The Troubled Man (2011) kw-10

by Henning Mankell

  ‘Let’s forget that question, then. But I am a police officer, and justified in thinking along those lines.’

  ‘It was over fifty years ago. Whatever was said and happened in those days must surely be out of date and of no interest now.’

  ‘Not quite,’ Wallander said. ‘History isn’t just something that’s behind us, it’s also something that follows us.’

  She made no comment. He wasn’t sure whether she had understood what he meant. Wallander steered the conversation back to the newspaper article. He realised that Fanny Klarstrom had a pent-up need to talk to somebody, which meant there was a serious risk that their conversation could go on for a very long time.

  Was his own future going to be similar? An ageing, lonely old man who grabbed hold of anybody he happened to come across and held on to them for as long as possible?

  *

  Fanny the waitress had a good memory. She remembered most of the men in uniform with their various insignia, gathered together on the fuzzy printout. Her comments were needle-sharp, often malicious, and it was obvious to Wallander that she considered every word justified. There was, for instance, a Commander Sunesson who was always telling dirty jokes, which she described as ‘not funny, just coarse’. He had also been one of the most extreme Palme-haters, and the one who proposed quite openly various ways of liquidating the ‘Russian spy’.

  ‘I have a horrible memory of Commander Sunesson,’ she said. ‘Two days after Palme was shot down in a Stockholm street, these officers were booked for one of their dinners. Sunesson stood up and proposed a toast in gratitude for the fact that Olof Palme had finally had the sense to disappear from the land of the living and could no longer poison the air for all upright citizens. I recall his exact words, and I came close to pouring something over him. It was a terrible evening.’

  Wallander pointed at Hakan von Enke.

  ‘What do you remember about him?’

  ‘He was one of the better ones. He didn’t drink too much, seldom said anything, just listened most of the time. He was also one of the most polite. He actually saw me, if I can put it like that.’

  ‘What about the hatred of Palme? The fear of Russia?’

  ‘They all shared that. They thought of course Sweden should be a member of NATO - it was a scandal that we steered clear of it. Many of them also thought that Sweden should acquire atomic weapons right away, that if only we could arm a few submarines with those weapons, it would be possible to defend the Swedish borders. All conversations were about the fight between God and the devil.’

  ‘The devil came from the East?’

  ‘And God the Father was also known as the USA. There was evidently some kind of secret agreement in the 1950s between the government and the top military brass that American planes could cross Swedish borders whenever they liked. Our air traffic controllers had certain codes that the Americans knew about and used. So all the Yanks needed to do was to take off from their bases in Norway and head for the Soviet Union. I recall discussing this with my friends and being upset about it.’

  ‘But what about the submarines?’

  ‘We talked about them all the time.’

  ‘Including the one trapped in the shallows off Karlskrona? And the ones in the Harsfjarden channel?’

  Her reply surprised him.

  ‘They were two entirely separate incidents.’

  ‘How could that be?’

  ‘A Russian submarine had run aground off Karlskrona. But there was never any confirmation of what was lurking under the surface at Harsfjarden. That was no doubt intentional.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘They drank a few toasts to the poor captain - what was his name?’

  ‘Gushchin.’

  ‘Yes, that was it. Poor old Gus, they said. He was so drunk that his submarine got stuck on a Swedish rock. So at last they had the Russian submarine they’d always wanted to capture. Right? This proved beyond doubt that it was the Russians who were playing hide-and-seek inside Swedish territorial waters. But with regard to Harsfjarden, there was nobody there who wanted to drink a toast to any Russian captain - do you get my meaning?’

  ‘Are you suggesting that there weren’t any Russians lurking around under the surface at Harsfjarden?’

  ‘It was impossible to prove anything, one way or the other.’

  Fanny Klarstrom continued talking enthusiastically about things Wallander didn’t know much about. He had never tried to conceal his extremely limited knowledge of history. Earlier in his life he simply hadn’t been all that interested. But now he was listening closely to what Fanny Klarstrom had to say.

  ‘So Russia was the enemy,’ Wallander said.

  ‘None of our military men thought otherwise. Whenever the officers met they would talk to each other as if we were already at war with the Russians. Nobody gave a thought to the possibility that the USA could be just as big a threat.’

  ‘What was the point of those dinners?’

  ‘To eat and drink well, and to criticise the politicians who “represented a threat to Swedish sovereignty”. Those were the precise words they always used. The main enemy was the Social Democrats. Even though everybody knew that Olof Palme was a staunch Democrat, he was always referred to in these circles as a “Communist”.’

  Despite Wallander’s protests, Fanny went to make more coffee. He already had a stomach ache. When she came back he explained the real reason for his visit to Markaryd.

  ‘Wasn’t there something in the papers about that couple’s disappearance?’ she asked when he had finished his account.

  ‘The woman, Louise, was recently found dead just outside Stockholm.’

  ‘Poor woman. What happened?’

  ‘She was probably murdered.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘We don’t have an answer to that yet.’

  ‘And the man is that officer in the picture there?’

  ‘Yes, Hakan von Enke. If you can remember anything else about him, I’d like to hear it.’

  She thought hard, studying the photograph.

  ‘He’s difficult to remember,’ she said eventually. ‘I think I’ve already told you everything I can recall. Maybe that in itself says something about him? He hardly ever made a fuss, just sat there quietly. He wasn’t one of those who drank a lot and couldn’t stop talking. I remember him always having a smile on his face.’

  Wallander frowned. Could her memory be completely wrong?

  ‘Are you sure he was always smiling? My impression is that he was a very serious man.’

  ‘I may be wrong. But I’m quite certain he wasn’t one of the awful warmongers. On the contrary, my memory is that he was one of the tiny minority who sometimes spoke up for peace. I no doubt remember that because it interested me.’

  ‘What did?’

  ‘Peace. I was one of those who demanded that Sweden renounce nuclear weapons as early as the 1950s.’

  ‘So Hakan von Enke spoke up for peace?’

  ‘As I recall, yes. But it was a long time ago.’

  Wallander could see that she really was doing her best. He sipped at his coffee, trying to avoid actually drinking any, and nibbled on a biscuit. And then he lost a filling. The tooth started hurting immediately. He wrapped the filling in a paper napkin and put it in his pocket. It was the middle of summer; his dentist would no doubt be on holiday and Wallander would be referred to some emergency centre. He was irritated by the thought that his body was starting to fall to pieces. Once the most important parts stopped working, it would all be over.

  ‘America.’ Fanny Klarstrom interrupted his train of thought. ‘I knew there was something else.’

  There was an incident that had stuck in her memory and made a deep impression; that was why she remembered it so clearly.

  ‘It was one of the last times I worked at those banquets. There was evidently a request to see young ladies in short skirts rather than old ones with swollen legs. It didn’t bother me because I couldn’t have cop
ed much longer with serving drinks and meals to those people. They used to have their meetings on the first Tuesday of every month. It must have been 1987, in March. I remember that because I’d broken the little finger of my left hand and wasn’t able to work for quite a while. I started again that very evening. They always used to finish up with coffee and brandy or whatever in a drab little room with leather chairs and dark bookcases. I remember because I’ve always enjoyed reading. Sometimes when I arrived early for one of the banquets, before starting to set the tables I would go to that room and look at the books. I soon discovered to my surprise that they were fakes - just covers with nothing inside. The owner or maybe the interior designer he’d hired had evidently bought them from some stage props supplier. I remember that my respect for those people suffered another significant blow.’

  She sat up straight in the armchair, as if in an attempt to prevent herself from losing the thread again.

  ‘Suddenly one of the officers started talking about spies,’ she continued. ‘I was going around with a bottle of very expensive cognac at the time, filling their glasses. It wasn’t unusual for them to talk about spies. Wennerstrom was a popular topic. Several of them announced that they would willingly kill him with their own hands, once the drink got them talking. I recall an admiral, von Hartman I think his name was, suggesting that Wennerstrom be throttled slowly with a balalaika string. Then Hakan von Enke started talking. He asked why nobody seemed to be worried that spies for the USA might be active in Sweden. That aroused a furious reaction. It deteriorated into a very unpleasant argument, during which several of the officers called his loyalty into question. Of course they were all drunk, with the possible exception of von Enke. In any case, he was so angry that he stood up and stormed out of the room. That had never happened before, during all the years I had been serving them. I don’t know if he ever came back, because the young, attractive waitresses took over. I remember the incident well because my friends and I had always thought the same. If the Russians had spies in Sweden, which they doubtless did, you could be sure that the Americans were active as well. But these officers refused to believe that. Or at least, if they did, they preferred not to say so.’

  She stood up in order to serve him more coffee. Wallander smiled and placed his hand over his cup. When she sat down again, he couldn’t help seeing her swollen legs and varicose veins. He could just imagine her, serving the officers in the banqueting hall.

  ‘Anyway, that’s what I remember,’ she said. ‘Could it be of some use?’

  ‘Definitely,’ said Wallander. ‘Every piece of information increases the possibility of our being able to work out what happened.’

  She took off her glasses and studied him.

  ‘Is he dead as well?’

  ‘We don’t know.’

  ‘Could he be the one who killed her?’

  ‘We don’t know that either. But of course, anything is possible.’

  ‘That’s what usually happens,’ she said with a sigh. ‘Men kill their wives. They sometimes claim they intended to kill themselves as well, but there are a lot who don’t have the courage.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Wallander. ‘That often happens. Men can prove to be very cowardly when the chips are down.’

  She suddenly started crying again, a trickle of almost invisible tears running down her cheeks. Wallander felt a lump in his throat once again. Loneliness is not a pretty thing, he thought. She sits here among all her silent photos, and her only company is her memories.

  ‘It’s never happened before, me crying like this,’ she said, drying her cheeks. ‘But he keeps coming back to me, my husband, more and more often, the older I get. I think he’s waiting for me down there in the depths; he’s tugging at me. I’ll soon be going to accompany him. I get the feeling that I’ve lived my life now. But it keeps going nevertheless. A tired old heart, still beating away; but my dark night is somebody’s day.’

  ‘That rhymes,’ said Wallander.

  ‘I know,’ she said, then burst out laughing. ‘An old woman thinking poetic thoughts in her hours of loneliness.’

  Wallander stood up and thanked her for her hospitality. She insisted on accompanying him to his car, despite the fact that he could see her legs were hurting. The man with the lawnmower was no longer there.

  ‘Summer brings longing,’ she said as they shook hands. ‘My husband has been gone for over sixty years, but I can still feel an intense longing for him, just like when we first met. Can a policeman experience anything like that?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ said Wallander. ‘He most certainly can.’

  She waved as he drove away. That’s a person I will never see again, he thought. He left the village and shook off the melancholy of his visit to Fanny Klarstrom, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her comment that men kill their wives and then are too cowardly to kill themselves. That Hakan von Enke might have killed Louise was one of the first thoughts Wallander had had after his meeting with Hermann Eber. There was no obvious motive, no proof, no clues. It was just a possibility among many others. But he had the feeling that, having heard Fanny Klarstrom say what she did, he should take another look at that fragile hypothesis. As he drove through the Smaland forests, he tried to think of a series of events that would lead to Louise’s being killed by her husband.

  He arrived home without having made any real progress.

  But that night he lay awake for a long time thinking about Fanny Klarstrom before finally falling asleep.

  26

  Wallander was still asleep when the phone rang. It was his father’s old phone that he had rescued for sentimental reasons when the old man’s house in Loderup had been cleared out before being sold. He considered letting it ring and ring, but eventually he got up and answered. It was one of the new women in the police station reception; Ebba, who had been there since time immemorial, had now retired and moved with her husband to an apartment in central Malmo, where their children lived. Wallander couldn’t recall the new receptionist’s name - maybe it was Anna, but he wasn’t sure.

  ‘There’s a woman here asking for your address,’ she said. ‘I only let people have it with your permission. She’s from abroad.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Wallander. ‘All the women I know are from abroad.’

  He stayed at the phone, and on his third attempt managed to pin down a dentist who could treat him an hour later.

  It was almost noon when he got back home from the dentist’s. He had started thinking about lunch when there was a knock on the door. When he answered it, he knew immediately who it was, even though she had changed. Baiba Liepa from Riga, Latvia. There was no doubt she was the one standing on his doorstep, older and paler.

  ‘Good God!’ he said. ‘So you were the lady asking for my address?’

  ‘I didn’t want to disturb you.’

  ‘How could you ever disturb me?’

  He embraced her, and could feel that she had become very thin. It had been over fifteen years since their brief but torrid love affair. And it must have been ten years since they were last in touch. Wallander had been drunk and called her in the middle of the night. Needless to say, he regretted it later, and resolved never to contact her again. But now, with her standing there in front of him, he could feel his emotions bubbling over. Their affair had been the most passionate experience of his life. Being with her had put his protracted relationship with Mona into perspective. He had experienced sensual pleasure with Baiba greater than he had previously thought possible. He had been keen to start a new life and wanted to marry her, but she turned him down. She didn’t want to live with another police officer, and risk becoming a widow again, which she had already been through.

  Now they were facing each other in his living room. He still found it difficult to believe that it really was her who had reappeared from somewhere far away in time and space.

  ‘I never imagined this would happen,’ he said. ‘That we would meet again.’

  ‘You never got in touch.’


  ‘No. I didn’t. I wanted what was over and done with to be over and done with.’

  He ushered her to the sofa and sat down beside her. He suddenly had the feeling that everything was not as it should be. She was too pale, too thin, too tired and awkward in her movements.

  She read his mind, as she always had, and took his hand.

  ‘I wanted to see you again,’ she said. ‘You are convinced that people are gone forever, but then you wake up one day and realise that you can never break away entirely from people who have been especially important in your life.’

  ‘There’s some special reason why you’ve come here now,’ said Wallander.

  ‘I’d like a cup of tea,’ she said. ‘Are you sure I’m not disturbing you?’

  ‘There’s only me and a dog,’ said Wallander. ‘That’s all.’

  ‘How’s your daughter?’

  ‘Do you remember her name?’

  Baiba looked offended. Wallander recalled how easily she had taken offence.

  ‘Do you really think I’ve forgotten about Linda?’

  ‘I suppose I thought that you’d erased everything to do with me.’

  ‘That was something about you that I never liked - you always made such a drama out of everything. How could anybody possibly “erase” somebody they’d once been in love with?’

  Wallander was already on his way to the kitchen, to make tea.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ she said, standing up.

  When Wallander saw what an effort it was for her, he realised that she was ill.

  She filled a saucepan with water and put it on the stove, giving the impression that she was immediately at home in his kitchen. He took out the cups he had inherited from his mother, the only items that remained to preserve her memory. They sat down at the kitchen table.