'Good. There has been an incident here. By the way, it's Officer Svedberg's flat.'
Edmundsson went pale. 'I didn't know.'
'How could you? But you can go back to the station. Back-up is on its way.'
Edmundsson looked inquiringly at him. 'What's happened?'
'Svedberg is dead,' Wallander answered. 'That's all we know.'
He immediately regretted having said even that much. The neighbours were listening. Someone could take it into their heads to call the press. What Wallander wanted least of all was to have reporters hanging about. A policeman dying in mysterious circumstances was always news.
As Edmundsson disappeared down the stairs, Wallander thought fuzzily that he didn't know what the dog was called.
'Can you take care of the neighbours?' he said to Martinsson. 'If nothing else, they must have heard the shots. Maybe we can establish a time of death.'
'Was there more than one shot?'
'I don't know, but someone must have heard something.'
The front door slammed below them and they heard approaching footsteps. Martinsson started rounding up the sleepy and anxious people and herded them into the flat next door. Lisa Holgersson came rushing up the stairs.
'I want you to prepare yourself,' Wallander said.
'Is it that bad?'
'Svedberg was shot in the head with a shotgun at close range.'
She made a face, then steeled herself. Wallander followed her into the hall and pointed to the living room. She went up to the doorway then quickly turned away and swayed as if she were about to faint. Wallander took her by the arm and helped her into the kitchen. She sank down on a blue kitchen chair, and looked up at Wallander with wide eyes.
'Who did this?' she asked.
'I don't know.'
Wallander took a glass and gave her some water.
'Svedberg was away yesterday,' he said. 'Without telling anyone.'
'That's unusual,' said Holgersson.
'Very unusual. I woke up in the middle of the night with a feeling that things weren't quite right, so I drove over.'
'So you don't think it happened yesterday?'
'No. Martinsson is talking to the neighbours to see if anyone heard anything unusual, which they probably did. A shotgun is loud. But we'll have to wait for the autopsy report.'
Wallander heard his factual statement echo inside his head. He felt nauseated.
'I know he wasn't married,' said Holgersson. 'Did he have any family?'
Wallander thought back. He knew that Svedberg's mother had died a couple of years earlier. He didn't know anything about his father. The only relative Wallander knew about for sure was one he had met a few years earlier during a murder investigation.
'He has a cousin called Ylva Brink. She's an obstetric nurse. I can't think of anyone else.'
They heard Nyberg's voice out in the hall.
'I'll stay here for a few minutes,' said Holgersson.
Wallander went out to talk to Nyberg, who was kicking off his shoes.
'What the hell happened here?'
Nyberg was a brilliant forensic specialist, but he was moody and could be hard to work with. He seemed not to have understood that this emergency concerned a colleague. A dead colleague. Maybe Martinsson had forgotten to tell him.
'Do you know where you are?' Wallander asked carefully.
Nyberg shot him an angry look.
'Some flat on Lilla Norregatan,' he answered. 'But Martinsson was unusually muddled on the phone. What's going on?'
Wallander looked at him steadily. Nyberg noticed his demeanour and became quiet.
'It's Svedberg,' Wallander said. 'He's dead. It looks like he's been murdered.'
'You mean Kalle?' Nyberg said incredulously.
Wallander nodded and felt a lump in his throat. Nyberg was one of the few who called Svedberg by his first name. His name was actually Karl Evert. Nyberg used his nickname, Kalle.
'He's in there,' Wallander said. 'Shot in the face with a shotgun.'
Nyberg grimaced.
'I don't have to tell you what that looks like,' Wallander said.
'No,' Nyberg said. 'You don't have to do that.'
Nyberg went in. He turned away like the others when he reached the doorway. Wallander waited briefly, to give Nyberg a moment to comprehend what he saw in front of him. Then he walked over.
'I already have a question for you,' he said. 'One of the most important. As you see, the gun is at least two metres away from the body. My question is, could it have ended up over there if Svedberg committed suicide?'
Nyberg thought about it, then shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'That's impossible. A shotgun aimed by himself wouldn't be thrown that far.'
For a moment Wallander felt strangely relieved. Svedberg didn't kill himself, he thought.
People were beginning to congregate in the hall. The doctor arrived, as did Hansson. A technician was unpacking his bag.
'Please listen, everybody,' Wallander said. 'The person lying in there is your colleague, Officer Svedberg. He's dead, probably murdered. I want to prepare you for the fact that it's a terrible sight. We knew him and we grieve for him. He was our friend as well as our colleague and that makes our job much harder.'
Wallander stopped. He felt he should say more but couldn't think of anything. He lacked the words. He returned to the kitchen while Nyberg and his assistants got to work. Holgersson was still sitting at the table.
'I have to call his cousin,' she said. 'If she's the closest living relative.'
'I can do it,' Wallander said. 'After all, I already know her.'
'Give me an overview of the events. What happened here?'
'I'll need Martinsson for that. I'll get him.'
Wallander went out onto the stairs. The door to the next flat was slightly ajar. He knocked and went in. Martinsson was in the living room with four people. One of them was fully dressed, the others were still in their dressing gowns. There were two women and two men. He signalled for Martinsson to come with him.
'Please remain here for now,' he told the others.
They went into the kitchen. Martinsson was very pale.
'Let's start from the beginning,' Wallander said. 'When was the last time anyone saw Svedberg?'
'I don't know if I was the last one,' Martinsson said. 'But I caught a glimpse of him in the canteen on Wednesday morning at around 11 a.m.'
'How did he seem?'
'Since I didn't think about it, I suppose he must have been like he always was.'
'You called me that afternoon. We decided to have a meeting on Thursday morning.'
'I went into Svedberg's office straight after our conversation, but he wasn't there. At the front desk they told me he'd gone home for the day.'
'What time did he leave?'
'I didn't ask.'
'What did you do then?'
'I called him at home and left a message about the meeting. Then I called back a couple of times but I didn't get an answer.'
Wallander thought hard. 'Sometime on Wednesday, Svedberg leaves the police station. Everything seems normal. On Thursday he doesn't show up, which is unusual, regardless of whether he heard your message. Svedberg never stayed away without letting someone know.'
