Хеннинг Манкелль - Firewall

“It was mine.”

“Eva had no objections?”

“No.”

This doesn’t hang together , Wallander thought. She’s lying, but she’s remarkably collected.

“You ordered the taxi from the restaurant, then waited until it arrived. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“But where did the hammer and knife come from? If you hadn’t planned the attack in advance, I mean.”

Sonja Hökberg looked steadily into Wallander’s eyes.

“I always carry a hammer with me,” she said. “And Eva always has a knife.”

“Why?”

“You never know what’s going to happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“The streets are full of crazy people. You have to be able to defend yourself.”

“So you mean to say you always go out with this hammer in your purse?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever used it before?”

Lötberg looked up.

“That question bears no relevance to this case,” he said.

“What does that mean?” Sonja Hökberg asked.

“Relevance? That he has no business asking that question.”

“I can answer anyway. I had never used the hammer before. But Eva cut someone once. Some creep who was trying to feel her up.”

Wallander was struck by a sudden thought and veered away from his earlier line of questioning.

“Did you meet anyone at that restaurant? Had you made a date with anyone?”

“No.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

That answer came a Little too quickly , Wallander thought. He made a mental note of it.

“The taxi came and you left.”

“Yes.”

“What did you do then?”

“What do you think? We told him where we wanted to go.”

“And you said you wanted to be driven out to Rydsgård. Why?”

“I don’t know. We had to say something and that was the first thing that came to mind.”

“Eva sat up front with the driver, and you sat in the backseat. Did you decide on that beforehand?”

“That was the plan.”

“What plan?”

“That we would get the driver to stop because Eva wanted to get in the back seat with me. And that’s when we were going to get him.”

“So you had already decided to use your weapons?”

“Not if he had been younger.”

“What would you have done then?”

“Then we would have got him to stop by pulling up our skirts and being suggestive.”

Wallander noticed he had started to sweat. Her obvious detachment from the situation was starting to get to him.

“Suggesting what exactly?”

“What do you think?”

“You would entice him into thinking he could have sex with you?”

“You dirty old fuck.”

Lötberg leaned forward.

“You should watch your language.”

Sonja Hökberg looked over at him.

“I’ll use whatever language I please.”

Lötberg sat back again. Wallander decided to move on.

“But, as it happened, the taxi driver was an older man. You got him to stop. Then what?”

“I hit him in the head. Eva stabbed him with the knife.”

“How many times did you strike him?”

“I don’t know. A couple of times. I wasn’t counting.”

“You weren’t afraid of killing him?”

“We needed the money.”

“That wasn’t what I was asking. What I want to know is, were you aware that the wounds you were inflicting could be fatal?”

Sonja Hökberg shrugged. Wallander waited but she didn’t say anything. He didn’t feel he had the energy to repeat the last question.

“You say you needed money. For what?”

“Nothing in particular. I told you.”

“Then what happened?”

“We took his wallet and the cell phone and walked home.”

“What happened to the wallet?”

“We divided up the cash. Then Eva threw it away somewhere.”

Wallander looked briefly through Martinsson’s notes. Johan Lundberg had been carrying around 600 kronor. They had found the wallet in a wastepaper basket after getting directions from Eva Persson. Sonja Hökberg had taken the cell phone. The police had found it in her bedroom.

Wallander turned off the tape recorder. Sonja Hökberg followed his movements with her eyes.

“Can I go home now?”

“No, as a matter of fact,” Wallander said. “You are nineteen years old and that means you count as an adult in our courts. You have committed a felony, and you will be formally arraigned.”

“And that means?”

“You’ll have to stay here at the station.”

“Why?”

Wallander looked at Lötberg, then stood up.

“I think your attorney can probably explain it to you.”

Wallander left the room. He felt sick to his stomach. Sonja Hökberg had not been putting on an act in there. She had no sense of wrongdoing. Wallander walked into Martinsson’s office and sat down in a chair. Martinsson was on the phone but gestured that he would be off soon. While Wallander waited he felt a strong urge to smoke. That almost never happened. But his meeting with Sonja Hökberg had been unusually disturbing.

Martinsson put the phone down.

“How did it go?”

“She confessed to everything. She’s as cold as ice.”

“Eva Persson is the same way and she’s only fourteen.”

Wallander looked at Martinsson with something like pleading in his eyes.

“What’s happening to the world?”

“I don’t know.”

Wallander was visibly shaken.

“They’re just young girls.”

“I know, I know. And they have no remorse at all.”

They were silent for a while and Wallander felt completely empty inside. Martinsson was the one who finally spoke.

“Do you understand now why I think of quitting so often?”

Wallander roused himself.

“And do you understand why it’s so important that you don’t?”

He got up and walked over to the window.

“How is Lundberg?”

“Still in critical condition.”

“We have to get to the bottom of this, whether or not he dies. They didn’t assault him like that just to get some cash. Either they needed the money for a specific purpose or the attack was about something else entirely.”

“What could that have been?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling that there’s something deeper behind all this.”

“Isn’t the most probable scenario that they were a little drunk and concocted this mad plan to get some money? Without thinking of the consequences?”

“Why do you think that?”

“I’m just sure it wasn’t a random act, like you said.”

Wallander nodded.

“Well, we agree on that. But I want to know what their reasons were. Tomorrow I’ll talk to Eva Persson, as well as her parents. Does either of them have a boyfriend?”

“Eva Persson said she had someone.”

“Not Hökberg?”

“No.”

“Then she’s lying. She has someone and we’ll find him.”

Martinsson made some notes.

“Who will take that on — you or me?”

Wallander’s response was immediate.

“I’ll do it. I want to know what’s going on in this country.”

“Suits me fine.”

“You’re not completely off the hook, though. Not you, nor Hansson, nor Höglund. We have to find out the real reason for this attack. I’m convinced it was an attempted homicide, and if Lundberg dies, then it’s murder.”

Wallander returned to his office. It was half past five and already it was dark outside. He thought about Sonja Hökberg and why the two girls had needed money so badly. Had there been another reason entirely? Then he thought of Anette Fredman.

He still had work to do but felt he couldn’t bear to stay in his office. He grabbed his coat and left. The sharp fall wind burned his face. He heard the strange engine noise again when he started the car. As he turned out of the parking lot, he decided to go shopping. His refrigerator was almost empty except for the bottle of champagne that he had won in a bet with Hansson. He could no longer remember what the bet had been. On an impulse he thought he would swing by the cash machine where the man had died the night before. He could do his shopping in one of the department stores nearby.