head and looked at Wallander.
'Are you here already?' he said. 'So early? That must mean you have something important to tell me.'
'I don't know if it's important,' Wallander said, 'but I need your help.'
Wallander moved several bundles of paper from the visitor's chair to the floor and sat down. Then he summarised briefly the circumstances of Goran Alexandersson's death.
'It sounds very strange,' said Akeson when Wallander had finished.
'Strange things do happen now and then,' Wallander said. 'You know that as well as I do.'
'I don't think you've come here at seven in the morning just to tell me this. I hope you're not going to suggest we should arrest that doctor?'
'I need your help with his wife,' Wallander said. 'Kajsa Stenholm. A former colleague of yours. She worked in Nynashamn for many years. But she had several temporary assignments too. Seven years ago she was filling in for somebody in Stockholm. It happened to be at the same time as Alexandersson's son's murder. I need your help to find out if there is a connection between those two events.'
Wallander leafed through his papers before continuing.
'The son was called Bengt,' he said eventually. 'Bengt Alexandersson. He was eighteen when he was killed.'
Akeson leaned his chair back and looked at Wallander with a furrowed brow.
'What do you think might have happened?' he asked.
'I don't know,' said Wallander, 'but I want to find out if there could be some sort of link. If Kajsa Stenholm was somehow involved in the investigation into the death of Bengt Alexandersson.'
'I take it you want to know as soon as possible?'
Wallander nodded.
'You should know by now that my patience is more or less nonexistent,' he said, rising to his feet.
'I'll see what I can do,' said Akeson. 'But don't expect heaven and earth to be moved.'
When Wallander passed through reception on his way back to his office, he asked Ebba to send Rydberg and Hansson in to see him as soon as they came in.
'How are you nowadays?' Ebba asked. 'Are you getting a good night's sleep?'
'I sometimes feel I'm sleeping too much,' said Wallander evasively. Ebba was reception's stalwart and kept a maternal watch on everybody's state of health. Wallander sometimes had to fend off her concern in as friendly a way as possible.
Hansson came to Wallander's office at about a quarter past eight, and Rydberg followed soon afterwards. Wallander summarised briefly what he had found in what were already being called 'Hansson's papers'.
'We'll have to wait and see what Akeson comes up with,' said Wallander. 'Maybe it's just a meaningless guess on my part. But on the other hand, if it does turn out that Kajsa Stenholm was assigned to Stockholm when Bengt Alexandersson was murdered and that she was involved in the investigation, we've found the link we've been looking for.'
'Didn't you say she was on her deathbed?' wondered Rydberg.
'That's what her husband claimed,' Wallander said. 'I haven't actually met her.'
'With all due respect for your ability to find your way through complicated criminal investigations, this seems pretty vague to me,' said Hansson. 'Let's suppose that you're right. That Kajsa Stenholm was in fact involved in the investigation into the killing of young Alexandersson. So what? Are you suggesting that a woman dying of cancer murdered a man who showed up out of her past?'
'It is very vague,' Wallander admitted. 'Let's wait and see what Akeson comes up with.'
When Wallander was alone in his office again, he sat around for some time in a state of indecision. He wondered what Mona and Linda were doing at the moment. And what they were talking about. At about nine thirty he went to get a cup of coffee, and another one an hour or so later. He had just returned to his office when the telephone rang. It was Akeson.
'It went quicker than I'd expected,' he said. 'Do you have a pen handy?'
'I'm all set,' Wallander said.
'Between 10 March and 9 October 1980, Kajsa Stenholm was working as a prosecutor in the city of Stockholm,' Akeson said. 'With some help from an efficient registry clerk at the county court, I found the answer to your second question, about whether Kajsa Stenholm was involved in the Bengt Alexandersson case.'
He fell silent. Wallander could feel the tension rising.
'It seems you were right,' said Akeson. 'She was in charge of the preliminary investigation, and she was also the one who eventually put it aside. When the killer wasn't found.'
'Thank you for your help,' said Wallander. 'I'll look into this. I'll be in touch in due course.'
He hung up and walked over to the window. The glass was misted over. It was raining more heavily now. There's only one thing to do, he thought. I must get inside the house and find out what actually happened. He decided to take only Rydberg with him. He called him and Hansson on the intercom, and when they were in his office he told them what Akeson had found out.
'Well, I'll be damned!' said Hansson.
'I thought you and I should take a drive out there,' Wallander said to Rydberg. 'Three would be one too many.'
Hansson nodded; he understood.
They drove to Svarte in Wallander's car. Neither spoke. Wallander parked about a hundred metres short of Stenholm's property.
'What do you want me to do?' asked Rydberg as they walked through the rain.
'Be there,' Wallander said. 'That's all.'
It suddenly struck Wallander that this was the first time Rydberg had ever assisted him, rather than the other way round. Rydberg had never formally lorded it over his colleague; it didn't suit his temperament to be a boss, and they had always worked in tandem. But during the years Wallander had been in Ystad, it was Rydberg who had been his teacher. Everything he knew today about the work of a police officer was mainly due to Rydberg.
They went through the gate and up to the front door. Wallander rang the bell. As if they had been expected, the door was opened almost immediately by the elderly doctor. Wallander thought in passing that it was odd the Labrador hadn't appeared.
'I hope we're not disturbing you,' Wallander said, 'but we have a few more questions that can't wait, unfortunately.'
'What about?'
Wallander noticed that all the friendliness the man had shown before was gone. He seemed scared and irritated.
'About that man on the beach,' Wallander said.
'I've already told you I've never seen him.'
'We'd also like to talk to your wife.'
'I've told you she's fatally ill. What could she have seen? She's in bed. I don't understand why you can't leave us in peace!'
'Then we won't disturb you any more,' said Wallander. 'Not just now, at least. But I have no doubt we'll be back. And then you'll have to let us in.'
He took Rydberg's arm and steered him towards the gate. The door closed behind them.
'Why did you give in so easily?' Rydberg asked.
'Something you taught me,' Wallander said. 'That it does no harm to let people stew for a while. Besides, I need a warrant from Akeson to search the house.'
'Is he really the one who killed Alexandersson?' asked Rydberg.
'Yes,' said Wallander. 'I'm certain of it. He's the one. But I still don't understand how it all fits together.'
That afternoon Wallander received the authorisation he needed. He decided to wait until the next morning. But just in case, he persuaded Bjork to have a guard placed on the house until then.
When Wallander woke up as dawn was breaking the next morning, 7 May, and opened the curtains, Ystad was covered in fog. Before taking a shower he did something he had forgotten to do the previous night: he looked up Stenholm in the telephone directory. There was no mention of a Martin or Kajsa Stenholm. He phoned directory
