we interpret the guidelines regarding access to information for individuals without clearance.’
Katrine felt her throat tighten in a mixture of shame and anger and was aware her voice didn’t mask it. ‘I understand your concern, Bodil. But it goes without saying, Harry hasn’t been given access to—’