'No, I'm alone. They're at a golf dinner.'
Wallander wasn't sure he should continue. But the boy seemed reasonably mature.
'Has your brother Martin ever written a letter to you? Anything you might have saved?'
'Not this summer.'
'Earlier, perhaps?'
The boy thought for a moment. 'I have a letter he wrote to me from the United States last year.'
'Was it handwritten?'
'Yes.'
Wallander calculated how long it would take him to drive to Simrishamn. Perhaps he should wait until the next morning.
'Why do you want one of his letters?'
'I just need a sample of his handwriting.'
'Well, I could fax it over to you if you're in a hurry.'
The boy was a fast thinker. Wallander gave him the number of one of the faxes at the police station.
'I'd like you to mention this matter to your parents,' he said.
'I'm planning to be asleep when they get back.'
'Could you tell them about it tomorrow?'
'Martin's letter was addressed to me.'
'It would be best if you mentioned it anyway,' Wallander said patiently.
'Martin and the others will be back soon,' the boy said. 'I don't know why that Hillstrom lady is so worried. She calls us every day.'
'But your parents aren't worried?'
'I think they're relieved that Martin's gone. At least Dad is.'
Somewhat surprised, Wallander waited to see if the boy would go on, but he didn't.
'Thanks for your help,' he said finally.
'It's like a game,' the boy said.
'A game?'
'They pretend they're in a different time. They like to dress up, like children do, even though they're grown up.'
'I'm not sure that I follow,' Wallander said.
'They're playing roles, like you would in the theatre. But it's for real. They might have gone to Europe to find something that doesn't really exist.'
'So that was what they normally did? Play? But I'm not sure I would call a Midsummer's Eve celebration a game. It's just the same eating and dancing as at any other party.'
'And drinking,' the boy said. 'But if you put on costumes, that makes it something else, doesn't it?'
'Is that what they did?'
'Yes, but I don't know more. It was secret. Martin never said much about it.'
Wallander didn't completely follow what the boy was saying. He looked down at his watch. Lillemor Norman would be expecting him shortly.
'Thanks for your help,' he said, bringing the conversation to an end. 'And don't forget to tell your parents that I called and what I asked for.'
'Maybe,' the boy replied.
Three different reactions, Wallander thought. Eva Hillstrom is afraid. Lillemor Norman is suspicious. Martin Boge's parents are relieved he's gone, and his brother in turn seems to prefer it when their parents are gone. He picked up his coat and left. On the way out, he reserved a new time at the laundry for Friday.
Although it wasn't far to Karinggatan, he took the car. The new exercise regimen would have to wait. He turned onto Karinggatan from Bellevuevagen, and stopped outside a white two-storey house. The front door opened as he was opening the gate, and he recognised Lillemor Norman. In contrast to Eva Hillstrom, she looked robust. He thought about the photographs in Martinsson's file and realised that Lena Norman and her mother looked alike.
The woman was holding a white envelope.
'I'm sorry to bother you,' Wallander said.
'My husband will have a few words with Lena when she comes back. It's completely irresponsible of them to go away like this without a word.'
'They're adults and can do as they please,' Wallander said. 'But of course it's both irritating and worrying.'
He took the letter and promised to return it. Then he drove to the police station and went to the room where the officer on duty was manning the phones. He was taking a call as Wallander stepped into the room, but pointed to one of the fax machines. Klas Boge had faxed his brother's letter as promised. Wallander went to his office and turned on the desk lamp. He laid the two letters and the postcards next to each other, then angled the light and put on his glasses.
He leaned back in his chair. His hunch was correct. Both Martin Boge and Lena Norman had irregular, spiky handwriting. If someone had wanted to forge any one of the three's handwriting, the choice would have been clear: Astrid Hillstrom. Wallander felt profoundly disturbed by this, but his mind kept working methodically. What did this mean? It was nothing, really. It didn't supply an answer to why someone would want to write postcards in their names, and who would have had access to their handwriting. Nonetheless, he couldn't shake off his concern.
We have to go through this thoroughly, he thought. If something has happened, they've been missing for almost two months.
He got himself a cup of coffee. It was 10.15 p.m. He read through the description of events one more time but found nothing new. Some good friends had celebrated Midsummer's Eve together, then left for a trip. They sent a few postcards. And that was all.
Wallander shuffled the letters together and put them in the folder along with the postcards. There was nothing more he could do tonight. Tomorrow he would talk to Martinsson and the others, go through this Midsummer's Eve case one last time, and then decide if they would proceed with a missing persons investigation.
Wallander turned off the light and left the room. In the corridor he realised that Ann-Britt Hoglund's light was on. The door was slightly ajar, and he pushed it open gently. She was staring down at her desk but there were no papers in front of her. Wallander hesitated. She almost never stayed this late at the station. She had children to take care of, and her husband travelled often with his job and was rarely at home. He recalled her emotional behaviour in the canteen. And now here she was staring down at an empty desk. She probably wanted to be left alone. But it was also possible that she wanted to talk to somebody.
She can always ask me to leave, Wallander thought.
He knocked on the door, waited for her answer, and stepped inside.
'I saw your light,' he said. 'You aren't normally here so late, not unless something has happened.'
She looked back at him without answering.
'If you want to be left alone, just say the word.'
'No,' she replied. 'I don't really want to be left alone. Why are you here yourself? Is something going on?'
Wallander sat down in her visitor's chair. He felt like a big, lumbering animal.
'It's the young people who went missing at Midsummer.'
'Has anything turned up?'
'Not really. There was just something I wanted to double-check. But I think that we'll need to do a thorough reexamination of the case. Eva Hillstrom is seriously concerned.'
'But what could really have happened to them?'
'That's the question.'
'Are we going to declare them missing?'
Wallander threw his arms out. 'I don't know. We'll have to decide tomorrow.'
The room was dark except for the circle of light projected onto the floor by the desk lamp.
'How long have you been a policeman?' she asked suddenly.
'A long time. Too long, maybe. But I'm a policeman through and through. That's not going to change, at least
