The heat, after he’d left the cool and air-conditioned house, was oppressive. Lizards ran to and fro around his feet. The sweat was already trickling down inside his shirt, but it was not from the heat. It was from the anxiety he felt. Carter had to think clearly and calmly. Cheng had failed him, but his female watchdog was doing a better job. Nonetheless, she had her limits. He knew he had no real choice now. But it was not too late. There was a plane leaving for Lisbon at eleven o’clock in the evening. That was in six hours. I can’t take any more chances, he thought. Therefore, I have to go.
The decision was made. He went back inside and sent the necessary e-mails.
Then he called the airport to book his flight.
He ate the dinner that Celine had prepared. Then he showered and packed his bag. He shivered at the thought of having to travel to the cold.
At ten minutes past eleven, the TAP Portuguese Airlines plane headed for Lisbon took off from Luanda airport. It was only ten minutes late.
They arrived at the station shortly after four o’clock. For some reason Modin had been set up in Svedberg’s old office that was now mainly used by police officers on temporary assignments. Modin was drinking a cup of coffee when Wallander came in. He smiled uncertainly when he saw Wallander, but Wallander could still see the fear underneath.
“Let’s go into my office,” he said.
Modin took his cup of coffee and followed him. When he sat down in the chair across from Wallander’s desk, the armrest fell off. He jumped.
“That happens all the time,” Wallander said. “Leave it.”
He sat down in his chair and cleared all his paperwork from the middle of his desk.
“I’m going to present you with a hypothesis I’m working on. I think that when we weren’t looking, you copied a bunch of material from Falk’s computer and transferred it to your own. What do you think of that?”
“I want to speak to a lawyer,” Modin said firmly.
“We don’t need lawyers,” Wallander said. “You haven’t actually broken any laws. At least not as far as I know. But I need to know exactly what you did.”
Modin didn’t believe him.
“You’re here now so that we can protect you,” Wallander continued.
“Not for any other reason. You are not being held here on charges. We don’t suspect you of anything.”
Modin still seemed to weighing Wallander’s words. He waited.
“Can I have that in writing?” he asked finally.
Wallander reached out for a pad of paper and wrote a guarantee for him. He signed it and wrote the date.
“I don’t have a stamp,” he said. “But this ought to work.”
“It’s not good enough,” Modin said.
“It will have to do,” Wallander said. “This is between you and me. I would accept it if I were you. If you don’t, there’s always the chance I’m going to change my mind.”
Modin realized he meant business.
“Tell me what happened,” Wallander said. “You received a threatening e-mail in your computer. I’ve read it myself. Then you looked up and saw that there was a car parked on that little road that goes between the fields behind your house. Is that right?”
Modin looked disbelievingly at him.
“How can you know all that?”
“I just know,” Wallander said. “You were scared and you left. The question I have is why you were so scared.”
“They had traced me.”
“So you weren’t careful enough at erasing your steps? Did you make the same mistake as last time?”
“They’re very good.”
“But so are you.”
Modin shrugged.
“The problem is that you started taking chances, isn’t that so? You copied material from Falk’s computer onto your own, and something happened. The temptation was too great. You kept working on the material through the night, and somehow they caught on to you while you weren’t looking.”
“I don’t know why you keep asking if you already know everything.”
Wallander decided to make his point.
“You have to understand that this is serious.”
“Of course I do. Why would I have tried to get away otherwise? I don’t even have my driver’s license.”
“Then we see eye to eye on this. You realize you’re involved in a dangerous business. From now on you need to do as I say. By the way, has anyone brought you any food?” he asked. “I know you have unusual food preferences.”
“A tofu pie would be nice,” Modin answered. “And some carrot juice.”
Wallander called Irene.
“Could you get us a tofu pie and a carrot juice, please.”
“Can you repeat that?”
Ebba would not have asked any questions, Wallander thought.
“Tofu pie.”
“What on God’s earth is that?”
“Food. It’s vegetarian. Please try to get it as quickly as you can.”
He hung up before Irene had a chance to ask anything else.
“Let’s start by talking about what you saw from your window,” Wallander said. “At some point you discovered a car out there.”
“There are never any cars on that road.”
“You took out your binoculars and took a closer look.”
“You already know everything I did.”
“No,” Wallander said. “I know part of it. What did you see?”
“A dark-blue car.”
“Was it a Mercedes?”
“I don’t know anything about cars.”
“Was it big? Did it look like a van?”
“Yes.”
“And there was someone standing next to the car?”
“That was what scared me. When I looked through the binoculars I saw a man who was looking at me with some binoculars of his own.”
“Could you see his face?”
“I was scared.”
“I know. What about his face?”
“He had dark hair.”
“What was he wearing?”
“A dark raincoat. I think.”
“Did you see anything else? Had you ever seen him before?”
“No. And I didn’t notice anything else.”
“You left. Could you tell if he followed you?”
“I don’t think he did. There’s a little road you can take just a little bit past our house. I don’t think he saw it.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I had sent you the e-mail, but I didn’t feel I could go to Runnerström Square. I didn’t know what to do. At first I was planning to go to Copenhagen. But I didn’t feel up to driving down to Malmö. I’m not a very good driver. Something could have happened.”
“So you simply drove into Ystad. What did you do then?”
“Nothing.”
“You stayed in the car until some policemen found you?”
“Yes.”
Wallander tried to think about where they should go from here. He wanted Martinsson to be present, as well as Alfredsson. He got up and left the room. Irene was at her desk. She shook her head when she saw him.
“How is the food coming?” he asked sternly.
“Sometimes I think all of you are nuts.”
“That’s probably true, but I have a boy back there who doesn’t eat hamburgers. I guess there are people like that. And he needs food.”
“I called Ebba,” Irene said. “She said she would take care of it.”
That put him in a better mood. If she had talked to Ebba, everything would be taken care of.
“I’d like to speak to Martinsson and Alfredsson as soon as possible,” he said. “Please get hold of them as soon as you can.”
At that moment Lisa Holgersson hurried in through the front doors.
“More shooting?” she asked. “That’s what I heard. What happened?”
Talking to Holgersson right now was the last thing he wanted, but Wallander knew he had no choice. He briefly filled her in on the latest events.