One Step Behind (1997)

He poured himself a glass of water and emptied it before continuing.

'This is what we know. The only thing to add is that Svedberg did not turn up for work on Thursday. We all appreciate how unusual this is. He gave no reason for his absence, and the only rational assumption is that there was something preventing him from coming in. We know what that means.'

Nyberg interrupted him with a gesture.

'I'm not a pathologist,' he said, 'but I doubt that Svedberg died as early as Wednesday.'

'Then we have to deal with the question of what could have prevented Svedberg from coming to work yesterday,' Wallander said. 'Why didn't he call in? When was he killed?'

Wallander described his conversation with Ylva Brink. 'Apart from telling me about the only other relative that Svedberg was in touch with, she said something that stuck in my mind. She said that in the last few weeks Svedberg complained about feeling overworked. But he had just returned from holiday. It doesn't make any sense, particularly if you know that he didn't tend to take strenuous trips on his holiday.'

'Did he ever leave Ystad?' Martinsson asked.

'Not very often. He made a day-trip to Bornholm or occasionally took the ferry to Poland. Ylva Brink confirmed this. But he seems mostly to have spent time on his two hobbies, which were Native American history and amateur astronomy. Ylva Brink told me that he owned an expensive telescope, but we haven't found it yet.'

'I thought he went bird-watching,' said Hansson, who had been silent until now.

'Sometimes, but apparently not so often,' Wallander said. 'I think we should assume that Ylva Brink knew him quite well, and according to her it was stars and Indians that mattered.'

He looked around. 'Why was he overworked? What does that mean? It may not be important at all, but I can't help thinking that it is.'

'I looked over what he was working on before our meeting,' Hoglund said. 'Just before he went on holiday, he spoke to all the parents of the young people who are missing.'

'Which young people?' Holgersson asked, surprised. Wallander explained and Hoglund continued.

'The last two days before he went on holiday, he visited the Norman, Boge, and Hillstrom families, one after the other. But I can't find any notes from those visits even though I searched thoroughly.'

Wallander and Martinsson looked at each other.

'That can't be right,' Wallander said. 'All three of us had a thorough meeting with those families. We had never talked about pursuing them for further questioning, since there was no indication of a crime.'

'Well, it looks like he went and saw them anyway,' Hoglund said. 'He's noted the exact times of his visits in his calendar.'

Wallander thought for a moment. 'That would mean that Svedberg was pursuing this on his own without telling us about it.'

'That's not like him,' Martinsson said.

'No,' Wallander agreed. 'It's as strange as him staying home from work without notifying anyone.'

'We can easily verify this information,' Hoglund said.

'Please do,' Wallander said. 'And find out what questions Svedberg was asking.'

'This whole situation is absurd,' Martinsson said. 'We've been trying to meet with Svedberg with regard to these young people since Wednesday and now he's gone and here we are still talking about them.'

'Have there been any new developments?' Holgersson asked.

'Nothing apart from the fact that one of the mothers has become extremely anxious. Her daughter sent her another postcard.'

'Isn't that good news?'

'According to her, the handwriting was faked.'

'Who would do that?' Hansson asked. 'Who the hell forges postcards? Cheques I understand. But postcards?'

'I think we should keep the two cases separate for now,' Wallander said. 'Let's work out how to tackle the investigation of Svedberg's killer or killers.'

'Nothing indicates that there was more than one,' Nyberg said.

'Can you be sure that there wasn't?'

'No.'

Wallander let his palms fall flat onto the table. 'We can't be sure about anything right now,' he said. 'We have to cast a wide net. In a couple of hours we're going to release the news of Svedberg's death, and then we'll really have to move.'

'This will take top priority, of course,' Holgersson said. 'Everything else can wait.'

'The press conference,' Wallander said. 'Let's take care of that right now.'

'A police officer has been murdered,' Holgersson said. 'We'll tell them exactly what happened. Do we have any leads?'

'No.' Wallander's answer was firm.

'Then that's what we'll say.'

'How detailed should we get?'

'He was shot at close range. We have the murder weapon. Is there any reason to withhold that information?'

'Not really,' Wallander said, and he looked around the table. No one had any objections.

Holgersson got up. 'I'd like you to be there,' she said. 'Maybe all of you should be there. After all, a colleague and friend has been killed.'

They decided to meet 15 minutes before the press conference.

Holgersson left. The candle went out when the door closed. Hoglund lit it again. They went through what they knew one more time and divided up the work at hand. They were returning to work mode. They were just about to stop when Martinsson raised one more issue.

'We should probably decide now if the young people should be left aside for now or not.'

Wallander felt unsure. But he knew it was up to him.

'We'll put it aside for now,' he said. 'At least for the next few days. Then we'll revisit it, unless of course Svedberg was asking some extraordinary questions.'

It was 9.15 a.m. Wallander got a cup of coffee and went into his office. He got out a pad of paper and wrote a single word at the top of the first page: Svedberg. Underneath it he drew a cross that he immediately scratched out. He didn't get any further. He had been meaning to write down all the thoughts that had come to him during the night. But he put down the pen and walked to the window. The August morning was sunny and warm. The thought that there was something not quite right about this case returned. Nyberg felt there was something arranged about the murder scene. If so, then why, and by whom?

He looked for Sture Bjorklund's number in the phone book and dialled it. The phone rang several times.

'Please accept my condolences,' Wallander said, when the man answered.

Sture Bjorklund's voice sounded strained and distant.

'Likewise. You probably knew my cousin better than I did. Ylva called me at 6 a.m. this morning to tell me what had happened.'

'Unfortunately this will make headlines in the papers,' Wallander said.

'I know. As it happens it's the second murder case in our family.'

'Really?'

'Yes, in 1847, or more precisely on 12 April 1847, a man who was Karl Evert's great-great-great-great-uncle was killed with an axe somewhere on the outskirts of Eslov. The murderer was a soldier by the name of Brun, who had been given a dishonourable discharge from the army for a number of reasons. The murder was simply a matter of money. Our ancestor was a cattle man and fairly wealthy.'

'What happened?' Wallander asked, trying to hide his impatience.

'The police, which I guess consisted of a sheriff and his assistant, made heroic efforts and arrested Brun on his way to Denmark a few days later. He was sentenced to death and executed. When Oscar I became king he took on the business of processing death sentences blocked by his predecessor, Charles XV. As many as 14 prisoners were executed as soon as he came to power. Brun was beheaded, somewhere in the vicinity of Malmo.'

'What a strange story.'

'I did some research into our ancestry a couple of years ago. Of course the case of Brun and the murder in