'I won't say anything. I'm going to sleep.'
'It's possible that I'll be in touch again,' Wallander said. 'Do you know, by the way, if Rolf has any close friends?'
'No.'
The conversation came to a close.
Wallander went to Martinsson's office. Martinsson was combing his hair and looking into a small hand-held mirror.
'Eight thirty,' Wallander said. 'Can you get everyone together?'
'It sounds like something's happened.'
'Maybe,' Wallander replied.
Then they exchanged a few words about the traffic accident. Apparently a car had crossed over onto the wrong side of the road and driven head-on into a Polish tractor.
At half past eight Wallander informed his colleagues about the latest developments. About his conversation with Linda Boman and the missing lighting equipment. He did not, however, mention his nighttime visit to the remote house outside Sjöbo. As he had predicted, Rydberg found the discovery important while Hansson and Svedberg had a number of objections. Martinsson said nothing.
'I know it's thin,' Wallander said after listening to the discussion. 'But I'm still of the opinion that we should concentrate on Nyman right now, though not discontinue the investigations we're already pursuing.'
'What does the public prosecutor have to say about this?' Martinsson asked. 'Who is the public prosecutor right now, anyway?'
'Her name is Anette Brolin and she's in Stockholm,' Wallander said. 'She'll be coming down next week. But I had been planning to talk to Åkeson. Even if he no longer has formal responsibility in charge of the pre-investigation.'
They went on. Wallander argued that they needed to get into the house outside Sjöbo but without Nyman's knowledge, which was immediately greeted with new protests.
'We can't do that,' Svedberg said. 'That's illegal.'
'We have a triple homicide on our hands,' Wallander said. 'If I'm correct, Rolf Nyman is very cunning. If we're going to find something, we have to observe him without his knowledge. When does he leave the house? What does he do? How long is he gone? But above all we have to find out if there really is a girlfriend.'
'Maybe I'll dress up as a chimney sweep,' Martinsson suggested.
'He'll see through it,' Wallander said, ignoring his ironic tone of voice. 'I had been thinking we would proceed more indirectly. With the help of the country postman. Find out who handles Nyman's post. There is not one rural postman in this country who doesn't know what goes on in the houses in their district. Even if they never set foot in a house, they know who lives there.'
Svedberg was stubborn.
'Maybe that girl never receives any post?'
'It's not only about that,' Wallander replied. 'Postmen just know. That's how it is.'
Rydberg nodded in agreement. Wallander felt his support. It spurred him on. Hansson promised to contact the post office. Martinsson grudgingly agreed to organise surveillance of the house. Wallander said he would speak to Åkeson.
'Find out everything you can about Nyman,' Wallander said in closing. 'But be discreet. If he is the bear I think he is, we don't want to wake him.'
Wallander signalled to Rydberg that he wanted to speak to him in his office.
'Are you convinced?' Rydberg asked. 'That it's Nyman?'
'Yes,' Wallander said. 'But I'm aware that I could be wrong. That I could be steering this investigation in the wrong direction.'
'The theft of the lighting equipment is a strong indicator,' Rydberg said. 'For me that is the deciding factor. What made you think of it, by the way?'
'The pyramids,' Wallander answered. 'They're illuminated by spotlights. Except for one day a month, when the moon is full.'
'How do you know that?'
'My old man told me.'
Rydberg nodded thoughtfully.
'It's unlikely that drug shipments follow the lunar calendar,' Rydberg said. 'And they may not have as many clouds in Egypt as we have in Skåne.'
'The Sphinx was actually the most interesting,' Wallander said. 'Half man, half animal. Holding guard to make sure the sun returns every morning. From the same direction.'
'I think I've heard of an American security firm that uses the Sphinx as a symbol,' Rydberg said.
'That fits,' Wallander said. 'The Sphinx keeps watch. And we keep watch. Whether or not we're police officers or night guards.'
Rydberg burst into laughter.
'If you told new recruits about this kind of thing they would make fun of us.'
'I know,' Wallander said. 'But perhaps we should tell them anyway.'
Rydberg left. Wallander called Per Åkeson at home. He promised to inform Anette Brolin.
'How does it feel?' Wallander asked. 'Not to have any criminal cases pending?'
'Good,' Åkeson said. 'Better than I could have imagined.'
The investigative squad met two more times that day. Martinsson arranged the surveillance of the house. Hansson left in order to meet up with the rural postman. During this time the others continued with the task of establishing the facts of Rolf Nyman's life. He did not have a police record, something that made the process more difficult. He was born in 1957, in Tranås, and moved to Skåne with his parents in the mid-1960s. They had initially lived in Höör and later in Trelleborg. His father had been employed by a power plant as a systems operator, his mother stayed at home, and Rolf was an only child. His father had died in 1986 and the mother had then moved back to Tranås, where she had died the following year. Wallander had a growing feeling that Rolf Nyman had lived an invisible life. As if he had deliberately swept up any traces of himself. With the help of their Malmö colleagues they learned that he had never been mentioned in the circles that worked on illegal drug activity. He is too invisible, Wallander thought several times during the afternoon. All people leave traces. Everyone except Rolf Nyman.
Hansson returned, having spoken to the postal worker, whose name was Elfrida Wirmark. She had been very firm in stating that there were two people in the house, Holm and Nyman. Which meant there was only one person there these days, as Holm was in the mortuary, waiting to be buried.
They met in the conference room at seven that evening. According to the reports that Martinsson had received, Nyman had not left the house during the day other than to feed the dog. No one had come by to see him. Wallander asked if the officers who were keeping Nyman under surveillance had been able to tell if he was on his guard, but no such reports had been issued. Then they discussed the postal worker's statement for a while. In the end they were able to reach a consensus that Rolf Nyman had most likely invented his girlfriend.
Wallander made the final case review of the day.
'There are no indications that he is a heroin addict,' he started. 'That is his first lie. The second is that he has a girlfriend – he's alone in that house. If we want to get in there we have two choices. Either we wait until he leaves, which he has to do sooner or later, if for no other reason than to buy groceries. If he doesn't have extensive provisions. But why would he have something like that? Or else we find a way to lure him out of the house.'
They decided to wait him out, at least for a few days. If nothing happened, they would revisit the situation.
They waited on the fourth, and they waited on the fifth. Nyman left the house twice in order to feed the dog. There were no indications that he had grown more watchful than before. During that time they continued to work on mapping his life. It was as if he had lived in a strange vacuum. Via the tax authorities they could see that he had a low annual income from his work as a DJ. He never claimed any exemptions, which seemed unusual. He applied for a passport in 1986. He received his driver's licence in 1976. There did not appear to be any friends.