40,000 kronor per month. He regarded that as a high wage. But he wasn’t the one getting married. The money might or might not be what would make Linda happy. It was none of his business.
In March, Linda and Hans moved in together in a big house outside Rydsgard that the young financier had bought. He started commuting to Copenhagen, and Linda carried on working in Ystad. Once they had settled in, Linda invited Kurt to dinner at their place the following Saturday. Hans’s parents would be there, and obviously they would like to meet Linda’s father.
‘I’ve spoken to Mum,’ she said.
‘Is she coming too?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
Linda shrugged.
‘I think she’s unwell.’
‘What’s the matter with her?’
Linda looked long and hard at him before answering.
‘Too much booze. I think she’s drinking more than ever now.’
‘I didn’t know that.’
‘There’s a lot you don’t know.’
Wallander accepted the invitation to dinner to meet Hans von Enke’s parents. The father, Hakan von Enke, was a former commander in the Swedish navy and had been in command of both submarines and surface vessels that specialised in hunting down submarines. Linda wasn’t sure, but she thought that at one time he had been a member of a team that decided when military units were allowed to open fire on an enemy. Hans von Enke’s mother was named Louise and had been a language teacher. Hans was an only child.
‘I’m not used to mixing with the nobility,’ Wallander said sombrely when Linda finished speaking.
‘They’re just like everybody else. I think you’ll find you have a lot to talk about.’
‘Such as?’
‘You’ll find out. Don’t be so negative.’
‘I’m not being negative! I just wonder -‘
‘We’ll be eating at six o’clock. Don’t be late. And don’t bring Jussi. He’ll just make a nuisance of himself.’
‘Jussi’s a very obedient dog. How old are they, Hans’s parents?’
‘Hakan will be seventy-five shortly; Louise is a year or two younger. And Jussi never takes any notice of what you tell him to do - you should know that, since you’ve failed to train him properly. Thank God you did better with me.’
She left the room before Wallander had time to reply. For a moment or two he tried to get annoyed by the fact that she always had to have the last word, but he couldn’t manage it and returned to his papers.
It was drizzling unseasonably over Skane on Saturday when he set off from Ystad to meet Hans von Enke’s parents. He had been sitting in his office since early morning, yet again, for who knows how many times, going through the most important parts of the investigation material concerning the death of the arms dealer and the stolen revolvers. They thought they had identified the thieves, but they still had no proof. I’m not looking for a key, he thought. I’m hunting for the slightest sound of a distant tinkling from a bunch of keys. He had worked his way through about half of the voluminous documentation by three o’clock. He decided to go home, sleep for an hour or two, then get dressed for dinner. Linda had said Hans’s parents were sometimes a bit formal for her taste, but given that, she suggested her father wear his best suit.
‘I only have the one I wear at funerals,’ said Wallander. ‘But perhaps I shouldn’t put on a white tie?’
‘You don’t need to come at all if you think it’s going to be so awful.’
‘I was only trying to make a joke.’
‘You failed. You have at least three blue ties. Pick one of those.’
As Wallander sat in a taxi on the way back to Loderup at about midnight, he decided that the evening had turned out to be much more pleasant than he had expected. He had found it easy to talk to both the retired commander and his wife. He was always on his guard when he met people he didn’t know, thinking they would regard the fact that he was a police officer with barely concealed contempt. But he hadn’t detected any such tendency in either of them. On the contrary, they had displayed what he considered to be genuine interest in his work. Moreover, Hakan von Enke had views about how the Swedish police were organised and about various shortcomings in several well-known criminal investigations that Wallander tended to agree with. And he in turn had an opportunity to ask questions about submarines, the Swedish navy, and the current downsizing of the Swedish defence facilities, to which he received knowledgeable and entertaining answers. Louise von Enke hardly spoke but sat there for most of the time with a friendly smile on her face, listening to the others talking.
After he had called a cab, Linda accompanied him as far as the gate. She held on to his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder. She did that only when she was pleased with him.
‘So I did OK?’ asked Wallander.
‘You were better than ever. You can if you make an effort.’
‘I can what?’
‘Behave yourself. You can even ask intelligent questions about things that have nothing to do with police work.’
‘I liked them. But I didn’t get to know her very well.’
‘Louise? That’s the way she is. She doesn’t say much. But she listens better than all the rest of us put together.’
‘She seemed a bit mysterious.’
They had come out onto the road and stood under a tree to avoid the drizzle, which had continued to fall all evening.
‘I don’t know anyone as secretive as you,’ said Linda. ‘For years I thought you had something to hide. But I’ve learned that only a few mysterious people are in fact hiding something.’
‘And I’m not one of them?’
‘I don’t think so. Am I right?’
‘I suppose. But maybe people sometimes hide secrets they don’t even know they have.’
The taxi headlights cut though the darkness. It was one of those bus-like vehicles becoming more and more common with cab companies.
‘I hate those buses,’ said Wallander.
‘Don’t start getting worked up now! I’ll bring your car tomorrow.’
‘I’ll be at the police station from ten o’clock on. Go in now and find out what they thought of me. I’ll expect a report tomorrow.’
She delivered his car the following day, shortly before eleven.
‘Good,’ she said as she entered his office, as usual without knocking.
‘What do you mean, “Good”?’
‘They liked you. Hakan had a funny way of putting it. He said: “Your dad is an excellent acquisition for the family.”’
‘I don’t even know what that means.’
She put the car keys on his desk. She was in a hurry since she and Hans had planned an outing with his parents. Wallander glanced out the window. The clouds were beginning to open up.
‘Are you going to get married?’ he asked before she disappeared through the door.
‘They very much want us to,’ she said. ‘I’d be grateful if you didn’t start nagging us too. We want to see if we’re compatible.’
‘But you’re going to have a baby?’
‘That will be fine. But being able to put up with each other for the rest of our lives is a different matter.’
She disappeared. Wallander listened to her rapid footsteps, the heels of her boots clicking against the floor. I don’t know my daughter, he thought. There was a time when I thought I did, but now I can see that she’s more and more of a stranger to me.
He stood by the window and gazed out at the old water tower, the pigeons, the trees, the blue sky emerging through the dispersing clouds. He felt deeply uneasy, an aura of desolation all around him. Or maybe it was actually inside him? As if he were turning into an hourglass with the sand silently running out. He continued watching the
