Contents
Chapter 41 - Monday. Happy Ending.
Overview
Harry confronts Wilhelm Barli, who effectively confesses and details how he framed Sven using staged pentagram murders and tokens. Harry confirms Lisbeth is hidden inside the waterbed and finds Toya Harang murdered in the shower. Barli stages his own dramatic suicide outside. As Harry calls for help, Tom Waaler’s voicemail threatens Oleg, forcing Harry into compliance.
Summary
Rakel settles Oleg for the night amid a storm, uneasy but hoping for a new start. Elsewhere, Harry confronts Wilhelm Barli in the bedroom, where Barli taunts him about being alone and feigns innocence before engaging in a cat-and-mouse confession. Harry outlines the jealousy motive tied to Lisbeth’s affair in Prague and the staged pentagram murders designed to frame Sven Sivertsen.
Barli, eager to be understood, explains his Prague reconnaissance, crafting of the pentagram from his home to Sven’s mother’s address, the ritual clues (fingers, fives), and the weapon and diamond drops that would implicate Sven. Harry presses for details about Lisbeth’s fate. Barli refuses specifics until Harry reveals the key forensic proof: a fennel seed under Lisbeth’s severed ring finger matching Barli’s breakfast timeline, proving he handled the finger after reporting her missing.
Cornered, Barli describes killing Lisbeth, sealing her body’s orifices with foam, and hiding her inside the half-drained waterbed. He hints at a “living Galatea”—Toya Harang—who resisted, prompting him to eliminate her. Barli threatens Harry with a silenced gun, craving a theatrical “happy ending,” then disappears.
Harry discovers the outline of Lisbeth’s face suspended within the waterbed. Downstairs, he finds Toya dead in the running shower, strangled with a stocking and packed with foam. Outside in the rain-soaked yard, Barli has hanged himself from a rotary dryer, achieving his grand finale tableau.
Numb and preparing to call Bjarne Møller, Harry first hears a new voicemail: Tom Waaler whispers from Oleg’s bedroom, proving access and threatening the boy’s life if Harry alerts anyone. The threat jolts Harry from paralysis into searing urgency.
Who Appears
- Harry HoleConfronts Barli, deduces methods via fennel-seed evidence, discovers Lisbeth’s body and Toya’s murder, then receives Waaler’s threat against Oleg.
- Wilhelm BarliAdmiringly explains framing Sven, killing Lisbeth, hiding her in the waterbed, murdering Toya, and finally staging his own theatrical suicide.
- Toya HarangBarli’s ‘living Galatea’; found dead in the shower, strangled with a stocking and packed with foam.
- Lisbeth BarliBarli’s wife; murdered and concealed inside the couple’s waterbed, her severed finger providing key forensic evidence.
- Tom WaalerLeaves a whispered voicemail from Oleg’s room, threatening the boy to coerce Harry into silence and compliance.
- Rakel FaukeAt home in the storm, uneasy; sleeps fitfully while Oleg is unknowingly endangered.
- Oleg FaukeAsleep at home; becomes leverage when Waaler threatens his life to control Harry.
- Bjarne MøllerHarry intends to call him for backup and arrests, but Waaler’s threat halts the call.