See Also Murder by Larry D. Sweazy Read Free Book Online

giant wolf preordained to slay Odin; the Midgard serpent; and the goddess Hel, the ruler of the realm of the dead.
    The engraving in the center had to be Thor, but there was no depiction of Loki or Odin. I could only assume that the writing on the edge described the meaning of the amulet—what it was for or what it was used to ward off. But that was just an assumption on my part. I knew nothing of the lore and rituals of the Old World, of the country of my mother’s people. I didn’t even have her accent, and if there were any family traditions that had been brought over, besides the food—lefse and rakfisk for starters—they’d been tossed away, replaced by traditions considered purely American.
    Assimilation was as much a desire as a requirement in those days, especially during the war and after; the demand of patriotism extended all the way out to the desolate plains. Now, I needed to know some of my own heritage, and my knowledge of it came up short when I really needed it. It was frustrating.
    A chill ran through my body as I read about Loki and his children. It seemed the giant hated the gods of Asgard. Loki had eventually arranged the murder of Balder, the god of light, son of Odin and Frigg.
    So I had to wonder, had someone arranged to have Erik and Lida murdered? If so, why? And who would do such a thing? What did Balder have in common with the Knudsens? Or was there any connection at all?
    I made a list of my questions, too, not just the information that I had gathered. I printed the list instead of writing it in cursive. My printing was exact, almost as a good as a draftsman’s when I took the time, and almost immediately I started to see an index forming in front of my eyes. It was the subject, Erik and Lida Knudsen’s murder, that left me feeling hollow and cold. I had never made a list, something resembling an index, that was so personal, even though I was starting to become fascinated by the research I was engaged in.
    Balder, as it turned out, had been one of the most beautiful gods of Asgard, and his mother had sought desperately to protect him from harm by gathering oaths from all things in nature not to hurt him. But she’d neglected mistletoe. Loki had tricked the blind god, Hoder, Balder’s brother, into throwing a piece of mistletoe, and Balder was killed by it. Thor had punished Loki for the murder by binding him in a fishing net, but the evil quest had not stopped there.
    The prophecy of Ragnarök, the doom of the gods, told of a great battle after Loki freed himself, and with his children led the enemies of heaven into battle. After Ragnarök, and Loki’s demise, it was foretold that Balder would return to heaven.
    I made another list of the names and the relationships, then scanned quickly through the antique jewelry books. There was nothing there that compared to the amulet I carried. I’d come up short in that regard, just like I’d expected to.
    Secretly, I’d hoped to get all of the information that I needed so I could cancel my visit with Raymond, but that was not to be. I still needed to go to the university to see him.
    I slid the notebook into my purse and closed up all of the books.
    I wasn’t sure what all the lore and legends meant, or what any of the information had to do with Erik and Lida Knudsen. I wasn’t even sure if the amulet had belonged to Erik, or if it was placed in his hand by the killer as a message. I kept coming back to that thought; it left me in a quandary. Why would a killer leave a calling card, something for the police to use to track him down? It made no sense to me. But then again, I was unaccustomed to the ways of the criminal mind and murder as a topic to consider.
    My head swam with the myths of the Old World, and that confused me even more. In all the years that I had known the Knudsens, not once did they ever express a belief in the ways of their ancestors. Just the opposite. Erik had always his