Sidetracked kw-5

by Henning Mankell

  The meeting dragged on, but Wallander knew that they were really just waiting for something to happen. Stefan Fredman was somewhere with his sister. Logard was out there too. A large contingent of police officers were looking for them. They went in and out of the conference room, getting coffee, sending out for sandwiches, dozing in their chairs, drinking more coffee. The German police found Sara Pettersson in Hamburg. She’d been able to identify Stefan Fredman at once. Ekholm arrived from the airport, still shaken and pale.

  Around 11 a.m. they got the confirmation they were waiting for. Stefan Fredman’s fingerprints had been identified on his father’s eyelid, on the comic book, the bloody scrap of paper and Liljegren’s stove. The only sound in the conference room was the faint hiss of the speaker phone linked to Birgersson. There was no turning back. All the false leads, especially those they had thought up themselves, had been erased. All that was left was the realisation of the appalling truth: they were searching for a 14-year-old boy who had committed four cold-blooded, premeditated and atrocious murders.

  Finally Wallander broke the silence and turned to Ekholm.

  “What’s he doing? What’s he thinking?”

  “I know this is very risky,” Ekholm said. “But I don’t think he intends to hurt his sister. There’s a pattern, call it logic if you will, to his behaviour. Revenge for his little brother and his sister is the goal. If he diverges from that goal, then everything he so laboriously built up will collapse.”

  “Why did he take her from the hospital?” Wallander asked.

  “Maybe he was afraid that you would influence her somehow.”

  “How?” asked Wallander in surprise.

  “Picture a confused boy who has taken on the role of a lone warrior. Suppose men have done his sister irreparable harm. That’s what drives him. Assuming this theory is correct, that means he’ll want to keep all men away from her. He’s the only exception. And you can’t rule out the fact that he may have suspected you were on his trail. Certainly he knows that you’re in charge of the investigation.”

  Wallander remembered something.

  “The pictures that Noren took,” he said. “Of the spectators outside the cordons? Where are they?”

  Nyberg, who most of the time had sat quiet and meditative at the meeting table, went to get them. Wallander spread them out on the table. Someone got a magnifying glass. They gathered around the pictures. It was Hoglund who found him.

  “There he is,” she said, pointing.

  He was almost hidden behind some other onlookers, but part of his moped was visible, along with his head.

  “I’ll be damned,” Hamren said.

  “It should be possible to identify the moped,” Nyberg said. “If we blow up the details.”

  “Do that,” Wallander said.

  It was obvious now that there had been a good reason for the feeling gnawing at Wallander’s subconscious. Grimly he thought that at least he could close the case on his own anxiety.

  Save for one thing. Baiba. It was midday. Svedberg was asleep in his chair, and Akeson was on the phone to so many different people that no-one could keep track of them. Wallander gestured to Hoglund to follow him out into the hall. They sat down in his office and closed the door. Without beating around the bush, he told her of the mess he’d made. In doing so he broke his cardinal rule: never to confide a personal problem to a colleague. He had stopped doing that when Rydberg died. Now he was doing it again. He was unsure whether he could develop the same trusting relationship with Ann-Britt Hoglund that he had enjoyed with Rydberg, especially since she was a woman. She listened attentively.

  “What the hell am I going to do?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “You’re right. It’s already too late. But I could talk to her if you like. I assume she speaks English. Give me her number.”

  Wallander wrote it down, but when she reached for his telephone he asked her to wait.

  “A couple more hours,” he said.

  “Miracles don’t happen very often,” she said.

  At that moment Hansson burst through the door.

  “They found his hideout. A basement in a condemned school building. It’s right near the flats where he lives.”

  “Are they there?” Wallander asked, getting up from his chair.

  “No. But they’ve been there.”

  They went back to the meeting room. Another speaker phone was hooked up. Wallander heard Forsfalt’s friendly voice. He described what they had found. Mirrors, brushes, make-up. A cassette player with a tape of drums on it. He played a few seconds of the tape. It echoed spookily in the meeting room. War paint, thought Wallander. How had he signed at the hospital? Geronimo. There were axes on a piece of cloth, and knives too. They could hear that Forsfalt was upset.

  “We didn’t find scalps,” he said. “We’re still looking.”

  “Where the hell are they?” said Wallander.

  “Either he has them with him, or else he’s left them as a sacrifice somewhere,” Ekholm said.

  “Where? Does he have his own sacrificial grove?”

  “Could be.”

  The waiting continued. Wallander lay down on the floor of his office and managed to sleep for half an hour. When he woke up he felt more tired than before. His body ached all over. Now and then Hoglund gave him a questioning look, but he shook his head and felt his self-loathing grow.

  At 6 p.m. that evening, there was still no trace of Logard, Fredman or his sister. They had discussed at length whether to put out a nationwide alert for the Fredmans. Everyone was reluctant to do so. The risk that something would happen to Louise was too great. Akeson agreed. They kept waiting.

  Just after 6 p.m. Hoover took his sister to the house he had chosen. He parked the moped on the beach side. He quickly picked the lock on the gate to the garden. Wetterstedt’s villa was deserted. They walked up the path to the main door. Suddenly he stopped and held Louise back. There was a car in the garage. It hadn’t been there this morning. He carefully pushed Louise down to sit on a rock behind the garage wall. He took out an axe and listened. He walked forward and looked at the car. It belonged to a security company. One of the front windows was open. He peered inside. There were some papers lying on the seat. He picked them up and saw that there was a receipt among them, made out to Hans Logard. He put it back and stood still, holding his breath. The drums started to pound. He remembered the conversation he had heard that morning. Hans Logard was on the run too.

  So he’d had the same idea about the empty house. He was somewhere inside. Geronimo had not failed him. He had helped him track the monster to his lair. He didn’t have to search any further. The cold darkness that had penetrated his sister’s soul would soon be gone. He went back to her and told her to stay there for a while, and keep as quiet as she could. He would be back very soon.

  He went into the garage. There were some cans of paint, and he opened two of them carefully. With his fingertip he drew two lines across his forehead. One red line, then a black one. He picked up his axe and took off his shoes. Just as he was about to leave he had an idea. He held his breath again, which he had learned from Geronimo. Compressed air in the lungs made thoughts clearer. He knew that his idea was a good one. It would make everything easier. Tonight he would bury the last of the scalps outside the hospital window alongside the others. There would be two of them. And he would bury a heart. Then it would be all over. In the last hole he would bury his weapons. He gripped the axe handle and started walking towards the house and the man he was to kill.

  At 6.30 p.m. Wallander suggested to Hansson that they could start sending people home. Everyone was exhausted. They might as well be waiting, and resting, in their own homes. They would remain on call through the night.

  “So who should stay here?” asked Hansson.

  “Ekholm and Hoglund,” Wallander answered. “And one more. Whoever’s the least tired.”

  Ludwigsson and Hamren both stayed.

  They all moved down to one end of th
e table instead of spreading out as usual.

  “The hideout,” Wallander said. “What would be a secret and impregnable fortress? What would an insane boy who transforms himself into a lone warrior seek?”

  “I think his plans must have fallen apart,” Ekholm said. “Otherwise they would have stayed in the basement room.”

  “Smart animals dig extra exits,” Ludwigsson said thoughtfully.

  “You mean that he might have a second hideout in reserve?”

  “Maybe. In all likelihood it’s also in Malmo.”

  The discussion petered out. Hamren yawned. A phone rang down the hall and someone appeared in the doorway, saying that there was a call for Wallander. He got up, much too tired to ask who it was. It didn’t occur to him that it might be Baiba, not until he had picked up the phone in his own office. By then it was too late. But it wasn’t Baiba. It was a man who spoke with a broad Skane accent.

  “Who is this?” Wallander asked.

  “Hans Logard.”

  Wallander almost dropped the receiver. “I need to meet with you. Now.”

  Logard’s voice was strained, as if he was having a lot of trouble forming his words. Wallander wondered whether he was on drugs.

  “Where are you?”

  “First I want a guarantee that you’ll come. And that you’ll come alone.”

  “You won’t get it. You nearly killed me and Sjosten.”

  “God damn it! You have to come!”

  The last words sounded almost like a shriek. Wallander grew cautious. “What do you want?”

  “I can tell you where Stefan Fredman is. And his sister.”

  “How can I be sure of that?”

  “You can’t. But you should believe me.”

  “I’ll come. You tell me what you know. And then we’ll bring you in.”

  “All right.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Are you coming?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wetterstedt’s villa.”

  A feeling that he should have thought of that possibility raced through Wallander’s mind.

  “Do you have a gun?” he asked.

  “The car is in the garage. The revolver is in the glove compartment. I’ll leave the door to the house open. You’ll see me when you come in the door. I’ll keep my hands in sight.”

  “All right, I’m coming.”

  “Alone?”

  “Yes, alone.”

  Wallander hung up, thinking feverishly. He had no intention of going alone. But he didn’t want Hansson to start organising a major strike force. Ann-Britt and Svedberg, he thought. But Svedberg was at home. He called him and told him to meet him outside the hospital in five minutes. With his service revolver. Did he have it? He did. Wallander told him briefly that they were going to arrest Logard. When Svedberg tried to ask questions, Wallander cut him off. Five minutes, he said, outside the hospital. Until then, don’t use the phone.

  He unlocked a desk drawer and took out his revolver. He detested even holding it. He loaded it and tucked it in his jacket pocket, then went to the conference room and waved Hoglund outside. He took her into his office and explained. They would meet in the car park right away. Wallander told her to bring her service revolver. They would take Wallander’s car. He told Hansson he was going home to shower. Hansson yawned and waved him goodbye. Svedberg was outside the hospital. He got into the back seat.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Wallander told them about the phone call. If the revolver wasn’t in the car they’d call it off. Same thing if the door wasn’t open. Or if Wallander suspected something was wrong. The two of them were supposed to stay out of sight but ready.

  “He might have another gun,” Svedberg said. “He might try to take you hostage. I don’t like this. How could he know where Stefan Fredman is? What does he want?”

  “Maybe he’s stupid enough to try and make a deal with us. People think Sweden is just like the United States.”

  Wallander thought about Logard’s voice. Something told him he really did know where the boy was.

  They parked the car out of sight of the house. Svedberg was to watch the beach side. When he got there he was alone, except for a girl sitting on the boat under which they’d found Wetterstedt’s dead body. She seemed to be completely entranced by the sea and the black rain cloud bearing down on the land. Hoglund took up a position outside the garage. Wallander saw that the front door was open. He moved slowly. The car was in the garage. The revolver was in the glove compartment. He took out his own gun, put the safety catch off, and advanced cautiously to the door. Everything was still.

  He stepped up to the door. Hans Logard stood in dark hall. He had his hands on his head. Wallander sensed danger. But he went inside. Logard looked at him. Then everything happened very fast. One of Logard’s hands slipped down and Wallander saw a gaping wound in his head. Logard’s body fell to the floor. Behind him stood Stefan Fredman. He had lines painted on his face. He threw himself furiously at Wallander, an axe lifted high. Wallander raised his revolver to shoot, but too late. Instinctively he ducked and a rug slipped under him. The axe grazed his shoulder. He fired a shot and an oil painting jumped on one of the walls. At the same instant Hoglund, appeared in the doorway. She stood crouched and ready to fire. Fredman saw her just as he was raising the axe to slam it into Wallander’s head. He leapt to the left. Wallander was in the line of fire.

  Fredman vanished towards the open terrace door. Wallander thought of Svedberg. Slow Svedberg. He yelled to Hoglund to shoot. But he was gone. Svedberg, who had heard the first shot, didn’t know what to do. He yelled at the girl sitting on the boat to take cover, but she didn’t move. He ran towards the garden gate. It hit him in the head as it flew open. He saw a face he would never forget. He dropped his revolver. The man had an axe in his hand. Svedberg did the only thing he could do, he ran yelling for help. Fredman got his sister, motionless still on the boat, and dragged her to his moped. They rode off just as Wallander and Hoglund came running out.

  “Call for back-up!” Wallander shouted. “Where the hell is Svedberg? I’ll try and follow them in the car.”

  Heavy rain begain to fall. Wallander ran to his car, trying to work out which way they would have gone. Visibility was poor even with the windscreen wipers on full. He thought he had lost them but suddenly caught sight of the moped again. They were going down the road towards the Saltsjobad Hotel. Wallander kept a safe distance behind. He didn’t want to frighten them. The moped was going very fast. Wallander frantically tried to think how to put an end to the chase. He was just about to call in his location when the moped wobbled. He braked. The moped was heading straight for a tree. The girl was thrown off, right into the tree. Stefan Fredman landed somewhere off to the side.

  “Damn!” said Wallander. He stopped the car in the middle of the road and ran towards the moped.

  Louise Fredman was dead, he could see that at once. Her white dress seemed strangely bright against the blood streaming from her face. Stefan appeared uninjured. Wallander watched the boy fall to his knees beside his sister. The rain poured down. The boy started to cry. It sounded as if he was howling. Wallander knelt next to him.

  “She’s dead,” he said.

  Stefan looked at him, his face distorted. Wallander quickly got up, afraid that the boy would jump on him. But he didn’t. He kept howling.

  Somewhere behind him in the rain he heard a siren. It wasn’t until Hansson was standing next to him that he realised he was crying himself. Wallander left all the work to the others. He told Hoglund briefly what had happened. When he saw Akeson, he took him to his car. The rain was drumming on the roof.

  “It’s over,” Wallander said.

  “Yes,” said Akeson, “it’s over.”

  “I’m going on holiday,” said Wallander. “I realise there’s a pile of reports that have to be written. But I thought I’d go anyway.”

  Akeson’s reply came without hesitation.

  “Do that,” he
said. “Go.”

  Akeson got out of the car. Wallander thought he should have asked him about his trip to the Sudan. Or was it Uganda?

  He drove home. Linda wasn’t there. He took a bath and was drying himself off when he heard her close the front door. That evening he told her what had really happened. And how he felt.

  Then he called Baiba.

  “I thought you were never going to call,” she said, keeping her anger in check.

  “Please forgive me,” Wallander said. “I’ve had so much to do lately.”

  “I think that’s a pretty poor excuse.”

  “It is, I know. But it’s the only one I’ve got.”

  Neither of them said anything else. The silence travelled back and forth between Ystad and Riga.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Wallander finally said.

  “All right,” she said. “I guess so.”

  They hung up. Wallander felt a knot in his stomach. Maybe she wouldn’t come. After supper he and Linda packed their bags. The rain stopped just after midnight. The air smelled fresh as they stood out on the balcony.

  “The summer is so beautiful,” she said.

  “Yes,” Wallander said. “It is beautiful.”

  The next day they took the train together to Malmo. Then Wallander took the hydrofoil to Copenhagen. He watched the water racing past the sides of the boat. Distracted, he ordered coffee and cognac. In two hours Baiba’s plane would be landing. Something close to panic gripped him. He suddenly wished that the crossing to Copenhagen would take much longer. But when she arrived at the airport he was waiting for her.

  Not until then did the image of Louise Fredman, dead and broken, finally disappear from his mind.

  Skane

  16–17 September 1994

  EPILOGUE

  On Friday, 16 September, autumn suddenly rolled in to Skane. Kurt Wallander woke up early that morning. His eyes flew open in the dark, as if he had been cast violently out of a dream. He lay still and tried to remember. But there was only the echo of something that was gone and would never return. He turned his head and looked at the clock next to the bed. The fluorescent hands showed 4.45 a.m. He turned over on his side to go back to sleep. But the knowledge of what day it was kept him awake.