‘And have just declared our prisoner dead, so your job here is done, Pathology will take care of the rest. You can either answer here or be locked up in one of the neighbouring cells. OK?’
Katrine heard Sung-min clear his throat softly beside her. She ignored the discreet admonition about having gone too far. Fuck it, their party was ruined, she could already see the newspaper headlines — Murder Suspect Dies in Police Custody. The biggest murder case she had ever had would probably never be completely resolved now that the central figure couldn’t talk. The families would never know what had really happened. And here was this puffed-up doctor guy trying to play cool?
She breathed in. Out. Then in again. Sung-min was of course right. That was the old Katrine Bratt who had surfaced, the one this Katrine had hoped was buried for good.
‘Sorry.’ The doctor sighed and looked up at her. ‘I’m being childish. It’s just that it looks like he was suffering for a long time without anything being done, and then... then I react emotionally and blame you lot. Sorry.’
‘It’s fine,’ Katrine said. ‘My own apology was close on the heels of yours. Can you say anything about the cause of death?’
He shook his head. ‘It could have been that.’ He nodded at the blood on the whitewashed wall. ‘But I’ve yet to see someone manage to take their own life by banging their head against a wall. So maybe the pathologist should check that out as well.’ He pointed to the yellowish-green pool of vomit on the floor. ‘I heard he’d been in pain.’
Katrine nodded. ‘Any other possibilities?’
‘Well,’ the doctor said, getting to his feet, ‘possibly someone killed him.’
41
Thursday
Reaction speed
It was seven o’clock, and at the Forensic Medical Institute the only lights on were those in the laboratory. Harry stared first at the scalpel in Helge’s hand and then at the eyeball lying on one of the glass plates.
‘Do you really...?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, I have to get to the inside,’ Helge said and cut.
‘Yeah, well,’ Harry said. ‘The funeral is over, I suppose, no one in the family is going to see her again.’
‘Well, actually they’re going there tomorrow,’ Helge said, placing the piece he had cut away under the microscope. ‘But the guy from the undertakers had already put in a glass eye and will just put in one more. Look at this.’
‘You see something?’
‘Yeah. Gondii parasites. Or at least something similar. Look...’
Harry leaned forward and peered into the microscope. Was he imagining things, or did he detect an almost imperceptible odour of musk?
He asked Helge.
‘It could be from the eye,’ he said. ‘In which case you have an exceptional sense of smell.’
‘Mm. I have parosmia, I can’t smell corpses. But maybe it means I smell other things all the better. Like with blindness and hearing, you know?’
‘You believe that?’
‘No. I do, however, believe that the killer might have used the parasite to render Susanne fearless, and that she felt sexually attracted to him.’
‘No way. That he’s made himself the primary host, you mean?’
‘Yeah. Why no way?’
‘Just that it’s not that far off from the field I’m toiling in to obtain a doctorate. Theoretically, it is possible, but if he’s managed to do it, we’re talking the Odile Bain Prize. Eh... that’s like the Nobel Prize in parasitology.’
‘Mm. I’m thinking he’ll get life instead.’
‘Yeah, of course. Sorry.’
‘Another thing,’ Harry said. ‘The mice are attracted by the smell of cat, any cat I mean. So why are these women attracted to just one man in particular?’
‘You tell me,’ Helge said. ‘The key is the smell the parasites can direct an infected person towards. Perhaps he carried something the women caught the scent of. Or he might have smeared it directly on his body.’
‘What kind of smell?’
‘Well, the most direct way is a smell from the intestinal tract where the parasites know they can reproduce.’
‘Excrement, you mean?’
‘No, he’d use excrement to spread the parasite. But to attract an infected person he might use the intestinal juices and enzymes in the small intestine. Or the digestive secretions from the pancreas and gall bladder.’
‘You’re saying he’s spreading the parasite with his own faeces?’
‘If he has created his own parasite, then he’s probably the only possible compatible host, so he alone must ensure the life cycle continues running its course so the parasites don’t die out.’
‘And how does he do that?’
‘Same as the cat. He could see to it, for example, that the water the victims drink is infected with his faeces.’
‘Or the cocaine they snort.’
‘Yes, or the food they eat. It will take a while before the parasite reaches the victim’s brain and can manipulate it.’
‘How long?’
‘Well... if I had to guess how long it took with a mouse, I’d say two days. Maybe three or four. The point is that in humans the immune system would generally eradicate the parasite, and that would occur after a couple of weeks or a month, so he doesn’t have all the time in the world if he’s trying to keep the life cycle going.’
‘So, he’d need to wait a couple of days, but not too long, before killing them.’
‘Yes. And then he’d have to eat the victim.’
‘All of the victim?’
‘No, the parts where parasites ready to reproduce are most concentrated should do it. So, the brain...’ Helge stopped abruptly and stared at Harry as though it just dawned on him. He swallowed. ‘...or the eyes.’
‘Last question,’ Harry said hoarsely.
Helge just nodded.
‘Why don’t the parasites take over the brain of the primary host as well?’
‘Oh, but they do.’
‘Really? And what do they do to him?’
Helge shrugged. ‘Pretty much the same thing. He becomes fearless. And seeing as how he is receiving a continuous top-up as is the case here, the immune system won’t be able to get rid of the parasite, and he risks a dulling or a slowing down of reaction times, for instance. And schizophrenia.’
‘Schizophrenia.’
‘Yes, recent research indicates it. Unless he keeps the number of parasites in his own body in check.’
‘How?’
‘Well. That I don’t know.’
‘What about parasiticides? Like Hillman Pets, for example?’
Helge gazed into the air thoughtfully. ‘I’m not familiar with that brand, but theoretically the right dosage of a parasiticide could create a balance of sorts, yes.’
‘Mm. So the quantity of parasites you have in you is important?’
‘Oh yeah. Were you to give someone a large dose with a high concentration of gondii the parasites would block the brain, paralysing the person in the space of a few minutes. They’d be dead within an hour.’
‘But you wouldn’t die from snorting a line of infected cocaine?’
‘Maybe not within an hour, but if the concentration is high enough, it could easily kill you within a day or two. Excuse me...’ Helge picked up a ringing phone. ‘Yes? All right.’ He hung up. ‘Sorry, I’m going to be busy now, they’re on their way up with a body from the Custody Unit I have to carry out a preliminary post-mortem on.’
‘OK,’ Harry said, buttoning up his suit jacket. ‘Thanks for your help, I’ll find my own way out. Sweet dreams.’
Helge gave him a faint smile.
Harry had just walked out the door of the lab when he turned and went back in.
‘Whose body are they bringing over, did you say?’