‘Allow me to disagree. Why can’t he look after the baby if he’s home from work?’
‘He felt compelled to go to the office today.’
She suddenly looked anxious; a shadow passed quickly over her face.
‘Why is he worried?’
‘There are things going on in the global finance sector that he doesn’t understand.’
‘I don’t understand what you’re saying either. “Things going on in the global finance sector”? But I don’t need to know any more about things that are beyond me.’
Wallander got up to pour a glass of water. Klara was crawling around happily on the grass.
‘How’s Mona?’
‘She’s lying low, doesn’t answer the phone. And when I ring her doorbell she doesn’t open up, even though I know she’s at home.’
‘Is she still drinking?’
‘I don’t know. Right now I don’t think I can take on responsibility for another child. I have enough on my plate with this one.’
A low-flying plane came roaring overhead, descending into Sturup Airport. When the noise had subsided, Wallander told Linda about his visit to Hermann Eber. He repeated their conversation in detail, and the thoughts that had occurred to him as a result. While he was becoming more convinced than ever that Louise had been murdered, he was at a complete loss as to why anyone would want to kill her. Could this quiet, retiring woman have had some sort of link with East Germany? A country that was dead and buried now?
Wallander paused. Klara was crawling around her mother’s legs. Linda shook her head slowly.
‘I don’t doubt any of what you’ve told me - but what does it mean?’
‘I don’t know. Right now I have only one question: Who was Louise von Enke? What is there about her that I don’t know?’
‘What does anybody ever know about another person? Isn’t that what you’re always reminding me of? Telling me never to be surprised? Anyway, there is a connection with the former East Germany,’ Linda said thoughtfully. ‘Haven’t I mentioned it?’
‘You’ve only said that she was interested in classical German culture, and taught German.’
‘What I’m thinking of goes further back than that,’ Linda said. ‘Nearly fifty years. Before Hans was born, before Signe. You really should speak to Hans about this.’
‘Let’s start with what you know,’ said Wallander.
‘It’s not a lot. But Louise was in East Germany at the beginning of the 1960s with a group of promising young Swedish swimmers and divers. It was some kind of sporting exchange. Louise used to coach up-and-coming young girls. Apparently she was a diver herself in her younger days, but I don’t know much about that. I think she went to East Berlin and Leipzig several times over a few years. Then it suddenly stopped. Hans thinks there’s a reason why.’
‘What is it?’
‘Hakan simply made it clear to her that the trips to East Germany had to stop. It wasn’t good for his military career to have a wife who kept visiting a country regarded as an enemy. You can well imagine that the Swedish top brass and politicians regarded East Germany as one of Russia’s nastiest vassals.’
‘But you say you don’t know this for sure?’
‘Louise always did what her husband told her to do. I think the situation in the early sixties simply became untenable. Hakan was on his way to the very top in the navy.’
‘Do you know anything about how she reacted?’
‘No, not a thing.’
Klara scratched herself on something lying on the ground and started screaming. Wallander couldn’t stand the sound of children screeching and went over to the dog kennel to stroke Jussi. He stayed there until Klara had quietened down.
‘What did you used to do when I started crying?’ Linda asked.
‘My ears were more tolerant in those days.’
They sat in silence watching Klara investigate a dandelion growing in the middle of some stones.
‘I’ve obviously been doing some thinking during the time the von Enkes have been missing,’ Linda said then. ‘I’ve been ransacking my memory, trying to recall details of conversations and how they treated each other. I’ve tried to wheedle out of Hans everything he knows, everything he assumed I knew as well. Only a few days ago I had the impression that something didn’t add up, that he hadn’t told me the whole truth.’
‘About what?’
‘The money.’
‘What money?’
‘There is presumably a lot more money hidden away than I know about. Hakan and Louise led a good life without any ostentatious luxury or excesses. But they could have lived in grand style if they’d wanted to.’
‘What kind of sums are we talking about?’
‘Don’t interrupt me,’ she snapped. ‘I’m coming to that, but I’ll do it at my own speed. The problem is that Hans hasn’t told me everything he should have. That annoys me, and I know I’ll have to have it out with him sooner or later.’
‘Does this mean you think the money has become vitally important in some new way?’
‘No, but I don’t like Hans not telling me things. We don’t need to discuss it right now.’
Wallander raised his hands to signal an apology and asked no more questions. Linda suddenly discovered that Klara was trying to eat the dandelion and wiped her mouth clean, which set the baby off crying again. Wallander gritted his teeth and stayed where he was. Jussi paced up and down in his kennel, keeping an eye on things and looking as if he felt he’d been abandoned. My family, Wallander thought. We’re all here, apart from my sister, Kristina, and my former wife, who’s drinking herself to death.
The commotion was soon over, and Klara went back to crawling around on the grass. Linda was rocking back and forth on her chair.
‘I can’t guarantee that it won’t collapse,’ Wallander said.
‘Grandad’s old furniture,’ she said. ‘If the chair breaks, I’ll survive. I’ll just fall into your overgrown and untended flower bed.’
Wallander said nothing. He could feel himself getting annoyed at the way she was always scrutinising what he did and pointing out his shortcomings.
‘When I woke up this morning there was one question I couldn’t get out of my head,’ she said. ‘It can’t wait, no matter how important this business of Louise and Hakan is. I don’t understand how I could have avoided asking it all these years. Not asking either you or Mum. Maybe I was scared of what the answer might be. Nobody wants to be conceived by accident.’
Wallander was on his guard immediately. Linda very rarely used the word ‘Mum’ in connection with Mona. Nor could he remember the last time she had called him ‘Dad’, apart from when she was angry or being ironic.
‘You don’t need to be frightened,’ Linda went on. ‘I can see that I’ve worried you already. I only want to know how you met. The very first time my parents met. I simply don’t know.’
‘My memory’s bad,’ said Wallander, ‘but not
‘Forty years ago?’
‘We were both very young. She was sitting at a table. The ferry was crowded, and I asked if I might join her, and she said yes. I’d be happy to tell you more another time. I’m not in the mood to root around in my past. Let’s get back to that money. What kind of sums are we talking about?’
‘A few million. But you’re not going to avoid telling me about what happened when the ferry docked in Malmo.’
‘Nothing happened then. I promise to tell you, later. Are you saying they had put aside a million or more? Where did they get it from?’
‘They saved it.’
He frowned. That was a lot of money to put aside. He could never dream of saving such an amount.
‘Could there be tax evasion or some other fraud?’
‘Not according to Hans, no.’
