Henning Mankell

Wallander's First Case

CHAPTER 1

In the beginning, everything was just a fog.

Or perhaps it was like a thick-flowing sea where all was white and silent. The landscape of death. It was also the first thought that came to Kurt Wallander as he slowly began rising back to the surface. That he was already dead. He had reached twenty-one years of age, no more. A young policeman, barely an adult. And then a stranger had rushed up to him with a knife and he had not had time to throw himself out of harm’s way.

Afterwards there was only the white fog. And the silence.

Slowly he awakened, slowly he returned to life. The images that whirled around inside his head were unclear. He tried to catch them in flight, as one catches butterflies. But the impressions slipped away and only with the greatest of effort could he reconstruct what had really happened . . .

Wallander was off duty. It was 3 June 1969, and he had just walked Mona down to one of the Denmark ferries, not one of the new ones, the hydrofoils, but one of the old faithfuls, where you still had time for a square meal during the passage to Copenhagen. She was going to meet up with a friend, they were going maybe to the Tivoli, and, more likely, the clothes shops. Wallander had wanted to come along since he was off work, but she had said no. The trip was just for her and her friend. No men allowed.

Now he watched the boat chug out of the harbour. Mona would be back in the evening and he had promised to be there to greet her. If the weather was still as fine as it was now, they would take a walk. And then return to his apartment in Rosengard.

Wallander noticed he was becoming excited at the very thought. He straightened his trousers and then crossed the street and walked into the station. There he bought a packet of cigarettes, John Silver as always, and lit one before he even left the building.

Wallander had no plans for the day. It was a Tuesday and he was free. He had been putting in a lot of overtime, not least because of the frequent, large-scale Vietnam demonstrations both in Lund and Malmo. In Malmo there had been a clash with the police. Wallander had found the whole situation distasteful. He was not sure what he thought of the protestors’ demands that the United States get out of Vietnam. He had tried to talk to Mona about it the day before but she had not had any opinion other than that ‘the protestors are trouble-makers’. When Wallander, despite everything, insisted on pointing out that it could hardly be right for the world’s greatest military power to bomb a poor agricultural nation in Asia to devastation – or ‘back to the Stone Age’, as he had read that some high-ranking American military official had said – she had struck back and said that she certainly had no intention of marrying a communist.

That had knocked the wind out of his sails. They never continued the discussion. And he was going to marry Mona, he was sure of that. The girl with the light brown hair, the pointy nose and the slender chin. Who perhaps was not the most beautiful girl he had ever met. But who nonetheless was the one he wanted.

They had met the previous year. Before then, Wallander had been involved for more than a year with a girl named Helena who worked in a shipping office in the city. Suddenly one day she had simply told him that it was over, that she had found someone else. Wallander had at first been dumbstruck. Thereafter he had spent a whole weekend crying in his apartment. He had been insane with jealousy and had, after he had managed to stop his tears, gone down to the pub at the Central Station and had much too much to drink. Then he had gone home again and continued to cry. Now if he ever walked past the entrance to the pub he shivered. He was never going to set foot in there again.

Then there had been several heavy months when Wallander entreated Helena to change her mind, to come back. But she had flatly refused and at last became so irritated by his persistence that she threatened to go to the police. Then Wallander had beaten a retreat. And strangely enough, it was as if everything was finally over. Helena could have her new man in peace. That had happened on a Friday.

The same evening he had taken a trip across the sound, and on the way back from Copenhagen he wound up sitting next to a girl who was knitting. Her name was Mona.

Wallander walked through the city lost in thought. Wondered what Mona and her friend were doing right now. Then he thought about what had happened the week before. The demonstrations that had got out of hand. Or had he failed to judge the situation correctly? Wallander had been part of a hastily assembled reinforcement group told to stay in the background until needed. It was only when the chaos broke out that they had been called in. Which in turn only served to make the situation more turbulent.

The only person Wallander had actually tried to discuss politics with was his father. His father was sixty years old and had just decided to move out to Osterlen. He was a volatile person whose moods Wallander found hard to predict. Not least since his father once became so upset he almost disowned his son. This had happened a few years ago when Wallander came home and told his father he was going to be a policeman. His father was sitting in his studio, which always smelled of oil paints and coffee. He had thrown a brush at Wallander and told him to go away and never come back. He had no intention of tolerating a policeman in the family. A violent quarrel had broken out. But Wallander had stood his ground, he was going to join the police, and all the projectile paintbrushes in the world couldn’t change that. Suddenly the quarrelling stopped: his father retreated into acrimonious silence and returned to sit in front of his easel. Then he stubbornly started to outline the shape of a grouse, with the help of a model. He always chose the same motif, a wooded landscape, which he varied sometimes by adding a grouse.

Wallander frowned as he thought of his father. Strictly speaking they had never come to any reconciliation. But now they were on speaking terms again. Wallander had often wondered how his mother, who had died while he was training to be a policeman, could put up with her husband. Wallander’s sister, Kristina, had been smart enough to leave home as soon as she was able and now lived in Stockholm.

The time was ten o’clock. Only a faint breeze fanned Malmo’s streets. Wallander walked into a cafe next to the NK department store. He ordered a cup of coffee and a sandwich, skimmed through the newspapers Arbetet and Sydsvenskan. There were letters to the editor in both newspapers from people who either praised or criticised the actions of the police in connection with the protests. Wallander quickly flipped past them. He didn’t have the energy to read about it. Soon he was hoping not to have to assume any more duties with the riot police. He was going to be a criminal investigator. He had been clear on that from the start and had never made any secret of it. In only a few months he would work in one of the departments that investigated violent incidents and even more serious crimes.

Suddenly someone was standing in front of him. Wallander was holding his coffee cup in his hand. He looked up. It was a girl with long hair, about seventeen. She was very pale and was staring at him with fury. Then she leaned forward so her hair fell over her face and pointed to the back of her neck.

‘Here,’ she said. ‘This is where you hit me.’

Wallander put down his cup. He didn’t understand anything.

She had straightened back up.

‘I don’t think I really understand what you mean,’ Wallander said.

‘You’re a cop, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you were there fighting during the demonstration?’

Wallander finally got it. She had recognised him even though he was not in uniform.

‘I didn’t hit anybody,’ he answered.

‘Does it really matter who was holding the baton? You were there. Therefore you were fighting against us.’

‘You did not comply with the regulations regarding public demonstrations,’ Wallander said and heard how inadequate the words sounded.

‘I really hate the police,’ she said. ‘I was going to have a cup of coffee here, but now I’m going somewhere else.’

Then she was gone. The waitress behind the counter gave Wallander a stern look. As if he had cost her a guest.

Wallander paid and walked out. The sandwich was left half eaten. The incident with the girl had left him considerably shaken. As if he were wearing his uniform after all, not these dark blue pants, light shirt and green jacket.

I have to get away from the streets, he thought. Into an office, into case-review meetings, crime scenes. No more protests for me. Or I’ll have to take sick leave.

He started to walk faster. Considered whether or not he should take the bus to Rosengard. But he decided he needed the exercise – and also to be invisible and not bump into anyone he knew.

But naturally he ran into his father outside the People’s Park. He was weighed down by one of his paintings, wrapped in brown paper. Wallander, who had been walking with his head down, spotted him too late to make himself invisible. His father was wearing a strange cap and a heavy coat, underneath which he had on some kind of tracksuit and trainers without socks.

Wallander groaned to himself. He looks like a tramp, he thought. Why can’t he at least dress properly?

His father put the painting down and took a deep breath.

‘Why aren’t you in uniform?’ he asked, without a greeting. ‘Aren’t you a cop any more?’

‘I’m off work today.’

‘I thought policemen were always on duty. To save us from all evil.’

Wallander managed to control his anger.

‘Why are you wearing a winter coat?’ he asked instead. ‘It’s twenty degrees Celsius.’

‘That’s possible,’ his father answered, ‘but I keep myself healthy by sweating as much as I can. You should too.’

‘You can’t wear a winter coat in the summertime.’

‘Then you’ll just have to get sick.’

‘But I’m never sick.’

‘Not yet. It’ll come.’

‘Have you even seen what you look like?’

‘I don’t spend my time looking at myself in the mirror.’

‘You can’t wear a winter cap in June.’

‘Just try to take it from me if you dare. Then I will report you for assault. I take it you were there and beat up those protesters?’

Not him too, Wallander thought. It’s not possible. He’s never been interested in politics, even when I have tried to discuss it with him sometimes.

But Wallander was mistaken.

‘Every reasonable person must distance himself from that war,’ his father declared firmly.

‘Every person also has to do his job,’ Wallander said with strained calm.

‘You know what I told you. You never should have become a policeman. But you didn’t listen. And now see what you are doing. Beating innocent little children over the head with a stick.’

‘I haven’t hit a single person in my entire life,’ Wallander answered, suddenly full of rage. ‘And anyway, we don’t use sticks, we use batons. Where are you going with that painting?’

‘I’m going to swap it for a humidifier.’

‘Why do you need a humidifier?’

‘I’m going to swap it for a new mattress. The one I have now is terrible. It makes my back hurt.’

Wallander knew his father was involved in unusual transactions that often involved many stages before the thing he needed finally ended up in his hands.

‘Do you want me to help you?’ Wallander asked.

‘I don’t need any police protection. You could, however, come over some night and play cards.’

‘I will,’ Wallander said, ‘when I have time.’

Playing cards, he thought. It is the last lifeline there is between us.

His father lifted up the painting.

‘Why do I never get any grandchildren?’ he asked.

But he left without waiting for an answer.

Wallander stood looking after him. Thought it would be a relief when his father moved out to Osterlen. So that he would no longer risk running into him by accident.

Wallander lived in an old building in Rosengard. The whole area was constantly under the threat of demolition. But he was happy here, even though Mona had said that if they married they would have to find another place to live. Wallander’s apartment consisted of one room, a kitchen and a small bathroom. It was his very first apartment. He had bought the furniture at auctions and various secondhand shops. There were posters on the wall depicting flowers and tropical islands. Since his father sometimes came for a visit, he had also felt compelled to hang one of his landscapes on the wall over the sofa. He had chosen one without a grouse.

But the most important thing in the room was the record player. Wallander did not have many records, and those he did own were almost exclusively opera. On those occasions when he had entertained some of his colleagues, they had always asked him how he could listen to such music. So he had also acquired some other records that could be played when he had guests. For some unknown reason many policemen seemed fond of Roy Orbison.

He ate lunch shortly after one o’clock, drank some coffee, and tidied up the worst of the mess while listening to a recording by Jussi Bjorling. It was his first record, scratched beyond belief, but he had often thought it was the first thing he would rescue in a fire.

He had just put the record on for a second time when there was a thump on the ceiling. Wallander turned down the volume. The walls in the building were thin. Above him lived a retired woman who had once owned a flower shop. Her name was Linnea Almquist. When she thought he was playing his music too loud she thumped on the ceiling. And he obediently turned down the volume. The window was open, the curtain that Mona had hung up fluttered, and he lay down on the bed. He felt both tired and lazy. He had a right to rest. He started to skim through a copy of Lektyr, a men’s magazine. He carefully concealed it whenever Mona was coming over. But soon he fell asleep with the magazine on the floor.

He was awakened with a start by a bang. He was unable to determine where it had come from. He got up and walked out into the kitchen to see if anything had fallen to the floor. But everything was in its place. Then he walked back into the room and looked out the window. The courtyard between the buildings was empty. A lone pair of blue worker’s overalls was hanging on a line, flapping a little in the breeze. Wallander returned to his bed. He had been torn from a dream. The girl from the cafe had been there. But the dream had been unclear and disjointed.

He got up and looked at his watch. A quarter to four. He had slept for more than two hours. He sat down at the kitchen table and wrote down everything he needed to buy. Mona had promised to buy something to drink in Copenhagen. He tucked the piece of paper into his pocket and closed the door behind him.

He ended up standing in the dim light of the hallway. The door to his neighbour’s apartment was ajar. This surprised Wallander because the man who lived there was extremely private and had even had an extra lock installed this May. Wallander wondered if he should ignore it but decided to knock. The man who lived alone was a retired seaman by the name of Artur Halen. He was already living in the building when Wallander moved in. They usually said hello to each other and occasionally exchanged a few words if they happened to meet each other on the stairs, but nothing more. Wallander had neither seen nor heard Halen receive any visitors. In the mornings he listened to the radio, in the evening he turned on the television. But by ten o’clock everything was quiet. A few times Wallander had wondered how much Halen was conscious of his evening visits, in particular the aroused sounds of the night. But of course he had never asked.

Wallander knocked again. No answer. Then he opened the door and called out. It was quiet. He took some hesitant steps into the hallway. It smelled closed in, a stale old-man smell. Wallander called out again.

He must have forgotten to lock up when he went out, Wallander thought. He is about seventy years old, after all. He must be getting forgetful.

Wallander glanced into the kitchen. A crumpled-up football betting form lay on the wax tablecloth next to a coffee cup. Then he drew aside the curtains that led into the room. He winced. Halen was lying on the floor. His white shirt was stained with blood. A revolver lay next to his hand.

The bang, Wallander thought. What I heard was a shot.

He felt himself start to get sick to his stomach. He had seen dead bodies many times before. People who had drowned or hanged themselves. People who had burned to death or been crushed beyond recognition in traffic accidents. But he had not grown accustomed to it.

He looked around the room. Halen’s apartment was a mirror image of his own. The furnishings gave a meagre impression. Not one plant or ornament. The bed was unmade.

Wallander studied the body for a few more moments. Halen must have shot himself in the chest. And he was dead. Wallander did not need to check his pulse in order to determine that.

He returned quickly to his own apartment and called the police. Told them who he was, a colleague, filled them in on what had happened. Then he walked out onto the street and waited for the first responders to arrive.

The police and emergency medical technicians arrived at almost the same time. Wallander nodded at them as they got out of their cars. He knew them all.

‘What have you found in there?’ one of the patrol officers asked. His name was Sven Svensson; he came from Landskrona and was always referred to as ‘The Thorn’ because once, while chasing a burglar, he had fallen into a thicket and been pierced in his lower abdomen by a number of thorns.

‘My neighbour,’ Wallander said. ‘He’s shot himself.’

‘Hemberg is on his way,’ the Thorn said. ‘The crime squad is going to have to go over everything.’

Wallander nodded. He knew. Every fatal event, however natural it might seem, had to be investigated.

Hemberg was a man with a certain reputation, not entirely positive. He angered easily and could be unpleasant to his co-workers. But at the same time he was such a virtuoso in his profession that no one really dared contradict him. Wallander noticed that he was starting to get nervous. Had he done anything wrong? If so, Hemberg would immediately let him know. And it was for Detective Inspector Hemberg that Wallander was going to be working as soon as his transfer came through.

Wallander stayed out on the street, waiting. A dark Volvo pulled up to the kerb and Hemberg got out. He was alone. It took several seconds before he recognised Wallander.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Hemberg asked.

‘I live here,’ Wallander answered. ‘It’s my neighbour who’s shot himself. I was the one who made the call.’

Hemberg raised his eyebrows with interest.

‘Did you see him?’

‘What do you mean, “see”?’

‘Did you see him shoot himself?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Then how do you know it was a suicide?’

‘The weapon was lying right next to the body.’

‘So?’

Wallander didn’t know what to say to this.

‘You have to learn to pose the right questions,’ Hemberg said. ‘If you are to work as a detective. I already have enough people who don’t know how to think. I don’t want another one.’

Then he changed tack and adopted a friendlier tone.

‘If you say it was a suicide it probably was. Where is it?’

Wallander pointed to the entrance. They went in.

Wallander attentively followed Hemberg in his work. Watched him crouch down next to the body and discuss the bullet’s point of entry with the doctor who had arrived. Studied the position of the weapon, the body, the hand. Then he walked around the apartment, examining the contents in the chest of drawers, the cupboards and the clothes.

After about an hour, he was done. He signalled to Wallander to join him in the kitchen.

‘It certainly looks like suicide,’ Hemberg said while he absently smoothed and read the football betting form on the table.

‘I heard a bang,’ Wallander said. ‘That must have been the shot.’

‘You didn’t hear anything else?’

Wallander thought it was best to tell the truth.

‘I was napping,’ he said. ‘The sudden noise woke me up.’

‘And after that? No sound of anyone running in the stairwell?’

‘No.’

‘Did you know him?’

Wallander told him the little he knew.

‘He had no relatives?’

‘None that I’m aware of.’

‘We’ll have to look into the matter.’

Hemberg sat quietly for a moment.

‘There are no family pictures,’ he went on. ‘Not on the chest of drawers in there or on the walls. Nothing in the drawers. Only two old sailing books. The only thing of interest that I could find was a colourful beetle in a jar. Larger than a stag beetle. Do you know what that is?’

Wallander did not.

‘The largest Swedish beetle,’ Hemberg said. ‘But it is nearly extinct.’

He put down the betting form.

‘There was also no suicide note,’ he continued. ‘An old man who has had enough and says goodbye to everything with a bang. According to the doctor he aimed well. Right in the heart.’

An officer came into the kitchen with a wallet and handed it to Hemberg, who opened it and took out an ID card issued by the post office.

‘Artur Halen,’ Hemberg said. ‘Born in 1898. He had many tattoos. Which is appropriate for a sailor of the old school. Do you know what he did at sea?’

‘I think he was a ship’s engineer.’

‘In one of the sailing logs he is registered as an engineer. In an earlier one, simply as a deckhand. He worked in various capacities. Once he became infatuated with a girl named Lucia. That name was tattooed on both his right shoulder and on his chest. One could say he symbolically shot himself straight through this beautiful name.’

Hemberg put the ID card and wallet into a bag.

‘The medical examiner will have to have the last word,’ he said. ‘And we will do a routine examination of both the weapon and the bullet. But it’s definitely suicide.’

Hemberg threw another glance at the betting form.

‘Artur Halen did not know much about English football,’ he said. ‘If he had won on this prediction the jackpot would have been his alone.’

Hemberg stood up. At the same time the body was being carried out. The covered stretcher was carefully guided out through the narrow hall.

‘It happens more often,’ Hemberg said thoughtfully. ‘Old people who take their final exit into their own hands. But not so often with a bullet. And even less often with a revolver.’

He was suddenly scrutinising Wallander.

‘But of course this has already occurred to you.’

Wallander was taken aback.

‘What do you mean?’

‘That it was strange that he had a revolver. We have gone through the chest of drawers. But there is no licence.’

‘He must have bought it sometime at sea.’

Hemberg shrugged.

‘Of course.’

Wallander followed Hemberg down onto the street.

‘Since you are the neighbour I thought perhaps you could take care of the key,’ he said. ‘When the others are done they will leave it with you. Make sure no one who is not supposed to enter goes in there until we are completely sure it is a suicide.’

Wallander went back into the building. In the stairwell he bumped into Linnea Almquist, who was on her way out with a bag of rubbish.

‘What is all this commotion?’ she asked irritably.

‘Unfortunately there has been a death,’ Wallander said politely. ‘Halen has passed away.’

She was clearly shaken by the news.

‘He must have been very lonely,’ she said slowly. ‘I tried to get him to come in for a cup of coffee a few times. He excused himself with the fact that he didn’t have time. But surely time was the only thing he had?’

‘I hardly knew him,’ Wallander said.

‘Was it his heart?’

Wallander nodded.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It was probably his heart.’

‘We’ll have to hope no noisy young people move in,’ she said, and left.

Wallander returned to Halen’s apartment. It was easier now that the body had been removed. A technician was packing up his bag. The pool of blood had darkened on the linoleum floor. The Thorn was picking at his cuticles.

‘Hemberg said that I should take the keys,’ Wallander said.

The Thorn pointed to a key ring on the chest of drawers.

‘I wonder who owns the building,’ he said. ‘I have a girlfriend who’s looking for a place to live.’

‘The walls are very thin,’ Wallander said. ‘Just so you know.’

‘Haven’t you heard about those new exotic waterbeds?’ the Thorn asked. ‘They don’t creak.’

It was already a quarter past six when Wallander could finally lock the door to Halen’s apartment. There were still several hours left before he was supposed to meet Mona. He went back to his place and put on some coffee. The wind had picked up. He closed the window and sat down in the kitchen. He had not had any time to buy groceries and now the shop was closed. There was no shop that was open late nearby. It occurred to him that he would have to take Mona out for dinner. His wallet was on the table. There was enough money. Mona liked going out to dinner, but Wallander thought it was throwing away money for no reason.

The coffee pot started to whistle. He poured himself a cup and added three lumps of sugar. Waited for it to cool.

Something was nagging at him.

Where it came from, he didn’t know.

But all at once the feeling was very strong.

He did not know what it was, other than that it had to do with Halen. In his mind he went over what had happened. The bang that woke him, the door that was ajar, the dead body on the floor inside the room. A man who had committed suicide, a man who had been his neighbour.

Nonetheless something didn’t add up. Wallander walked into the main room and lay down on the bed. Listened in his memory to the bang. Had he heard anything else? Before or after? Had any sounds penetrated his dreams? He searched but found nothing. Still, he was sure. There was something he had overlooked. He continued to go through his memories. But he remembered only silence. He got up from his bed and walked back out into the kitchen. The coffee had cooled.

I’m imagining things, he thought. I saw it, Hemberg saw it, everyone saw it. An old, lonely man who had had enough.

And yet it was as if he had seen something without realising what he was seeing.

At the same time he had to admit that there was something inherently attractive about this idea. That he may have noticed something that had escaped Hemberg. That would increase his chances of advancing to criminal investigator sooner rather than later.

He checked his watch. He still had time before he had to leave and meet Mona at the Denmark ferry. He put the coffee cup in the sink, grabbed the keys and entered Halen’s apartment. When he reached the main room everything was as it had been when he discovered the body, except that the body itself was now missing. But the room was unchanged. Wallander looked around slowly. How do you do this? he wondered. How do you discover what you see but aren’t seeing?

It was something, he was sure of it.

But he couldn’t put his finger on it.

He walked into the kitchen and sat down on the chair that Hemberg had used. The betting form lay in front of him. Wallander did not know very much about English football. Actually, he didn’t know very much about football, period. If he felt like gambling, he bought a lottery ticket. Nothing else.

The betting form was made out for this coming Saturday, he could see. Halen had even written out his name and address.

Wallander returned to the room and walked over to the window in order to look at it from another angle. His gaze stopped by the bed. Halen had been dressed when he took his life. But the bed was unmade. Even though the rest of the apartment was characterised by a meticulous order. Why hadn’t he made the bed? Wallander thought. He could hardly have slept with his clothes on, woken up and then shot himself without making his bed. And why leave a completed betting form on the kitchen table?

It did not make sense, but on the other hand it did not necessarily mean anything. Halen could have very quickly decided to kill himself. Perhaps he had realised the senselessness of making his bed one last time.

Wallander sat down in the room’s only armchair. It was old and worn. I’m imagining things, he thought again. The medical examiner will establish that it was a suicide, the forensic investigation will confirm that the weapon and bullet match up and that the shot was fired by Halen’s own hand.

Wallander decided to leave the apartment. It was time to freshen up and change his clothes before leaving to meet Mona. But something kept him there. He walked over to the chest and started pulling open the drawers. He immediately found the two sea logs. Artur Halen had been a handsome man in his youth. Blond hair, a big wide smile. Wallander had trouble connecting this image with the same man who had lived out his days in Rosengard in peace and quiet. Least of all he felt that these were pictures of someone who would one day come to take his own life. But he knew how wrong his thinking was. People who ended up committing suicide could never be characterised from a given model.

He found the colourful beetle and took it over to the window. On the bottom of the jar he thought he could make out the stamped word ‘Brazil’. A souvenir that Halen had bought on some trip. Wallander continued to go through the drawers. Keys, coins from various countries, nothing that caught his attention. Halfway under the worn and torn drawer liner he found a brown envelope. Inside was an old photograph, a wedding picture. On the back was the name of the studio and a date: 15 May 1894. The studio was located in Harnosand. There was also the note: Manda and I the day we got married. His parents, Wallander thought. Four years later their son was born.

When he was done with the chest of drawers he walked over to the bookcase. To his surprise he found several books in German. They were well thumbed. There were also some books by Vilhelm Moberg, a Spanish cookbook and a few issues of a magazine for people interested in model aeroplanes. Wallander shook his head in bewilderment. Halen was considerably more complex than he could have imagined. He walked away from the bookcase and checked under the bed. Nothing. He then went on to the cupboard. The clothes were neatly hung; three pairs of shoes, well polished. It is only the unmade bed, Wallander thought again. It doesn’t fit.

He was about to shut the cupboard door when the doorbell rang. Wallander flinched. Waited. There was another ring. Wallander had the feeling that he was trespassing on forbidden territory. He kept waiting, but when it rang the third time he went over and opened the door.

Outside there was a man in a grey coat. He looked enquiringly at Wallander.

‘Am I mistaken?’ he asked. ‘I am looking for Mr Halen.’

Wallander tried to adopt a formal tone that would sound appropriate.

‘May I ask who you are?’ he said with unnecessary brusqueness.

The man frowned.

‘And if I could ask the same of you?’ he asked.

‘I am from the police,’ Wallander said. ‘Detective Sergeant Kurt Wallander. Would you now be so kind as to answer my question: who are you and what do you want?’

‘I sell encyclopedias,’ the man said meekly. ‘I was here last week and made a presentation of my books. Artur Halen asked me to come back today. He has already sent in the contract and the first payment. I was to deliver the first volume and then the gift book that all new clients receive as a welcome bonus.’

He took two books out of his briefcase as if to assure Wallander that he was telling the truth.

Wallander had been listening with increasing amazement. The feeling that something didn’t add up was strengthened. He stepped aside and nodded for the salesman to come in.

‘Has anything happened?’ the man asked.

Wallander ushered him into the kitchen without answering and indicated that he should sit down at the table.

Then Wallander realised that he was now going to deliver the news of a death. Something he had always dreaded. But he reminded himself that he was not talking to a relative, only to an encyclopedia salesman.

‘Artur Halen is dead,’ he said.

The man on the other side of the table did not seem to understand this.

‘But I spoke to him earlier today.’

‘I thought you said you had spoken to him last week?’

‘I called him this morning and asked if it would be all right for me to come by this evening.’

‘What did he say?’

‘That it would be fine. Why else would I have come? I am not an intrusive person. People have such bizarre preconceptions about door-to-door salesmen.’

It was likely that the man was lying.

‘Let’s take the whole thing from the top,’ Wallander said.

‘What is it that’s happened?’ the man interrupted.

‘Artur Halen is dead,’ Wallander answered. ‘And that is as much as I can say at this point.’

‘But if the police are involved then something must have happened. Was he hit by a car?’

‘For now that is as much as I can say,’ Wallander repeated and wondered why he had to overdramatise the situation.

Then he asked the man to tell him the whole story.

‘I am Emil Holmberg,’ the man began. ‘I am actually a school biology teacher. But I’m trying to sell encyclopedias to save up for a trip to Borneo.’

‘Borneo?’

‘I’m interested in tropical plants.’

Wallander nodded for him to continue.

‘I walked around the neighbourhood here last week and knocked on people’s doors. Artur Halen showed some interest and asked me to come in. We sat here in the kitchen. I told him about the encyclopedia, what it cost, and showed him a copy of one of the volumes. After about half an hour he signed the contract. Then I called him today and he said that it would be all right for me to come by this evening.’

‘Which day were you here last week?’

‘Tuesday. Between around four and half past five.’

Wallander recalled that he had been on duty at that time. But he saw no reason to tell the man that he lived in the building. Especially since he had claimed to be a detective.

‘Halen was the only one who showed any interest,’ Holmberg continued. ‘A lady on one of the upper floors started to tell me off for disturbing people. These things happen, but not too often. Next door to here there was no one home, I remember.’

‘You said that Halen made his first payment?’

The man opened his briefcase where he kept the books and showed Wallander a receipt. It was dated the Friday from the week before.

Wallander thought it over.

‘How long was he supposed to make payments for this encyclopedia?’

‘For two years. Until all twenty instalments were paid for.’

This makes no sense, Wallander thought, no sense at all. A man who was planning to commit suicide doesn’t agree to sign a two-year contract.

‘What was your impression of Halen?’ Wallander asked.

‘I don’t think I know what you mean.’

‘How was he? Calm? Happy? Did he appear worried?’

‘He didn’t say very much. But he was genuinely interested in the encyclopedia. I am sure of that much.’

Wallander did not have anything else to ask. There was a pencil on the kitchen windowsill. He searched for a piece of paper in his pocket. The only thing he found was his grocery list. He turned it over and asked Holmberg to write down his number.

‘We will most likely not be in touch again,’ he said. ‘But I’d like to have your telephone number as a precaution.’

‘Halen seemed perfectly healthy,’ Holmberg said. ‘What is it really that has happened? And what will now happen with the contract?’

‘Unless he has relatives that can take it over, I don’t think you’ll get paid. I can assure you that he is dead.’

‘But you can’t tell me what has happened?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘It sounds sinister to me.’

Wallander stood up to indicate that their talk was over. Holmberg stood rooted to the spot with his briefcase.

‘Would I be able to interest you, Detective Inspector, in an encyclopedia?’

‘Detective Sergeant,’ Wallander said, ‘and I don’t need an encyclopedia right now. At least not at the moment.’

Wallander showed Holmberg out to the street. Only when the man had turned the corner on his bike did Wallander go back in and return to Halen’s apartment. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and in his mind walked back over everything that Holmberg had said. The only reasonable explanation he could come up with was that Halen had arrived at his decision to kill himself very suddenly. If you could rule out the idea of him being so crazy that he wanted to play a mean trick on an innocent salesman.

Somewhere in the distance a telephone rang. Far too late he realised it was his own. He ran into the apartment. It was Mona.

‘I thought you were going to meet me,’ she said angrily.

Wallander looked at his watch and swore quietly. He should have been down by the boat at least a quarter of an hour ago.

‘I got caught up in a criminal investigation,’ he said apologetically.

‘I thought you were off today?’

‘Unfortunately they needed me.’

‘Are there really no other policemen except you? Is this how it’s going to be?’

‘It was an exception.’

‘Did you go grocery shopping?’

‘No, I ran out of time.’

He heard how disappointed she was.

‘I’ll come get you now,’ he said, ‘I’ll try to hail a cab. Then we can go to a restaurant somewhere.’

‘How can I be sure? Maybe you’ll get called away again.’

‘I’ll be down there as soon as I can, I promise.’

‘I’ll be on a bench outside. But I’m only waiting for twenty minutes. Then I’m going home.’

Wallander hung up and called the cab company. It was busy. It took almost ten minutes for him to get a cab. Between tries, he managed to lock up Halen’s apartment and change his shirt.

He arrived at the ferry terminal after thirty-three minutes. Mona had already left. She lived on Sodra Forstadsgatan. Wallander walked up to Gustav Adolf’s Square and called from a payphone. There was no answer. Five minutes later he called again. By then she was home.

‘If I say twenty minutes, I mean twenty minutes,’ she said.

‘I couldn’t get a hold of a cab. The line to the damn cab company was busy.’

‘I’m tired anyway,’ she said. ‘Let’s get together another night.’

Wallander tried to change her mind, but she was firm. The conversation turned into an argument. Then she hung up. Wallander slammed the receiver into the cradle. A couple of passing patrol officers gave him disapproving looks. They did not appear to recognise him.

Wallander walked over to a hot-dog stand by the square. Then he sat down on a bench to eat and distractedly watched some seagulls fighting over a scrap of bread.

He and Mona did not fight very often but each time it happened it worried him. Inside, he knew it would blow over the next day. Then she would be back to normal. But his reason had no influence on his anxiety. It was there anyway.

When Wallander arrived home he sat down at the kitchen table and tried to concentrate on writing down a systematic account of everything that had happened in the apartment next door. But he didn’t feel he was getting anywhere. On top of this he felt unsure of himself. How do you go about conducting an investigation and an analysis of a crime scene? He realised he lacked too many fundamental skills, despite his time at the police academy. After half an hour he angrily threw the pen down. It was all in his imagination. Halen had shot himself. The betting form and the salesman didn’t change anything. He would be better off bemoaning the fact that he had not got to know Halen. Perhaps it was the man’s loneliness that at last became unbearable?

Wallander walked to and fro in the apartment, restless, anxious. Mona had disappointed him. And it had been his fault.

From the street he heard a car drive by. Music was streaming from the open car window. ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. The song had been extremely popular a few years earlier. But what was the name of the group? The Kinks? Wallander could not remember. Then it occurred to him that at this time he normally heard the faint sound of Halen’s TV through the wall. Now everything was quiet.

Wallander sat down on the sofa and put his feet on the coffee table. Thought about his father. The winter coat and hat, the shoes worn without socks. If it hadn’t been so late he might have driven out to play cards with him. But he was starting to get tired, even though it was not yet eleven. He turned on the television. As usual there was a public television talk show. It took a while before he understood that the participants were discussing the pros and cons of the approaching era. The age of computers. He turned it off. Stayed put for a while before he undressed and went to bed, yawning the whole time.

Soon he had fallen asleep.

Later he could never figure out what had woken him up. But all of a sudden he was wide awake, listening intently to the dim summer night. Something had awakened him, he was sure of it. Perhaps it was a car with a broken tailpipe driving by? The curtain moved gently in the open window. He closed his eyes again.

Then he heard it, right next to his head.

Someone was in Halen’s apartment. He held his breath and continued to listen. There was a clang, as if someone had moved an object. Shortly thereafter he heard the sound of something dragging on the floor. Someone moving a piece of furniture. Wallander looked at the clock on his bedside table. A quarter to three. He pressed his ear against the wall. He had started to think it was his imagination when he heard another sound. There was no doubt that someone was in there.

He sat up in bed and wondered what he should do. Call his colleagues? If Halen didn’t have any relatives then surely no one had any reason to be in the apartment. But they weren’t sure of his family situation. And he may have given a spare key to someone they did not know about.

Wallander got out of bed and pulled on his trousers and shirt. Then he walked barefoot out onto the landing. The door to Halen’s apartment was closed. He had the keys in his hand. Suddenly he wasn’t sure what he should do. The most reasonable thing was to ring the doorbell. After all, Hemberg had given him the keys and thus conferred a certain responsibility on him. He pressed the buzzer. Waited. Now it was completely quiet in the apartment. He buzzed again. Still no reaction. At that moment he realised that a person inside the apartment could very easily escape through a window. It was barely two metres to the ground. He swore and ran out onto the street. Halen had a corner apartment, and Wallander hurried round to the other side. The street was empty. But one of Halen’s windows was wide open.

Wallander went back into the building and unlocked Halen’s door. Before he walked in he called out but received no answer. He turned on the hall light and walked into the main room. The chest drawers were pulled out. Wallander looked around. Someone had been in the apartment and looking for something. He walked over to a window and tried to see if it had been forced open. But he found no marks on it. That meant he could draw two conclusions. The unknown person who had been in the apartment had had access to keys. And he or she had not wanted to be found out.

Wallander turned on the light in the room and started to look around to see if anything that had been there earlier in the day had gone missing. But he was unsure of his memory. The most noticeable things were still there. The beetle from Brazil, the sea logs and the old photograph. But the photograph had been removed from the envelope and was lying on the floor. Wallander crouched down and studied the envelope. Someone had taken the picture out. The only explanation he could think of was that someone had been looking for something that might be found in an envelope.

He got up and continued to look around. The bedclothes were torn from the bed, the cupboard door was open. One of Halen’s two suits had ended up on the floor.

Someone has been searching, Wallander thought. The question is, for what? And did he or she find it before I rang the doorbell?

He walked out to the kitchen. The cabinets were open. A pot had fallen to the floor. Maybe that was what had woken him up? Really, he thought, the answer is obvious. If the person who was in here had found what he was looking for, he would have left. And hardly through the window. Therefore whatever the person was looking for was still here. If it ever had been.

Wallander returned to the room and looked at the dried blood on the floor.

What happened? he thought. Was it really suicide?

He continued to search the apartment. But at ten past four he gave up, returned to his apartment and got back into bed. He set his alarm for seven. He was going to talk to Hemberg first thing in the morning.

A few hours later Wallander had to run to the bus stop in pouring rain. He had had a restless sleep and woken up long before the alarm went off. The thought that he might be able to impress Hemberg with his attentiveness had led him to lie there fantasising about how he would one day be a criminal investigator a cut above the rest. This thought also made him decide to stand his ground with Mona. You could not expect a policeman to be punctual.

It was four minutes to seven when he arrived at the station. He had heard that Hemberg often showed up very early to work and an enquiry to reception revealed this to be correct. Hemberg had been there since six o’clock. Wallander walked up to the section where the crime squad was based. Most of the offices were still empty. He walked straight to Hemberg’s door and knocked. When he heard Hemberg’s voice he opened it and walked in. Hemberg was sitting in the visitor’s chair, cutting his nails. When he saw that it was Wallander he frowned.

‘Do we have a scheduled appointment? I don’t recall seeing anything like that.’

‘No. But I have something to report.’

Hemberg put the nail scissors next to his pens and sat down at his desk.

‘If this is going to take more than five minutes, you can sit down,’ he said.

Wallander remained standing. Then he told him what had happened. He started with the salesman and went on to the night’s events. He could not determine if Hemberg was listening with interest or not. His face revealed nothing.

‘That was it,’ Wallander finished. ‘I thought I should report this as soon as possible.’

Hemberg gestured for Wallander to have a seat. Then he pulled over a pad of paper, chose a pen, and wrote down the name and number of the encyclopedia salesman, Holmberg. Wallander made a mental note to himself about the notepad. Hemberg did not favour loose papers or preformatted report forms.

‘The nightly visit appears strange,’ he then said. ‘But in the end it does not change anything. Halen committed suicide. I am convinced of it. When the autopsy and weapons report come in we’ll have that confirmed.’

‘The question is who was there last night.’

Hemberg shrugged.

‘You have given a possible answer yourself. Someone with keys. Someone looking for something he or she did not want to let slip out of their hands. Rumours spread quickly. People saw the police cars and ambulance. Many people must have known that Halen was dead after only a couple of hours.’

‘But it’s strange that this person jumped out of the window.’

Hemberg smiled.

‘He may have thought you were a burglar,’ he said.

‘Who rang the bell?’

‘A standard way of seeing if anyone’s home.’

‘At three o’clock in the morning?’

Hemberg threw down the pen and leaned back in his chair.

‘You don’t seem convinced,’ he said, without masking the fact that Wallander was beginning to get on his nerves.

Wallander immediately realised that he had gone too far and started his retreat.

‘Of course I am,’ he said. ‘It’s definitely suicide and nothing more.’

‘Good,’ Hemberg said. ‘Then that’s settled. It was good of you to report this. I’ll send over a couple of guys to deal with the mess. Then we’ll wait for the medical examiners and forensic lab. After that we can put Halen in a folder and forget about him.’

Hemberg put his hand on the phone as a signal that the conversation was over and Wallander left the room. He felt like an idiot. An idiot who had run away with himself. What was it he had imagined? That he had tracked down a murder? He walked back to his office and decided that Hemberg was right. Once and for all, forget all thoughts of Halen. And be a diligent patrolman a little longer.

That evening Mona came out to Rosengard. They had dinner and Wallander said none of his prepared speech. Instead he apologised for being late. Mona accepted this and then spent the night. They lay awake for a long time, talking about July, when they were going on holiday together for two weeks. They had still not decided what they were going to do. Mona worked in a hair salon and did not make much money. Her dream was to be able to open her own place sometime in the future. Wallander also did not have a high salary. To be exact, 1,896 kronor a month. They had no car and they would have to plan carefully to get the money to last.

Wallander had suggested they travel north and hike in the mountains. He had never been further than Stockholm. But Mona wanted to go somewhere where you could swim. They had done the calculation to see if they could afford to go to Mallorca. But that was too expensive. Instead Mona suggested they go to Skagen in Denmark. She had been there a few times with her parents as a child and had never forgotten it. She had also already found out that there were many inexpensive bed and breakfasts that were not yet fully booked. Before they fell asleep they had managed to reach an agreement. They would go to Skagen. The next day Mona would book a room, while Wallander would check the train schedule from Copenhagen.

The following evening, 5 June, Mona went to visit her parents in Staffanstorp. Wallander played poker with his father for several hours. For once his father was in a good mood and did not start criticising Wallander for his choice of profession. When he went on to win almost fifty kronor from his son he became so jolly that he took out a bottle of cognac.

‘Sometime I want to go to Italy,’ he said after they had said cheers. ‘And once in my life I also want to see the pyramids in Egypt.’

‘Why?’

His father looked at him for a long time.

‘That is an extraordinarily stupid question,’ he said. ‘Of course you should see Rome before you die. And the pyramids. It is part of a well-rounded person’s general education.’

‘How many Swedes do you think can afford to go to Egypt?’

His father pretended not to hear his objection.

‘But I am not about to die,’ he added instead. ‘What I will do is move to Loderup.’

‘How’s the property deal coming along?’

‘It’s already done.’

Wallander stared at him with surprise.

‘What do you mean by “done”?’

‘I’ve already bought and paid for the house. Svindala 12:24 is the address.’

‘But I haven’t even seen it.’

‘You’re not the one who’s going to live there. I am.’

‘Have you even been out there?’

‘I’ve seen a picture of it. That’s enough. I make no unnecessary trips. It encroaches on my work.’

Wallander groaned inside. He was convinced his father had been duped. Taken advantage of, as he so often had been when he sold his paintings to the dubious characters in their large American cars who had been his clients all these years.

‘This is news,’ Wallander said. ‘May I ask when you’re planning to move?’

‘The removal men are coming this Friday.’

‘You’re already moving this week?’

‘You heard what I said. Next time we play cards we’ll be in the middle of the Skane mud.’

Wallander threw his arms out.

‘When will you pack? Everything is a terrible mess.’

‘I assumed that you wouldn’t have any time. So I asked your sister to come down and help me.’

‘So you’re saying that if I hadn’t come over tonight I would have found an empty house the next time I came for a visit?’

‘Yes, you would have.’

Wallander held out his glass for more cognac, which his father parsimoniously only filled halfway.

‘I don’t even know where it is. Loderup? Is that on this or the far side of Ystad?’

‘It’s on this side of Simrishamn.’

‘Can you answer my question?’

‘I already have.’

His father stood up and put the bottle of cognac away. Then he pointed to the cards.

‘One more hand?’

‘I have no money left. But I’ll try to drop by in the evenings and help you pack. How did you pay for this house?’

‘I’ve already forgotten that.’

‘You can’t have done. Do you have that much money?’

‘No. But money doesn’t interest me.’

Wallander realised he was not going to get a clearer answer than this. It was already half past ten. He needed to get home and sleep. At the same time he had trouble leaving. This was where he had grown up. When he was born they had lived in Klagshamn but he had no real memories of it.

‘Who is going to live here now?’ he asked.

‘I’ve heard it will be demolished.’

‘You don’t seem to care very much about that. How long have you lived here, anyway?’

‘Nineteen years. More than enough.’

‘I can’t accuse you of being sentimental, at any rate. Do you realise that this is my childhood home?’

‘A house is a house,’ his father answered. ‘Now I’ve had enough of the city. I want to get out into the countryside. I’ll be left in peace there and paint and plan my travels to Egypt and Italy.’

Wallander walked all the way back to Rosengard. It was overcast. He realised he was anxious that his father was going to move and that his childhood home was going to be torn down.

I am sentimental, he thought. Perhaps that’s why I like opera. The question is, can you be a good police officer if you have a tendency towards sentimentality?

The day after, Wallander called to enquire about train departures for their holiday. Mona had booked a room in a bed and breakfast that sounded cosy. Wallander spent the rest of the day patrolling down-town Malmo. The whole time he thought he saw the girl who had accosted him in the cafe. He longed for the day he could take off his uniform. Everywhere gazes were directed at him, expressing distaste or disdain, especially from people his own age. He was patrolling with an overweight and slow policeman by the name of Svanlund, who spent the whole time talking about the fact that he was going to retire in one year and move to his ancestral farm outside Hudiksvall. Wallander listened absently and mumbled something inconsequential from time to time. Apart from escorting some drunks away from a playground, nothing else happened other than Wallander’s feet starting to hurt. It was the first time, even though he had patrolled so often during his working life thus far. He wondered if it was due to his increased desire to become a criminal investigator. When he came home he took out a washbowl and filled it with warm water. A feeling of well-being spread throughout his entire body when he put his feet into the water.

He closed his eyes and started to think about the tempting holiday. He and Mona would have undisturbed time to plan their future. And soon he hoped to be able to hang up his uniform at long last and move up to the floor where Hemberg was.

He nodded off in the chair. The window was open a crack. Someone appeared to be burning rubbish. He picked up a faint smell of smoke. Or perhaps dry twigs. There was a weak crackling sound.

He jerked and opened his eyes. Was there really someone burning rubbish in their garden? There were no free-standing houses with gardens in the neighbourhood.

Then he saw the smoke.

It was filtering in from the hallway. When he ran to the front door he knocked over the bowl of water. The stairwell was full of smoke, but he had no trouble determining the source of the fire.

Halen’s apartment was engulfed in flames.

CHAPTER 2

Afterwards Wallander thought that for once he had really managed to act according to the rule book. He had run back into his apartment and called the fire brigade. Then he had returned to the stairwell, run up a floor, and banged on Linnea Almquist’s door and made sure that she got out onto the street. She had at first protested but Wallander had insisted, grabbing her by the arm. When they made it out the front door Wallander discovered that he had a large cut on one knee. He had tripped over the bowl when he had gone back into the apartment and had hit his knee on a corner of the table. He only discovered now that it was bleeding.

Extinguishing the blaze had gone quickly since the fire had not really had a chance to establish itself before Wallander had smelled the smoke and alerted the fire brigade. When he approached the fire chief to find out if they had already determined the cause of the blaze, he had been turned away. Furious, he had gone to his apartment and retrieved his police badge. The fire chief’s name was Faraker and he was in his sixties, with a ruddy face and a sonorous voice.

‘You could have told me you were police,’ he said.

‘I live in this building. I was the one who called in the alarm.’

Wallander told him what had happened with Halen.

‘Too many people are dying,’ Faraker said firmly. Wallander was not completely sure how to take this unexpected comment.

‘So this means that the apartment was empty,’ Wallander said.

‘It appears to have been started in the entrance hall,’ Faraker said. ‘I’ll be damned if it wasn’t arson.’

Wallander looked quizzically at him.

‘How can you know that already?’

‘You learn a thing or two as the years go by,’ Faraker said at the same time that he handed out some instructions.

‘You will do this too one day,’ he continued and started stuffing an old pipe with tobacco.

‘If this is arson, the crime division will have to be called in, won’t it?’ Wallander said.

‘They’re already on their way.’

Wallander joined some colleagues and helped them keep curious onlookers at bay.

‘The second one today,’ one of the officers said. His name was Wennstrom. ‘This morning we had a pile of burning timber out near Limhamn.’

Wallander wondered briefly if his father had decided to burn the house since he was moving anyway. But he did not pursue this line of thought.

A car pulled up to the kerb. Wallander saw to his surprise that it was Hemberg. He waved Wallander over.

‘I heard the dispatch,’ he said. ‘Lundin was supposed to take it, but I thought I would take over since I recognised the address.’

‘The fire chief thinks it’s arson.’

Hemberg made a face.

‘People believe a hell of a lot of things,’ he said. ‘I’ve known Faraker for almost fifteen years. It doesn’t matter if it’s a burning chimney or car engine. For him everything is a suspected case of arson. Come with me and you may learn something.’

Wallander followed him.

‘What do you say about this?’ Hemberg asked.

‘Arson.’

Faraker sounded extremely sure. Wallander sensed that there was a deep-seated, mutual antipathy between the two men.

‘The man who lives here is dead. Who would have started a fire in there?’

‘That’s your job to find out. I’m just saying it was arson.’

‘Can we go in?’

Faraker shouted out to one of the firemen, who gave an all-clear signal. The fire was out and the worst of the smoke gone. They went in. The part of the entrance hall by the front door was scorched. But the flames had never reached further than the curtain that divided the hall from the main room. Faraker pointed to the letter box in the door.

‘It might have been started here,’ he said. ‘Smouldered first, and then caught fire. There aren’t any electrical wires or anything else that could catch fire on their own.’

Hemberg crouched down next to the door. Then he sniffed.

‘It’s possible that you’re right for once,’ he said and stood back up. ‘It has a smell. Kerosene, maybe.’

‘If it had been petrol, the fire would have been different.’

‘So someone put it through the letter box?’

‘That’s the most likely scenario.’

Faraker poked the remains of the hall mat with his foot.

‘Hardly paper,’ he said. ‘More likely a piece of cloth. Or cotton batting.’

Hemberg shook his head gloomily.

‘Damn people who start fires in the homes of people who are already dead.’

‘Your problem,’ Faraker said. ‘Not mine.’

‘We’ll have to ask forensics to take a look at this.’

For a moment Hemberg appeared concerned. Then he looked at Wallander.

‘Any possibility of getting a cup of coffee?’

They walked into Wallander’s apartment. Hemberg looked at the overturned bowl and the pool of water on the floor.

‘Were you trying to put the fire out yourself?’

‘I was taking a footbath.’

Hemberg regarded him with interest.

‘Footbath?’

‘Sometimes my feet hurt.’

‘Then you must have the wrong kind of shoes,’ Hemberg said. ‘I patrolled for more than ten years but my feet never gave me any trouble.’

Hemberg sat down at the kitchen table while Wallander prepared the coffee.

‘Did you hear anything?’ Hemberg asked. ‘Anyone on the stairs?’

‘No.’

Wallander thought it was embarrassing to admit he was sleeping this time as well.

‘If anyone had been moving around out there, would you have heard them?’

‘You can hear the front door slam,’ Wallander said with deliberate vagueness. ‘I probably would have heard someone come in. If the person didn’t stop the door from slamming.’

Wallander set out a packet of plain vanilla wafers. It was the only thing he had to serve with the coffee.

‘There’s something strange here,’ Hemberg said. ‘Everything points to the fact that it was a perfect suicide. Halen must have had a steady hand. He aimed well. Straight through the heart, no hesitation. The medical examiners aren’t done yet, but we don’t need to look for a cause of death other than suicide. There is none. The question is rather what this person was looking for. And why someone tried to burn down the apartment. It’s probably the same person.’

Hemberg nodded to Wallander, indicating that he wanted more coffee.

‘Do you have an opinion on this?’ Hemberg asked abruptly. ‘Show me now if you can think.’

Wallander was completely unprepared for this.

‘The person who was here last night was looking for something,’ he started. ‘But probably he didn’t find anything.’

‘Because you interrupted him? Because otherwise he would have left already?’

‘Yes.’

‘What was he looking for?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘And now tonight someone sets fire to the apartment. Let us assume it is the same person. What does this mean?’

Wallander pondered this.

‘Take your time,’ Hemberg said. ‘If you are to make a good detective you have to learn to think methodically, and it is often the same thing as thinking slowly.’

‘Perhaps he didn’t want anyone else to find what he had been looking for?’

‘Perhaps,’ Hemberg said. ‘Why “perhaps”?’

‘Because there could be another explanation.’

‘Like what, for example?’

Wallander searched frantically for an alternative without finding one.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘I can’t find another alternative. At least not right now.’

Hemberg took a wafer.

‘I can’t either,’ he said. ‘Which means that the explanation may still be in the apartment. Without us having been able to find it. If this had all stopped at the nightly visit, this case would have ended as soon as the results of the weapons examination and autopsy were in. But with this fire, we’ll probably have to do another round in there.’

‘Did Halen really not have any relatives?’ Wallander asked.

Hemberg pushed away his cup and got to his feet.

‘Come by my office tomorrow and I’ll show you the report.’

Wallander hesitated.

‘I don’t know when I’ll get time for that. We have to do a sweep of the Malmo parks tomorrow. Drugs.’

‘I’ll talk to your superior officer,’ Hemberg said. ‘We’ll work it out.’

A little after eight the following day, 7 June, Wallander was reading through all of the case material that Hemberg had collected on Halen. It was extremely sparse. He had no fortune but also no debt. He appeared to have lived completely within the means of his pension. The only recorded relative was a sister who had died in 1967 in Katrineholm. The parents had passed away earlier.

Wallander read the report in Hemberg’s office while Hemberg attended a meeting. He returned shortly after half past eight.

‘Have you found anything?’ he asked.

‘How can a person be so alone?’

‘You may ask,’ Hemberg said, ‘but it gives us no answers. Let’s go over to the apartment.’

That morning the forensic technicians were making a thorough examination of Halen’s apartment. The man leading the work was small and thin and said almost nothing. His name was Sjunnesson; he was a legend in Swedish forensics.

‘If there’s anything here, he’ll find it,’ Hemberg said. ‘Stay here and learn from him.’

Hemberg suddenly received a message and left.

‘A man up in Jagersro has hanged himself in a garage,’ he said when he returned.

Then he left again. When he returned, his hair had been trimmed.

At three o’clock Sjunnesson called the work to a halt.

‘There’s nothing here,’ he said. ‘No hidden money, no drugs. It’s clean.’

‘Then there was someone who imagined there was something here,’ Hemberg said. ‘And who was wrong. Now we’ll close this case.’

Wallander followed Hemberg out onto the street.

‘You have to know when it’s time to quit,’ Hemberg said. ‘That may be the most important thing of all.’

Wallander went back to his apartment and called Mona. They agreed to meet later that evening and take a drive. She had borrowed a car from a friend. She would drop by and pick Wallander up at seven.

‘Let’s go to Helsingborg,’ she suggested.

‘Why?’

‘Because I’ve never been there.’

‘Me neither,’ Wallander said. ‘I’ll be ready at seven. And then we’ll go to Helsingborg.’

But Wallander never made it to Helsingborg that evening. Shortly before six o’clock the phone rang. It was Hemberg.

‘Come down here,’ he said. ‘I’m in my office.’

‘Actually I have other plans,’ Wallander said.

Hemberg interrupted him.

‘I thought you were interested in what had happened to your neighbour. Come down here and I’ll show you. It won’t take long.’

Wallander’s curiosity was aroused. He called Mona at home but did not get an answer.

I’ll make it back in time, he thought. I can’t really afford a taxi but that can’t be helped. He tore off a piece of paper from a bag and scribbled that he would be back at seven. Then he called for a cab. This time he was able to get through immediately. He attached the note to the door with a drawing pin and left for the police headquarters. Hemberg was sitting in his office with his feet on the table.

He gestured for Wallander to sit down.

‘We were wrong,’ he said. ‘There was an alternative that we didn’t think of. Sjunnesson didn’t make a mistake. He told the truth: there wasn’t anything in Halen’s apartment. And he was right. But there had been something there.’

Wallander did not know what Hemberg was talking about.

‘I also admit that I was tricked,’ Hemberg said. ‘But Halen had removed what was in the apartment.’

‘But he was dead.’

Hemberg nodded.

‘The medical examiner called,’ he said. ‘The autopsy is complete. And he found something very interesting in Halen’s stomach.’

Hemberg swung his feet off the desk. Then he took out a little folded piece of cloth from one of the drawers and carefully unwrapped it in front of Wallander.

There were stones inside. Precious stones. Of which type, Wallander was unable to determine.

‘I had a jeweller here just before you arrived,’ Hemberg said. ‘He made a preliminary examination. These are diamonds. Probably from South African mines. He said they were worth a minor fortune. Halen had swallowed them.’

‘He had these in his stomach?’

Hemberg nodded.

‘No wonder we didn’t find them.’

‘But why did he swallow them? And when did he do this?’

‘The last question is perhaps the most important. The doctor said that he swallowed them only a few hours before he shot himself. Before his intestines and stomach stopped working. Why do you think that might be?’

‘He was afraid.’

‘Exactly.’

Hemberg pushed the packet of diamonds away and put his feet back up on the table. Wallander caught a whiff of foot odour.

‘Summarise this for me.’

‘I don’t know if I can.’

‘Try it!’

‘Halen swallowed the diamonds because he was afraid that someone was going to steal them. And then he shot himself. The person who was there that night was looking for them. But I can’t explain the blaze.’

‘Can’t you explain it a different way?’ Hemberg suggested. ‘If you tweak Halen’s motive a little. Where does that put you?’

Wallander suddenly realised what Hemberg was getting at.

‘Maybe he wasn’t afraid,’ Wallander said. ‘He had maybe just decided never to be parted from his diamonds.’

Hemberg nodded.

‘You can draw one more conclusion. That someone knew that Halen had these diamonds.’

‘And that Halen knew that someone knew.’

Hemberg nodded, pleased.

‘You’re coming along,’ he said. ‘Even though it’s going very slowly.’

‘But this doesn’t explain the fire.’

‘You still have to ask yourself what is most important,’ Hemberg said. ‘Where is the centre? Where is the very kernel? The fire can be a distraction. Or the act of someone who is angry.’

‘Who?’

Hemberg shrugged.

‘It’ll be hard for us to find that out. Halen is dead. How he has managed to get a hold of these diamonds I don’t know. If I go to the public prosecutor with this he’ll laugh in my face.’

‘What happens to the diamonds?’

‘They go to the General Inheritance Fund. And we can stamp our papers and send in our report about Halen’s death to go as deep in the basement as possible.’

‘Does this mean that the fire won’t be investigated?’

‘Not very thoroughly, I suspect,’ Hemberg said. ‘There is no reason to.’

Hemberg walked over to a cabinet that stood against one wall. He took a key from his pocket and unlocked it. Then he nodded at Wallander to join him. He pointed at some folders with a ribbon around them that were lying to one side.

‘These are my constant companions,’ Hemberg said. ‘Three murder cases that are still neither solved nor old enough to have lapsed. I am not the one who is in charge of them. We review these cases once a year. Or if we receive additional information. These are not originals. They are copies. Sometimes I look at them. On occasion I dream about them. Most policemen aren’t like this. They do their job and when they go home they forget what they are working on. But then there is another type, like me. Who can never let go of an unsolved case. I even take these folders along with me on holiday. Three cases of murder. A nineteen-year-old girl. 1963. Ann-Louise Franzen. She was found strangled behind some bushes by the highway leading north out of town. Leonard Johansson, also 1963. Only seventeen years old. Someone had crushed his skull with a rock. We found him on the beach south of the city.’

‘I remember him,’ Wallander said. ‘Didn’t they suspect that it was a fight over a girl that had spiralled out of control?’

‘There was a fight over a girl,’ Hemberg said. ‘We interviewed the rival for many years. But we didn’t get him. And I don’t even think it was him.’

Hemberg pointed to the file on the bottom.

‘One more girl. Lena Moscho. Twenty years old. 1959. The same year that I came here to Malmo. Her hands had been cut off and buried along a road out to Svedala. It was a dog that found her. She had been raped. She lived with her parents out in Jagersro. An upright sort who was studying to become a physician, of all things. It was in April. She was heading out to buy a newspaper but never returned. It took us five months to find her.’

Hemberg shook his head.

‘You will discover what type you belong to,’ he said and closed the cabinet. ‘The ones who forget or the ones who don’t.’

‘I don’t even know if I measure up,’ Wallander said.

‘You want to, at least,’ Hemberg answered. ‘And that’s a good start.’

Hemberg had started to put on his coat. Wallander checked his watch and saw that it was five minutes to seven.

‘I have to go,’ he said.

‘I can give you a lift home,’ Hemberg said, ‘if you can hold your horses.’

‘I’m in a bit of a hurry,’ Wallander said.

Hemberg shrugged.

‘Now you know,’ he said. ‘Now you know what Halen had in his stomach.’

Wallander was lucky and managed to catch a taxi right outside. When he got to Rosengard it was nine minutes past seven. He hoped that Mona was running late. But when he read the note he had posted on the door he realised that this was not the case.

Is this how it’s going to be? she had written.

Wallander took down the note. The drawing pin fell onto the stairs. He didn’t bother to retrieve it. In the best-case scenario it would get stuck in Linnea Almquist’s shoe.

Is this how it’s going to be? Wallander understood Mona’s impatience. She did not have the same expectations for her professional life as he did. Her dreams about her own salon were not going to come true for a long time.

When he had gone into the apartment and sat down on the sofa he felt guilty. He should spend more time with Mona. Not simply expect her to be patient every time he was late. To try to call her was pointless. Right now she was driving that borrowed car to Helsingborg.

Suddenly there was an anxiety in him that everything was wrong. Had he really thought about what it would mean to live with Mona? To have a child with her?

He pushed the thoughts away. We’ll talk to each other in Skagen, he thought. Then we’ll have time. You can’t be too late on a beach.

He looked at the clock. Half past seven. He turned on the television. As usual a plane had crashed somewhere. Or was it just a train that had run off the rails? He walked into the kitchen and only half listened to the news. Looked in the fridge for a beer, but only found an opened soda. The desire for something stronger was suddenly very intense. The thought of going into town again and sitting in a bar seemed attractive. But he waved it away since he hardly had any money. Even though it was only the beginning of the month.

Instead he warmed the coffee that was in the pot and thought about Hemberg. Hemberg with his unsolved cases in a cupboard. Was he going to be like that? Or would he learn to switch off work when he came home? I’ll have to, for Mona’s sake, he thought. She’ll go crazy otherwise.

The key ring cut into the chair. He took it up and put it on the table without thinking about it. Then something came into his head, something that had to do with Halen.

The extra lock. That he had had installed only a short time ago. How to interpret that? It could be a sign of fear. And why had the door been ajar when Wallander found him?

There was too much that didn’t add up. Even though Hemberg had declared suicide to be the cause of death, doubt gnawed at Wallander.

He was becoming increasingly certain that there was something hidden in Halen’s death, something they had not even come close to. Suicide or not, there was something more.

Wallander located a pad of paper in a kitchen drawer and sat down to write out the points he was still puzzling over. There was the extra lock. The betting form. Why had the door been ajar? Who had been there that night looking for the diamonds? And why the fire?

Then he tried to remind himself what he had seen in the sailor scrapbooks. Rio de Janeiro, he recalled. But was that the name of a ship or the city? He remembered seeing Gothenburg and Bergen. Then he reminded himself that he had seen the name St Luis. Where was that? He stood up and walked around the room. At the very back of the wardrobe he found his old atlas from school. But suddenly he wasn’t sure of the spelling. Was it St Louis or St Luis? The United States or Brazil? As he looked down the list of names in the index he suddenly came to Sao Luis and was immediately sure that this had been the name.

He went through his list again. Do I see anything that I haven’t discovered? he thought. A connection, an explanation, or what Hemberg talked about, a centre?

He found nothing.

The coffee had grown cold. Impatiently he went back to the couch. Now there was one of those public television talk shows on again. This time a number of long-haired people were discussing the new English pop music. He turned it off and put the record player on instead. Immediately Linnea Almquist started to thump on the floor. Mostly he had the desire to turn the volume right up. Instead he turned it off.

At that moment the telephone rang. It was Mona.

‘I’m in Helsingborg,’ she said. ‘I’m in a telephone kiosk down by the harbour.’

‘I’m so sorry I came home too late,’ Wallander said.

‘You were called back on duty, I presume?’

‘They did actually call for me. From the crime squad. Even though I don’t work there yet they called me in.’

He was hoping she would be a little impressed but heard that she did not believe him. Silence wandered back and forth between them.

‘Can’t you come here?’ he said.

‘I think it’s best if we take a break,’ she said. ‘At least for a week or so.’

Wallander felt himself go cold. Was Mona moving away from him?

‘I think it’s best,’ she repeated.

‘I thought we were going on holiday together?’

‘I thought so too. If you haven’t changed your mind.’

‘Of course I haven’t changed my mind.’

‘You don’t need to raise your voice. You can call me in a week. But not before.’

He tried to keep her on, but she had already hung up.

Wallander spent the rest of the evening with a sense of panic growing inside. There was nothing he feared as much as abandonment. It was only with the utmost effort that he managed to stop himself from calling Mona when it was past midnight. He lay down only to get back up again. The light summer sky was suddenly threatening. He fried a couple of eggs that he didn’t eat.

Only when it was approaching five o’clock did he manage to doze off. But almost immediately he was up again.

A thought in his mind.

The betting form.

Halen must have turned these in somewhere. Probably at the same place every week. Since he mostly kept to the neighbourhood, it must be in one of the little newsagents that were close by.

Exactly what finding the right shop would yield, he wasn’t sure. In all likelihood, nothing.

Nonetheless he decided to pursue his thought. It at least had the benefit that it kept his panic about Mona at bay.

He fell into a restless slumber for several hours.

The next day was Sunday. Wallander spent that day doing nothing much at all.

On Monday, 9 June, he did something he had not done before. He called in sick, citing stomach flu as the cause. Mona had been sick the week before. To his surprise, he felt no guilt.

It was overcast but there was no precipitation when he left his building shortly after nine in the morning. It was windy and had become colder. Summer had still not arrived in earnest.

There were two small newsagents nearby that handled bets. One was very close by, on a side street. As Wallander walked through the door it occurred to him that he should have brought a picture of Halen with him. The man behind the counter was Hungarian. Even though he had lived here since 1956 he spoke Swedish very badly. But he recognised Wallander, who often bought cigarettes from him. He did so now as well, two packs.

‘Do you take bets?’ Wallander asked.

‘I thought you only bought lottery tickets?’

‘Did Artur Halen place his bets with you?’

‘Who is that?’

‘The man who died in the fire recently.’

‘Has there been a fire?’

Wallander explained. But the man behind the counter shook his head when Wallander described Halen.

‘He did not come here. He must have gone to someone else.’

Wallander paid and thanked him. It had started to rain lightly. He hurried his pace. The whole time he was thinking about Mona. The next newsagent had not had anything to do with Halen either. Wallander went and stood under the cover of an overhanging balcony and asked himself what he was doing. Hemberg would think I was crazy, he thought.

Then he walked on. The next newsagent was almost a kilometre away. Wallander regretted not having worn a raincoat. When he reached the newsagent, which was right next to a grocery, he had to wait behind someone else. The person behind the counter was a woman about Wallander’s age. She was beautiful. Wallander did not take his eyes off her as she searched for an old issue of a specialised motorcycle magazine that the customer ahead of him wanted. It was very hard for Wallander not to immediately fall in love with a beautiful woman who came his way. Then and only then could he force all thoughts of Mona and associated anxiety into submission. Even though he had already bought two packs of cigarettes he bought one more. At the same time he was trying to work out if the woman in front of him was someone who would show disapproval if he said he was a policeman. Or if she belonged to the majority of the population who despite everything still believed that most policemen were in fact needed and honourably occupied. He took a chance on the latter.

‘I have some questions for you too,’ he said as he paid for his cigarettes. ‘I am Detective Inspector Kurt Wallander.’

‘Oh my,’ the woman answered. Her dialect was different.

‘You aren’t from around here?’ he asked.

‘Was that what you wanted to ask?’

‘No.’

‘I’m from Lenhovda.’

Wallander did not know where that was. He guessed it was in Blekinge. But he did not say this. Instead he continued to the matter of Halen and the betting forms. She had heard about the fire. Wallander described Halen’s appearance. She thought for a moment.

‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘Did he speak slowly? Kind of quietly?’

Wallander thought about it and nodded. That could describe Halen’s manner of speaking.

‘I think he played a small game,’ Wallander said. ‘Only thirty-two rows or so.’

She reflected on this, then nodded.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He came here. Once a week. One week thirty-two rows, the next sixty-four.’

‘Do you remember what he wore?’

‘A blue coat,’ she said immediately.

Wallander recalled that almost every time he had seen Halen he had been wearing a blue jacket with a zip.

There was nothing wrong with her memory. Nor with her curiosity.

‘Had he done something?’

‘Not that we know.’

‘I heard it was suicide.’

‘Indeed it was. But the fire was arson.’

I shouldn’t have said that, Wallander thought. We don’t know that for sure yet.

‘He always had exact change,’ she said. ‘Why do you want to know if he placed his bets here?’

‘Routine questioning,’ Wallander answered. ‘Can you remember anything else about him?’

Her answer caught him by surprise.

‘He used to borrow the telephone,’ she said.

The telephone was on a little shelf next to the table where the betting forms were kept.

‘Was that a frequent occurrence?’

‘It happened every time. First he placed the bet and paid. Then he made his call, came back to the counter and paid for it.’

She bit her lip.

‘There was something strange about those phone calls. I remember thinking about it one time.’

‘What was it?’

‘He always waited until another customer came into the shop before he dialled the number and started to talk. He never called when he and I were the only ones in the shop.’

‘He didn’t want you to overhear.’

She shrugged.

‘Maybe he just wanted his privacy. Isn’t that normal?’

‘Did you ever hear what he talked about?’

‘You can listen even when you’re attending a customer.’

Her curiosity is a big help, Wallander thought.

‘What did he say?’

‘Not very much,’ she answered. ‘The conversations were always very brief. He gave times, I think. Not much more.’

‘Times?’

‘I had the feeling he was arranging a time with someone. He often looked at his watch while he was talking.’

Wallander thought for a moment.

‘Did he usually come here on the same day of the week?’

‘Every Wednesday afternoon. Between two and three, I think. Or perhaps a little later.’

‘Did he buy anything else?’

‘No.’

‘How can you remember all this so precisely? You must have a large number of customers.’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But I think you remember more than you realise. If someone starts to ask you it just comes back up.’

Wallander looked at her hands. She wore no rings. He briefly considered asking her out but then dismissed the thought, horrified.

It was as if Mona had overheard his thoughts.

‘Is there anything else you remember?’

‘No,’ she said, ‘but I’m sure he was talking to a woman.’

That surprised Wallander.

‘How can you be sure of that?’

‘You can hear it,’ she said firmly.

‘You mean that Halen was calling to set up a time to meet with a woman?’

‘What would be strange about that? He was old, of course, but that doesn’t matter.’

Wallander nodded. Of course she was right. And if she was right he had found out something valuable. There had been a woman in Halen’s life after all.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘Do you remember anything else?’

Before she answered, a customer walked in. Wallander waited. There were two little girls who took a great deal of care in selecting two bags of sweets, which they then paid for with an endless series of five-ore pieces.

‘That woman may have had a name that started with A,’ she said. ‘He always spoke very quietly. I said that earlier. But her name may have been Anna. Or a double name. Something with A.’

‘Are you sure of this?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘But I think so.’

Wallander only had one more question.

‘Did he always come in alone?’

‘Yes, always.’

‘You’ve been a great help,’ he said.

‘May I ask why you need this information?’

‘Unfortunately not,’ Wallander said. ‘We ask questions, but we can’t always tell you why.’

‘Maybe I should join the police,’ she said. ‘I’m not planning to work in this shop for the rest of my life.’

Wallander leaned over the counter and wrote down his telephone number on a small notepad next to the cash register.

‘Call me sometime,’ he said. ‘We can get together and I can tell you what it’s like to be a police officer. Anyway, I live right round the corner.’

‘Wallander,’ she said. ‘Is that what it is?’

‘Kurt Wallander.’

‘My name is Maria. But don’t get any ideas. I already have a boyfriend.’

‘I won’t,’ Wallander said and smiled.

Then he left.

A boyfriend can always be overcome, he thought as he stepped into the street. And stopped short. What would happen if she really called him? If she called while Mona was over? He asked himself what he had done. At the same time he couldn’t help but feel a certain satisfaction.

Mona deserved it. That he gave his phone number to someone named Maria who was very beautiful.

As if Wallander was being punished for the mere thought of sinning, the rain started to pour down at that moment. He was drenched by the time he got home. He laid the wet cigarette packets on the kitchen table and stripped off all his clothes. Maria should have been here now to towel me off, he thought. And Mona can cut hair and take her damn coffee break.

He put on his dressing gown and wrote down in his notepad what Maria had said. So Halen had called a woman every Wednesday. A woman whose name started with the letter A. In all likelihood it was her first name. The question now was simply what this meant, other than that the image of the lonely old man had been shattered.

Wallander sat at the kitchen table and read through what he had written the day before. Suddenly he was struck by a thought. There should be a sailors’ register somewhere. Someone who could tell him about Halen’s many years at sea, which vessels he had worked on.

I know someone who could help me, Wallander thought. Helena. She works for a shipping company. At the very least she can tell me where I can look. If she doesn’t hang up on me when I call.

It was not yet eleven. Wallander could see through the kitchen window that the downpour was over. Helena didn’t normally take her lunch break until half past twelve. That meant that he would be able to get hold of her before she left.

He got dressed and took the bus down to the Central Station. The shipping company that Helena worked for was in the harbour district. He walked in through the gates. The receptionist nodded at him in recognition.

‘Is Helena in?’ he asked.

‘She’s on the phone. But you can go on up. You know where her office is.’

It was not without a feeling of dread that Wallander made his ascent to the first floor. Helena could get angry. But he tried to calm himself, thinking that at first she would simply be surprised. That could give him the time he needed to say that he was here purely on business. It was not her ex-boyfriend Kurt Wallander who was here, it was the police officer by the same name, the would-be criminal investigator.

The words ‘Helena Aronsson, Assistant Clerk’, were printed on the door. Wallander drew a deep breath and knocked. He heard her voice and walked in. She had finished her phone call and was sitting at the typewriter. He had been right. She was clearly surprised, not angry.

‘You,’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’m here on police business,’ Wallander said. ‘I thought you might be able to help me.’

She had stood up and was already looking like she was going to ask him to leave.

‘I mean it,’ Wallander said. ‘It’s nothing personal, not at all.’

She was still on her guard.

‘What would I be able to help you with?’

‘May I sit down?’

‘Only if it won’t take long.’

The same power language as Hemberg, Wallander thought. You’re supposed to stand there and feel subordinate, while the person with power remains seated. But he sat down and wondered how he could once have been so in love with the woman on the other side of the desk. Now he could not remember her being anything other than stiff and dismissive.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘So there’s no need for you to ask.’

‘I’m fine too.’

‘What do you want?’

Wallander sighed internally over her rude tone but told her what had happened.

‘You work in the shipping industry,’ he finished. ‘You would know how I could find out what Halen really did at sea. Which companies he worked for, which ships.’

‘I work with freight,’ Helena said. ‘We rent vessels or cargo space for Kockums and Volvo. That’s all.’

‘There must be someone who knows.’

‘Can’t the police find this out some other way?’

Wallander had anticipated this question and had thus prepared an answer.

‘This case is being handled a little on the side,’ he said, ‘for reasons that I can’t go into.’

He could see that she only partly believed him. But she seemed amused.

‘I could ask some of my colleagues,’ she said. ‘We have an old sea captain. But what do I get in return? If I help you?’

‘What would you like?’ he asked in return, in as friendly a tone as he could muster.

She shook her head.

‘Nothing.’

Wallander stood up.

‘I have the same phone number as before,’ he said.

‘Mine is different,’ Helena said. ‘And you’re not getting it.’

When Wallander was back out on the street he noticed that he was damp with sweat. The meeting with Helena had been more stressful than he had wanted to admit. He ended up standing still, wondering what to do next. If he had had more money he would have gone to Copenhagen. But he had to remember that he had taken a sick day. Someone could call him. He shouldn’t stay away from home too long. And also he was finding it increasingly difficult to justify the fact that he was spending so much time on his dead neighbour. He went to a cafe across from the Denmark ferries and had the daily special. But before he ordered he checked to see how much money he had. He would have to go to the bank tomorrow. He still had a thousand kronor there. That would last him for the rest of the month. He ate stew and drank some water.

By one o’clock he was back out on the pavement. New storms were moving in from the south-west. He decided to go home. But when he saw a bus that was going to his father’s suburb he took that instead. If nothing else he could spend a few hours helping his father pack.

There was indescribable chaos in the house. His father was reading an old newspaper, a torn straw hat on his head. He looked up at Wallander in surprise.

‘Have you finished?’ he asked.

‘Finished with what?’

‘Have you come to your senses and finished being a cop?’

‘I’m off today,’ Wallander said. ‘And there’s no use bringing up the subject again. We’re never going to see eye to eye.’

‘I’ve found a paper from 1949,’ he said. ‘There’s a great deal of interest in it.’

‘Do you really have time to read newspapers that are more than twenty years old?’

‘I never had time to read it at the time,’ his father said. ‘Among other things, because I had a two-year-old son who did nothing but scream all day. That’s why I’m reading it now.’

‘I was planning to help you pack.’

His father pointed to a table stacked with china.

‘That stuff needs to be packed in boxes,’ he said. ‘But it has to be done correctly. Nothing can break. If I find a broken plate you’ll have to replace it.’

His father returned to his paper. Wallander hung up his coat and started to pack the china. Plates that he remembered from his childhood. He found a cup with a chip in it that he could remember particularly clearly. His father turned a page in the background.

‘How does it feel?’ Wallander asked.

‘How does what feel?’

‘To be moving.’

‘Good. Change is nice.’

‘And you still haven’t seen the house?’

‘No, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

My father is either crazy or else he’s becoming senile, Wallander thought. And there’s nothing I can do about it.

‘I thought Kristina was coming,’ he said.

‘She’s out shopping.’

‘I’d like to see her. How is she doing?’

‘Fine. And she’s met an excellent fellow.’

‘Did she bring him?’

‘No. But he sounds good in all respects. He’ll probably see to it that I get grandchildren soon.’

‘What’s his name? What does he do? Do I have to drag all this out of you?’

‘His name is Jens and he’s a dialysis researcher.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Kidneys. If you’ve heard of them. He’s a researcher. And in addition he likes to hunt small game. Sounds like an excellent man.’

At that precise moment Wallander dropped a plate. It cracked in two. His father did not look up from the paper.

‘That’ll cost you,’ he said.

Wallander had had enough. He took his coat and left without a word. I will never go out to Osterlen, he thought. I will never set foot in his home again. I don’t understand how I have put up with that man all these years. But now I’ve had enough.

Without realising it he had started to speak aloud. A cyclist, who was huddled up against the wind, stared at him.

Wallander went home. The door to Halen’s apartment was open. He walked in. A lone technician was gathering up the remains of some ashes.

‘I thought you were done?’ Wallander said, surprised.

‘Sjunnesson is thorough,’ the technician answered.

There was no continuation of the conversation. Wallander went back out onto the stairwell and unlocked his own door. At the same time Linnea Almquist walked into the building.

‘How terrible,’ she said. ‘The poor man. And so alone.’

‘Apparently he had a lady friend,’ Wallander said.

‘I find that hard to believe,’ Linnea Almquist said. ‘I would have noticed that.’

‘I’m sure you would have,’ Wallander said. ‘But he may not have been in the habit of seeing her here.’

‘One should not speak ill of the dead,’ she said and started up the stairs.

Wallander wondered how it could be considered speaking ill of the dead to suggest that there may have been a woman in an otherwise lonely existence.

Once he was in his apartment, Wallander could no longer push aside thoughts of Mona. He should call her. Or would she call him of her own accord in the evening? In order to shake off his anxiety, Wallander started to gather up and throw out old newspapers. Then he started in on the bathroom. He did not have to do much before he realised that there was much more old, ingrained dirt than he could have imagined. He kept going at it for over three hours before he felt satisfied with the result. It was five o’clock. He put some potatoes on to boil and chopped some onions.

The phone rang. He thought at once it had to be Mona, and his heart started to beat faster.

But it was another woman’s voice. She said her name, Maria, but it took a few seconds before he realised it was the girl from the newsagent.

‘I hope I’m not disturbing you,’ she said. ‘I lost the piece of paper you gave me. And you’re not in the phone book. I could have called directory assistance, I suppose. But I called the police instead.’

Wallander flinched.

‘What did you say?’

‘That I was looking for an officer by the name of Kurt Wallander. And that I had important information. At first they didn’t want to give me your home phone number. But I didn’t give in.’

‘So you asked for Detective Inspector Wallander?’

‘I asked for Kurt Wallander. What does it matter?’

‘It doesn’t,’ Wallander said and felt relieved. Gossip moved quickly at the station. It could have brought about complications and spawned an unnecessary funny story about Wallander walking around claiming to be a detective inspector. That was not how he envisioned starting his career as a criminal investigator.

‘I asked if I was disturbing you,’ she repeated.

‘Not at all.’

‘I was thinking,’ she said. ‘About Halen and his betting forms. He never won, by the way.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I would entertain myself by checking to see how he had bet. Not just him. And he was very ill-informed when it came to English football.’

Exactly what Hemberg said, Wallander thought. There can be no more doubt in that regard.

‘But then I was thinking about the phone calls,’ she went on. ‘And then I thought of the fact that a couple of times he also called someone other than that woman.’

Wallander increased his concentration.

‘Who?’

‘He called the cab company.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I heard him place an order for a car. He gave his address as the building right next to the shop.’

Wallander thought about it.

‘How often did he order a cab?’

‘Three or four times. Always after first calling the other number.’

‘You didn’t happen to hear where he was going?’

‘He didn’t mention it.’

‘Your memory isn’t half bad,’ Wallander said admiringly. ‘But you don’t remember when he made those calls?’

‘It must have been on a Wednesday.’

‘When did it happen last?’

The answer came quickly and confidently.

‘Last week.’

‘Are you sure of that?’

‘Of course I’m sure. He called a cab last Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of May, for your information.’

‘Good,’ Wallander said. ‘Very good.’

‘Is that of any help?’

‘I’m certain it is.’

‘And you’re still not planning to tell me what it is that has happened?’

‘I couldn’t,’ Wallander said. ‘Even if I wanted to.’

‘Will you tell me later?’

Wallander promised. Then he hung up and thought about what she had told him. What did it mean? Halen had a woman somewhere. After calling her, he ordered a taxi.

Wallander checked the potatoes. They were not yet soft. Then he reminded himself that he actually had a good friend who drove a cab in Malmo. They had been schoolmates since year one and had kept in touch over the years. His name was Lars Andersson and Wallander recalled that he had written his number on the inside of the telephone directory.

He found the number and dialled it. A woman answered, Andersson’s wife Elin. Wallander had met her a few times.

‘I’m looking for Lars,’ he said.

‘He’s out driving,’ she said. ‘But he’s on a day shift. He’ll be back in about an hour.’

Wallander asked her to tell her husband he had called.

‘How are the children?’ she asked.

‘I have no children,’ Wallander said, amazed.

‘Then I must have misunderstood,’ she answered. ‘I thought Lars said that you had two sons.’

‘Unfortunately, no,’ Wallander said. ‘I’m not even married.’

‘That never stopped anyone.’

Wallander returned to the potatoes and onions. Then he composed a meal using some of the leftovers that had accumulated in the fridge. Mona had still not called. It had started to rain again. He could hear accordion music from somewhere. He asked himself what the hell he was doing. His neighbour Halen had committed suicide, after first swallowing some precious stones. Someone had tried to retrieve them and had subsequently set fire to the apartment in a rage. There were plenty of lunatics around, also greedy people. But it was no crime to commit suicide. Nor to be greedy per se.

It was half past six. Lars Andersson had not called. Wallander decided to wait until seven o’clock. Then he would try again.

The call from Andersson came at five minutes to seven.

‘Business always picks up when it’s raining. I heard that you had called?’

‘I’m working on a case,’ Wallander said. ‘And I was thinking that you could perhaps help me. It’s a matter of tracking down a driver who had a client last Wednesday. Around three o’clock. A pickup from an address here in Rosengard. A man by the name of Halen.’

‘What’s happened?’

‘Nothing that I can talk about right now,’ Wallander said and felt his discomfort grow every time he avoided giving an answer.

‘I can probably find out,’ Andersson said. ‘The Malmo call centre is very organised. Can you give me the details? And where should I call to? The police headquarters?’

‘It’s best if you call me. I’m leading this thing.’

‘From home?’

‘Right now I am.’

‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘How long do you think it will take?’

‘With a little luck, not very long.’

‘I’ll be home,’ Wallander said.

He gave Andersson all the details he had. When the call was over he had a cup of coffee. Still no call from Mona. Then he thought of his sister. Wondered what excuse his father would give for him having left the house so abruptly. If he even bothered to say that his son had been there. Kristina often took her father’s side. Wallander suspected it had to do with cowardice, that she was afraid of their father and his unpredictable temper.

Then he watched the news. The auto industry was doing well. There was an economic boom in Sweden. After that they showed footage from a dog show. He turned down the volume. The rain continued. He thought he heard thunder somewhere in the distance. Or else it was a Metropolitan plane coming in for landing at Bulltofta.

It was ten minutes past nine when Andersson called back.

‘It’s as I expected,’ he said. ‘The Malmo taxi call centre is extremely well organised.’

Wallander had already pulled over a pen and paper.

‘The drive went out to Arlov,’ he said. ‘There is no record of another name. The driver’s name was Norberg. But I can probably hunt him down and ask him if he remembers what the client looked like.’

‘There’s no chance that it could have been another trip?’

‘No one else ordered a taxi to that address on Wednesday.’

‘And the car went out to Arlov?’

‘More specifically, to Smedsgatan 9. That’s right next to a sugar mill. An old neighbourhood with rows of terraced houses.’

‘No rented apartments then,’ Wallander said. ‘Only a family must live there. Or a single person, I suppose.’

‘You would think so.’

Wallander made a note of it.

‘You’ve done good,’ he said.

‘I may have even more for you,’ Andersson replied. ‘Even if you never asked me for it. There is also a record of a cab ride from Smedsgatan. Specifically, Thursday morning at four o’clock. The driver’s name was Orre. But you won’t be able to get hold of him right now. He’s on holiday in Mallorca.’

Can taxi drivers afford to do that? Wallander thought. Is that because they make money under the table? But of course he mentioned nothing of these speculations to Andersson.

‘It could be important.’

‘Do you still not have a car?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Are you planning to go there?’

‘Yes.’

‘You can use a police car, of course, can’t you?’

‘Of course.’

‘Because otherwise I could take you. I’m not doing anything in particular. It’s a long time since we had a chat.’

Wallander decided to take him up on his offer and Lars Andersson promised to pick him up in half an hour. During that time Wallander called directory assistance and asked who was registered on telephone service at Smedsgatan 9. He received the answer that there was service there but that the number was private.

It was raining harder. Wallander put on his rubber boots and a raincoat. He stood at the kitchen window and saw Andersson slow down in front of his building. The car had no sign on the roof. It was his private car.

A crazy expedition in crazy weather, Wallander thought as he locked the front door. But rather this than pacing around the apartment waiting for Mona to call. And if she does it’ll serve her right. That I don’t answer.

Lars Andersson immediately started to bring up old school memories. Half of it Wallander no longer had any recollection of. He often thought Andersson tiring because he constantly returned to their school years, as if they represented the best time of his life so far. For Wallander, school had been a grey drudge, where only geography and history enlivened him somewhat. But he still liked the man who sat behind the wheel. His parents had run a bakery out in Limhamn. For a while, the boys had been in frequent contact. And Lars Andersson was someone Wallander had always been able to count on. Someone who took their friendship seriously.

They left Malmo behind and were soon in Arlov.

‘Do you often get requests out here?’ Wallander asked.

‘It happens. Mostly on the weekends. People who have been drinking in Malmo or Copenhagen and who are on their way home.’

‘Has anything bad ever happened to you?’

Lars Andersson glanced over at him.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Muggings, threats. I don’t know.’

‘Never. I’ve had a guy who tried to slip away without paying. But I caught up with him.’

They were now in the centre of Arlov. Lars Andersson drove straight to the address.

‘Here it is,’ he said and pointed through the wet windscreen. ‘Smedsgatan 9.’

Wallander cranked down his window and squinted out into the rain. Number 9 was the last of a row of six town houses. There was a light on in one window. Someone must be home.

‘Aren’t you going to go in?’ Lars Andersson asked with surprise.

‘It’s a matter of surveillance,’ Wallander answered vaguely. ‘If you drive up a little I’ll get out and take a look around.’

‘Do you want me to come along?’

‘That won’t be necessary.’

Wallander got out of the car and pulled up the hood of his raincoat. What do I do now? he wondered. Ring the doorbell and ask if it is possible that Mr Halen was here last Wednesday between three in the afternoon and four in the morning? Is it a matter of adultery? What do I say if a man answers the door?

Wallander felt silly. This is senseless and childish and a waste of time, he thought. The only thing that I have managed to prove is that Smedsgatan 9 is actually an address in Arlov.

Nonetheless, he couldn’t help crossing the street. There was a mailbox next to the gate. Wallander tried to read the name on it. He had cigarettes and a box of matches in his pocket. With some difficulty he was able to light one of the matches and read the name before his flame was extinguished by the rain.

‘Alexandra Batista,’ he read. So Maria in the newsagent had been right, it was the first name that started with A. Halen had called a woman named Alexandra. The question now was if she lived there alone or with family. He looked over the fence to see if there were any children’s bicycles or other items that would indicate a family’s presence. But he saw nothing like that.

He walked round the house. On the other side there was an undeveloped piece of property. Several old rusty drums had been placed behind a dilapidated fence. That was all. The house was dark from the back. Light was only coming from the kitchen window facing the street. Despite a rising feeling of being involved in something absolutely unjustified and senseless, Wallander decided to complete his investigation. He stepped over the low fence and ran across the lawn to the house. If anyone sees me they will call the police, he thought. And I will get caught. And then the rest of my police career goes up in smoke.

He decided to give up. He could find the telephone number for the Batista family tomorrow. If it was a woman who answered he could ask a few questions. If it was a man he could hang up.

The rain was letting up. Wallander dried off his face. He was about to go back the same way that he had come when he discovered that the door to the balcony was open. Maybe they have a cat, he thought. That needs free passage at night.

At the same time he had a feeling that something wasn’t right. He could not put his finger on what it was. But he was not able to dismiss it. Carefully he walked over to the door and listened. The rain had stopped almost completely now. In the distance he heard the sound of a tractor trailer die away and disappear. From inside the house he heard nothing. Wallander left the balcony door and walked over to the front of the house again.

The light was still shining in the window, which was open a little. He pressed up against the wall and strained to hear something. Everything was still, quiet. Then he gently raised himself on tiptoe and peered in through the window.

He jumped. Inside, there was a woman sitting in a chair, staring straight at him. He ran out to the street. At any moment someone was going to come running out onto the front steps and call for help. Or else there would be police cars. He hurried over to the car where Andersson was waiting and jumped into the front seat.

‘Has anything happened?’

‘Just drive,’ Wallander said.

‘Where to?’

‘Away from here. Back to Malmo.’

‘Was anyone home?’

‘Don’t ask. Start the engine and drive. That’s all.’

Lars Andersson did as Wallander asked. They came out onto the main road towards Malmo. Wallander thought about the woman who had stared at him.

The feeling was there again. Something wasn’t right.

‘Turn into the next car park, would you?’

Lars Andersson continued to do as he was told. They stopped. Wallander sat without saying anything.

‘You don’t think it’s best that I be told what’s going on?’ Andersson asked gingerly.

Wallander didn’t answer. There was something about that woman’s face. Something he couldn’t pinpoint.

‘Go back,’ he said.

‘To Arlov?’

Wallander could hear that Andersson was starting to resist.

‘I’ll explain later,’ Wallander said. ‘Drive back to the same address. If you have the taxi meter you can turn it on.’

‘I don’t charge my friends, damn it!’ Andersson said angrily.

They drove back to Arlov in silence. There was no longer any rain.

Wallander got out of the car. No police cars, no reaction. Nothing. Only the lone light in the kitchen window.

Wallander carefully opened the gate. He walked back to the window. Before he heaved himself up to look he drew some deep breaths.

If things were as he suspected it would be very unpleasant.

He stood on tiptoe and gripped the windowsill. The woman was still sitting in the chair, staring straight at him with the same expression.

Wallander walked round the back of the house and opened the balcony door. In the light from the street he glimpsed a table lamp. He turned it on, then he removed his boots and walked out into the kitchen.

The woman was sitting there in the chair. But she was not looking at Wallander. She was staring at the window.

Around her neck was a bicycle chain, tightened with the help of a hammer handle.

Wallander felt his heart thumping in his chest.

Then he located the telephone, which was out in the hall, and he called the police station in Malmo.

It was already a quarter to eleven.

Wallander asked to speak to Hemberg. He was told that Hemberg had left the police station at around six o’clock. Wallander asked for his home number and called him immediately.

Hemberg picked up. Wallander could hear that he had been sleeping and had been awakened by the call.

Wallander explained the situation.

That there was a dead woman sitting in a chair in a town house in Arlov.

CHAPTER 3

Hemberg came out to Arlov a little after midnight. At that point the forensic investigation was already under way. Wallander had sent Andersson home in his car without giving him a better explanation of what had happened. Then he had stood by the gate and waited for the first police car to arrive. He had spoken with a detective inspector by the name of Stefansson, who was his own age.

‘Did you know her?’ he asked.

‘No,’ Wallander answered.

‘Then what are you doing here?’

‘I’ll explain that to Hemberg,’ Wallander said.

Stefansson regarded him sceptically but did not ask any further questions.

Hemberg started by walking around the kitchen. He stood in the doorway for a long time, simply looking at the dead woman. Wallander saw how his gaze travelled around the room. After standing there for a length of time he turned to Stefansson, who appeared to have great respect for him.

‘Do we know who she is?’ Hemberg asked.

They went into the living room. Stefansson had opened a handbag and spread some identifying documentation on the table.

‘Alexandra Batista-Lundstrom,’ he answered. ‘A Swedish citizen, but born in Brazil in 1922. It seems she came over right after the war. If I have understood this correctly, she was married to a man named Lundstrom. There are divorce papers here from 1957. But at that point she already had citizenship. She gave up the Swedish surname later on. She has a post office savings account under the name of Batista. No Lundstrom.’

‘Did she have any children?’

Stefansson shook his head.

‘It doesn’t seem like anyone else lived here with her. We’ve talked to one of the neighbours. Apparently she has lived here since the place was built.’

Hemberg nodded and then turned to Wallander.

‘Let’s go up a floor,’ he said, ‘and let the technicians work undisturbed.’

Stefansson was on his way to join them, but Hemberg held him back. There were three rooms upstairs. The woman’s bedroom, a room that was basically empty except for a linen cupboard, and a guest room. Hemberg sat down on the bed in the guest room and indicated to Wallander that he should sit in the chair in the corner.

‘I really only have one question,’ Hemberg began. ‘What do you think it is?’

‘You’re of course wondering what I was doing here.’

‘I would probably put it more forcefully,’ Hemberg said. ‘How the hell did you end up here?’

‘It’s a long story,’ Wallander said.

‘Make it short,’ Hemberg replied. ‘But leave nothing out.’

Wallander told him. About the betting forms, the telephone calls, the taxicabs. Hemberg listened with his eyes stubbornly directed at the floor. When Wallander finished, he sat for a while without saying anything.

‘Since you’ve found a murder victim, I naturally have to praise you for it,’ he started. ‘There also seems to be nothing wrong with your determination. Nor has your thinking been completely wrong. But apart from these things, it goes without saying that your actions have been completely unjustifiable. There is no room in police work for anything resembling independent and secret surveillance, with detectives assigning themselves their own work. I say this only once.’

Wallander nodded. He understood.

‘Do you have anything else to tell me? Apart from what led you here to Arlov?’

Wallander told him about his visit to Helena at the shipping company.

‘Nothing more?’

‘Nothing.’

Wallander was prepared for a lecture. But Hemberg simply got up from the bed and nodded for him to follow suit.

On the stairs he stopped and turned round.

‘I looked for you today,’ he said. ‘To tell you the results of the weapons inspection. There was nothing unexpected in the report. But they said you had called in sick?’

‘I had a stomach ache this morning. Stomach flu.’

Hemberg gave him an ironic look.

‘That was quick,’ he said. ‘But since you seem to have got better you can stay here tonight. You may learn something. Don’t touch anything, don’t say anything. Just make mental notes.’

At half past three the woman’s body was taken away. Sjunnesson had arrived shortly after one. Wallander wondered why he didn’t seem at all tired even though it was the middle of the night. Hemberg, Stefansson and another detective had methodically searched the apartment, opened drawers and cupboards, and found a number of things that they put out on the table. Wallander had also listened to a conversation between Hemberg and a medical examiner called Jorne. There was no doubt that the woman had been strangled. In his initial examination Jorne had also found signs that she had been struck on the head from behind. Hemberg explained that what he most needed to know was how long she had been dead.

‘She has probably been sitting in that chair for a couple of days,’ Jorne answered.

‘How many?’

‘I won’t hazard a guess. You’ll have to wait until the autopsy is complete.’

When the conversation with Jorne was over, Hemberg turned to Wallander.

‘You understand, of course, why I asked him this,’ he said.

‘You want to know if she died before Halen?’

Hemberg nodded.

‘In that case it would give us a reasonable explanation for why a person had taken his own life. It is not unusual for murderers to commit suicide.’

Hemberg sat down on the couch in the living room. Stefansson was standing out in the hall, talking to the police photographer.

‘One thing we can nonetheless see quite clearly,’ Hemberg said after a pause. ‘The woman was killed as she sat in the chair. Someone hit her on the head. There are traces of blood on the floor and on the wax tablecloth. Then she was strangled. That gives us several possible points of departure.’

Hemberg looked at Wallander.

He’s testing me, Wallander thought. He wants to know if I measure up.

‘It must mean that the woman knew the person who killed her.’

‘Correct. And more?’

Wallander searched his mind. Were there any other conclusions to be drawn? He shook his head.

‘You have to use your eyes,’ Hemberg said. ‘Was there something on the table? One cup? Several cups? How was she dressed? It is one thing that she knew the person who killed her. Let us for the sake of simplicity assume it was a man. But how well did she know him?’

Wallander understood. It bothered him that he had initially missed what Hemberg had been getting at.

‘She was wearing a nightgown and robe,’ he said. ‘That’s not something you wear with just anyone.’

‘How did her bed look?’

‘It was unmade.’

‘Conclusion?’

‘Alexandra Batista may have had a relationship with the man who killed her.’

‘More?’

‘There were no cups on the table, but there were some unwashed glasses next to the stove.’

‘We will examine them,’ Hemberg said. ‘What did they drink? Are there fingerprints? Empty glasses have many exciting things to tell us.’

He rose heavily from the couch. Wallander suddenly realised that he was tired.

‘So we actually know a great deal,’ Hemberg continued. ‘Since there are no signs of an intruder we will work with the hypothesis that the murder was committed under the auspices of a personal connection.’

‘That still doesn’t explain the fire at Halen’s place,’ Wallander said.

Hemberg studied him critically.

‘You’re getting ahead of yourself,’ he said. ‘We are going to move forward calmly and methodically. We know some things with a great deal of certainty. We proceed from these things. What we do not know, or what we cannot be sure of, will have to wait. You cannot solve a puzzle if half of the pieces are still in the box.’

They had reached the hall. Stefansson had finished his conversation with the photographer and was now talking on the phone.

‘How did you get here?’ Hemberg asked.

‘Taxi.’

‘You can come back with me.’

During the trip back to Malmo Hemberg did not say anything. They drove through fog and a drizzling rain. Hemberg dropped Wallander off outside his building in Rosengard.

‘Get in touch with me later on today,’ Hemberg said. ‘If you’ve recovered from your stomach flu, that is.’

Wallander let himself into his apartment. It was already morning. The fog had begun to dissipate. He didn’t bother taking his clothes off. Instead, he lay down on top of the bed. He was soon asleep.

The doorbell jerked him awake. He sleepily stumbled out into the hall and opened the door. His sister, Kristina, was standing there.

‘Am I disturbing you?’

Wallander shook his head and let her in.

‘I’ve been working all night,’ he said. ‘What time is it?’

‘Seven. I’m going out to Loderup with Dad today. But I thought I would look in on you first.’

Wallander asked her to put some coffee on while he had a wash and changed his clothes. He bathed his face in cold water for a long time. By the time he came back out to the kitchen he had chased the long night out of his body. Kristina smiled at him.

‘You are actually one of the few men I know who doesn’t have long hair,’ she said.

‘It doesn’t suit me,’ Wallander answered. ‘But God knows I’ve tried. I can’t have a beard either. I look ridiculous. Mona threatened to leave me when she saw it.’

‘How is she doing?’

‘Fine.’

Wallander briefly considered telling her what had happened. About the silence that now lay between them.

Earlier, when they had both lived at home, he and Kristina had had a close and trusting relationship. Even so, Wallander decided to say nothing. After she had moved to Stockholm the contact between them had become vague and more irregular.

Wallander sat down at the table and asked how things were with her.

‘Good.’

‘Dad said you had met someone who works with kidneys.’

‘He’s an engineer and he works at developing a new kind of dialysis machine.’

‘I’m not sure I know what that is,’ Wallander said. ‘But it sounds very advanced.’

Then he realised that she had come for a particular reason. He could see it in her face.

‘I don’t know why,’ he said, ‘but I can tell that you want something in particular.’

‘I don’t understand how you can treat Dad this way.’

Wallander was taken aback.

‘What do you mean?’

‘What do you think? You don’t help him pack. You don’t even want to see his house in Loderup and when you bump into him on the street you pretend you don’t know him.’

Wallander shook his head.

‘Did he say that?’

‘Yes. And he’s very upset.’

‘None of this is true.’

‘I haven’t seen you since I got here. He’s moving today.’

‘Didn’t he tell you that I came by? And that he basically threw me out?’

‘He hasn’t said anything like that.’

‘You shouldn’t believe everything he says. At least not about me.’

‘So it isn’t true?’

‘Nothing is true. He didn’t even tell me he had bought the house. He hasn’t wanted to show it to me, hasn’t even told me what it cost. When I was helping him pack I dropped an old plate and all hell broke loose. And actually I do stop and talk to him when I see him on the street. Even though he often looks like a crazy person.’

Wallander could tell she wasn’t quite convinced. That irritated him. But even more upsetting was the fact that she was sitting here scolding him. That reminded him of his mother. Or Mona. Or Helena, for that matter. He couldn’t stand these meddling women who tried to tell him what to do.

‘You don’t believe me,’ Wallander said, ‘but you should. Don’t forget that you live in Stockholm and that I have the old man in my face all the time. That makes a big difference.’

The telephone rang. It was twenty minutes past seven. Wallander answered. It was Helena.

‘I called you last night,’ she said.

‘I worked all night.’

‘Since no one answered I thought I must have the wrong number, so I called Mona to check.’

Wallander almost dropped the receiver.

‘You did what?’

‘I called and asked Mona for your telephone number.’

Wallander had no illusions about what the consequences of this would be. If Helena had called Mona that meant Mona’s jealousy would flare up with full force. It would not improve their relationship.

‘Are you still there?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Wallander said, ‘but right now my sister is here.’

‘I’m at work. You can call me.’

Wallander hung up and went back to the kitchen. Kristina looked curiously at him.

‘Are you ill?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘But I probably should go in to work now.’

They said goodbye in the hall.

‘You should believe me,’ Wallander said. ‘You can’t always rely on what he tells you. Let him know I’ll be out to see him as soon as I have time. If I’m welcome, that is, and if someone can tell me where this house is.’

‘At the edge of Loderup,’ Kristina said. ‘First you go past a country stall, then down a road bordered with willows. When that ends the house is on the left, with a stone wall to the road. It has a black roof and is very nice.’

‘When did you go there?’

‘The first load went yesterday.’

‘Do you know what he paid for it?’

‘He won’t say.’

Kristina left. Wallander waved at her through the kitchen window. He forced away his anger over what his father had said about him. What Helena had said was more serious. Wallander called her. When he was told she was on the line with another caller he banged the receiver back on the hook. He rarely lost control, but now he noticed that he was close. He called again. Still busy. Mona is going to end our relationship, he thought. She thinks I’ve started courting Helena again. It won’t matter what I say. She’s not going to believe me anyway. He called again. This time he got an answer.

‘What did you want?’

Her voice was cold when she replied.

‘Do you have to sound so unpleasant? I was actually trying to help you.’

‘Was it really necessary to call Mona?’

‘She knows I’m not interested in you any more.’

‘She does? You don’t know Mona.’

‘I’m not going to apologise for trying to find your telephone number.’

‘What did you want?’

‘I’ve received some information from Captain Verke. Do you remember? I said that we had an old sea captain here.’

Wallander remembered.

‘I have some paper copies in front of me. Lists of sailors and engineers who have worked for Swedish shipping lines for the past ten years. As you can imagine, this includes quite a number of people. By the way, are you sure that the man you mentioned had only served on Swedish-registered vessels?’

‘I’m not sure of anything,’ Wallander said.

‘You can pick up the lists from here,’ she said. ‘When you have time. But I’ll be in meetings all afternoon.’

Wallander promised to come by in the morning. Then he hung up and thought that what he should do now was call Mona and explain the situation. But he let it be. He simply didn’t dare.

It was ten minutes to eight. He started to put on his coat.

The thought of patrolling for a whole day increased his despondence.

He was just about to leave the apartment when the telephone rang again. Mona, he thought. Now she’s calling to tell me to go to hell. He drew a deep breath and lifted the receiver.

It was Hemberg.

‘How are you doing with that stomach flu?’

‘I was just on my way in to the station.’

‘Good. But come up and report to me. I have talked with Lohman. You are after all a witness who we need to talk to more. That means no patrolling today. And to top it off, you won’t have to participate in raids on drug-infested neighbourhoods.’

‘I’m on my way,’ Wallander said.

‘Come by at ten o’clock. I thought you could sit in on a meeting we have scheduled about the murder in Arlov.’

The conversation was over. Wallander checked his watch. He would have time to pick up the papers waiting for him at the shipping office. On the kitchen wall he had a schedule for the buses to and from Rosengard. If he hurried, he wouldn’t have to wait.

When he walked out the front door, Mona was there. He had not expected that. As little as he expected what happened next. She walked right over to him and slapped him on the left cheek. Then she twirled round and walked away.

Wallander was so shocked he did not even manage to react. His cheek burned and a man who was unlocking his car door stared at him with curiosity.

Mona was already gone. Slowly he started walking to the bus stop. He had a knot in his stomach now. It had never occurred to him that she would react so violently.

The bus arrived. Wallander made his way down towards the Central Station. The fog had gone. But it was overcast. The morning drizzle continued unabated. He sat in the bus and his head was completely empty. The events of last night no longer existed. The woman who had been sitting dead in her chair was part of a dream. The only thing that was real was that Mona had hit him and then walked away. Without a word, without hesitation.

I have to talk to her, he thought. Not now, while she is still upset. But later, tonight.

He got off the bus. His cheek still stung. The slap had been forceful. He checked his reflection in a shop window. The redness on his cheek was noticeable.

He lingered, confused about his course of action. Thought that he should talk to Lars Andersson as soon as possible. Thank him for his help and explain what had happened.

Then he thought about a house in Loderup he had never seen. And his childhood home, which no longer belonged to his family.

He started to walk. Nothing was made better by his standing unmoving on a pavement in downtown Malmo.

Wallander picked up the large envelope that Helena had left with the office receptionist.

‘I need to talk to her,’ he said to the receptionist.

‘She’s busy’ was the answer. ‘She just asked me to give you this.’

Wallander realised Helena was probably angry about the morning’s conversation and did not want to see him. He didn’t have great difficulties relating to this.

It wasn’t more than five minutes past nine when Wallander arrived at the police station. He walked to his office and to his relief found that no one was waiting for him. Once again he thought through everything that had happened this morning. If he called the hair salon where Mona worked she would say she didn’t have time to talk. He would have to wait until tonight.

He opened the envelope and was amazed at how long the lists of names from various shipping companies that Helena had managed to dig up were. He looked for Artur Halen’s name, but it wasn’t there. The closest names he saw were a seaman by the name of Hale who had mostly sailed for the Granges shipping line, and a chief engineer on the Johnson line by the name of Hallen. Wallander pushed aside the pile of paper. If the records he had in front of him were complete that meant that Halen had not worked on any ships registered in the Swedish merchant fleet. Then it would be nearly impossible to find him. Wallander suddenly did not know any longer what he was hoping to find. An explanation of what?

It had taken him almost three-quarters of an hour to go through the lists. He got to his feet and walked up to the next floor. He bumped into his boss, Inspector Lohman, in the corridor.

‘Weren’t you supposed to be with Hemberg today?’

‘I’m on my way.’

‘What were you doing out in Arlov, anyway?’

‘It’s a long story; that’s what the meeting with Hemberg is about.’

Lohman shook his head and hurried on. Wallander felt relief at not having to go to the dreary and depressing drug-infested neighbourhoods that his colleagues were going to have to deal with that day.

Hemberg was sitting in his office, sorting through some papers. As usual he had his feet up on the desk. He looked up when Wallander appeared in the doorway.

‘What happened to you?’ Hemberg asked and pointed to his cheek.

‘I bumped into a doorpost,’ Wallander said.

‘Just what abused wives say when they don’t want to turn in their husbands,’ Hemberg said breezily and sat up.

Wallander felt found out. It was getting harder and harder for him to determine what Hemberg was really thinking. Hemberg seemed to have a double-edged language, one that made the listener constantly search for the meaning behind the words.

‘We’re still waiting for definitive results from Jorne,’ Hemberg said. ‘That takes time. As long as we can’t pinpoint exactly when the woman died we also cannot proceed with the theory that Halen killed her and then went home and shot himself out of regret or fear.’

Hemberg stood with his papers tucked under his arm. Wallander followed him to a conference room further down the corridor. There were already several detectives there, among them Stefansson, who regarded Wallander with animosity. Sjunnesson was picking his teeth and did not look at anyone. There were also two other men who Wallander recognised. One was called Horner and the other Mattsson. Hemberg sat down at the short end of the table and pointed out a chair to Wallander.

‘Is the patrol squad helping us out now?’ Stefansson said. ‘Don’t they have enough to do with all those damn protestors?’

‘The patrol squad has nothing to do with this,’ Hemberg said. ‘But Wallander found that lady out in Arlov. It’s as simple as that.’

Only Stefansson seemed to object to Wallander’s presence. The others nodded kindly. Wallander imagined that more than anything they were happy to have an additional hand. Sjunnesson put down the toothpick with which he had been picking his teeth. Apparently this was the sign that Hemberg could begin. Wallander noted the methodical care that characterised the investigative unit’s proceedings. They worked from the existing facts, but they also took time – Hemberg, above all – to feel their way in exploring various directions. Why had Alexandra Batista been murdered? What could the connection to Halen be? Were there any other leads?

‘The precious stones in Halen’s stomach,’ Hemberg said towards the end of the meeting. ‘I have received an evaluation from a jeweller of about 150,000 kronor. A lot of money, in other words. People in this country have been murdered for much less.’

‘Someone hit a taxi driver on the head with an iron pipe a couple of years ago,’ Sjunnesson said. ‘He had twenty-two kronor in his wallet.’

Hemberg looked around the table.

‘The neighbours?’ he asked. ‘Have they seen anything? Heard anything?’

Mattsson glanced through his notes.

‘No observations,’ he said. ‘Batista lived an isolated life. Rarely went out except to buy groceries. Had no visitors.’

‘Someone must have seen Halen come by?’ Hemberg objected.

‘Apparently not. And the nearest neighbours gave the impression of being regular Swedish citizens. That is to say, extremely nosy.’

‘When did someone see her last?’

‘There were differing opinions on this. But of what I have been able to document, one can draw the conclusion that it was several days ago. What’s not clear is if it was two or three days ago.’

‘Do we know what she lived on?’

Then it was Horner’s turn.

‘She seems to have had a small annuity,’ he said. ‘In part with unclear origins. A bank in Portugal that in turn has affiliated branches in Brazil. It always takes a damn long time with banks. But she didn’t work. If you look at the contents of her cupboards, fridge and pantry, her life did not cost much.’

‘But the house?’

‘No loans. Paid for in cash by her former husband.’

‘Where is he?’

‘In a grave,’ Stefansson said. ‘He died a couple of years ago. Was buried in Karlskoga. I spoke to his widow. He had remarried. That was unfortunately somewhat embarrassing. I realised too late that she had no idea that there had once been an Alexandra Batista in his life. But he did not appear to have had any children with Batista.’

‘That’s how it can be,’ Hemberg said, and turned to Sjunnesson.

‘We’re in the process,’ he said. ‘Different fingerprints on the glasses. Seems to have been red wine in them. Spanish, I think. We’re trying to match this to an empty bottle that was in the kitchen. We’re checking to see if we have the prints in the register. Then of course we’ll also compare them to Halen’s.’

‘He may also be in Interpol’s registers,’ Hemberg pointed out. ‘It can take a while until we hear back from them.’

‘We can assume she let him in,’ Sjunnesson continued. ‘There were no signs of forced entry on the windows or doors. He can also have had his own key, for that matter. But there were none that fitted. The balcony door was open, as our friend Wallander has informed us. Since Batista had neither a dog nor a cat, one could imagine that it was open to let in the night air. Which in turn should mean that Batista did not fear or expect that anything would happen. Or else the perpetrator exited that way. The back of the house is more protected from prying eyes.’

‘Any other evidence?’ Hemberg said.

‘Nothing out of the ordinary.’

Hemberg pushed away the papers that were spread out in front of him.

‘Then all we can do is keep going,’ he said. ‘The medical examiner will have to hurry up. The best possible outcome is if Halen can be bound to the crime. Personally, that is what I believe. But we will have to keep talking to neighbours and digging around in background material.’

Then Hemberg turned to Wallander.

‘Do you have anything to add? You found her, after all.’

Wallander shook his head and noticed that his mouth was dry.

‘Nothing?’

‘I didn’t notice anything that you haven’t already commented on.’

Hemberg drummed his fingers against the tabletop.

‘Then we have no need to sit here any longer,’ he said. ‘Does anyone know what the lunch is today?’

‘Herring,’ Horner said. ‘It’s usually good.’

Hemberg asked Wallander to join him for lunch. But he declined. His appetite was gone. He felt that he needed to be alone to think. He went to his office to get his coat. He could see through the window that it had stopped raining. Just as he was about to leave his office, one of his colleagues from the patrol squad came in and threw his police cap on a table.

‘Shit,’ he said, and sat down heavily in a chair.

His name was Jorgen Berglund and he came from a farm outside Landskrona. Wallander sometimes had trouble understanding his dialect.

‘We’ve cleaned up two blocks,’ he said. ‘In one of them we found some runaway thirteen-year-old girls who had been missing for weeks. One of them smelled so bad we had to hold our noses. Another one bit Persson on the leg when we were going to lift them out. What is happening in this country, anyway? And why weren’t you there?’

‘I was called in by Hemberg,’ Wallander said. As to the other question, about what was happening in Sweden, he had no answer.

He took his coat and left. In the reception area he was stopped by one of the girls who worked in the call centre.

‘You have a message,’ she said and she handed him a note through the window. There was a phone number on it.

‘What is this?’ he asked.

‘Someone called and said he was a distant relative to you. He wasn’t sure you would even remember him.’

‘Didn’t he say what his name was?’

‘No, but he seemed old.’

Wallander studied the telephone number. There was an area code: 0411. This can’t be true, he thought. My father calls and introduces himself as a distant relative. One I may not even remember.

‘Where is Loderup?’ he asked.

‘I think that’s the Ystad police district.’

‘I’m not asking about the police district. Which area code is it?’

‘It’s Ystad.’

Wallander tucked the note in his pocket and left. If he had had a car he would have driven straight out to Loderup and asked his father what he had meant by calling like that. When he had got an answer, he would let him have it. Say that from this point on all contact between them would be severed. No more poker evenings, no phone calls. Wallander would promise to come to the funeral, which he hoped was not too far off. But that was all.

Wallander walked along Fiskehamnsgatan. Then he swung onto Slottsgatan and continued into Kungsparken. I have two problems, he thought. The biggest and most important one is Mona. The other is my father. I have to solve both problems as soon as possible.

He sat down on a bench and watched some grey sparrows bathing in a puddle of water. A drunk man was sleeping behind some bushes. I should really lift him up, Wallander thought. Put him down on this bench or even make sure he gets picked up and can sleep it off somewhere. But right now I don’t care about him. He can stay where he is.

He rose from the bench and kept going. Left Kungsparken and came out on Regementsgatan. He still wasn’t feeling hungry. Even so, he stopped at a hot-dog stand on Gustav Adolf’s Square and bought a grilled hot dog on a bun. Then he returned to the station.

It was half past one. Hemberg was unavailable. What he should do with himself, he didn’t know. He should really talk to Lohman about what he was expected to do during the afternoon. But he didn’t. Instead he pulled out the lists that Helena had given him. Again he browsed through the names. Tried to see the faces, imagine their lives. Sailors and engineers. Their birth information was noted in the margins. Wallander put the lists down again. From the corridor he heard something that sounded like a taunting laugh.

Wallander tried to think about Halen. His neighbour. Who had turned in betting sheets, put in an extra lock and thereafter shot himself. Everything pointed to Hemberg’s theory holding water. For some reason Halen had killed Alexandra Batista and then taken his own life.

That’s where it came to a stop for Wallander. Hemberg’s theory was logical and straightforward. Nonetheless Wallander thought it was hollow. The outside coordinates matched up. But the content? It was still very murky. Not least, this idea did not fit very well with the impression Wallander had had of his neighbour. Wallander had never found anything passionate or violent in him.

Of course even the most retiring person was capable of exploding in anger and violence under certain circumstances. But did it actually make sense to think that Halen had taken the life of the woman he most likely had a relationship with?

Something is missing, Wallander thought. Inside this shell there is nothing.

He tried to think more deeply but didn’t get anywhere. Absently he gazed at the lists on the table. Without being able to say where the thought came from, he suddenly started to look through all of the birth information in the margins. How old had Halen been? He recalled that he was born in 1898. But which date? Wallander called reception and asked to be put through to Stefansson. He picked up at once.

‘This is Wallander. I’m wondering if you have Halen’s birthdate available?’

‘Are you planning to wish him a happy birthday?’

He doesn’t like me, Wallander thought. But in time I’ll show him that I am a much better investigator than he is.

‘Hemberg asked me to look into something,’ Wallander lied.

Stefansson put down the receiver. Wallander could hear him riffling through papers.

‘It’s 17 September 1898,’ Stefansson said. ‘Anything else?’

‘That’s all,’ Wallander said and hung up.

Then he pulled over the lists again.

On the third page he found what he had not been consciously aware of looking for. An engineer who was born on 17 September 1898. Anders Hansson. Same initials as Artur Halen, Wallander thought.

He went through the rest of the entries to assure himself that there were no others who were born on the same day. He found a sailor who was born on 19 September 1901. That was the closest thing. Wallander took out the phone book and looked up the number of his local pastor’s office. Since Wallander and Halen had lived in the same building, they must also be registered in the same parish. He dialled the number and waited. A woman answered. Wallander thought he might as well continue to introduce himself as a detective.

‘My name is Wallander and I’m with the Malmo police,’ he started. ‘This is in regard to a violent death that occurred a few days ago. I’m from the homicide unit.’

He gave Halen’s name, address and birthdate.

‘What is it you want to know?’ the woman asked.

‘If there is any information about Halen possibly having a different name earlier in his life.’

‘You mean such as changing his last name?’

Damn it, Wallander thought. People don’t change their first names. Only their last names.

‘Let me check,’ the woman said.

This was wrong, Wallander realised. I react before I’ve thought my ideas through enough.

He wondered if he should just hang up. But the woman would wonder about that, think the call had been cut off, and might call for him at the station. He waited. It took a long time before she returned.

‘His death was just in the process of being recorded,’ she said. ‘That’s why it took a while. But you were right.’

Wallander sat up.

‘His name was Hansson before. He changed his name in 1962.’

Right, Wallander thought. But wrong anyway.

‘The first name,’ he said. ‘What was it?’

‘Anders.’

‘It should have been Artur.’

The answer came as a surprise.

‘It was. He must have had parents who loved names, or who couldn’t agree. His name was Anders Erik Artur Hansson.’

Wallander held his breath.

‘Thank you so much for your help.’

When the call was over, Wallander felt a strong urge to contact Hemberg. But he stayed where he was. The question was how much his discovery was worth. I’ll follow up on this myself, he decided. If it doesn’t lead anywhere, no one has to know about it.

Wallander pulled over his notepad and started to make a summary. What did he really know? Artur Halen had changed his name seven years ago. Linnea Almquist had said at some point that Halen had moved in at the start of the 1960s. That could fit.

Wallander ended up sitting with the pen in his hand. Then he called back the pastor’s office. The same woman answered.

‘I forgot to ask you something,’ Wallander excused himself. ‘I need to know when Halen moved to Rosengard.’

‘You mean Hansson,’ the woman said. ‘I’ll go see.’

This time she was much faster.

‘He is registered as newly moved on 1 January 1962.’

‘Where did he live before?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I thought that information was available?’

‘He was registered as being out of the country. There is no information about where.’

Wallander nodded into the receiver.

‘Then I think that is all. I promise not to disturb you again.’

He returned to his notes. Hansson moves to Malmo from some unknown foreign location in 1962 and changes his name at the same time. A few years later he starts a relationship with a woman in Arlov. If they had known each other earlier, I don’t know. After several more years she is murdered and Halen commits suicide. It’s not clear in what order this occurs. But Halen kills himself. After first filling out a betting form and putting an extra lock on his door. And after swallowing a number of precious stones.

Wallander made a face. He still wasn’t finding a direction from which to proceed. Why does a person change his name? he thought. To make himself invisible? To make himself impossible to find? So that no one will know who he is or who he has been?

Who you are or who you have been?

Wallander thought about this. No one had known Halen. He had been a loner. There could, however, be people who had known a man by the name of Anders Hansson. The question was how he could find them.

At that moment he was reminded of something that had happened the preceding year that might help him find a solution. A fight had broken out between some drunks down by the ferry terminal. Wallander was one of the officers who responded to the dispatch and helped to break up the fight. One of the parties involved was a Danish sailor by the name of Holger Jespersen. Wallander had had the impression that he had unwillingly been dragged into the fight and said as much to his superiors. He had also insisted that Jespersen had not done anything and the man had been allowed to go free while the others were brought in. Later on Wallander had forgotten all about it.

But a few weeks later Jespersen had suddenly turned up outside his door in Rosengard and given him a bottle of Danish aquavit as thanks for his help. Wallander had never managed to establish how Jespersen had found him. But he had invited him in. Jespersen had problems with alcohol, but only from time to time. Usually he worked on various ships as an engineer. He was a good storyteller and seemed to know every northern sailor from the past fifty years. Jespersen had told him that he usually spent his evenings in a bar in Nyhavn. When he was sober he always drank coffee. Otherwise beer. But always in the same place. If he was not somewhere out at sea.

Now Wallander came to think of him. Jespersen knows, he thought. Or else he can give me some advice.

Wallander had already made his decision. If he was lucky, Jespersen would be in Copenhagen and hopefully not in the middle of one of his drinking binges. It was not yet three o’clock. Wallander would spend the rest of the day going to Copenhagen and back. No one seemed to miss his presence at the station. But before he set off across the sound he had a telephone call to make. It was as if his decision to go to Copenhagen had given him the necessary courage. He dialled the number to the hair salon where Mona worked.

The woman who answered the phone was called Karin and was the owner. Wallander had met her on several occasions. He found her intrusive and nosy. But Mona thought she was a good boss. He told her who he was and asked her to give a message to Mona.

‘You can talk to her yourself,’ Karin said. ‘I have a woman under a dryer here.’

‘I’m in a case meeting,’ Wallander said and tried to sound busy. ‘Just tell her that I’ll be in touch by ten o’clock tonight.’

Karin promised to forward the message.

Afterwards Wallander noticed that he had started sweating during the short conversation. But he was still happy that he had accomplished it.

Then he left the station and just managed to catch the hydrofoil that left at three o’clock. Earlier in the year he had often gone to Copenhagen. First alone, and then with Mona. He liked the city, which was so much bigger than Malmo. Sometimes he also went to Det Kongelige Theatre when there was an opera performance he wanted to see.

He didn’t much care for the hydrofoils. The trip went too fast. The old ferries gave him a stronger feeling that there was actually some distance between Sweden and Denmark; that he was travelling abroad when he crossed the sound. He looked out the window as he drank his coffee. One day they will probably build a bridge here, he thought. But I probably won’t have to live to see that day.

When Wallander arrived in Copenhagen it had started to drizzle again. The boat docked in Nyhavn. Jespersen had told him where his regular pub was and it was not without a feeling of excitement that Wallander stepped into the semi-darkness. It was a quarter to four. He looked around the dim interior. There were a few customers scattered about, sitting at tables, drinking beer.

A radio was turned on somewhere. Or was it a record player? A Danish woman’s voice was singing something that seemed very sentimental. Wallander didn’t see Jespersen at any of the tables. The bartender was working on a crossword puzzle in a newspaper spread out over the counter. He looked up when Wallander approached.

‘A beer,’ Wallander said.

The man gave him a Tuborg.

‘I’m looking for Jespersen,’ Wallander said.

‘Holger? He won’t be in for another hour or so.’

‘He’s not out at sea, then?’

The bartender smiled.

‘If he was, he would hardly be coming in in an hour, would he? He usually comes in around five.’

Wallander sat down at a table and waited. The sentimental female voice had now been replaced by an equally schmaltzy male voice. If Jespersen came in around five, Wallander would have no trouble being back in Malmo before he was set to call Mona. Now he tried to think out what he was going to say. He would not even acknowledge the slap. He would tell her why he had contacted Helena. He would not give up until she believed what he said.

A man at one of the tables had fallen asleep. The bartender was still hunched over his crossword. Time was passing slowly. Now and again the door opened and let in a glimpse of daylight. Someone came in and a few others left. Wallander checked his watch. Ten to five. Still no Jespersen. He became hungry and was given some slices of sausage on a plate. And another Tuborg. Wallander had the feeling that the bartender was puzzling over the same word as he had been when Wallander had arrived at the bar an hour ago.

It was five o’clock. Still no Jespersen. He’s not coming, Wallander thought. Today of all days he’s slipped and started drinking again.

Two women walked in through the door. One of them ordered a schnapps and sat down at a table. The other one went behind the counter. The bartender left his newspaper and started to go through the bottles lined up on the shelves. Apparently the woman worked there. It was now twenty minutes past five. The door opened and Jespersen entered, dressed in a denim jacket and a cap. He walked straight to the counter and said hello. The bartender immediately poured him a cup of coffee and pointed to Wallander’s table. Jespersen took his cup and smiled when he saw Wallander.

‘This is unexpected,’ he said in broken Swedish. ‘A Swedish police servant in Copenhagen.’

‘Not a servant,’ Wallander said. ‘Constable. Or criminal investigator.’

‘Isn’t that the same thing?’

Jespersen chuckled and dropped four lumps of sugar into his coffee.

‘In any case, it’s nice to get a visitor,’ he said. ‘I know everyone who comes here. I know what they’re going to drink and what they’re going to say. And they know the same about me. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t go someplace else. But I don’t think I dare.’

‘Why not?’

‘Maybe someone will say something I don’t want to hear.’

Wallander wasn’t sure he understood everything that Jespersen was saying. For one thing, his Swedo-Danish was unclear, for another his pronouncements were somewhat vague.

‘I came here to see you,’ Wallander said. ‘I thought you might be able to help me.’

‘With any other police servant I would have told you to go to hell,’ Jespersen answered jovially. ‘But with you it’s different. What is it you want to know?’

Wallander filled him in on what had happened.

‘A sailor, called both Anders Hansson and Artur Halen,’ he finished. ‘Who also worked as an engineer.’

‘Which line?’

‘Sahlen.’

Jespersen slowly shook his head.

‘I would have heard about someone who changed his name,’ he said. ‘That isn’t an everyday occurrence.’

Wallander tried to describe Halen’s appearance. At the same time he was thinking of the photographs he had seen in the sailor’s books. A man who changed. Maybe Halen also deliberately altered his appearance when he changed his name?

‘Can you add anything else?’ Jespersen said. ‘He was a sailor and an engineer. Which in itself is an unusual combination. Which ports did he sail to? Which type of vessel?’

‘I think he went to Brazil a number of times,’ Wallander said hesitantly. ‘Rio de Janeiro, of course. But also a place called Sao Luis.’

‘Northern Brazil,’ Jespersen said. ‘I’ve been there once. Had shore leave there and stayed in an elegant hotel called Casa Grande.’

‘I don’t think I have anything more to tell,’ Wallander said.

Jespersen studied him while he dropped a few more sugar cubes into his coffee.

‘Someone who knew him? Is that what you want to know? Someone who knew Anders Hansson? Or Artur Halen?’

Wallander nodded.

‘Then we won’t get any further right now,’ Jespersen said. ‘I’ll check around. Both here and in Malmo. Now I think we should go have a bite to eat.’

Wallander looked at his watch. Half past five. There was no need to hurry. If he took the hydrofoil back to Malmo at half past eight he would still get home in time to call Mona. And he was hungry anyway. The sausage slices had not been enough.

‘Mussels,’ Jespersen said and stood up. ‘We’re going to Anne-Birte’s to have a bite.’

Wallander paid for his drinks. Since Jespersen had already gone out to the street, Wallander had to pay for him as well.

Anne-Birte’s establishment was located in the lower part of Nyhavn. Since it was early, they had no problems getting a table. Mussels were not really what Wallander most wanted to have, but that was Jespersen’s choice and so mussels it was. Wallander kept drinking beer while Jespersen had switched to an intensely yellow lemon drink, Citronvand.

‘I’m not touching the drink right now,’ he said. ‘But I will in a few weeks.’

Wallander ate and listened to Jespersen’s many well-told stories from his years at sea. Shortly before half past eight they were ready to leave.

For a while, Wallander worried that he wouldn’t have enough money to pay the bill since Jespersen appeared to take for granted that Wallander would pay. But in the end Wallander had enough to cover it.

They parted outside the restaurant.

‘I’ll look into this,’ Jespersen said. ‘I’ll be in touch.’

Wallander walked down to the ferries and stood in line. They cast off at exactly nine o’clock. Wallander closed his eyes and dozed off almost immediately.

He was awakened by the fact that everything had grown very quiet around him. The roar of the ship’s engines had stopped. He looked around in bewilderment. They were about halfway between Denmark and Sweden. Then an announcement from the captain came over the ship’s PA system. The ship had sustained engine damage and would have to be towed back to Copenhagen. Wallander leaped up out of his seat and asked one of the stewardesses if there was a telephone aboard. He received an answer in the negative.

‘When will we get to Copenhagen?’ he asked.

‘That will unfortunately take several hours. But we will be offering a range of sandwiches and beverages in the meantime.’

‘I don’t want a sandwich,’ Wallander said. ‘I want a telephone.’

But no one could help him. He turned to a ship’s mate who answered curtly that the radio phones could not be used for personal calls when the vessel was in a state of emergency.

Wallander sat back down in his seat.

She won’t believe me, he thought. A hydrofoil that breaks down. That will be the last straw for her. Then our relationship will break down as well, for good.

Wallander reached Malmo at half past two in the morning. They had not arrived in Copenhagen until shortly after midnight. At that point he had already abandoned all thoughts of calling her. When he landed in Malmo there was a downpour. Since he did not have enough money to take a taxi he had to walk all the way back to Rosengard. He had only just stepped inside the door when he suddenly became violently ill. After vomiting, he developed a fever.

The mussels, he thought. Don’t tell me I’m really getting the stomach flu now.

Wallander spent the rest of the night in a constant series of trips between the bedroom and the bathroom. He had the energy to remind himself that he had actually never called in to say he was over his illness. Therefore he was still on sick leave. At dawn he finally managed to catch a few hours of sleep. But at nine he started running to the toilet again. The thought of calling Mona while shitting and vomiting was beyond him. In the best-case scenario she would realise that something had happened to him, that he was sick. But the telephone didn’t ring. No one tried to reach him all day.

Late that evening he started to feel somewhat better. But he was so weak that he didn’t manage to make himself anything except a cup of tea. Before he fell asleep again he wondered how Jespersen was feeling. He hoped he was as sick since he was the one who had suggested the mussels.

The next morning he tried to have a boiled egg. But this only resulted in him having to rush to the toilet again. He spent the rest of the day in bed and felt that his stomach was slowly starting to get back to normal.

Shortly before five, the phone rang. It was Hemberg.

‘I’ve been looking for you,’ he said.

‘I’m sick in bed,’ Wallander said.

‘The stomach flu?’

‘More precisely, mussels.’

‘Surely no sensible person eats mussels?’

‘I did, unfortunately. And was duly punished.’

Hemberg changed the subject.

‘I’m calling to tell you that Jorne is finished,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t what we thought. Halen killed himself before Alexandra Batista was strangled. This means, in other words, that we have to turn this investigation in another direction. There is an unknown perpetrator.’

‘Maybe it’s a coincidence,’ Wallander said.

‘That Batista dies and Halen shoots himself? With precious stones in his stomach? You can try to convince someone else of that. What is missing is the link in this chain of events. For the sake of simplicity we can say that a drama of two people has suddenly been changed into a triangle.’

Wallander wanted to tell Hemberg about Halen’s change of name but felt another urge to vomit coming on. He excused himself.

‘If you feel better tomorrow, then come up and see me,’ Hemberg said. ‘Remember to drink a lot. Liquids are the only thing that help.’

After very hastily concluding the conversation and making yet another trip to the bathroom, Wallander returned to his bed. He spent that evening and night somewhere in the no-man’s-land between sleep, wakefulness and half-sleep. His stomach had calmed itself now, but he was still very tired. He dreamed about Mona and thought about what Hemberg had said. But he did not have the energy to get worked up, could not bring himself to think in earnest.

He felt better in the morning. He toasted some bread and brewed a weak cup of coffee. His stomach did not react. He let fresh air into the apartment, which had started to smell bad. The rain clouds had gone away and it was warm. At lunchtime Wallander called the hair salon. Again it was Karin who answered.

‘Could you tell Mona I’ll call her tonight?’ he said. ‘I’ve been sick.’

‘I’ll let her know.’

Wallander could not determine if there was a tinge of sarcasm in her voice. He didn’t think Mona talked much about her personal life. At least he hoped she didn’t.

Around one o’clock Wallander got ready to go down to the police station. But to make sure, he called and asked if Hemberg was in. After several fruitless attempts to get hold of him or at least information about where he might be, Wallander gave up. He decided to go grocery shopping and then spend the rest of the afternoon preparing for the conversation with Mona, which was not going to be an easy matter.

He made soup for dinner and then lay down on the couch and watched TV. A little after seven the door rang. Mona, he thought. She has realised that something is wrong and she’s come over.

But when he opened the door, Jespersen was standing there.

‘You and your damn mussels,’ Wallander said angrily. ‘I’ve been ill for two days.’

Jespersen looked enquiringly at him.

‘I didn’t notice anything,’ he said. ‘I’m sure there was nothing wrong with the mussels.’

Wallander decided it was meaningless to keep talking about the dinner. He let Jespersen in. They sat down in the kitchen.

‘Something smells funny in here.’

‘It usually does when someone has spent almost forty hours on the toilet.’

Jespersen shook his head.

‘It must have been something else,’ he said. ‘Not Anne-Birte’s mussels.’

‘You’re here,’ Wallander said. ‘That means you have something to tell me.’

‘A little coffee would be nice,’ Jespersen said.

‘I’m all out, sorry. And anyway, I didn’t know you were coming.’

Jespersen nodded. He didn’t take offence.

‘Mussels can certainly give you a stomach ache,’ he said, ‘but if I’m not completely mistaken, it’s something else that’s worrying you.’

Wallander was amazed. Jespersen saw right into him, right into the centre of pain that was Mona.

‘You may be right,’ he said. ‘But that’s not something I want to talk about.’

Jespersen held up his hands.

‘You’re here. That means you have something to tell me,’ Wallander repeated.

‘Have I ever told you what respect I have for your president, Mr Palme?’

‘He’s not a president, he’s not even prime minister yet. But you hardly came all the way here to tell me that.’

‘Nonetheless, it should be said,’ Jespersen insisted. ‘But you are right that other reasons have brought me here. If you live in Copenhagen, only an errand will bring you to Malmo. If you know what I mean.’

Wallander nodded impatiently. Jespersen could be very long-winded. Except when he was telling his tales from his life at sea. Then he was a master.

‘I talked a little with some friends in Copenhagen,’ Jespersen said. ‘That gave me nothing. Then I went over to Malmo and things went better. I spoke with an old electrician who sailed the seven seas for a thousand years. Ljungstrom is his name. Lives in a retirement home nowadays. Except I’ve forgotten the name of the place. He could hardly stand on his two legs. But his memory is clear.’

‘What did he say?’

‘Nothing. But he suggested that I chat a little with a man out in Frihamnen. And when I found him and asked him about Hansson and Halen he said, “Those two are in constant demand.”’

‘What did he mean by that?’

‘What do you think? You’re a policeman and should be able to understand what regular folks don’t.’

‘What did he say again, exactly?’

‘That “those two are in constant demand”.’

Wallander understood.

‘There must have been someone else who had been asking about them, or him, to be precise.’

‘Yes.’

‘Who?’

‘He didn’t know the name. But he claimed it was a man who seemed a little unstable. How can I put this? Unshaven and badly dressed. And drunk.’

‘When did this happen?’

‘About a month ago.’

About the same time that Halen had the extra lock put in, Wallander thought.

‘He didn’t know the man’s name? Can I speak with this fellow in Frihamnen myself? He must have had a name?’

‘He didn’t want to talk to a cop.’

‘Why not?’

Jespersen shrugged.

‘You know how things can be at the docks. Crates of alcohol that break open, some bags of coffee that go missing.’

Wallander had heard about such things.

‘But I kept asking around,’ Jespersen said. ‘And if I’m not mistaken I think there are some slightly scruffy individuals who have a habit of meeting up to share a bottle or two in that park in the middle of town that I’ve forgotten the name of. Something that starts with P?’

‘Pildamms Park?’

‘That’s the one. And the man who asked about Halen, or maybe it was Hansson, had a sagging eyelid.’

‘Which eye?’

‘I don’t think it’ll be hard to see if you find him.’

‘And he asked about Halen or Hansson about a month ago? And he hangs out in Pildamms Park?’

‘I thought maybe we could look him up before I head back,’ Jespersen said. ‘And maybe we’ll find a cafe on the way?’

Wallander checked his watch. It was half past seven.

‘I can’t do it tonight. I’m busy.’

‘Then I’m going back to Copenhagen. I’m going to have a word with Anne-Birte about her mussels.’

‘It could have been something else,’ Wallander said.

‘Just what I’ll say to Anne-Birte.’

They had walked out into the hall.

‘Thanks for coming,’ Wallander said. ‘And thanks for your help.’

‘Thank you,’ Jespersen said. ‘If you hadn’t been there I would have got nothing but trouble and fines that time the guys started to fight.’

‘I’ll see you around,’ Wallander said. ‘But no more mussels next time.’

‘No more mussels,’ Jespersen said and left.

Wallander went back into the kitchen and wrote down everything he had just heard. Someone had been asking about Halen or Hansson. This had taken place about a month ago. At around the same time that Halen had an extra lock put in. The man looking for Halen had a sagging eyelid. Seemed in one way or another to be drifting along. And was possibly hanging out in Pildamms Park.

Wallander put the pen down. I’m going to talk to Hemberg about this too, he thought. Right now this is actually a real lead.

Then Wallander thought that he should of course have asked Jespersen to find out if there was anyone in his circle who had heard of a woman named Alexandra Batista.

He was irritated at his sloppiness. I didn’t think it all the way through, he said to himself. I make unnecessary errors.

It was already a quarter to eight. Wallander walked to and fro in the apartment. He was nervous, but his stomach was fine now. He thought about calling his father at the new telephone number in Loderup, but chances were they would start quarrelling. It was enough to deal with Mona. In order to get the time to pass he took a walk around the block. Summer had arrived. The evening was warm. He wondered what would happen with their planned trip to Skagen.

At half past eight he walked back into his apartment. Sat down at the kitchen table with his watch laid out in front of him. I’m acting like a child, he thought. But right now I don’t know what to do in order to act any different.

He called at nine o’clock. Mona picked up almost immediately.

‘Before you hang up, I would like to explain myself,’ Wallander started.

‘Who said I was going to hang up?’

This threw him off guard. He had prepared himself carefully, knew what he was going to say. Instead she was the one who talked.

‘I actually do believe that you have an explanation,’ she said. ‘But right now that doesn’t interest me. I think we should meet and talk in person.’

‘Now?’

‘Not tonight. But tomorrow. Can you do that?’

‘Yes, I can do that.’

‘Then I’ll come to your place. But not until nine o’clock. It’s my mother’s birthday. I promised to stop by.’

‘I can cook dinner.’

‘That won’t be necessary.’

Wallander started over again from the beginning with his prepared explanations. But she interrupted him.

‘Let’s talk tomorrow. Not now, not on the phone.’

The conversation was over in less than a minute. Nothing had turned out the way Wallander had expected. It had been a conversation that he had hardly dared to dream about. Even if there had also been something that he could interpret as ominous.

The thought of staying in for the rest of the evening made him restless. It was only a quarter past nine. Nothing prevents me from taking a walk through Pildamms Park, he thought. Maybe I’ll even bump into a man with a sagging eyelid.

Wallander took out a hundred kronor in small notes which he kept tucked between the pages of a book in his bookcase. He put the notes in his pocket, picked up his coat and walked out. There was no wind and it was still warm. While he walked to the bus stop he hummed a melody from an opera. Rigoletto. He saw the bus come and started to run.

When he reached Pildamms Park he began to wonder if it had been such a good idea. It was a large park. In addition, he was actually looking for a suspected murderer. The regulations against officers acting on their own rang in his ears. But I can take a walk, he thought. I have no uniform, no one knows that I’m a policeman. I’m just a single man who’s out walking his invisible dog.

Wallander started to walk down one of the park paths. A group of young people were sitting under one of the trees. Someone was playing guitar. Wallander saw a few bottles of wine. He wondered how many laws they were breaking at this moment. Lohman would surely have moved in quickly. But Wallander simply walked on by. A few years ago he could have been one of the people sitting under the tree. But now he was a policeman and should instead arrest a person drinking wine in a public place. He shook his head at the thought. He could hardly wait until he got to work in criminal investigations. It wasn’t for this that he had joined the police. To seize young people who were playing guitar and drinking wine on one of the first warm evenings of the summer. It was to get the really big criminals. The ones who committed violent crimes or large-scale theft, or smuggled drugs.

He walked on into the park. Traffic roared in the distance. Two young people walked by, wrapped tightly around each other. Wallander thought about Mona. It would probably work out. Soon they would take their trip to Skagen, and he would never again be late for a date.

Wallander stopped. Some people were sitting and drinking alcohol on a bench not far ahead. One of them was pulling on the leash of a German shepherd who wouldn’t lie still. Wallander approached them slowly. They didn’t appear to pay him any attention. Wallander couldn’t see that any of them had a sagging eyelid. But suddenly one of the men stood up on swaying legs in front of Wallander. He was very burly. The muscles swelled out under his shirt, which was unbuttoned over his stomach.

‘I need a tenner,’ he said.

Wallander had at first intended to say no. Ten kronor was a lot of money. Then he changed his mind.

‘I’m looking for a friend of mine,’ he said. ‘A guy with a sagging eyelid.’

Wallander had not expected a hit. But to his amazement, he received an unexpected reply.

‘Rune’s not here. The devil only knows where he’s got to.’

‘That’s the one,’ Wallander said. ‘Rune.’

‘Who the hell are you?’ the swaying man said.

‘My name is Kurt,’ Wallander said. ‘I’m an old friend.’

‘I’ve never seen you before.’

Wallander gave him a ten.

‘Tell him if you see him,’ Wallander said. ‘Tell him Kurt was here. Do you happen to know Rune’s last name, by the way?’

‘I don’t even know if he has a last name. Rune is Rune.’

‘Where does he live, then?’

The man stopped swaying for a moment.

‘I thought you said you were friends? Then you should know where he lives.’

‘He moves around a lot.’

The man turned to the others who were sitting on the bench.

‘Do any of you know where Rune lives?’

The conversation that followed was extremely confused. At first it took a long time to establish which Rune they were talking about. Then many suggestions were offered to where this Rune might live. If he even had a home. Wallander waited. The German shepherd next to the bench barked the whole time.

The man with the muscles returned.

‘We don’t know where Rune lives,’ he said. ‘But we’ll tell him that Kurt was here.’

Wallander nodded and swiftly walked away. Of course, he might be wrong. There was more than one person with a sagging eyelid. But still, he was sure he was on the right track. It occurred to him that he should immediately contact Hemberg and suggest that the park be put under surveillance. Maybe the police already had a man with a sagging eyelid on their records?

But then Wallander felt doubtful. He was proceeding too fast again. First he should have a thorough conversation with Hemberg. He should tell him about the name change and what Jespersen had said. Then it would be up to Hemberg to decide if this was a lead or not.

Wallander would wait to talk to Hemberg the following day.

Wallander left the park and took the bus home.

He was still tired from the stomach flu and fell asleep before midnight.

The following day Wallander woke up refreshed at seven o’clock. After noting that his stomach was completely restored to normal he had a cup of coffee. Then he dialled the number he had been given by the girl in reception.

His father answered after many rings.

‘Is that you?’ his father said brusquely. ‘I couldn’t find the telephone in all this mess.’

‘Why did you call the police station and introduce yourself as a distant relative? Can’t you damn well say that you’re my father?’

‘I don’t want anything to do with the police,’ his father answered. ‘Why don’t you come to see me?’

‘I don’t even know where you live. Kristina only explained it vaguely.’

‘You’re too lazy to figure it out. That’s your whole problem.’

Wallander realised the conversation had already taken a wrong turn. The best thing he could do now would be to end it as soon as possible.

‘I’ll be out in a few days,’ he said. ‘I’ll call first and get directions. How are you liking it?’

‘Fine.’

‘Is that it? “Fine”?’

‘Things are in a bit of disarray. But once I get that sorted out it will be excellent. I have a wonderful studio in an old barn.’

‘I’ll be there,’ Wallander said.

‘I won’t believe it until you stand here,’ his father said. ‘You can’t really trust the police.’

Wallander finished and hung up. He could live for twenty more years, he thought desperately. And I’m going to have him over me the whole time. I’ll never escape him. I may as well face that now. And if he’s bad-tempered now it will only get worse as he gets older.

Wallander ate some sandwiches with a newly regained appetite and then took the bus in to the station. He knocked on Hemberg’s half-open door shortly after eight. He heard a grunt in reply and walked in. For once Hemberg did not have his feet on the table. He was standing at the window, flipping through a morning paper. As Wallander walked in, Hemberg scrutinised him with an amused expression.

‘Mussels,’ he said. ‘You should watch out for them. They suck up everything that’s in the water.’

‘It could have been something else,’ Wallander said evasively.

Hemberg set the newspaper down and took his seat.

‘I need to talk to you,’ Wallander said. ‘And it will take longer than five minutes.’

Hemberg nodded at his visitor’s chair.

Wallander told him of his discovery, that Halen had changed his name a few years earlier. He noticed that Hemberg immediately became more attentive. Wallander went on and told him about his conversation with Jespersen, last night’s visit, and the walk in Pildamms Park.

‘A man named Rune,’ he concluded. ‘Who doesn’t have a last name. And has a droopy eyelid.’

Hemberg considered everything he had said in silence.

‘No person lacks a last name,’ he said thereafter. ‘And there can’t be that many people with droopy eyelids in a city like Malmo.’

Then he frowned.

‘I’ve already told you once not to act on your own. And you should have contacted me or someone else last night. We would have picked up the people you met in the park. With some thorough questioning and some time to sober up, people tend to remember more. Did you, for example, write down any of these men’s names?’

‘I didn’t say I was from the police. I said I was a friend of Rune’s.’

Hemberg shook his head.

‘You can’t do that kind of stuff,’ he said. ‘We act openly unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary.’

‘He wanted money,’ Wallander said, defending himself. ‘Otherwise I would simply have walked on by.’

Hemberg looked narrowly at him.

‘What were you doing in Pildamms Park?’

‘Taking a walk.’

‘You were not undertaking your own investigation?’

‘I needed some exercise after my illness.’

Hemberg’s face expressed strong disbelief.

‘It was, in other words, pure coincidence that made you choose Pildamms Park?’

Wallander did not reply. Hemberg got up out of his chair.

‘I’ll put some men on this development. Right now we need to proceed on the widest possible front. I think I had fixed on it being Halen who killed Batista, but you get it wrong sometimes. Then all you can do is strike it and start over.’

Wallander left Hemberg’s room and walked down to the lower floor. He was hoping to be able to avoid Lohman but it was as if his boss had been waiting for him. Lohman walked out of a conference room, a cup of coffee in his hand.

‘I had just started to wonder where you were,’ he said.

‘I’ve been ill,’ Wallander said.

‘And yet people reported seeing you in the building.’

‘I’m fine again now,’ Wallander said. ‘It was the stomach flu. Mussels.’

‘You’ve been assigned to foot patrol,’ Lohman said. ‘Talk to Hakansson.’

Wallander walked to the room where the patrol squad received their assignments. Hakansson, who was large and fat and always sweating, was sitting at a table and leafing through a magazine. He looked up when Wallander walked in.

‘Central city,’ he said. ‘Wittberg is leaving at nine. End at three. Go with him.’

Wallander nodded and walked to the changing room. He took his uniform out of his locker and changed. Just as he finished, Wittberg walked in. He was thirty years old and always talked about his dreams of one day driving a racing car.

They left the station at a quarter past nine.

‘Things are always calmer when it’s warm,’ Wittberg said. ‘No unnecessary intervention on our part, then perhaps the day will turn out calm.’

And the day did indeed turn out to be calm. By the time Wallander hung up his uniform, shortly after three, they had not made a single intervention, except for stopping a cyclist who was riding on the wrong side of the street.

Wallander got home at four o’clock. He had stopped at the shop on the way home, just in case Mona changed her mind and was hungry when she came by after all.

By half past four he had showered and changed his clothes. There were still four and a half hours until Mona would come. Nothing prevents me from taking another walk in Pildamms Park, Wallander thought. Especially if I’m out with my invisible dog.

He hesitated. Hemberg had given him express orders.

But he went anyway. At half past five he walked down the same path as before. The young people who had been playing guitar and drinking wine were gone. The bench where the drunk men had been sitting was also empty. Wallander decided to keep going for another quarter of an hour. Then he would go home. He walked down a hill and paused, watching some ducks swimming around in the large pond. He heard birds singing nearby. The trees gave off a strong scent of early summer. An older couple walked past. Wallander heard them talking about someone’s ‘poor sister’. Whose sister it was and why she was the object of pity, he never found out.

He was just about to walk back the same way he had come when he discovered two people sitting in the shade of a tree. If they were drunk, he couldn’t tell. One of the men stood up. His walk was unsteady. His friend still sitting under the tree had nodded off. His chin rested against his chest. Wallander walked closer but did not recognise him from the night before. The man was poorly dressed and there was an empty vodka bottle between his feet.

Wallander crouched down to try to see his face. At the same time he heard the crunch of steps on the gravel path behind him. When he turned round there were two girls standing there. He recognised one of them without being able to say from where.

‘It’s one of those damn cops,’ the girl said. ‘Who hit me at the demonstration.’

Then Wallander realised who it was: the girl who had verbally assaulted him at the cafe the week before.

Wallander rose to his feet. At that same moment he saw from the other girl’s face that something was happening behind his back. He quickly turned round. The man who had been leaning against the tree had not been asleep. Now he was standing. And he had a knife in his hand.

After that everything happened very quickly. Later Wallander would only remember that the girls had screamed and run away. Wallander had lifted his arms to shield himself, but it was too late. He had not managed to block the thrust. The knife struck him in the middle of his chest. A warm darkness washed over him.

Even before he sank down onto the gravel path his memory had stopped registering what was happening.

After that everything had been a fog. Or perhaps a thickly flowing sea in which everything was white and still.

Wallander lay sunken in deep unconsciousness for four days. He underwent two complicated operations. The knife had grazed his heart. But he survived. And slowly he returned from the fog. When at last, on the morning of the fifth day, he opened his eyes, he did not know what had happened or where he was.

But next to his bed there was a face he recognised.

A face that meant everything. Mona’s face.

And she was smiling.

EPILOGUE

One day at the start of September, when Wallander received the go-ahead from his doctor that he could start work a week later, he called up Hemberg. Later that afternoon Hemberg came out to his apartment in Rosengard. They bumped into each other in the stairwell. Wallander had just taken out the rubbish.

‘It was here where it all started,’ Hemberg said, nodding at Halen’s door.

‘No one else has moved in yet,’ Wallander said. ‘The furniture is still there. The fire damage hasn’t been repaired. Every time I walk in or out I still think it smells like smoke.’

They sat in Wallander’s kitchen drinking coffee. The September day was unusually brisk. Hemberg was wearing a thick sweater under his coat.

‘Autumn came early this year,’ he said.

‘I went out to visit my father yesterday,’ Wallander said. ‘He’s moved from the city to Loderup. It’s beautiful out there in the middle of the plains.’

‘How one can voluntarily make one’s home out there in the middle of all that mud exceeds my powers of comprehension,’ Hemberg said dismissively. ‘Then comes winter. And one is trapped by the snow.’

‘He seems to like it,’ Wallander said. ‘And I don’t think he cares very much about the weather. He just works on his paintings from morning till night.’

‘I didn’t know your father was an artist.’

‘He paints the same motif again and again,’ Wallander said. ‘A landscape. With or without a grouse.’

He stood up. Hemberg followed him to the main room, where the painting hung.

‘One of my neighbours has one of those,’ Hemberg said. ‘They appear to be popular.’

They returned to the kitchen.

‘You made all the mistakes you can make,’ Hemberg said. ‘But I’ve already told you that. You don’t undertake investigative work alone, you don’t intervene without backup. You were only a centimetre or so from death. I hope you’ve learned something. At least how not to act.’

Wallander did not answer. Hemberg was right, of course.

‘But you were stubborn,’ Hemberg continued. ‘It was you who discovered that Halen had changed his name. We would of course also have discovered this eventually. We would also have found Rune Blom. But you thought logically, and you thought correctly.’

‘I called you out of curiosity,’ Wallander said. ‘There’s still a lot I don’t know.’

Hemberg told him. Rune Blom had confessed, and he could also be tied to the murder of Alexandra Batista through the forensic evidence.

‘The whole thing started in 1954,’ Hemberg said. ‘Blom has been very detailed. He and Halen, or Hansson as he was called back then, had been on the same crew on a ship bound for Brazil. In Sao Luis they had come into possession of the precious stones. He claims that they bought them for a negligible price from a drunk Brazilian who didn’t know their true worth. They probably didn’t either. If they stole them or actually purchased them, we’ll probably never know. They had decided to split their bounty. But then it so happened that Blom ended up in a Brazilian prison, for manslaughter. And then Halen took advantage of the situation, since he had the stones. He changed his name and quit sailing after a few years and hid out here in Malmo. Met Batista and counted on the fact that Blom would spend the rest of his life in a Brazilian prison. But Blom was later released and started to look for Halen. Somehow Halen found out that Blom had turned up in Malmo. He got scared and put an extra lock on the door. But continued seeing Batista. Blom was spying on him. Blom claims that Halen committed suicide on the day that Blom found out where he lived. Apparently this was enough to frighten him so much that he went home and shot himself. You may wonder about that. Why didn’t he give the stones to Blom? Why swallow them and then shoot himself? What’s the point of being so greedy that you prefer dying instead of giving away something that has a little monetary value?’

Hemberg sipped his coffee and looked thoughtfully out the window. It was raining.

‘You know the rest,’ he continued. ‘Blom did not find any stones. He suspected that Batista must have them. Since he introduced himself as a friend of Halen, she let him in without suspecting anything. And Blom took her life. He had a violent nature. He had shown that before. From time to time when he was drinking he proved himself capable of extreme brutality. There are a number of cases of assault in his past. On top of the manslaughter charge in Brazil. This time Batista bore the brunt.’

‘Why did he take the trouble to go back and set the apartment on fire? Wasn’t he taking a risk?’

‘He hasn’t given any explanation other than the fact that he became enraged that the stones were missing. I think it’s true. Blom is an unpleasant person. But perhaps he was afraid that his name was somewhere in the apartment on some piece of paper. He probably hadn’t had time to check around exhaustively before you surprised him. But of course he was taking a risk. He could have been discovered.’

Wallander nodded. Now he had the whole picture.

‘It’s really just a case of a horrible little murder, and a greedy man who shoots himself,’ Hemberg said. ‘When you become a criminal investigator you’ll come across this many times. Never in the same way. But with more or less the same basic motive.’

‘That was what I was going to ask you about,’ Wallander said. ‘I realise that I have made many mistakes.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Hemberg said curtly. ‘You’ll start with us the first of October, but not before.’

Wallander had heard correctly. He exulted inside. But he didn’t show it, only nodded.

Hemberg stayed a little while longer. Then he left and went off in the rain. Wallander stood at the window and watched him drive away in his car. He absently fingered the scar on his chest.

Suddenly he thought of something he had read. In what context, he did not know.

There is a time to live, and a time to die.

I made it, he thought. I was lucky.

Then he decided never to forget these words.

There is a time to live, and a time to die.

These words would become his personal incantation from now on.

The rain spattered against the windowpane.

Mona arrived shortly after eight.

That evening they talked for a long time about finally making the planned trip to Skagen next summer.

Content

Henning Mankell
Wallander's First Case

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

EPILOGUE