At home his wife said that he seemed absentminded, but he didn't hear her and didn't reply.
At breakfast she said: 'Will you be off between the holidays?'
Nothing happened before a quarter after four when Kofl-berg thundered in and said: 'I think I have one who will do.'
'On the force?'
'Works at Berg Street. She's coming here at nine-thirty tomorrow morning. If she seems right, Hammar can fix it so that we can borrow her.'
'What does she look like?'
'I think that she looks like Roseanna McGraw in some way. She's taller, a little prettier, and presumably shrewder.'
'Does she know anything?'
'She's been with the police force for several years. A calm and good girl. Healthy and strong.'
'How well do you know her?'
'Hardly at all.'
'And she isn't married?'
Kollberg took a piece of paper out of his pocket.
'Here's everything you need to know about her. I'm leaving now. I have to go Christmas shopping.'
'Christmas presents,' thought Martin Beck and looked at the clock. Four-thirty, and struck by a thought, he grabbed the telephone and called the woman in Bodal.
'Oh, is it you. Yes, Mr…'
'Am I calling at a bad time?'
'No, it's not… my husband doesn't get home before a quarter of six.'
'Just one simple question. Did the man we spoke about yesterday ever get anything from you? I mean any present, a souvenir or something like that?'
'No, no presents. We never gave each other any. You understand…'
'Was he tight?'
'Economical, I would rather say. I am too. The only…'
Silence. He could almost hear her blushing.
'What did you give him?'
'A… a little amulet… or trinket… just an inexpensive little thing…'
'When did you give it to him?'
'When we parted… He wanted to have it… I always used to have it with me.'
'He took it from you?'
'Well, I was glad to give it to him. One always wants a souvenir… even if… above all, I mean…'
'Thank you very much. Goodbye.'
He telephoned Ahlberg.
'I've talked to Larsson and the Commissioner. The Public Prosecutor is sick.'
'What did they say?'
'Okay. They realized that there isn't any other way. It's certainly unorthodox, but…'
'It's been done many times before, even in Sweden. What I plan to suggest to you now is a great deal more unorthodox.'
'That sounds good.'
'Give out the news to the press that the murder is almost cleared up.'
'Now?'
'Yes, immediately. Today. You understand what I mean?'
'Yes, a foreigner.'
'Right. Like this, for example: 'According to the latest announcement a person, who has been searched for by Interpol for a long time for the murder of Roseanna McGraw, has finally been arrested by the American police.'
'And we have known all along the murderer was not in Sweden?'
'That's only an example. The main thing is to get it out fast.'
'I understand.'
'Then I think you'd better come up here.'
'Immediately?'
'Just about.'
A messenger came into the room. Martin Beck gripped the telephone tightly with his left shoulder and ripped open the cable. It was from Kafka.
'What does he say?' asked Ahlberg.
'Only three words: 'Set a trap.''
Policewoman Sonja Hansson was actually not unlike Roseanna McGraw. Kollberg had been right.
She sat in Martin Beck's office with her hands crossed lightly in her lap and looked at him with calm gray eyes. Her dark hair was combed into a page-boy and her bangs softly over her left eyebrow. Her face was healthy and her expression was open. She didn't seem to use make-up. She looked no more than twenty years old but Martin Beck knew that she was twenty-five.
'First of all I want you to understand that this is voluntary,' he said. 'You can say no if you want to. We have decided to ask you to take on this assignment because you have the best qualifications to handle it, mainly because of your looks.'
The girl in the chair pushed the hair off her forehead and looked questioningly at him.
'Then too,' Martin Beck continued, 'you live in the middle of the city and you're not married or living with anyone, as it's so nicely put these days. Is that right?'
Sonja Hansson shook her head.
'I hope I can help you,' she said. 'But what's wrong with my looks?'
'Do you remember Roseanna McGraw, the girl from America, who was murdered on the Gota Canal last summer?'
'Do I? 'I'm in the Missing Persons Bureau and worked on the case for a while.'
'We know who did it and we know that he's here in the city. I've examined him. He admits that he was on the boat when it happened and that he had met her, but says he doesn't even know about the murder.'
'Isn't that a rather improbable statement? I mean there was so much about it in the papers.'
'He says that he doesn't read newspapers. We couldn't get anything out of him. He acted totally forthright and seemed to answer all our questions honestly. We couldn't hold him and we have stopped tailing him. Our only chance is that he will do it again and that's where you come in. If you are willing, and think you can handle it, of course, you shall be his next victim.'
'How nice,' said Sonja Hansson and reached for a cigarette from her purse.
'You are rather like Roseanna and we want you to act as a decoy. It would be like this: he works as an office manager for a moving company on Smlland Street. You go there and say that you want to have something moved, flirt with him and see that he gets your address and telephone number. You must get him interested in you. Then, we have to wait and hope.'
'You say that you've already examined him? Won't he be on his guard?'
'We have leaked some information that ought to have quieted him.'
'Am I also supposed to vamp him? How the devil will that be? And if I succeed?'
'You don't need to be afraid. We will always be in the vicinity. But you have to learn everything about the case first. Read all the material we have. You must be Roseanna McGraw. Be like her, I mean.'
'Of course I acted in school plays but mostly as angels or mushrooms.'
'Well, then. You'll manage.'
Martin Beck sat,quietly for a few seconds. Then he said:
'This is our only chance. He only needs an impulse and we must provide it for him.'
'Okay, I'll try. I hope I can handle it It isn't going to be easy.'
'You'd better start going through everything, reports, films, the examination reports, letters, photographs.
