Faceless Killers kw-1

by Henning Mankell

"He claimed that somebody had written to him and told him.""Who?""He wouldn't say."Wallander thought about this for a moment."We'll go to Kristianstad anyway," he said. "Our colleagues up there will have to help us. Then I'm going to take on Herdin myself."

  They took a squad car. Wallander clambered into the back seat and left the driving to Näslund. When they had left town, Wallander noticed that Näslund was driving much too fast.

  "This isn't an emergency," he said. "Slow down. I have to read these papers and think."Näslund drove more slowly.

  The landscape was grey and foggy. Wallander stared out at the dreary desolation. Although he felt at home in the Scanian spring and summer, he felt alienated by the barren silence of autumn and winter.

  He leaned back and closed his eyes. His body ached and the burn on his arm stung. And he was having palpitations. Divorced men have heart attacks, he thought. We put on weight from eating too much and feel tormented about being abandoned. Or else we throw ourselves into new relationships, and in the end our hearts just give out.

  The thought of Mona made him both furious and sad. He opened his eyes and looked out again at the landscape of Skåne.

  He read through the transcripts of the interviews with Lövgren's daughters. There was nothing there to give them a lead. No enemies, no simmering hostilities. And no money either. Johannes Lövgren had even kept his own daughters in the dark about his vast assets.

  Wallander tried to imagine this man. How had he operated? What had driven him? What did he suppose would happen to the money after he was gone?

  He was startled by his train of thought. Somewhere there should be a will. But if it wasn't in one of the safe-deposit boxes, then where was it? Did the murdered man have another safe-deposit box somewhere else?"How many banks are there in Ystad?" he asked Näslund.

  Näslund knew everything about the town. "Ten, I should say."

  "Tomorrow I want you to investigate the ones we haven't visited so far. Did Lövgren have more safe-deposit boxes? I also want to know how he got back and forth from Lunnarp. Taxi, bus, whatever."Näslund nodded. "He could have taken the school bus.""Someone would have seen him."

  They took the Tomelilla route, crossing the main road to Malmö and continuing north.

  "What did the inside of Herdin's house look like?" Wallander asked.

  "Old-fashioned. But clean, tidy. Strangely enough, he uses a microwave to do his cooking. He offered me homemade rolls. He has a big parrot in a cage. The farm is well cared for. The whole place looks neat. No broken-down fences.""What make of car does he drive?""A red Mercedes.""A Mercedes?""Yes, a Mercedes.""I thought he told us it was hard making ends meet."

  "Well, that Mercedes of his would have set him back 300,000 plus."

  Wallander thought for a moment. "We need to know more about Lars Herdin. Even if he says he has no idea who killed them, he could easily know something without realising it himself.""What's that got to do with the Mercedes?"

  "Nothing. I've just got a hunch that Herdin is more important to us than he thinks he is. And we might wonder how a farmer today can afford to buy a car for 300,000 kronor. Maybe he has a receipt that says he bought a tractor."

  They drove into Kristianstad and parked outside the police station just as sleet started to fall. Wallander registered the first vague prickles in his throat, warning him that a cold was coming on. Damn, he thought. I can't get sick now. I don't want to meet Mona with a fever and sniffles.

  The Ystad police and the Kristianstad police had no special relationship with each other beyond co-operating whenever the occasion arose. But Wallander knew several of the officers rather well from various conferences at county level. He was hoping, above all, that Goran Boman would be on duty. He was the same age as Wallander, and they had met over a whisky at Tylosand. Together they had endured a tedious study day organised by the educational department of the national police. The purpose had been to inspire them to improve and make more effective the staff policies at their respective workplaces. In the evening they sat and shared half a bottle of whisky and soon discovered that they had a lot in common. In particular, both their fathers had been extremely reluctant at their decision to go into police work.

  Wallander and Näslund stepped into the reception. The young woman at the switchboard, who oddly enough spoke with a lilting Norrland accent, told them that Goran Boman was indeed on duty.

  "He's in an interview at present," said the woman. "But it probably won't last long."

  Wallander went out to use the toilet. He gave a start when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. The bruises and abrasions were bright red. He splashed his face with cold water. At that moment he heard Boman's voice in the corridor.

  The reunion was a hearty one. Wallander was delighted to see Boman again. They got some coffee and took it to his office. Wallander noted that they had exactly the same kind of desk, but otherwise Boman's office was better furnished. It made his office more pleasant, in the same way that Anette Brolin had transformed the sterile office she had taken over.

  Boman knew, of course, about the murders in Lunnarp, as well as the attack on the refugee camp and Wallander's rescue attempt that had been so exaggerated in the papers. They talked for a while about refugees. Boman had the same impression as Wallander, that people seeking asylum were dealt with in a chaotic and disorganised fashion. The Kristianstad police also had numerous examples of deportation orders that could be executed only with great difficulty. As recently as a few weeks before Christmas they had been advised that several Bulgarian citizens were to be expelled. According to the Immigration Service, they were living at a camp in Kristianstad. Only after several days' work did the police find out that the Bulgarians were living at a camp in Arjeplog, more than 1,000 kilometres to the north.

  They switched to the reason for their visit. Wallander gave Boman a detailed run-down.

  "And you want us to find her for you," said Boman when he was done."That wouldn't be a bad plan."Näslund had been sitting in silence.

  "I've got an idea," he said. "If Johannes Lövgren had a son by this woman, and we assume that he was born in this town, we should be able to look it up in the town's records. Lövgren must have been listed as the child's father, don't you think?"

  Wallander nodded. "Besides, we know approximately when the child was born. We can concentrate on a ten-year period, from about 1947 to 1957, if Herdin's story is correct. And I think it is."

  "How many children are born over a ten-year period in Kristianstad?" asked Boman. "It would have taken an awfully long time to check before we had computers."

  "It's of course, possible that the record will state 'father unknown," said Wallander. "But then we just have to go through all of those cases with extra care."

  "Why don't you just put out a public appeal for the woman?" asked Boman. "And ask her to contact you."

  "Because I'm quite sure that she wouldn't do that," said Wallander. "It's just a feeling I have. It may not be particularly professional. But I think I'd rather try this route instead."

  "We'll find her," said Boman. "We live in a society and an age when it's almost impossible to disappear. Unless you commit suicide in such an ingenious fashion that your body is completely obliterated. We had a case like that last summer. At least that's what I assume happened. A man who was sick of it all. He was reported missing by his wife. His boat was gone. We never found him. And I don't think we're ever going to, either. I think he put out to sea, scuttled the boat, and drowned himself. But if this woman and her son exist, we'll find them. I'll put an officer on it right away."

  Wallander's throat hurt. He had started to sweat. He would have liked most of all to stay sitting there, discussing the case with Boman. He had the feeling that Boman was a talented policeman. His opinion would be valuable. But Wallander was too tired. They tied up the loose ends and Boman accompanied them out to the car.

  "We'll find her," he repeated.

  "Let's get together some evening," said Wallander. "In peace
and quiet. And have some whisky."

  Boman nodded. "Maybe on another pointless study day," he said.

  The sleet was still coming down. Wallander felt the dampness seeping into his shoes. He crawled again into the back seat and huddled up in the corner. Soon he fell asleep.

  He didn't wake until Näslund pulled up in front of the police station in Ystad. He was feverish and miserable. It continued to sleet. He managed to beg a couple of aspirin from Ebba. He knew that he ought to go home to bed, but he couldn't resist getting an update on the day's developments. And he wanted to hear what Rydberg had come up with regarding protection for the refugees.

  His desk was piled high with phone messages. Anette Brolin was among the many people who had called. And his father. But not Linda. Or Widén. He shuffled through the messages and then put them aside except for the ones from Anette Brolin and his father. Then he called Martinsson.

  "Bingo," said Martinsson. "I think we've found it. A car that fits the description was rented last week by an Avis office in Goteborg. It hasn't been returned. There's just one thing that's strange.""What's that?""The car was rented by a woman." "What's strange about that?""I have a little trouble picturing a woman as the killer."

  "Now you're on the wrong track. We have to get hold of that car. And the driver. Even if it is a woman. Then we'll see if they were involved. Eliminating someone from an investigation is just as important as getting a positive lead. And give the registration number to the lorry driver in case he recognises it."He hung up and went into Rydberg's office."How's it going?" he asked.

  "This is certainly not much fun," replied Rydberg gloomily."Who said police work was supposed to be fun,"

  But Rydberg had made a thorough job of it, just as Wallander had known he would. The various camps were pinpointed, and Rydberg had written a brief memo about each one. For the time being he suggested that the night patrols should make rounds of the camps according to a schedule he had devised.

  "Good," said Wallander. "Just make sure the patrols understand that it's a serious matter."

  He gave Rydberg a report of his visit to Kristianstad. Then he stood up."I'm going home now," he said."You're looking a little bedraggled."

  "I'm coming down with a cold. But everything seems to be moving along by itself right now."

  He went straight home, made some tea, and crawled into bed. When he woke up several hours later, the teacup was still at his bedside untouched. He was feeling a little better. He threw out the cold tea and made coffee instead. Then he called his father.

  Wallander realised he had heard nothing about the fire. "Weren't we going to play cards?" he snapped."I'm ill," said Wallander."But you're never ill.""I've got a cold.""I don't call that being ill."

  "Not everybody is as healthy as you are." "What does that mean?"

  Wallander sighed. If he didn't come up with something, this conversation with his father was going to end badly.

  "I'll come out and see you early tomorrow," he said. "Around eight o'clock. If you're up by then.""I never sleep past four.""No, but I do."

  He said goodbye and hung up the phone. In the same instant he regretted the arrangement. Starting off the day by driving out to visit his father was equivalent to accepting a whole day filled with feelings of depression and guilt.

  He looked around his flat. There were layers of dust everywhere. Even though he frequently aired the place out, it still smelled musty. Lonely and musty.

  He thought about the black woman, who visited to him, night after night. Where did she come from? Where had he seen her? Was she in a photograph in the newspaper, or had he seen her on TV?

  He wondered why it was that in his dreams he had an erotic obsession that was so different from his experience with Mona. The thought excited him. Perhaps he should call Anette Brolin. But he couldn't bring himself to do that. Angrily he sat down on the floral-patterned sofa and switched on the TV. He found one of the Danish channels, where the news was just about to start.

  The anchorman reviewed the top stories. Another catastrophic famine. Chaos spreading in Romania. A huge cache of drugs confiscated in Odense. Wallander reached for the remote control and turned off the TV. He couldn't take any more news.

  He thought about Mona. But his thoughts took an unexpected turn. He was no longer sure that he really wanted her back. How could he be sure anything would be better? He couldn't. He was just fooling himself.

  Restless, he went out to the kitchen and drank a glass of juice. Then he sat down and wrote a detailed progress report on the investigation. When he had finished, he spread out all his notes on the table and looked at them as if they were pieces of a puzzle. He had a strong feeling that they might not be too far from finding a solution. Even though there were still a lot of loose ends, a number of details did fit together.

  It wasn't possible to point to a particular person. There weren't even any actual suspects. But still he had the feeling that the police were close. This made him feel both gratified and uneasy. Too many times he had been in charge of a complicated criminal investigation that seemed promising at first but later petered out in a dead end, and in the worst instances they had had to drop the case altogether.Patience, he thought. Patience.

  Once more he though of calling Anette Brolin. But he had no idea what he would say to her. And her husband might answer the phone.

  He sat down and switched on the TV again. To his immense surprise he was confronted by his own face. He heard the droning voice of a woman reporter. The gist of it was that Wallander and the police in Ystad seemed to be showing no concern for the safety of the refugees in their various camps.

  Wallander's face disappeared and was replaced by a woman being interviewed outside a large office block. When her name appeared on the screen, he realised that he should have recognised her. It was the head of the Immigration Service, whom he had talked to that very day.

  - "It cannot be ruled out that there may be an element of racism behind the lack of interest shown by the police," she stated.

  Bitterness welled up inside him. You're a bitch, he thought. And what you're saying is a bloody lie. And why didn't those damned reporters contact me? I could have shown them Rydberg's protection plan. Racists? What was she talking about? His anger was mixed with the shame of being unjustly accused.

  Then the phone rang. He considered not answering it. But then he went out to the hall and picked up the receiver.

  It was the same voice. A little hoarse, muffled. Wallander guessed that the man was holding a handkerchief over the mouthpiece.

  "We're waiting for results," he said."Go to hell!" roared Wallander."By Saturday at the latest."

  "Were you the bastards who started the fire last night?" he shouted into the phone."Saturday at the latest," repeated the man, unmoved. Then the line went dead.

  Wallander felt sick He couldn't rid himself of a sense of foreboding. It was like an ache in his body, slowly spreading.

  Now you're scared, he thought. Now Kurt Wallander is scared. He went back to the kitchen and stood at the window, looking out into the street. There was no wind. The streetlight was hanging motionless.

  Something was going to happen. He was sure of it. But what? And where?

  CHAPTER 8

  In the morning he got out his best suit. He stared despondently at a spot on a lapel.

  Ebba, he thought. This is a good project for her. When she hears that I'm going to meet Mona, she'll put her heart into getting rid of this spot. Ebba is a woman who thinks that the level of divorces is a considerably greater threat to the future of our society than the increase in crime and violence.

  He laid the suit on the back seat and drove off. A thick cloud cover hung over the town. Is this snow? he wondered. Snow that I really don't want. He drove slowly eastwards, through Sandskogen, past the abandoned golf course, and turned off towards Kaseberga.

  For the first time in days he felt that he had had enough sleep. Nine hours straight. The swelling on his forehead had started to go
down, and the burn on his arm didn't sting any longer.

  Methodically he rehearsed the summary he had written the night before. The vital thing was to find Lövgren's mystery woman. And their son. Somewhere, in the circles surrounding these people, those responsible would be found. The murders had to be connected to the missing 27,000 kronor, maybe even to Lövgren's other assets.

  Someone who knew about the money, and who had taken the time to feed the horse before making off. People who were familiar with Johannes Lövgren's routine.

  The rental car from Goteborg didn't fit the puzzle. Maybe it had nothing at all to do with the case. He looked at his watch. 7.40 a.m. Thursday, 11 January.

  Instead of driving straight to his father's house, he went a few kilometres past it and turned off on the little gravel road that wound through rolling sand dunes up towards Backakra, Dag Hammarskjold's old estate, which the statesman had bequeathed to the Swedish people. Wallander left his car in the car park and walked up the hill. From there he could see the sea stretching out along the strand below him.

  There was a stone circle there. A stone circle of contemplation, erected some years earlier. It was an invitation to solitude and peace of mind. He sat down on a stone and looked out to sea.

  He had never been particularly inclined to philosophical meditation, never felt a need to delve into himself. Life for him was a matter of juggling practical questions that needed resolution. Whatever lay ahead was inescapable, something he could not change, no matter how much he tried to give it meaning.

  Having a few minutes of solitude was another thing altogether. Not having to think at all, just listen, observe, sit motionless, gave him great peace.

  There was a boat on its way somewhere. A large sea bird glided soundlessly on the breeze. Everything was quiet. After 10 minutes he stood up and went back to the car.