reason for his anxiety. That's one of the questions Colonel Putnis ought to try and find an answer to – whether there's a direct connection between the men found dead in the life-raft and the murder of Major Liepa.'
Wallander thought he could detect an almost invisible shift in Murniers's expression. So, he'd said something unexpected. But was it his insight that was unexpected, or that Major Liepa really had been worried and Murniers already knew?
'You must have asked the key questions,' Wallander said. 'Who could have enticed Major Liepa out in the middle of the night? Who would have had a reason to murder him? Even when a controversial politician is murdered one has to ask whether there might have been a private motive. That's what happened when Kennedy was assassinated, and the same was the case when the Swedish prime minister was shot down in the street some years ago. You must have thought of all this, I take it? You must also have concluded that there was no credible private motive, or you wouldn't have asked me to come to Riga.'
'That is correct,' Murniers said. 'You are an experienced police officer and your analysis is accurate. Major Liepa was happily married. He was not in financial difficulties. He didn't gamble, he didn't have a mistress. He was a conscientious police officer who was convinced that the work he did was helping our country to develop. We think his death must be connected with his work. As he was working on no other case apart from the death of the men found in the life-raft, we asked for help from Sweden. Perhaps he said something to you that didn't appear in the report he handed in the day he died? We need to know, and we hope you can help us.'
'Major Liepa talked about drugs,' Wallander said. 'He referred to the spread of amphetamine factories in Eastern Europe. He was convinced that the two men died as a result of an internal dispute within a syndicate involved in drug smuggling. He devoted much energy to trying to discover whether the men had been killed for revenge, or because they had refused to reveal something. Furthermore, there were good reasons to believe the life-raft itself had been carrying a cargo of drugs, as it was stolen from our police station. What we never managed to work out was how these various things might be linked.'
'Let's hope Colonel Putnis gets an answer to that,' Murniers said. 'He's a very skilled interrogator. In the meantime I thought I might suggest that I should show you the place where Major Liepa was murdered. Colonel Putnis takes his time over an interrogation, if he thinks it's worth it.'
'Is the place where he was found the actual place where he was killed?'
'There's no reason to suppose otherwise. It's a remote spot. There are not many people around the docks at night.'
That's not true, Wallander thought. The major would have put up a struggle. It can't have been easy to drag him out on to a quay in the middle of the night. Saying the place is remote isn't a good enough explanation.
'I would like to meet the major's widow,' he said. 'A conversation with her could be important for me as well. I assume you've spoken to her several times?'
'We've had a very detailed conversation with Baiba Liepa,' Murniers said. 'Of course we can arrange for you to meet her.'
They drove along by the river in the grey light of the winter morning. Sergeant Zids was instructed to track down Baiba Liepa while Wallander and Colonel Murniers drove out to where the body had been found, the place Murniers also claimed was the scene of the murder.
'What's your theory?' Wallander asked as they lounged in the back seat of Murniers's car, which was bigger and plusher than the one Wallander had been allocated. 'You must have one, you and Colonel Putnis.'
'Drugs,' Murniers answered without hesitation. 'We know the big bosses in the drugs business surround themselves with bodyguards, men who are nearly always addicts themselves, prepared to do anything in order to get their daily fix. Maybe those bosses reckoned Major Liepa was getting a bit close for comfort?'
'Was he?'
'No. If that theory were correct, at least a dozen officers here in the Riga police force would have come before Major Liepa on a death list. The odd thing about this is that Major Liepa had never been involved in investigating drugs crimes before. It was pure coincidence that he seemed to be the most appropriate officer to send to Sweden.'
'What kind of cases had Major Liepa been dealing with?'
Murniers gazed vacantly out of the car window. 'He was a very skilled all-round detective. We had some robberies in Riga recently that involved murder as well: Major Liepa handled the case brilliantly and arrested those responsible. When other investigators, at least as experienced as he was, had run up against a brick wall, Major Liepa was often the officer we turned to.'
They sat in silence as the police car stopped at some traffic lights. Wallander watched a group of people hunched against the cold at a bus stop, and had the distinct impression no bus would ever come and open its doors for them.
'Drugs,' he said. 'That's old hat for us in the West, but it's something new for you.'
'Not completely new,' Murniers said, 'but we've never seen it before on the scale that is normal today. Opening up our borders has produced opportunities and a market on a completely different scale. I don't mind admitting that we've sometimes felt helpless. We'll need to develop co-operation with police forces in the West because a lot of the drugs that pass through Latvia are actually destined for Sweden. Hard currency is the bait. It's quite clear to us that Sweden is one of the markets that the gangs here in Latvia are most interested in. For obvious reasons. It's not far from Ventspils to the Swedish coast, and moreover, that coast is long and difficult to patrol. You could say that they've taken over classical smuggling routes – they used to transport barrels of vodka the same way.'
'Tell me more,' Wallander said. 'Where are the drugs manufactured? Who's behind it all?'
'You must understand that we are living in an impoverished country,' Murniers said. 'Just as impoverished and decrepit as our neighbours. For many years we've been forced to live as if we were shut in a cage. We've only been able to observe the riches of the West from a distance. Now, all of a sudden, everything is obtainable. But there's one condition: you need money. For someone who's prepared to go to any lengths, who's totally lacking in scruples, the quickest way to get that money is through drugs. When you helped us to dismantle our walls and open the gates to the countries that had been shut away, you also opened up the sluices for all manner of appetites that need satisfying. Hunger for all those things we'd been forced to observe from a distance, but been forbidden or prevented from touching. Needless to say, we've still no idea how things are going to work out.'
Murniers leaned forward and said something to the driver, who immediately braked and came to a halt by the kerb.
Murniers pointed at the facade of the building opposite them.
'Bullet holes,' he said. 'About a year old.'
Wallander leaned forward to look. The wall really was riddled with bullet holes.
'What is this building?' he asked.
'One of our ministries' Murniers said. 'I'm showing you this to help you to understand. To understand why we still don't know what's going to happen. Will we get more freedom? Or will the freedom we have be restricted? Or disappear altogether? We still don't know. You have to understand, Inspector Wallander, that you are in a country where nothing is yet decided.'
They drove on until they came to a vast area of dockland. Wallander tried to digest what Murniers had said. He'd started to sympathise with the pale man with the bloated features, to feel that everything he said involved Wallander as well – indeed, maybe involved him more than anybody else.
'We know there are laboratories making amphetamines and maybe other drugs like morphine and ephedrine,' Murniers said. 'We also suspect that Asian and South American cocaine cartels are trying to establish new networks in the former Eastern bloc. The idea is that they should replace the previous routes that went straight to Western Europe. Many of these have been closed down by the European police, but the cartels believe that in the virginal East European territories they might be able to evade keen-eyed police officers. Let's say they find us easier to corrupt and bribe.'
'Officers like Major Liepa?'
'He would never have stooped to accepting a bribe.' 'I mean that he was a keen-eyed police officer.' 'If his eyes were too keen, if that's what sent him to his death, I trust Colonel Putnis will establish this shortly.' 'Who is this man that you've arrested?'
'Someone we've often come across in circumstances in which the two dead men were involved. A former butcher from Riga who has been one of the leaders of the organised crime we've been fighting against constantly.
