The Troubled Man (39 page)

When he arrived at the house, his heart threatening to burst through his chest, fire chief Peter Edler was stroking Jussi, who had arrived first by a large
margin. He smiled grimly when Wallander came staggering up. The firemen were preparing to leave. Peter Edler was about the same age as Wallander, a freckled man with a slight Småland accent. They sometimes met in connection with an investigation. Wallander had great respect for him, and appreciated his dry humor.

“One of my men knew you lived here,” said Edler, continuing to stroke Jussi.

“What happened?”

“That’s what I should be asking you.”

“Is the place on fire?”

“Apparently not. But it could easily have been.”

Wallander stared uncomprehendingly at Edler.

“I went for a walk about half an hour ago.”

Edler nodded toward the house.

“Come in and take a look.”

The stench of burned rubber that hit Wallander when he entered the building was strong, almost choking. Edler led him into the kitchen. The firemen had opened a window to let the fumes out. On one of the stove’s burners was a frying pan, and next to it a charred rubber place mat. Edler sniffed at the frying pan, from which smoke was still rising.

“Fried egg? Sausage?”

“Egg.”

“You went out for a walk without turning off the stove. Not only that, but you left a place mat on a burner. How careless can a detective get?”

Edler shook his head. They went outside again. The firemen were already in the trucks, waiting for their leader.

“It’s never happened to me before,” said Wallander.

“It had better not happen again.”

Edler looked around, admiring the view.

“So you moved out to the country in the end. To be honest, I never thought you’d get around to it. You have a lovely view.”

“You haven’t moved yourself?”

“We’re still in the same house in the middle of town. Gunnel wants to move out to the country, but I don’t. Not as long as I’m still working.”

“How long to go?”

Edler shuddered and looked miserable. He smacked the shiny helmet he was holding in his hand against his thigh, as if it were a gun.

“As long as I can, or am allowed to. I might be able to keep going for a few more years, but then I’ll be on the scrap heap as well. What I’ll do then, I have no idea. I can’t just sit at home doing crossword puzzles.”

“You could try writing them,” said Wallander, thinking of Hermann Eber.

Edler looked at him in surprise, but didn’t ask what he meant. It almost seemed as if he hoped Wallander’s future would turn out to be as grim as his own.

“Maybe we could form a team? Start a little company and travel around telling people how to protect themselves from burglary and fire?”

“Is it possible to protect yourself from burglary?”

“Hardly. But you can teach people some simple methods of making thieves think twice before targeting your house or apartment.”

Edler eyed him doubtfully.

“Do you really believe what you’re saying?”

“I’m trying to. But thieves are like children. They learn quickly.”

Edler shook his head at Wallander’s highly dubious comparison, and climbed into his fire truck.

“Remember to turn off your burners,” he said by way of farewell. “But it was smart of you to have a first-rate fire alarm installed that’s linked directly to us. Your house could have burned down. Then you’d have had to cope with the nightmare of a smoldering ruin in the middle of summer.”

Wallander didn’t respond. It was Linda who had insisted on the fire alarm. She had paid for it, given it to him as a Christmas present and made sure it was installed.

He fed Jussi and was just about to start his lawn mower when Linda drove up. She didn’t have Klara with her. He could see right away that she was upset. He assumed she had passed the fire engines on the way here.

“What were fire engines doing on your road?” she asked.

“They’d taken a wrong turn,” he lied. “There was a short circuit in a neighbor’s barn.”

“Which barn?”

“The Hanssons’.”

“Who are they?”

“What does it matter? You don’t know where their house is anyway.”

She suddenly threw her purse at him as hard as she could. He managed to duck and was hit only on the shoulder. He picked it up, furious.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Why the hell do I have to stand here while you tell me boldfaced lies!”

“I’m not telling you lies.”

“The fire brigade was here! I stopped and spoke to your neighbor. He said you were standing next to two fire engines.”

“I forgot to switch off one of the burners.”

“Did you fall asleep?”

Wallander pointed out into the fields, from where only a few minutes ago he had come racing back; he could still feel the pain in his leg muscles.

“I was out with Jussi.”

Without a word, Linda grabbed her purse out of his hand and went into the house. Wallander considered getting into his car and driving off. Linda would go on and on about his lie, and then about his incredible carelessness. She would continue to be upset, and that in turn would make him angry. Indeed, he was already well on the way there. He didn’t know what she had in her purse, but it had been heavy, and his shoulder hurt. He felt even more agitated when he thought about the fact that this was the first time she had ever used physical violence toward him.

Linda came out again.

“Do you remember what we talked about a few weeks ago? That day when it was pouring rain, and I was here with Klara?”

“How can I be expected to remember everything we say to each other?”

“We talked about how she could come here and stay with you when she was a bit older.”

“Let’s stay calm and talk things through,” Wallander said. “You arranged the installation of a fire alarm. Now we know it works. The house didn’t burn down. I forgot to turn off a burner. Has that never happened to you?”

She answered without hesitation.

“Not since Klara was born, no.”

“I don’t think it ever happened to me either when you were little.”

The argument died away. They were both good fencers, but neither had the strength to deliver a fatal blow. Linda sat down on one of the garden chairs. Wallander remained standing, afraid her fury might boil over again. She looked at him, clearly worried.

“Are you starting to become forgetful?”

“I’ve always been forgetful, to a certain extent. Maybe it would be better to say that I’m absentminded.”

He sat down, tired of hiding the truth.

“Sometimes whole chunks of time just disappear. Like ice melting away.”

“What do you mean?”

Wallander told her about his trip to Höör. But he left out the part about the hitchhiker.

“I suddenly had no idea why I was there. It was like being in a brightly lit room when somebody turns off the light, without warning. I don’t know how long I was in pitch darkness. It was as if I didn’t even know who I was anymore.”

“Has that ever happened before?”

“Not as badly. But I’ve gone to a doctor, a specialist in Malmö, and she says I’m just overworked. That I think I’m a dashing young thirty-year-old who can still do everything I used to be able to do.”

“I don’t like what I’m hearing. Go see another doctor.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything. She stood up and disappeared into the house, emerging eventually with two glasses of water. Wallander suddenly asked if the police had found the woman from Malmö who killed her parents.

“I heard she was arrested in Växjö. Someone had given her a ride and become suspicious. He treated her to a cup of coffee at a roadside café outside the town and called the police. She tried to stab herself through the heart with a knife she had with her, but she didn’t succeed.”

“Have you ever wanted to kill me?” he asked, relieved to hear that his own part in her flight hadn’t come to light. Martinsson had kept his word and said nothing.

“Of course,” she said, and burst out laughing. “Plenty of times. Most recently a few minutes ago. I hope the old man doesn’t live until he’s gaga, I keep thinking. Every child occasionally wishes her parents were dead. How often have you wanted to kill me?”

“Never.”

“Do you expect me to believe that?”

“Yes.”

“I can console you by telling you that Mona’s the one I’ve had in my sights more often. But naturally, I’m horrified at the thought of one day no longer having you two around. Incidentally, Hans and I managed to persuade Mona to go to a clinic for treatment.”

Jussi caught sight of a hare in the field and started barking. They sat in silence and watched his vain attempts to break out of his kennel. The hare ran off, and Jussi quieted down.

“I came for another reason,” she said out of the blue.

“Don’t tell me something’s happened to Klara?”

“No, she’s fine. Hans is at home with her today. I make him accept his responsibilities. I think he enjoys it, actually. Klara is about as far away from the stressful banking world as you can get.”

“But something else must have happened?”

“I was in Copenhagen yesterday evening. With a couple of friends. We went to a concert—Madonna, the idol of my youth. It was terrific. Afterward we had a late dinner, then went our separate ways. I was staying at the posh
Hotel d’Angleterre—the firm Hans works for gets a corporate rate. I was in a good mood and not all that sleepy, so I went for a walk along Strøget. There were a lot of people out. I sat down on a bench, and that was when I saw him.”

“Saw who?”

“Håkan.”

Wallander held his breath and stared at her. She was quite certain, he could see that; she had no hesitation.

“It wasn’t just his face, which I only caught a glimpse of. It was the way he walked, shoulders back, short rapid strides.”

“Describe in detail exactly what you saw.”

“I’d sat down on a bench in a little square on Strøget, I don’t know what it’s called. He was coming from Nyhavn and had already passed me when I noticed him. First I recognized his hair from behind, then the way he walked, and finally his overcoat.”

“His overcoat?”

“Yes.”

“But there must be thousands of overcoats that look like his?”

“Not Håkan’s overcoat. It’s a thin, dark blue coat sort of like a sailor’s raincoat. I can’t describe it any better than that. But that’s what I saw.”

“So what did you do?”

“Just imagine! A concert with Madonna, two old friends, dinner, a summer night, no squealing baby, no boyfriend—and suddenly I catch sight of Håkan. I sat there transfixed for about fifteen seconds, then I hurried after him. But it was too late. There was no sign of him. There were people everywhere, side streets, taxis, restaurants. I walked all the way along Strøget as far as the city hall at Rådhuspladsen, and then back again. But I couldn’t find him.”

Wallander emptied his glass of water. Even if what he’d just heard sounded implausible, he knew that Linda was sharp-eyed and was rarely wrong when it came to identifying people.

“Let’s take a step back,” he said. “If I understood you correctly he’d already passed by the bench where you were sitting before you noticed him. But you said you caught a glimpse of his face. So he must have turned around?”

“Yes, he looked over his shoulder.”

“Why would he do that?”

She frowned.

“How would I know?”

“It’s a simple question. Did he expect to find somebody following him? Was he worried? Did he do it automatically, or had he heard something?”

“I think he was checking to make sure he wasn’t being followed.”

“You think?”

“I can’t know for sure. But yes, I think he was checking to make sure there wasn’t somebody behind him.”

“Did he seem scared? Worried?”

“I can’t answer that.”

Wallander considered her answer. He still had questions.

“Could he have seen you?”

“No.”

“How can you be sure?”

“If he had, he’d have looked at the bench. But he didn’t.”

“Have you told Hans?”

“Yes. He was upset and said that I must have been imagining things.”

“Will you make sure that he hasn’t been meeting his father in secret?”

She nodded, without speaking.

The sun disappeared behind a cloud, and there was a rumble of thunder in the distance. They went inside. Wallander wanted Linda to stay for a meal, but she said she needed to go home. She was just about to leave when the clouds opened, and it started pouring. The parking area in front of the house was transformed into a mud bath. Wallander decided that before the week was out he would order several loads of gravel so that nobody would need to wade through the mud whenever it rained.

“I’m positive,” she said. “It was Håkan. Very much alive in Copenhagen.”

“So we know one thing,” Wallander said. “Håkan hasn’t suffered the same fate as his wife. He’s alive. That changes everything.”

Linda nodded. They both knew they could no longer rule out the possibility that Håkan had killed his wife. But they shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there was some other reason he had gone into hiding. Was he on the run from something or somebody?

They stood there in silence, each of them lost in thought. The rain died away as quickly as it had started.

“What was he doing in Copenhagen?” Wallander asked. “For me there’s only one plausible answer to that question.”

“To meet Hans. That’s what you’re thinking. Maybe to solve money problems? But I’m convinced that Hans isn’t lying to me.”

“I believe you. But there’s no reason to think they’ve had contact already. That might happen tomorrow.”

“In that case he’ll tell me.”

“Maybe,” said Wallander thoughtfully.

“Why shouldn’t he?”

“Loyalty. What if his father says he can’t breathe a word to anybody, not even to you, about their meeting? And that he gives Hans a reason that he dare not question?”

“I’ll notice if he’s hiding something from me.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned,” said Wallander, testing the wet and soggy ground with one foot, “it’s that you should never believe you know all that much about other people’s thoughts and ideas.”