Man On The Balcony (23 page)

'Not to worry," he said feebly.

The woman ran over to the bushes and a moment later they heard a little girl's clear voice:

'Hello, Mommy!"

Ingemund Fransson's features flattened out and his eyes grew dull and staring.

Kvant gripped his arm tightly and said:

'Let's get moving, Kalle."

Kristiansson banged the door, climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine. As he backed up towards the road he said:

'I'm just wondering…"

'What?" Kvant asked.

'Who's the man they've pulled in at Djurgården?"

'Hell, yes, I wonder…" Kvant said.

'Please don't grip so hard," said the man called Ingemund Fransson. "You're hurting me."

'Shut up," said Kvant

Martin Beck was still standing at Biskopsudden in Djurgården, almost five miles from Huvudsta Allé. He stood quite still, chin in hand, looking at Kollberg, who was red in the face and sweating all over. A motorcycle policeman in a white helmet and with a walkie-talkie on his back had just saluted and roared off.

Two minutes earlier Melander and Rönn had driven the man who said his name was Fristedt home to Bondegatan to give him a chance of proving his identity. But this was only a formality. Neither Martin Beck nor Kollberg doubted any longer that they had been on the wrong track.

Only one radio car was left. Kollberg was standing by the open door near the driver, Martin Beck a few yards away.

'Here's something," said the man in the radio car. "Something on the radio."

'What?" Kollberg asked glumly.

The policeman listened.

'A radio patrol at Solna."

'Well?"

'They've caught him."

'Fransson?"

'Yes, they've got him in the car."

Martin Beck came up. Kollberg bent down to hear better.

'What are they saying?" Martin Beck asked.

'No doubt whatever," said the man in the radio car. "Identity established. He has even confessed. What's more he had a pair of little girls' light-blue pants in his pocket Caught red-handed."

'What!" Kollberg exclaimed. "Red-handed? Has he…"

'No, they got there in time. The girl's unharmed."

Martin Beck leaned his forehead against the edge of the car roof. The metal was hot and dusty. "Good God, Lennart," he said, "it's over." "Yes," Kollberg replied. "For this time."

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, his wife and co-author, wrote ten Martin Beck mysteries. Mr. Wahlöö, who died in 1975, was a reporter for several Swedish newspapers and magazines and wrote numerous radio and television plays, film scripts, short stories and novels. Maj Sjöwall is also a poet.