'Who do you think knew Emilia best?'
'I would think it was her sister.'
Wallander thanked her and walked back to the station. The wind was even stronger. He thought about what Tyra Olofsson had said. There had been no meanness in her voice. She had been very matter-of-fact. But her description of Emilia Eberhardsson had not been flattering.
When Wallander reached the station, Ebba told him that Rydberg had been looking for him. Wallander went straight to his office.
'The picture is becoming clearer,' Rydberg said. 'I think we should get the others and have a short meeting. I know they're around.'
'What's happened?'
Rydberg waved a bunch of papers.
'VPC,' he said. 'And there's a great deal of interest in these papers.'
It took Wallander a moment to remember that VPC stood for the Swedish securities register centre, which, among other things, recorded stock ownership.
'For my part I've managed to establish that at least one of the sisters was a genuinely unpleasant person,' Wallander said.
'Doesn't surprise me in the least,' Rydberg chuckled. 'The rich often are.'
'Rich?' Wallander asked.
But Rydberg did not answer until they were all assembled in the conference room. Then he explained himself in detail.
'According to the Swedish securities register centre, the Eberhardsson sisters had stocks and bonds totalling close to ten million kronor. How they managed to keep this from being subject to the wealth tax is a mystery. Nor do they appear to have paid income tax on their dividends. But I've alerted the tax authorities. It actually appears that Anna Eberhardsson was registered as a resident of Spain. But I'm not clear on the details of this yet. In any case, they had a large portfolio of investments both in Sweden and abroad. The Swedish securities register centre's ability to check international investments is of course minimal; this is not their job. But the sisters invested heavily in the British weapons and aviation industries. And in this they appear to have shown great skill and daring.'
Rydberg put down the documents.
'We can thus not exclude the possibility that what we see here is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Five million in a safe and ten million in stocks and bonds. This is what we have uncovered in the space of a few hours. What happens after we've been working for a week? Perhaps the amount will increase to one hundred million?'
Wallander reported on his meeting with Tyra Olofsson.
'The description of Anna isn't flattering either,' Svedberg said when Wallander had finished. 'I talked to the man who sold the sisters the house five years ago. That was when the market was getting soft. Until then they had always rented. Apparently it was Anna who negotiated. Emilia was never present. And the estate agent said Anna was the most difficult customer he ever had. Apparently she had managed to find out that his company happened to be in crisis at that time, with regard to both solidity and liquidity. He said that she had been completely ice-cold and more or less blackmailed him.'
Svedberg shook his head.
'This isn't exactly how I would have imagined two old ladies who sold buttons,' he said and the room fell silent.
Wallander was the one who broke the silence.
'In a way this has been our breakthrough,' he started. 'We still have no leads on who killed them. But we have a plausible motive. And it is the most common of all motives: money. In addition, we know that the women committed tax fraud and concealed great sums of money from the authorities. We know that they were rich. It won't surprise me if we turn up a house in Spain. And perhaps other assets, in other parts of the world.'
Wallander poured himself a glass of mineral water before continuing.
'Everything we know now can be summed up in two points. Two questions. Where did they get the money? And who knew that they were rich?'
Wallander was about to lift the glass to his lips when he saw Rydberg flinch, as if he had been given a shock.
Then his upper body slumped over the table.
As if he was dead.
CHAPTER 7
Later, Wallander would remember that for a few seconds he had been entirely convinced that Rydberg had died. Everyone who was in the room when Rydberg collapsed thought the same thing: that Rydberg's heart had suddenly stopped. It was Svedberg who reacted first. He had been sitting next to Rydberg and could tell that his colleague was still alive. He grabbed the telephone and called for an ambulance. Wallander and Hansson lowered Rydberg onto the floor and unbuttoned his shirt. Wallander listened to his heart and heard it beating very quickly. Then the ambulance arrived and Wallander accompanied it on its short drive to the hospital. Rydberg received immediate treatment, and after less than half an hour Wallander had been informed that it was not likely to have been a heart attack. Rather, Rydberg had collapsed for some as yet unknown reason. He was conscious at this point but shook his head when Wallander wanted to talk to him. He was judged to be in stable condition and admitted to the hospital for observation. There was no longer any reason for Wallander to stay. A patrol car was waiting outside to drive him back to the station. His colleagues had remained in the conference room. Even Bjork was present. Wallander could inform them that the situation was under control.
'We work too hard,' he said and looked at Bjork. 'We have more and more to do. But our numbers have not increased. Sooner or later what happened to Rydberg can happen to all of us.'
'It is a troubling situation,' Bjork admitted. 'But we have limited resources.'
For the next half an hour the investigation was set aside. Everyone was shaken and talked about the working conditions. After Bjork left the room, the words became sharper. About impossible planning, strange priorities and a continual lack of information.
At around two o'clock, Wallander felt they had to move on. Not least for his own sake. When he saw what had happened to Rydberg he had thought about what could happen to himself. How long would his own heart put up with the strain? All the unhealthy food, the frequently recurring bouts of broken and lost sleep? And, above all, his grief after the divorce.
'Rydberg would not approve of this,' he said. 'That we're wasting time talking about our situation. We'll have to do that later. Right now we have a double murderer to catch. As soon as we possibly can.'
They ended the meeting. Wallander went to his office and called the hospital. He was told that Rydberg was sleeping. It was still premature to expect an explanation for what had happened.
Wallander hung up the phone, and Martinsson walked in.
'What happened?' he asked. 'I've been in Sjobo. Ebba was all shaken up out there.'
Wallander told him. Martinsson sat down heavily in the visitor's chair.
'We work ourselves to death,' he said. 'And who appreciates it?'
Wallander became impatient. He didn't want to think about Rydberg any more, at least not right now.
'Sjobo,' he said. 'What do you have for me?'
'I've been out in a variety of muddy fields,' Martinsson replied. 'We've been able to pinpoint the location of those lights quite well. But there were no traces anywhere of either spotlights or marks from a plane landing or taking off. On the other hand, some information has turned up that probably explains why this aeroplane couldn't be identified.'
'And what is it?'
'It simply doesn't exist.'
'What do you mean?'
Martinsson took a while to search through the papers he had taken out of his briefcase.
'According to the records of the Piper factory, this plane crashed in Vientiane in 1986. The owner back then was
