three or four tables were occupied. Directly across from him, a man was sitting with a cup of coffee. Lundberg thought that his face looked familiar and searched his memory. The man began to reach for money in his trouser pocket, and while he was doing so he looked away from the constable.
Lundberg felt the hair on his neck stiffen.
The man on the Gota Canal!
He was almost sure that it was he. He had seen the photograph up at the station house several times and his picture was etched in his memory. In his eagerness he almost forgot the envelope, which was given to him the same second as the man got up and left a few coins on the table. The man was bare-headed and wasn't wearing an overcoat. He moved toward the door and Lundberg established that he was the same height and had the same build and hair coloring as the description.
Through the glass doors he could see the man turn to the right and, with a quick tip of his hat to the waitress, he hurried after him. About thirty feet up the street the man went into a driveway door and Lundberg reached it just in time to see the door close after the man. There was a sign on the door which said: J. A. ERIKSSON MOVING COMPANY.,'OFFICE. In the upper part of the door there was a glass window. Lundberg went up to the doorway slowly. He tried to look into the glass window as he went by but was only able to make out another glass window at a right angle to the door. Inside were two trucks with J. A. ERIKSSON MOVING COMPANY painted on their doors.
He passed the office door again, more slowly this time. With his neck outstretched, he looked in more carefully. Inside the glass windows were two or three partitions with doors leading to a corridor. On the nearest door which led to the smallest partitioned area and had a window in the glass, he could read the word CASHIER. On the next door there was a sign saying OFFICE—Mr. F. Bengtsson.
The tall man was standing there behind the counter, talking on the telephone. He stood turned toward the window with his back to Lundberg. He had changed from his jacket into a thin, black office coat and was standing with one hand in his pocket. A man in a windbreaker and a fur cap came in through the door farthest back on the short side of the corridor. He had some papers in his hands. When he opened the office door he looked toward the outer door and saw Lundberg who continued calmly out the doorway.
He had done his first shadowing.
'Now damn it,' said Kollberg. 'We can begin.' 'Presumably he has his lunch hour at twelve o'clock,' said Martin Beck. 'If you hurry, you can get there. Clever boy, that Lundberg, if he's right. Call in when you can this afternoon so that Stenstrom can relieve you.'
'I think I can manage myself today. Stenstrom can jump in this evening. So long.'
At a quarter of twelve Kollberg was at his place. There was a bar right across the street from the moving company and he sat down there by the window. On the table in front of him was a cup of coffee and a small, red vase with a tired tulip in it, a twig of evergreen, and a dusty, plastic Santa Claus. He drank his coffee slowly and never took his eyes off the driveway across the street. He guessed that the five windows to the left of the driveway door belonged to the moving company, but he couldn't distinguish anything behind the glass due to the fact that the bottom halves of the windows were painted white.
When a truck with the moving company's name on the doors came out of the driveway, Kollberg looked at the clock. Three minutes to twelve. Two minutes later the office door opened and a tall man in a dark gray coat and a black hat came out. Kollberg put the money for his coffee on the table, got up, took his hat as he followed the man with his eyes. The man stepped off the curb, and crossed the street past the bar. When Kollberg came out on to the street he saw the man turn the corner onto Norrland Street He followed him but didn't have to go far. There was a cafeteria about sixty feet from the corner which the man entered.
There was a line in front of the counter where the man waited patiently. When he got there he took a tray, grabbed a small container of milk, some bread and butter, ordered something at the window, paid, and sat down at an empty table with his back to Kollberg.
When the girl at the window shouted 'One salmon!' he got up and went to get his plate. He ate slowly and with concentration and only looked up when he drank his milk. Kollberg had gotten a cup of coffee and placed himself so that he could see the man's face. After a while he was even more convinced that this really was the man on the film.
He neither drank coffee nor smoked after his meal. He wiped his mouth carefully, took his hat and coat and left. Kollberg followed him down to Hamn Street where he crossed over to the King's Gardens. He walked rather quickly and Kollberg stayed about sixty feet behind through the East Alle. At Mollin's fountain he turned to the right, passed the fountain which was half filled with dirty, gray snow, and continued up on the West Alle. Kollberg followed him past the 'Victoria and Blanche' cafe, across the street to NK, down Hamn Street to Smlland Street, where he crossed the street and disappeared into the driveway door.
'Oh yes,' thought Kollberg, 'that was certainly exciting.'
He looked at his watch. Lunch and the walk had taken exactly three-quarters of an hour.
Nothing particular happened during the afternoon. The trucks returned, still empty. People went in and out of doors. A station wagon drove out and came back. Both trucks went out again and when one of them came back it almost collided with the station wagon which was on its way out.
Five minutes before five one of the truck drivers came out of the driveway door with a heavy, gray-haired woman. At five o'clock the other driver came out. The third had still not come back with his truck. Three more men followed him out and crossed the street. They entered the bar and loudly ordered their beers which they received and drank in silence.
Five minutes after five, the tall man came out. He stood in front of the door, took out a key ring from his pocket, and locked the door. Then he placed the key ring back in his pocket, checked to see if the door was properly locked, and walked out onto the street.
While Kollberg was putting his coat on he heard one of the beer drinkers say: 'Folke's going home now.'
And one of the others: 'What does he have to do at home when he isn't hooked. He doesn't know how good he has it. You should have heard my old lady when I came home last night… What a time just because a man goes and has a few beers before he goes home after work. I swear…'
Kollberg didn't hear any more. The tall man who, without a doubt, was named Folke Bengtsson had disappeared out of sight. Kollberg caught up with him on Norrland Street again. The man was walking through the crowds toward Hamn Start and he continued on to the bus stop right across the street from NK.
By the time Kollberg got there four people were in line behind Bengtsson. He hoped that the bus wouldn't be too full to take them both. Bengtsson looked straight ahead of him the entire time and seemed to be looking at the Christmas decorations in NK's windows. When the bus arrived he hopped up on the step and Kollberg just managed to get on himself before the doors closed.
The man got off at St. Erik's Square. The traffic was tight and it took him a few minutes to get by all the traffic lights and cross to the other side of the square. On Rorstand Street he walked into a supermarket.
He continued along Rorstand Street, passed Birk Street, slunk across the street and went through a door. After a while Kollberg followed him and read the names on the mailboxes. There were two entrances to the house, one from the street and the other from the garden. Kollberg congratulated himself and his luck when he saw that Bengtsson lived in an apartment facing the street, two flights up.
He stationed himself in a doorway across the street and looked up at the third floor. In four of the windows there were frilly tulle curtains and a number of potted plants. Thanks to the man in the bar, Kollberg knew that Bengtsson was a bachelor and doubted that these windows belonged to his apartment. He concentrated his attention on the other two windows. One of them was open and while he was watching it, a light was turned on in the second one, which he presumed was the kitchen window. He saw the ceiling and the upper part of the walls which were white. A few times he could see someone moving about inside but not quite clearly enough to be sure it was Bengtsson.
After twenty minutes it was dark in the kitchen and a light was turned on in the other room. A little later Bengtsson appeared in the window. He opened it wide and leaned out. Then he closed it again, and closed the Venetian blinds. They were yellow and let light come through and Kollberg saw Bengtsson's silhouette disappear inside the room. The windows were without drapes because on both sides of the blinds broad streams of light appeared.
Kollberg went and telephoned to Stenstrom.
'He's home now. If I don't call you back before nine come and take over.'
