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Part 5, Chapters 40-44Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual content, violence, death, and death by suicide.
Part 5, Chapter 40 Summary: “Monday. Rain.”
A series of vignettes brings together various characters as they move through Oslo. A woman observes Andre walking a dog (confirming Andre’s claim that his injuries were from his dog and implying that he is not involved in any nefarious activity). Toya (Lisbeth’s sister) steps in the dog’s excrement as she rushes into a taxi. The taxi takes her to Wilhem’s apartment, where she senses that something terrible is going to happen. Meanwhile, at Villa Valle, Ina returns with her fiancé and introduces him to Olaug (confirming that she is not in danger and her lover was not connected to the crimes).
Toya and Wilhelm have sex, and then she lies on the waterbed while he showers. She feels a strange lump in the mattress and inspects it; she finds her sister’s body.
Meanwhile, Harry arrives at the apartment complex where Wilhelm lives; he knocks at the door of the neighbors he previously questioned while investigating Lisbeth’s disappearance and asks for access to their flat so he can climb across the roof and enter Wilhelm’s flat undetected.
As Harry crosses the roof, it begins to rain. He drops onto Wilhelm’s terrace and enters the flat. He startles Wilhelm, who is now lying naked on the waterbed.
Part 5, Chapter 41 Summary: “Monday. Happy Ending.”
Wilhem explains that a woman is also in the apartment and is currently showering (he does not say who). Harry openly accuses Wilhelm of the four murders (Marius, Camilla, Lisbeth, and Barbara). He then outlines how he cracked the case. When Harry first visited Wilhelm and Lisbeth’s apartment, he saw a photo of them from their honeymoon. When he saw the photo of Sivertsen meeting Waaler in Prague, he realized that the photo of Lisbeth and Wilhelm had been taken in the same location (a square with a well-known statue). Harry asked Sivertsen if he had ever had a relationship with a woman named Lisbeth and the latter confirmed he had. Harry realized that all the crimes were intended to create confusion and make it appear that a serial killer was operating. By creating the pretense of a serial killer (and framing Sivertsen for the crimes), Wilhelm concealed that he had killed his wife out of jealousy and punished her lover.
Wilhelm begins to explain. Recently, he found two letters hidden in a wall of Lisbeth’s study. The first, from Sven, detailed their affair and included Lisbeth’s view that her marriage was a loveless, practical arrangement. The second was Lisbeth’s returned letter to Sven professing her continued love; it had been sent in February, revealing that Lisbeth continues to harbor feelings for her lover. Enraged and jealous, Wilhelm put an elaborate plan into motion. He tracked down Sven Sivertsen in Prague (he had a photo from the letters and recalled having briefly met him) and found Sven’s mother. He drew a pentagram on a map linking their apartment to Sven’s mother’s house and chose three random victims at the other points, leaving clues—severed fingers, five-day intervals, five o’clock murders, fifth-floor locations—to suggest a ritualistic killer. Wilhelm was the man who contracted Sven to deliver diamonds and a gun to the park on the day of each killing, thereby ensuring that Sven would seem guilty (he was in Oslo on the day of each killing and would not have an alibi). His true revenge, he explains, was not death but condemning Sven to life in prison for crimes he did not commit.
Harry reveals that he has forensic evidence that can be used to prove Wilhelm killed Lisbeth. Wilhelm claimed that the excrement found under Lisbeth’s fingernail got there when she penetrated his anus with her finger during sex before she vanished. However, Harry had the excrement tested and confirmed that it contained fennel seeds from the bread that Wilhelm likes to eat for breakfast at his favorite café (this had come up in conversation during one of Wilhelm and Harry’s meetings). There would not have been enough time for Wilhem to digest and excrete the seed before Lisbeth vanished at 5:00 pm; he must have had the finger in his anus later than that.
Wilhelm concedes that he did cut off Lisbeth’s finger after killing her and hid it in his rectum to ensure it would not be detected while the apartment was being searched. He reveals the details of how he killed her and hid her body inside the waterbed. As he reveals these final details, he points a gun (previously concealed) at Harry. Harry closes his eyes, preparing to die. However, Wilhelm drops the gun and jumps from the balcony, plummeting to his death. In shock, Harry goes into the bathroom, where he finds Toya’s body in the shower; she has been strangled. Harry prepares to call for help, but notices a voicemail on his phone.
Harry listens to the voicemail with horror: Waaler reveals that he is standing in Oleg’s bedroom watching the sleeping child. He orders Harry to call him back, or he will kill the child.
Part 5, Chapter 42 Summary: “Monday. The Devil’s Star.”
Harry immediately returns Waaler’s call and offers to meet. Waaler insists that he wants to meet both Harry and Sivertsen, so Harry directs him to the student residence and rushes there. He arrives with enough time to hide his gun on the inside of the handle of the building’s old-fashioned lift. He warns Sven that Waaler is coming with Oleg.
Waaler arrives with Oleg, a gun in his pocket. Sven and Harry are sitting in the fourth-floor corridor, handcuffed together. Harry swallows the keys to both Room 406 (Marius’s room) and the handcuffs. He reveals that he guessed Waaler’s plan: to kill both Sven and Harry in Room 406, and then make it look as though Harry had killed Sven and then himself. Waaler concedes that this is correct, adding that he also intended to kill Oleg and make it appear that Harry abducted and killed the child.
Harry claims the surveillance cameras are still recording, capturing what is happening. Waaler counters that the cameras capture only image, not sound. He can claim that he is arresting a rogue cop (Harry) who absconded with a prisoner, and that he will also be able to explain Oleg’s presence. At gunpoint, he marches them toward the lift (where there are no cameras) and Harry realizes he intends to kill them there.
When the lift arrives, Harry reaches for the handle to retrieve his gun, but Waaler reveals that he found it and disposed of it. He pushes Oleg into the lift. Harry stabs Waaler in the shoulder with the chisel, causing the latter to drop his gun. Harry and Waaler fight, but Harry is hampered by being handcuffed to Sven. Waaler quickly retrieves his gun and while he does so, Harry and Sven join Oleg in the lift and close the doors. Because the lift does not start to move immediately, Waaler shoots at them through the window in the lift door. Then he reaches through the broken glass and seizes Oleg by the hair.
The lift stops moving, since Waaler’s arm is between the bars of the grille. Waaler demands they raise the lift back up to his level. Harry uncuffs Sven and Sven manipulates the grill so that the lift can move again. Harry handcuffs himself to Waaler’s wrist (reaching into the lift through the broken window) and pulls him securely. Then the lift begins to move down, his weight pulls Waaler’s arm down, trapping it against the top of the door frame. The descending lift crushes Waaler’s arm. Waaler panics and begs for mercy.
Part 5, Chapter 43 Summary: “Monday Night. Rolex.”
The force of the descending lift tears Waaler’s arm off. The severed arm remains cuffed to Harry’s arm as the lift descends. Between the ground and basement floor, Harry presses the stop button. Harry, Sven, and Oleg sit in the lift for 15 minutes to ensure that Waaler dies from shock and blood loss. Before they leave the lift, they dismantle the lights in the lift, giving themselves time to adjust to the darkness.
Harry exits the lift in the basement; Sven and Oleg remain in the lift, which they raise and stop again between the basement and ground floor. He finds his own gun and then sees Waaler’s dead body; the latter had staggered down to the basement before collapsing and dying there. Having confirmed that Waaler is dead, Harry knows he is finally safe.
Part 5, Chapter 44 Summary: “Monday Night. The Mumbling.”
Harry, Sven, and Oleg exit the student residence. Harry calls the press and then Bjarne Møller; police and press rush to the scene. Sven is taken into custody with around-the-clock guards. They also ensure that Øystein Eikeland (who was arrested by Waaler for supposed drunk driving) is released. Møller and Harry drive Oleg back to his home to reunite with Rakel. Harry tells Rakel that he is going to begin training as a taxi driver, and they make tentative plans to reconcile.
Møller takes a call confirming cycling equipment was found in a bin at Wilhelm’s home (more evidence confirming him as the Courier Killer). He remarks on the coming press frenzy and the convenient surveillance footage, lightly questioning how it came to be recording on Sunday afternoon. Harry stays impassive. The Chief Superintendent speaks with Harry: He congratulates him for solving the case, apologizes for doubting him about Waaler, and reveals Harry’s dismissal papers were never signed, offering him his job back. Harry says he will consider it.
Harry walks home, showers, and sits alone in his flat, tasting plaster dust on his fingers from the chisel he carried from Wilhelm’s flat, where the devil’s star was carved into the wall. Its metallic, egg-like flavor echoes the blood-mixed plaster described in the novel’s opening, connecting the story’s end to its beginning.
Part 5, Chapters 40-44 Analysis
The rainfall that begins as Harry approaches Wilhelm’s flat functions as a signifier of climax and catharsis, with the sudden breaking of the oppressive summer heatwave mirrors the bursting of the killer’s elaborate deception. The reveal that Lisbeth’s body has been hidden in the mattress of the waterbed reinforces the theme of The Facade of Normalcy and Hidden Depravity. Harry has lain on that very bed, and Wilhelm’s choice of hiding spot reveals his preoccupation with sexuality and the subversion of domestic norms.
Wilhelm’s confession illustrates both The Corrupting Nature of Revenge and Jealousy and the Desire to Control Women, revealing how retaliatory obsession erodes moral restraint. Wilhelm explains that simply killing Sven Sivertsen would have been “a happy ending” (413). Instead, he engineered a scenario ensuring Sven would spend life imprisoned for crimes he did not commit, enduring unending psychological torment. Wilhelm’s subsequent suicide completes this trajectory, verifying that vengeance is inherently self-destructive.
By killing multiple innocent people to punish a single act of infidelity, Wilhelm embodies the narrative’s warning that revenge invariably consumes the avenger. The driving motivation of sexual jealousy also reveals that the backstory behind the crimes is one of the most banal and expected stories. The elaborate staging of Satanic rituals and complicated symbolism only masks misogynistic rage. Wilhelm’s confession reiterates allusions to the Pygmalion myth, such as when he comments to Harry, “have you ever felt a statue […] it’s quite remarkable how the skin of a dead person feels” (731). Wilhelm also murders Toya because she risks revealing his crimes, and, similarly to her sister, proves inadequately compliant. He claims his actions are dictated by love, demonstrating how desire for retribution can distort an individual’s sense of self until rationality is supplanted by monstrous behavior.
The novel concludes with a dual-climax structure: No sooner has Harry resolved the Courier Killer case, which ends with Wilhelm’s confession and suicide, than he is drawn into his final confrontation with Waaler. Waaler descends to the lowest form of manipulation by threatening an innocent child: He knows Harry will do anything to protect Oleg. The final conflict in the student residence is dramatic and tense; much of the action plays out in the old-fashioned lift (elevator), which has been the source of fear for Harry earlier in the novel. By having the conflict with Waaler play out in a setting that evokes Harry’s psychological trauma and memories, Harry is forced to reckon with these past events. When Waaler reaches through the broken window and seizes Oleg by the hair, the incident directly echoes Harry’s childhood trauma of watching his sister get her hair stuck in the elevator grille.
However, in this conflict, Harry is no longer a powerless child. The presence of Oleg (who is akin to a son and even calls Harry “Dad”) reinforces that Harry is now in a position of maturity and adult responsibility. Harry secures a handcuff to Waaler’s wrist and presses the button to send the elevator down, using descending machinery to crush his colleague’s arm. This maneuver allows Harry to weaponize the architectural feature that historically paralyzed him with fear. While crushing Waaler does not resolve Harry’s psychological fragility, the act represents a critical moment of agency, physically dismantling the corrupt counterpart who has haunted him since Ellen Gjelten’s murder. The severing of Waaler’s arm while it is cuffed to Harry viscerally symbolizes breaking the hold Waaler has over him and echoes the severing of fingers as a crucial clue in the Courier Killer case.
The aftermath of Waaler’s death starkly reinforces institutional compromise and illustrates a version of The Facade of Normalcy and Hidden Depravity. During a clandestine meeting, the Chief Superintendent officially offers to reinstate Harry, but motives are heavily compromised by institutional self-preservation. Rather than pursuing transparent investigation into Waaler’s arms-smuggling network, the Chief Superintendent implicitly asks Harry to present a sanitized version of events, instructing him not to provide an account “which leaves room for misinterpretation” (449). This directive demands a neat narrative that isolates corruption to Waaler alone, shielding the wider institution from scrutiny. Police hierarchy prioritizes public perception over absolute accountability, preferring to bury systemic wrongdoing.
The novel’s closing sequence emphasizes the inescapable nature of trauma. After walking home through rain-washed Oslo, Harry lies in bed and reflects on resolution of his investigations. As morning approaches, he tastes yellow mortar dust left on his fingers from the chisel. The bitter dust carries a strange, metallic flavor that tastes “of egg” (452). This sensory detail bridges the conclusion directly back to the inciting incident, echoing coagulated blood that leaked into Vibeke Knutsen’s boiling potatoes in the opening chapter. By linking the investigation’s beginning to the violent resolution of police corruption, the metallic taste acts as physical residue of violence Harry has both witnessed and committed.
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