The Fifth Woman (3 page)

When all was quiet, she made her way carefully down the tower steps. She shone her torch into the ditch. Holger Eriksson was dead. She switched off the torch and stood still in the darkness. Then she walked quickly away.

Just after 5 a.m. on Monday, 26 September, Kurt Wallander woke in his flat on Mariagatan in central Ystad.

The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was look at his hands. They were tanned. He leaned back on his pillow again and listened to the autumn rain drumming on the window. A feeling of satisfaction came over him at the memory of the trip that had ended two days earlier at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. He had spent an entire week with his father in Rome. It had been hot there. In the afternoons, when the heat was most intense, they had sought out a bench in the gardens of the Villa Borghese where his father could sit in the shade, while Kurt took off his shirt and turned his face to the sun. That had been the only area of conflict during their holiday. His father couldn’t understand how he could be vain enough to waste time trying to get a tan.

That happy holiday, thought Wallander as he lay in bed. We took a trip to Rome, my father and I, and it went well. It went better than I could ever have hoped.

He looked at the clock. He had to go back on duty today. But he was in no hurry. He could stay in bed for a while yet. He reached for the stack of newspapers he had glanced through the night before, and started reading about the results of the parliamentary election. Because he had been in Rome on election day, he had sent in an absentee ballot. The Social Democrats had taken a good 45 per cent of the vote. But what did that mean? Would there be any changes?

He put the paper back on the floor, and thought again of Rome. They had stayed at an inexpensive hotel near the Campo dei Fiori. From the roof terrace directly above their two rooms they’d had a beautiful view over the city. There they drank their morning coffee and planned what they were going to do each day. Wallander’s father knew what he wanted to see. Wallander had worried that his father wanted to do too much, that he wouldn’t have the strength. He watched for signs that his father was confused or forgetful. Alzheimer’s disease, the illness with the strange name, was lurking there and they both knew it. But for that entire, happy week, his father had been in terrific form. Wallander felt a lump in his throat at the realisation that the whole trip belonged to the past, could only be a memory. They would never return to Rome together.

There had been moments of great closeness, for the first time in nearly 40 years. Wallander pondered the discovery he had made, that they were alike, more so than he had been willing to admit. They were both definitely morning people. When Wallander told his father that the hotel didn’t serve breakfast before 7 a.m., he had complained at once. He dragged Wallander down to the front desk and in a mixture of Skåne dialect, a few English words, and some German phrases, as well as a smattering of Italian words, he managed to explain that he wanted to have
breakfast presto
. Not
tardi
. Absolutely not
tardi
. For some reason he also said
passaggio a livello
several times as he was urging the hotel to start its breakfast service at least an hour earlier, or they would consider looking for another hotel.
Passaggio a livello
, said his father and the desk clerk had looked at him in shock but also with respect.

Naturally, they got their breakfast at 6 a.m. Later Wallander looked up
passaggio a livello
in his dictionary and found that it meant railway crossing. He assumed that his father had muddled it up with another phrase, but he was wise enough not to ask what that might be.

Wallander listened to the rain. Looking back, the trip to Rome, one brief week, seemed an endless and bewildering experience. When he took his morning coffee was not the only thing his father had fixed ideas about. He had guided his son through the city with complete confidence. Wallander could tell that his father had been planning this trip for a lifetime. It was a pilgrimage, which Wallander was allowed to share. He was a component in his father’s journey, an ever-present servant. There was a secret significance to the journey that he hadn’t quite understood. His father had travelled to Rome to see something he already seemed to have experienced within himself.

On the third day they had visited the Sistine Chapel. For almost an hour Wallander’s father had stood staring at Michelangelo’s ceiling. It was like watching a man send a wordless prayer to heaven. Wallander soon got a crick in his neck and had to give up. He knew that he was looking at something very beautiful, but his father saw much more. For a wicked moment, he’d wondered whether the old man was searching for a grouse or a sunset in the huge ceiling fresco. But he regretted this thought. There was no doubt that his father, commercial painter that he was, stood gazing at a master’s work with reverence and insight.

Wallander opened his eyes and looked out at the rain.

It was on the same evening that he’d had the feeling that his father was preparing something he wanted to keep secret. They had dined on the Via Veneto, which was far too expensive in Wallander’s view, but his father insisted that they could afford it. After all, they were on their first and last trip together to Rome. Then they had strolled slowly back through the city. The evening was warm, they were surrounded by throngs of people, and Wallander’s father had talked about the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They lost their way twice before they finally found their hotel. Wallander’s father was treated with great respect after his initial outburst, and they had picked up their keys, received a polite bow from the desk clerk, and gone upstairs, said goodnight and gone to their rooms. Wallander lay listening to the sounds from the street. Maybe he thought about Baiba, maybe he was just falling asleep.

Suddenly he was wide awake again. Something had made him uneasy. He put on his dressing gown and went down to the lobby. Everything was quiet. The night clerk was sitting watching TV behind the front desk. Wallander bought a bottle of mineral water. The clerk was a young man. He’d told Wallander that he was working nights to finance his theological studies. He had dark, wavy hair and was born in Padua. His name was Mario and he spoke excellent English. Wallander stood there holding his bottle and found himself asking the clerk to wake him if his father appeared in the lobby during the night, or left the hotel. The young man looked at him. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. He simply nodded and said, certainly, if the senior Signor Wallander went out during the night, he would knock on the door of Room 32 at once.

It was on the sixth night that it happened. That day they had strolled around the Forum, and paid a visit to the Galleria Doria Pamphili. In the evening they went through the dark underground passages that led to the Spanish Steps from the Villa Borghese, and ate in a restaurant. Wallander was shocked when the bill arrived, but it was their last night, and this holiday, which couldn’t be described as anything but happy, was coming to an end. Wallander’s father showed the same boundless energy and curiosity that he’d had on the whole trip. They walked back to the hotel, stopping at a café for a cup of coffee on the way, and toasting each other with a glass of
grappa
. At the hotel they picked up their keys. Wallander fell asleep as soon as he got into bed.

The knock at the door came at 1.30 a.m. At first he had no idea where he was. He jumped up, half awake, and opened the door. The night clerk was standing there, and explained that Signor Wallander’s father had just left the hotel. Wallander threw on his clothes. He caught up with his father easily, and followed him at a distance. His premonition had been right. When the streets began to narrow, he realised they were on their way to the Spanish Steps. Still he kept his distance. And then, in the warm Roman night, he watched his father climb the Spanish Steps to the church with two towers at the top and sit down, a black dot way up there. Wallander kept himself hidden in the shadows. His father stayed there for almost an hour. Then he stood and came slowly down the steps. Wallander continued to tail him – as if it were the strangest assignment he’d ever had to carry out – and soon they were at the Fontana di Trevi. His father did not toss a coin over his shoulder, but stood for a long time watching the water spraying out of the huge fountain. In the dim light Wallander could see the gleam in his eyes.

Eventually he followed his father back to the hotel.

The next day they flew back on an Alitalia plane to Copenhagen. Wallander’s father had the window seat, as on the way there. Wallander waited until they were on the ferry heading back to Limhamn to ask whether his father was pleased with the trip. He nodded, mumbled something unintelligible, and Wallander knew that he couldn’t demand more enthusiasm than that. Gertrud was waiting for them in Limhamn and drove them home. They’d dropped Wallander in Ystad, and later that night, when he called to ask if all was well, Gertrud told him that his father was back in his studio painting his trademark motif, the sun setting over a becalmed landscape.

Wallander got out of bed and went to the kitchen, and made some coffee. Why had his father sat there on the Spanish Steps? What had he been thinking at the fountain? He had no answers. But he knew he’d had a glimpse into his father’s secret inner landscape. And he knew that he could never ask him about his solitary walk through Rome.

As the coffee was brewing, Wallander went into the bathroom. He noticed with pleasure that he looked healthy and energetic. The sun had bleached his hair. All that pasta must have added a few kilos, but he avoided the bathroom scales. He felt rested, that was the most important thing. He was glad they had made the journey.

The realisation that in just a few hours he would return to being a policeman again didn’t bother him. Often he’d had trouble going back to work after a holiday. In recent years he’d been very reluctant. There were times when he’d seriously thought of finding another job, maybe as a security guard. But in the end he was a policeman. This knowledge had matured slowly but irrevocably. He could never be anything else.

As he showered, he thought of the hot summer and Sweden’s triumph in the World Cup, recalling with anguish the desperate hunt for the serial killer who scalped his victims. During the week in Rome, he’d managed to banish it from his mind. Now the memories came flooding back. A week away had changed nothing.

He sat at his kitchen table until just after 7 a.m. The rain continued to lash the windows. The heat of Italy was already a distant memory. Autumn had come to Skåne.

At 7.30 a.m. he left his flat and drove to the police station. Martinsson arrived at the same time, parking next to him. They said a quick hello in the rain and hurried into the station.

“How was the trip?” Martinsson asked. “Welcome back, by the way.”

“My father was very pleased,” Wallander replied.

“What about you?”

“It was great. And hot.”

Ebba, the station’s receptionist for more than 30 years, greeted him with a big smile.

“Can you get so brown in Italy in September?” she asked in surprise.

“You can,” Wallander answered, “if you stay in the sun.”

They walked down the hall. Wallander realised he should have brought Ebba a little something. He was annoyed at his thoughtlessness.

“Everything’s calm here,” Martinsson said. “No serious cases. Almost nothing going on.”

“Maybe we can hope for a calm autumn,” Wallander said dubiously.

Martinsson went to get coffee. Wallander opened the door to his office. Everything was just as he’d left it. The desk top was empty. He hung up his jacket and opened the window a crack. In the in-tray was a stack of memos from the national police board. He picked up the top one, glanced at it and put it back. It was about the investigation into car smuggling from southern Sweden to the former Eastern bloc countries that he’d been working on for almost a year now. If nothing significant had happened while he’d been away, he’d have to go back to that investigation. He’d probably still be working on that case when he retired in 15 years.

At 8.30 a.m. all the officers gathered in the conference room to go over the work for the coming week. Wallander walked around the table, shaking hands with everyone. They all admired his tan. Then he sat down in his usual place. The mood was normal for a Monday morning in the autumn: grey and weary, everyone a little preoccupied. He wondered how many Monday mornings he had spent in this room. As Lisa Holgersson, their new chief, was in Stockholm, Hansson led the meeting. Martinsson was right. Not much had happened.

“I’ll have to go back to my smugglers,” Wallander said, with no attempt to conceal his reluctance.

“Unless you want to take on a burglary,” Hansson said encouragingly. “At a florist’s shop.”

Wallander looked at him in surprise.

“A break-in at a florist’s? What did they steal, tulip bulbs?”

“Nothing, as far as we can tell,” Svedberg said, scratching his balding head.

At that moment the door opened and Ann-Britt Höglund hurried in. Since her husband seemed always to be overseas in a far-off country that no-one had heard of, she was mostly alone with their two children. Her mornings were chaotic, and she was frequently late to the meetings. She had been with the Ystad police for about a year now and was their youngest detective. At first, some of the older ones, among them Svedberg and Hansson, had done nothing to disguise their discomfort at having a female colleague. But Wallander, who quickly saw that she had real aptitude for police work, had come to her defence. Now no-one commented when she was late, at least not when he was there. She sat down and nodded cheerfully to Wallander.

“We’re talking about the florist’s,” Hansson said. “We thought Kurt might be able to take a look at it.”

“The break-in happened last Thursday night,” she said. “The assistant discovered it when she came in on Friday morning. The burglar came in through a back window.”