us in establishing contacts with the Russian police. It seems to me that the foreign ministry has decided to keep an eye on our investigation, and if so, I'd like to know just what is going to be watched. And most of all, of course, why the ministry has reached such a decision. For obvious reasons I can't help feeling that Stockholm knows something we don't. Or perhaps it isn't the foreign ministry that has reached this conclusion – maybe it's somebody else?'
There was a deathly silence when Wallander had finished. Bjork was staring at him in horror.
Finally Birgitta Torn spoke.
'There's no reason to doubt the explanation we've given for our coming to Ystad,' she said. 'The unstable situation in Eastern Europe requires us to keep a very close eye on developments there.'
'We don't even know for sure that the men are from an Eastern bloc country,' Wallander said, interrupting her. 'Or do you know something we don't? In that case, I'd like to be put in the picture.'
'I think perhaps we should calm down a bit,' Bjork said.
'I want an answer to my questions,' Wallander said. 'I'm not going to be fobbed off with waffle about the unstable political situation.'
The inscrutable mask was suddenly gone from Birgitta Tom's face. She glared at Wallander, her expression indicating an increasing contempt and a wish to keep him at bay. Hmm, I'm awkward, Wallander thought, one of those ever-so-troublesome peasants.
'The situation is as I've described it,' Torn said. 'If you had any sense, you would realise there was no need to go on like this.'
Wallander shook his head, and turned to Loven and Ronnlund.
'What about your instructions?' he asked. 'Stockholm doesn't usually send out people unless there's been a formal request for assistance, and we haven't made such a request, so far as I know. Or have we?'
Bjork shook his head.
'OK, so Stockholm has decided this on its own initiative. I'd like to know why, if we're going to be working together. I'm assuming the ability of our force to conduct its business efficiently hasn't been impugned before we've even started.'
Lov?n was shuffling uneasily, but it was Ronnlund who answered. Wallander detected a note of sympathy in his voice.
'The commissioner thought you might need a bit of help,' he said. 'Our remit is to place ourselves at your disposal. That's all. You're in charge of the investigation, and if we can be of assistance, so much the better. Neither Bertil nor I have any doubts about your ability to conduct this case on your own, and for myself, I think you've acted speedily and decisively over the last few days.'
Wallander nodded in appreciation. Martinsson was grinning, and Svedberg was picking thoughtfully at his teeth with a splinter he'd broken from the conference table.
'Well, perhaps we can consider where to go from here,' Bjork said.
'Indeed,' Wallander said. 'I have a few theories I'd like to test out on you, but first I'd like to tell you about a little adventure I had during the night.'
He felt calm again. He'd pitted himself against Birgitta Torn and not been vanquished. He'd find out what she was really doing here soon enough. Ronnlund's support had made him feel better. He told them about his telephone call and his visit to the fishing boat in Brantevik. He stressed that the man had been certain the life-raft could have drifted from as far as one of the Baltic states. Bjork was inspired to take unexpected initiatives, and asked reception to arrange for charts of the whole area to be sent up immediately. Wallander imagined Ebba collaring the next officer that sauntered through reception, instructing him to produce the maps without delay. He poured himself another cup of coffee, and started to explain his theories.
'The evidence points to the men having been murdered on board a ship,' he said. 'You would expect the bodies to have been disposed of in the ocean, but I suspect that the killers wanted the bodies to be found. I find it difficult to explain why that should be so, not least because it must have been very uncertain where and when the life-raft would wash ashore. Anyway, the men were shot at close range after being tortured. People are tortured as punishment, or to extract information. The next thing to bear in mind is that both men were under the influence of drugs, amphetamines to be precise. Somehow or other, drugs are involved in this case. I have the distinct impression these men were not short of money – their clothes make that clear. By Eastern European standards they must have been pretty well off if they could afford to buy the shoes and clothes they were wearing. I'd never be able to afford their clothes.'
Loven burst out laughing at his final remark, but Birgitta Torn continued staring doggedly down at the table.
'We know quite a lot, even if we can't fit the bits of the jigsaw together to produce a picture that gives us the sequence of events and the reason the men were murdered. There's one thing we need to establish immediately: who were these men? That's what we must concentrate on. And we must also get a ballistic report on the bullets that killed them without delay. I want a check on all missing or wanted persons in Sweden and Denmark. Fingerprints, photos and descriptions of the men must be sent immediately to Interpol. Maybe we'll find something in our criminal records. And we need to contact the police in the Soviet Union and the Baltic states, assuming that hasn't happened already. Perhaps Birgitta Torn can fill us in on this?'
'That will happen later today,' she said. 'We'll be contacting the international division of the Moscow police.'
'The police in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must be contacted as well.'
'That will happen via Moscow.'
Wallander looked questioningly at her, then turned to Bjork. 'Didn't we have a visit from the Lithuanian police last autumn?'
'What Birgitta Torn says is no doubt correct,' Bjork said. 'The Baltic states have their own national police forces, but it's still the Soviet police that makes the formal decisions.'
'I wonder,' Wallander said. 'Still, I dare say that the foreign ministry knows more about this than I do.'
'Yes,' Torn said, 'no doubt we do.'
Bjork brought the meeting to a close, and immediately disappeared with Birgitta Torn. A press conference had been arranged for 2 p.m. Wallander stayed behind in the conference room and went over the various tasks with the others. Svedberg fetched the plastic bag containing the bullets, and Loven undertook to make sure that the ballistic examination happened quickly. The others split the enormous job of going through the lists of missing and wanted persons. Martinsson had contacts in the Copenhagen police, and undertook to get in touch with them.
'You don't need to bother about the press conference,' Wallander said. 'That'll be a headache for Bjork and myself.'
'Are they as unpleasant here as they are in Stockholm?' Ronnlund asked.
'I don't know what press conferences are like in Stockholm,' Wallander told him, 'but they're not exactly fun here.'
The rest of the day was spent sending descriptions of the dead men to all police districts in Sweden and the Scandinavian countries, and working their way through various records and registers. It was soon clear that the men's fingerprints weren't in the Swedish or Danish records, but Interpol would take longer to give an answer. Wallander and Loven weren't sure whether the East German police records had been incorporated into Interpol. Had their criminal records been transferred to a central database covering the whole of unified Germany? Come to that, had there actually been any normal criminal records in the GDR? Had there been a distinction between the vast archives of the security services and criminal records? Loven agreed to find the answers to these questions, while Wallander prepared himself for the press conference.
When he and Bjork met before the briefing was due to begin, Wallander noticed that his boss was very quiet. Why doesn't he say anything, he wondered. Did he think I was rude to that elegant lady from the foreign ministry?
A large number of journalists and television reporters gathered in the room where the press conference was going to take place. Wallander looked for the young reporter from the Express, but couldn't see him.
Bjork started proceedings, as usual, launching an unexpected attack on the 'incomprehensibly irresponsible' reports published by the press. Wallander's thoughts wandered to his night-time meeting with the frightened man at Brantevik harbour. When it was his turn to speak, he began by repeating his appeal for the public to contact the police if they had any information that might be relevant. A reporter asked if there had been any response so far,
