Henning Mankell - The Return of the Dancing Master

Lindman listened to what she had to say, persuaded that she was insane. She really did believe what she was saying. Her conviction was ineradicable and she really did have no inkling of how crazy she sounded, and that her dream could never come true.

“You killed my father,” she said. “You killed him, and therefore I’m going to kill you. I know that you didn’t leave here because you wanted to know what happened to Abraham Andersson. He was an insignificant person who had somehow found out about my father’s past. So he had to die.”

“Was it you who killed him?”

Hereira understood now. The man next to Lindman had just emerged from one lifelong nightmare only to land in a new one.

“There’s an international network,” Veronica said. “The Strong Sweden Foundation is a part of it. I’m one of the leaders, invisible in the background, but I’m also a member of the small group of people who run the National Socialist Network on a global level. Executing Andersson to be certain that he could never reveal what he knew was not a problem. There are plenty of people who are always ready to carry out an order, without question, without hesitation.”

“How did Andersson manage to discover that your father was a Nazi?”

“In fact it started with Elsa. An unfortunate coincidence. Elsa has a sister who was for many years a member of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. She mentioned to Andersson, when he decided to move up here, that Elsa lived in Sveg and was a National Socialist. He started spying on her, and eventually on my father as well. When he began blackmailing my father, he signed his own death warrant.”

“Magnus Holmström,” Lindman said. “Is that his name, the man you ordered to kill Abraham Andersson? Was it you or him who threw the shotgun into the river after Andersson’s death? And forced Elsa Berggren to confess to the murder? Did you threaten to kill her as well?”

“You know quite a lot,” she said. “But it won’t help you.”

“What do you plan to do?”

“Kill you,” she said calmly. “But first I shall put down the man who murdered my father.”

Put down . She’s totally insane, Lindman thought. Stark raving mad. If Larsson didn’t show up soon he’d have to try to disarm her. He couldn’t plan on any help from Hereira, he’d had too much to drink. There was no hoping he might be able to persuade her to change her mind. He was certain he was dealing with a madwoman. She wouldn’t hesitate to use her weapon.

Time, he thought. That’s all I need, time. “You’ll never get away,” he said.

“Of course I will,” she said. “Nobody knows where we are. I can shoot the man who killed my father, and then you. I’ll arrange it to look as if you shot him and then killed yourself. Nobody will think it strange that a policeman with cancer would commit suicide, especially after he’s just killed another human being. The weapon can’t be traced to me. I’ll go from here to the church where my father will be buried a few hours from now. It will never occur to anybody that a daughter about to bury her father would be killing two other people that same morning. I will be standing by the coffin. The daughter in mourning. And I will be delighted about my father being avenged before he is buried.”

Lindman heard the faintest of noises in the hall. He knew at once it was the front door being opened. He shifted in his chair, as if to stretch his back, and caught sight of Larsson. Their eyes met. Larsson was moving silently. He had a gun in his hand. I must tell him what’s happening, he thought.

“So you shoot us both, one then the other,” he said. “With that notoriously inaccurate pistol. Forensics will sniff you out from a mile away.”

She stiffened. She was on her guard. “Why are you raising your voice?”

She moved rapidly so that she could see into the hall. Larsson wasn’t there, but he can’t have missed what I said.

Veronica stood motionless, listening. She seemed to Lindman like an animal in the night, alert for the slightest sound.

Then everything happened very quickly. She started again, this time towards the doorway. Lindman knew she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot. She was too far away from him that he could throw himself at her before she had time to turn and shoot at him. From that range she couldn’t miss. As she reached the door he grabbed the lamp on the table beside the chair and threw it at one of the windows with all the strength he could muster. The pane shattered. At the same time he threw himself at Hereira in such a way that both he and the sofa tumbled over backwards. As he fell down beside Hereira, he saw her turn. She had her gun raised. She fired. Lindman closed his eyes and had time to think that he was about to die before the bang came. Hereira’s body jerked. There was blood on his forehead. Then another bang. When Lindman realized he hadn’t been hit this time either, he looked up and saw Larsson lying on the floor. Veronica had disappeared. The front door was wide open. Hereira was moaning, but the bullet had only grazed his temple. Lindman jumped up, scrambled over the overturned sofa, and rushed to Larsson, who was lying on his back, clutching a point between his neck and his right shoulder. Lindman kneeled beside him.

“I don’t think it’s too bad,” Larsson said.

He was white in the face, from pain and shock. Lindman grabbed a towel from the cloakroom and pressed it against Larsson’s bloodcovered shoulder.

“Call for help,” Larsson said. “Then go and look for her.”

Lindman called the emergency number from the hall. He knew he was shouting into the phone. As he spoke he could see Hereira get up from behind the sofa and slump down on a chair. The operator in Östersund said that reinforcements and an ambulance would be dispatched without delay.

“I’ll be all right,” Larsson said. “Don’t wait around. Go and find her. Is she insane?”

“Completely off her rocker. She’s a Nazi, just as much as her father was, maybe even more fanatical.”

“No doubt that explains everything,” Larsson said. “At the moment I’m not really sure what, though.”

“Don’t talk. Lie still.”

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” Larsson said. “You’d better stay here until the reinforcements arrive. She’s too dangerous. You can’t go after her by yourself.”

But Lindman had already picked up Larsson’s gun. He had no intention of waiting. She had shot at him, tried to kill him. That made him furious. She had not only fooled him, but also tried to kill him, Hereira, and Larsson. There could easily have been three dead bodies on Elsa Berggren’s floor instead of two people with slight wounds and one unscathed. As Lindman picked Larsson’s gun up, he made up his mind that he was a man with cancer who was determined not to miss the chance to undergo treatment and be cured. As he left the house, Wigren was standing by the gate. When he saw Lindman he started running away. Lindman yelled at him to stop.

Wigren’s jaw wouldn’t keep still and his eyes were staring. I ought to beat up the bastard, Lindman thought. His insatiable nosiness very nearly got us all killed.

“Where did she go?” he roared. “Which direction?”

Wigren pointed to the road along the river to the new bridge.

“Stay here,” Lindman said. “This time don’t move an inch. There are police and an ambulance on the way.”

Wigren nodded. He asked no questions.

Lindman started running. A face stared from one of the houses. He tried to make out Veronica’s footprints in the snow, but there had been too much traffic, too many walkers. He stopped to cock his gun, then ran on. It was still only half light. Heavy clouds were motionless in the sky. He stopped when he came to the bridge. There was no sign of Veronica. He tried to think. She didn’t have a car. Something unplanned had happened. She was on the run and forced to make impromptu decisions. What would she have done? A car, he decided. She would find herself a car. She would hardly dare go back to the hotel. She knows that I’ve seen what was on her computer screen, a swastika and underneath it a letter in which she discussed old Nazi ideals that would last forever. She realizes that what’s in the computer doesn’t matter any more. She’s shot three people, and she doesn’t know if any of them have survived. She has two possibilities: try to run away, or give herself up. And she won’t give up.