Henning Mankell - The Pyramid

'I'm sorry if I woke you up,' he said.

'I'm awake.'

She is like me, Wallander thought. Doesn't like to admit that she has been woken up. Even if this is a perfectly decent hour to still be sleeping.

'I have some more questions,' Wallander said. 'And unfortunately they can't wait.'

'Call me in five minutes,' she said and hung up.

Wallander waited for seven minutes. Then he dialled the number again. Her voice was less hoarse now.

'This is in regard to Rolf Nyman, of course,' he said.

'Are you still not planning to tell me why you're interested in him?'

'I can't do that right now. But I promise you'll be the first to know.'

'I feel honoured.'

'You said that he had a serious heroin addiction.'

'I remember.'

'My question is very simple: how do you know this?'

'He told me. It took me by surprise. He didn't try to hide it, and that made an impression on me.'

'He told you?'

'Yes.'

'Does this mean that you never noticed that he had a problem?'

'He always did his job.'

'He never appeared high?'

'Not that I could tell.'

'And he never appeared nervous or anxious?'

'No more so than anyone else. I can also be nervous and anxious. Especially when the police in Lund bother me and the disco.'

Wallander sat quietly for a moment and wondered if he should ask his Lund colleagues about Linda Boman. She waited.

'Let me go through this one more time,' he said. 'You never saw him when he was under the influence. He only told you that he was a heroin addict.'

'I have a hard time believing that a person would lie about something like that.'

'I agree,' Wallander said. 'But I want to assure myself that I've understood this correctly.'

'Is that why you're calling at six o'clock in the morning?'

'It's half past seven.'

'Same difference.'

'I have one more question,' Wallander continued. 'You said that you never heard about a girlfriend.'

'No, I didn't.'

'You never saw him with one?'

'No, never.'

'So if we assume that he said he had a girlfriend you couldn't verify if this were true or not?'

'Your questions are getting stranger and stranger. Why wouldn't he have a girlfriend? He isn't worse-looking than other guys.'

'Then I have no more questions for the moment,' Wallander concluded. 'And what I said yesterday is still very much in effect.'

'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.