Chapter 22 - Thursday and Friday. The Revelation.

In stifling heat and tormented by nightmares, Harry contemplates drinking but instead takes sleeping pills and listens to Duke Ellington while reconstructing the case: three weekday, after-hours killings, three severed left-hand fingers (index, middle, ring), and red star diamonds. He tries to discern not who the women were, but what they represented to the killer.

As Harry obsesses over the carved devil’s star above his bed and searches for a pattern, the narrative shifts to Prague, where Eva Marvanova lies awake beside her traveling partner. Suspicious after finding a long blond hair and repeatedly secret Oslo trips, she opens his Samsonite with a memorized code and discovers a gun. She resolves to trust him, newly certain she is pregnant.

At breakfast, Eva confesses her pregnancy. He gifts her a necklace set with a star-shaped diamond and then produces the same gun, now fitted with a silencer, insisting she must know who he is. His Oslo journeys and the diamond directly implicate him in the crimes Harry is pursuing.

Back in Oslo, Harry wakes late to a call from Rakel, who apologizes for her anger. Their fraught exchange underscores Harry’s isolation and self-doubt. Straining to recall the night’s insights, he re-enters the dream: a cavernous, churchlike space with chanting, drips, and wingbeats, then a televised lottery cue—“Five.”

Harry recognizes the significance: the code is five. Though the larger pattern remains elusive, this numeric key marks a concrete breakthrough amid his spiraling thoughts and mounting personal strain.