door of his office, and before he knew it she was involved in an intense conversation with the young man.
But, it turned out that the man hadn't seen a thing. 'Ask him why he volunteered as a witness,' Wallander said wearily.
The missionary and the young man went off into a lengthy exchange.
'He just thought it was rather exciting,' she said at last. 'And that's understandable.''It is?' Wallander wondered.
'You must have been young once yourself,' said the woman.
The young man from Malawi was sent back to Hageholm, and the missionary returned to Trelleborg. The next witness actually had something to tell them. He was an Iranian who worked as an interpreter and who spoke fluent Swedish. Like the murdered Somali, he had been walking close to Hageholm when the shots were fired.
Wallander picked out a section of the map that showed the area around Hageholm. He put an X at the scene of the murder, and the Iranian was able to point at once to where he had been when he heard the shots. Wallander calculated the distance as about 300 metres.'After the shots I heard a car,' said the man.'But you didn't see it?''No. I was in the woods. I couldn't see the road.' The Iranian pointed again. To the south. Then he really surprised Wallander. 'It was a Citroen,' he said. 'A Citroen?''The kind you call a turtle here in Sweden.' 'How can you be sure of that?'
'I grew up in Tehran. When we were boys we learned to recognise the makes of cars by the sound of the engine. Citroens are easy. Most of all the turtle.'
Wallander had a hard time believing what he heard. 'Come out to the car park with me, and when you get outside, turn your back and shut your eyes.'
Outside in the rain he started his Peugeot and drove around the car park. He watched the Iranian carefully the whole time.
'All right,' he said when he returned. 'What was that?' 'A Peugeot,' replied the Iranian with the utmost confidence.'Good,' said Wallander. 'Damned amazing.'
He sent the man home and gave the instruction that an APB be issued on a Citroen that might have been seen between Hageholm and the E65 to the west. The wire service was also advised that the police were looking for a Citroen that was believed to be linked to the murder.
The third witness was a young woman from Romania. She sat in Wallander's office nursing her baby during the interview. Her interpreter spoke poor Swedish, but Wallander still had a good idea of what the woman was saying.
She had walked the same way as the Somali, and she had passed him on her way back to the camp.
'How long?' asked Wallander. 'How long was it from when you passed him to when you heard the shots?''Maybe three minutes.''Did you see anyone else?'
The woman nodded, and Wallander leaned over the desk in suspense.'Where?' he asked. 'Show me on the map!'
The interpreter held the baby while the woman searched on the map.
'There,' she said, pressing the pen to the map. Wallander saw that the spot was very near the scene of the murder.
'Tell me about it,' he said. 'There's no hurry. Think carefully.'The woman thought for a while.
'A man in blue overalls,' she said. 'He was standing out in the field.''What did he look like?''He didn't have much hair.''How tall was he?'
'Normal height.'
'Am I a man of normal height?' Wallander stood up straight. 'He was taller.' 'How old was he?''He wasn't young. Not old either. Maybe 45.' 'Did he see you?' 'I don't think so.''What was he doing out in the field?''He was eating.''Eating?''He was eating an apple.'
Wallander thought for a moment. 'A man in blue overalls standing in a field near the road and eating an apple. Did I understand you correctly?''Yes.''Was he alone?''I didn't see anyone else. But I don't think he was alone.' 'Why not?''He seemed to be waiting for someone.''Did this man have a weapon of any kind?'The woman thought again. 'There might have been
a brown package at his feet. Maybe it was just mud.' 'What happened after you saw the man?' 'I hurried home as fast as I could.' 'Why in a hurry?''It's not a good idea to run into strange men in the woods.' Wallander nodded. 'Did you see a car?' he asked. 'No. No car.''Can you describe the man in more detail?'She thought for a long time before she replied.'He looked strong,' she said. 'I think he had big hands.''What colour was his hair? What little he had.'
'Swedish colour.''Blond hair?''Yes. And he was bald like this.'She drew a half moon in the air.
Then she was allowed to go back to the camp. Wallander went to get a cup of coffee. Svedberg asked if he wanted pizza. He nodded.
At 9 p.m. the team met in the canteen. Wallander thought that everyone apart from Naslund still looked surprisingly alert. Naslund had a cold and a fever but stubbornly refused to go home.
As they divided up pizzas and sandwiches, Wallander tried to sum up. At one end of the room he had taken down a picture and projected a slide that showed a map of the murder scene. He had put an X on the site of the crime and drawn in the location and movements of both witnesses.
'So we aren't totally out in the cold here,' he began. 'We've got the time, and we have two reliable witnesses. A few minutes before the first shot, the female witness sees a man in blue overalls standing in a field very close to the road. This fits exactly with the time it should have taken the dead man to reach that point. And we know that the killer took off in a Citroen and headed southwest.'
Wallander's summary was interrupted when Rydberg came into the canteen. All the team members began to laugh. Rydberg was covered in mud all the way up to his chin. He kicked off his wet and filthy shoes and took a sandwich that someone handed him. Wallander repeated his summary of the interviews for Rydberg.
'You're just in time,' said Wallander. 'What have you found?'
'I've been slogging around in that field for hours,' Rydberg replied. 'The Romanian woman pointed out pretty well where the man was most likely standing. We took casts of some footprints there. From rubber boots. She said that's what the man was wearing. Ordinary green rubber boots. And I found an apple core.'Rydberg took a plastic bag out of his pocket.
'With a little luck we might get some prints from it,' he said.
'Can you take fingerprints from an apple core?' Wallander wondered.
'You can take prints from anything,' said Rydberg. 'There might be a strand of hair, a little saliva, skin fragments.'
He set the plastic bag on the table, carefully, as if it were made of porcelain.
'Then I followed the footprints,' he went on. 'And if the Apple Man is the killer, then this is how I think it happened.'
Rydberg took his pen out of the notebook and went over to the map projected onto the wall.
'He saw the Somali coming up the road. He threw away the apple core and walked straight onto the road in front of him. I could see his tracks. There he fired off his two shots at a distance of about 4 metres. Then he turned around and ran about 50 metres down the road from the murder scene. The road widens a little, making it possible for a car to turn around. Sure enough, there were tyre tracks. And I also found two cigarette butts.'He took the next plastic bag from his pocket.
'The man hopped in the car and drove south. That's how I think it happened. By the way, I think I'll send my cleaning bill to the police department.'
'I'll sign for it,' promised Wallander. 'But now we have to think.'Rydberg raised his hand, as if he were in school.
'I've got a couple of ideas,' he said. 'First of all, I'm sure there were two of them. One the driver and one the shooter.''Why do you think that?' asked Wallander.
