‘That wasn’t the case. The first I knew of her disappearance was when I read about it in the papers. It was a shock.’
‘So she didn’t know where you were?’
‘No.’
‘How long did you intend to remain in hiding?’
‘I needed to be left in peace, to think. And I’d received death threats. I needed to find a way out.’
‘I met Louise on several occasions. She was genuinely and deeply concerned about what might have happened to you.’
‘She fooled you just as she’d fooled me.’
‘I’m not sure. Could she not have loved you just as much as you loved her?’
Von Enke said nothing, merely shook his head.
‘Did you do it?’ Wallander asked. ‘Was that the escape route you hit upon?’
‘No.’
‘You must have spent hours thinking, brooding, lying sleepless in this hunting lodge. I believe you when you say you loved Louise. Nevertheless, you didn’t leave your hideaway when she died. One would have thought that the danger to your life was over now that she was dead. But you still stayed in hiding. I can’t make sense of that.’
‘I’ve lost twenty pounds since she died. I can’t eat; I can hardly sleep. I try to understand what has happened, but I can’t make head or tail of it. It’s as if Louise has become a stranger to me. I don’t know who she used to meet, or what led to her death. I don’t have any answers.’
‘Did she ever give you the impression that she was afraid?’
‘Never.’
‘I can tell you something that hasn’t appeared in the newspapers, something the police haven’t yet released for public consumption.’
Wallander told him about the suspicions that Louise had been killed by a poison that had previously been used in East Germany.
‘It seems likely that you’ve been right all along,’ Wallander concluded. ‘Somewhere along the way your wife, Louise, became an agent for the Russian intelligence service. She was who you suspected she was. She was the spy the Russians talked about.’
*
Von Enke stood up and stormed out of the house. Wallander waited. After a while he began to worry, and he went out to investigate. He eventually found von Enke lying in a gully on the side of the island facing the open sea. Wallander sat down on a rock by his side.
‘You must come back,’ he said. ‘Nothing will ever be solved if you continue to hide here.’
‘Perhaps the same poison is lying in wait for me. What will be gained if I die as well?’
‘Nothing. But the police have resources to protect you.’
‘I have to get used to the idea. That I was right after all. I have to try to understand why and how she did what she did. I can’t return until I’ve done that.’
‘You’d better not take too long,’ said Wallander, standing up.
He returned to the hunting lodge. Now he was the one making the coffee. He was feeling the strain of the long night. When von Enke returned, he had already emptied his second cup.
‘Let’s talk about Signe,’ Wallander said. ‘I went to see her, and I discovered a folder you’d hidden among her books.’
‘I loved my daughter. But I made my visits in secret. Louise never knew I’d been there.’
‘So you’re the only one who ever visited her?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’re wrong. Since you went missing, somebody else has been there at least once. He claimed to be your brother.’
Hakan von Enke shook his head in disbelief.
‘I don’t have a brother. I have a relative who lives in England, but that’s all.’
‘I believe you,’ said Wallander. ‘We don’t know who visited your daughter. Which might suggest that everything is even more complicated than either you or I could have foreseen.’
Wallander could see that Hakan von Enke’s demeanour had suddenly changed. Nothing they had talked about had worried him as much as the news that somebody else had visited Signe at Niklasgarden.
It was nearly six o’clock. Their long nocturnal conversation was over. Neither of them had the strength to continue.
‘I will leave now,’ said Wallander. ‘At the moment, I’m the only one who knows you are here. But you can’t wait forever before returning to civilisation. Besides, I’ll keep on pestering you with questions. Think about who it might have been who visited Niklasgarden. Someone must have been on your trail. Who? Why? We must keep this conversation going.’
‘Tell Hans and Linda that I’m OK. I don’t want them to worry. Tell them I sent you a letter.’
‘I’ll say you called. The first thing Linda would do would be to demand to see the letter.’
They went to the boat and together shoved it out onto the water. Before leaving the house, Wallander had made a note of von Enke’s phone number. But he also established that communications links to Blue Island could be bad. The wind was getting stronger. Wallander was starting to worry about the journey back. He clambered onto the boat and lowered the outboard motor.
‘I have to know what happened to Louise,’ said von Enke. ‘I must know who killed her. I need to know why she chose to lead the life of a traitor.’
The engine started at the first pull. Wallander waved goodbye and headed for the mainland. Just before rounding the Blue Island promontory he looked back. Hakan von Enke was still standing on the beach.
At that moment Wallander had a premonition that something was wrong. He didn’t know what, or why. But the feeling was very strong.
He returned the boat and set off on the long drive back to Skane. He stopped at a lay-by near Gamleby and slept for a few hours.
When he woke up, feeling stiff, the premonition was still there. After that long night with Hakan von Enke, one thing still nagged away at him.
It was a sort of warning. Something didn’t add up, something he had overlooked.
When he pulled into the parking area outside his house many hours later, he still didn’t know what it was that he’d missed.
But he thought: Nothing is what it seems to be.
33
The following day, Wallander wrote a summary of his conversation with Hakan von Enke. Once again he went through all the material he had gathered. Louise was still a mystery to him. If it was true that she had sold information to the Russians, she had cleverly hidden herself behind a mask of insignificance. Who was she, really? Wallander asked himself. Perhaps she was one of those people who become comprehensible only after they are dead.
It was a windy, rainy day in Skane. Wallander observed the dreary weather through his windows, and concluded that this summer promised to be one of the worst he could remember. Nevertheless, he forced himself to go for a long walk with Jussi. He needed to get his blood moving and clear his head. He longed for calm, sunny days when he could lie down in his garden without needing to trouble his brain with the problems that were occupying him now.
When he had returned after the walk and taken off his wet clothes, he sat down by the phone in his shabby old robe and began leafing through his address book. It was full of crossed-out phone numbers, changes and additions. In the car the day before, he had remembered an old school friend, Solve Hagberg, who might be able to help him. It was his phone number he was looking for. He’d made a note of it when they bumped into each other by pure chance in a Malmo street a few years ago.
Solve Hagberg was an odd person even as a child. Wallander recalled with a sense of guilt that he had been
