The Laughing Policeman

'Dnrk'

'What did he look like?'

'Koleson:

'Are the questions your own idea?' Gunvald Larsson asked.

'Yes,' Ronn replied modesdy.

'Fantastic.'

'He was only conscious for half a minute,' Ronn said in a hurt tone. 'Then he died.'

Martin Beck played back the tape once more.

They listened over and over again.

'What on earth is he saying?' Kollberg said.

He had not had time to shave and scratched at his stubble thoughtfully.

Martin Beck turned to Ronn.

'What do you think?' he said. ‘You were there.'

'Well,' Ronn said, 'I think he understands the questions and is trying to answer.'

'And?'

'That he answers the first question in the negative, for instance 'I don't know'.'

'How the hell do you make that out of 'Dnrk'?' Gunvald Larsson asked in astonishment

Ronn reddened and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

‘Yes,' said Martin Beck, 'how do you reach that conclusion?'

‘Well, I just sort of got that impression’

'Hm,' Gunvald Larsson said. 'And then?'

'To the second question he answers quite plainly 'Koleson'.'

'So I hear,' Kollberg said. 'But what does he mean?'

Martin Beck massaged his scalp with his fingertips.

'Karlsson, perhaps,' he said, thinking hard.

'He says 'Koleson',' Ronn maintained stubbornly.

'Yes,' said Kollberg. 'But there's no one with that name.'

'We'd better check,' Melander said. 'The name might exist. Meanwhile...'

'Yes?'

'Meanwhile I think we ought to send this tape to an expert for analysis. If our own boys can't get anything out of it we can contact the radio. Their sound technicians have all the facilities. They can separate the sounds on the tape and try out different speeds.'

‘Yes,' Martin Beck said. 'It's a good idea.'

'But for Christ's sake wipe out Ullholm first,' Gunvald Larsson growled, 'or we'll be the laughing stock of all Sweden.'

He looked around the room. 'Where's that joker Mansson?'

'Got lost, I expect,' Kollberg said. 'We'd better alert all the patrol cars.'

He sighed heavily.

Ek came in, a worried look on his face as he stroked his silver hair.

‘What is it?' Martin Beck asked.

'The newspapers are complaining they haven't been given a picture of that man who is still unidentified.'

‘You know yourself what that picture would look like,' Kollberg said.

'Sure, but -'

‘Wait a minute,' Melander said. ‘We can better the description. Between thirty-five and forty, height 5 feet 7 inches, weight eleven stone, shoe size 8?, brown eyes, dark-brown hair. Scar from an appendicitis operation. Brown hair on chest and stomach. Scar from some old injury on the ankle. Teeth ... No, it's no good.'

'I'll send it out,' Ek said and left the room.

They stood in silence for a while.

'Fredrik has got hold of something,' said Kollberg. 'That Stenstrom was already sitting in the bus when it got to Djurgardsbron. So he must have come from Djurgarden.'

'What the hell was he doing there?' said Gunvald Larsson. 'In the evening? In that weather?'

'I've also got hold of something,' said Martin Beck. 'That apparency he didn't know that nurse at all.'

'Are you quite sure?' Kollberg asked.

'No.'

'He seems to have been alone at Djurgardsbron,' Melander said. 'Ronn has also come up with something,' said Gunvald Larsson. 'What?'

'That Dnrk' means 'I don't know'. To say nothing of this guy Koleson.'

This was as far as they got on Wednesday, 15 November.

Outside, the snow was falling in large wet blobs. Darkness had already closed in.

Of course there was no one called Koleson. At least not in Sweden.

During Thursday they didn't get anywhere.

When Kollberg got home to his flat on Palandergatan on Thursday evening the time was already past eleven o'clock. His wife sat reading in the circle of light under the floor lamp. She was dressed in a short housecoat buttoned in front and sat curled up in the armchair with her bare legs drawn up under her.

'Hello,' said Kollberg. 'How is your Spanish course going?'

'To the dogs, of course. Absurd to imagine you can do anything at all when you're married to a policeman.'

Kollberg made no reply to this. Instead he got undressed and went into the bathroom. Shaved and took a long shower, hoping that some stupid neighbour wouldn't call up the police to send out a radio car, complaining of the water running so late. Then, putting on his bathrobe, he went into the living room and sat down opposite his wife. Regarded her thoughtfully.

'Haven't seen you for ages,' she said without raising her eyes. 'How are you all getting on?'

'Badly.'

'I am sorry. It seems odd that someone can shoot nine people dead in a bus in the middle of town just like that. And that the police can't think of anything cleverer than making a lot of ridiculous raids'

'Yes,' Kollberg said. 'It is odd.'

'Is there anyone else besides you who hasn't been home for thirty-six hours?' 'Probably.'

She went on reading. He sat in silence for some time, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, without taking his eyes off her.

'What are you goggling at?' she asked, still without looking up but with a note of mischief in her voice.

Kollberg didn't answer, and she appeared to be more deeply engrossed in her reading than ever. She had dark hair and brown eyes, her features were regular and her eyebrows thick. She was fourteen years younger than he was and had just turned twenty-nine, and he had always thought she was very pretty. At last he said,

'Gun?'

For the first time since he came home she looked at him, with a feint smile and a glint of shameless sensuality in her eyes. 'Yes?'

'Stand up.' 'Why, certainly.'

She turned down the upper right-hand corner of the page she had just read, shut the book and laid it on the arm of the chair. Stood up and let her arms hang loosely, her bare feet wide apart.

She looked at him steadily.

'Not at all nice.'

'Me?'

'No. Making dog-ears.'

'It's my book,' she said. 'Bought with my own money.'

'Strip,' he said.

Raising her right hand to her neckband, she undid the buttons, slowly and one by one. Still without taking her eyes off him she opened the thin cotton housecoat and let it fell to the floor behind her.

'Turn around,' said Kollberg.