The prisoner was dead.

He understood that immediately. The man had spewed up, it looked like; a disgusting, unrecognizable mass had seeped out of his mouth and nose. His eyes were only half closed, as he saw when he moved closer. His eyeballs were colourless and completely vacant, as if his life had departed through them in the end.

The man with the grey, thick hair began to cry. He walked over to the cadaver and laid it out on the bed. The legs were already affected by rigor mortis and the corpse would not lie flat.

He fetched a bucket of hot water and a few cloths. And then he carefully washed the naked body, changing the water and using a mild soap, baby soap, he cleaned the dead man before drying him thoroughly and dressing him in the clothes he had been wearing when he arrived.

Closed his eyes.

The man in the house with a cell in the basement cried and cried. When he was finished with the body, he sat with his back to the wall, the construction that was only meant to scare him, and sobbed with his face on his knees and his hands around his ankles. The cell with the movable wall was only intended to torment the man on the bunk, torment him the way he deserved and had to be tormented, before everything could be over and done with and they could call it quits.

He had not meant for anyone to die, and could no longer bear any of it.

THE CONFIDENCE

‘My gambling has cost me everything, Einar.’

The old down-and-out looked at her. He went on chewing a huge piece of ciabatta without saying a word. When he was finished, he drank the still-hot coffee in greedy gulps. Wiped around his mouth with the Mesta mitten.

‘It had to happen some time,’ he said, unruffled, as he picked up the pack of Smil chocolates.

‘What?’

‘Gambling doesn’t pay off in the long run. If it did, there would be no bookies.’

‘But …’

‘You’ve played for high stakes for years now, Mariska. High and often. You know, even though I was up shit creek at the time you were my lawyer, I wasn’t stupid. Mental illness doesn’t make you any more stupid than you already were. Quite the opposite, I’d say.’