He had called the station at eight o’clock. The only person he could get hold of was Hansson. Everyone else was busy with their individual investigative tasks. He had decided they should postpone their meeting until the afternoon. Then he went down to the laundry room to sign up, only to discover that the morning hours were unclaimed. He had immediately booked the following hours and returned to the apartment to pick up his dirty clothes.
The letter had arrived while he was loading his clothes into the washer. It was lying on the floor in the hallway. There was no stamp, no return address on the envelope. His name and address were written by hand. He put it on the kitchen table, thinking that it must be some kind of invitation. It wasn’t unheard of to get invitations delivered by hand. Then he hung his bedclothes out to air on the balcony. It was getting colder again, though there was no frost. He only opened the letter when it was time for his second cup of coffee. That was when he discovered that there was an unaddressed envelope inside. He opened it and read the letter. At first he couldn’t make sense of it, but then he realized he had actually received an answer to his personal ad. He put down the letter, walked around the table, then read it again.
The woman who had written to him was named Elvira Lindfeldt. She had not included a photograph of herself, but Wallander decided she must be very beautiful. Her handwriting was elegant and firm, no fussy loops or curlicues. The dating service had forwarded his ad to her and she had found it interesting. She was thirty-nine years old and divorced. She lived in Malmö. She worked for a shipping company called Heinemann & Nagel. She ended her letter by giving her phone number and saying she hoped to hear from him soon. Wallander felt like a ravenous wolf who had finally managed to fell his prey. He wanted to call her right away. But then he controlled himself and decided he should throw the letter in the trash. The meeting was doomed to be a complete failure. She would be disappointed because she probably imagined him to be different.
He also had no time for this. He was in the middle of the most complicated murder investigation he had ever been in charge of. He walked around the table a few more times. Then he realized the futility of having written to the dating service. He picked up the letter, tore it into pieces, and threw it away. Then he sat down to think about the case. Before he drove into the station he put his laundry in the dryer. The first thing he did when he got to his office was write himself a note reminding him to get his laundry when he went home. In the corridor he met Nyberg, who was on his way somewhere with a plastic bag.
“We’re going to be getting some results in today,” he said. “Among other things, we’ve been cross-checking a number of fingerprints.”
“Do you have a better idea of what happened in the engine room?”
“I don’t envy the pathologist, I’ll tell you that. The body was so crushed there wasn’t a whole piece of bone in there. Well, you saw it. You know what it looked like.”
“Sonja Hökberg was probably already unconscious or even dead by the time she was thrown against the high voltage wires,” Wallander said. “Do you think that was the case with Jonas Landahl? If it really was Landahl.”
“Oh, it was him,” Nyberg said quickly.
“How do you know that?”
“He was identified by an unusual birthmark above his ankle.”
“So there’s no doubt about his identity?”
“Not as far as I can tell. The parents have apparently been contacted as well.”
“Good. Then that’s taken care of,” Wallander said. “First Sonja Hökberg. Then her boyfriend.”
Nyberg raised his eyebrows.
“I thought he was suspected of having killed her? I know it’s a grisly way to commit suicide, but wasn’t that what it was?”
“There are other possibilities,” Wallander said. “But the most important thing for now is having established his identity.”
Wallander returned to his office. He had just taken off his coat and started to regret the fact that he’d thrown Elvira’s letter away when the phone rang. It was Lisa Holgersson. She wanted to see him immediately. He walked to her office with a sense of dread. Normally he enjoyed speaking with her, but ever since she had openly displayed her mistrust of him a week ago he had been trying to avoid her. As he might have expected, the atmosphere when he came into the room was far from relaxed. Holgersson was sitting behind her desk, and her trademark smile was tense and forced. Wallander sat down. He felt his anger starting to bubble up inside him in anticipation of whatever was about to come his way.
“I’m going to get right to the point,” she said. “The internal investigation into allegations made against you by Eva Persson and her mother is now underway.”
“Who’s in charge?”
“A man from Hässleholm.”
“A man from Hassleholm? That sounds like the name of a bad TV series.”
“He’s a highly regarded police officer. I also need to inform you that you have been reported to the justice department ombudsman. And not just you. We have both been reported.”
“Did you slap her, too?”
“I’m responsible for the conduct of my officers.”
“Who filed the report?”
“Eva Persson’s lawyer. His name is Klas Harryson.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Wallander said and got up. He was furious now. The energy from the morning was quickly draining from his body, and he didn’t want to lose it.
“I’m not finished yet.”
“We’re in the middle of a very complicated homicide investigation.”
“I spoke to Hansson this morning. I know how it’s going.”
He said nothing about having talked to her, Wallander thought. The feeling that his colleagues were going behind his back returned.
He sat down heavily.
“This is a difficult situation,” she said.
“Not really,” Wallander said, interrupting her. “What happened between Eva Persson, her mother, and me happened in exactly the way that I told you. I haven’t changed a single word of my story since the beginning. You should be able to tell that I don’t flinch or get nervous when you press me on details. What makes me mad as all hell, however, is that you don’t believe me.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“I want you to believe me when I talk to you.”
“But the girl and her mother have a different story. And there are two of them.”
“There could be a hundred of them and it wouldn’t change a thing. You should believe me, not them. They have reason to lie.”
“So do you.”
“I do?”
“If you hit her without provocation.”
Wallander got up a second time, even more forcefully.
“I won’t even comment on the last thing you said. It’s insulting.” She started to protest, but he interrupted her.
“Is there anything else?”
“I’m not done yet.”
Wallander remained standing. The situation was almost unbearably tense. He was not going to back down, but he also wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
“The situation we’re in has become serious enough for me to be forced to take some action,” she said. “While the internal investigation is underway I have to suspend you from your work.”