Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,12
until it arrived. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"But where did the hammer and knife come from? If you hadn't planned the attack in advance, I mean."
The girl looked steadily into Wallander's eyes. "I always carry a hammer with me," she said. "And Eva always has a knife."
"Why?"
"You never know what's going to happen."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The streets are full of crazy people. You have to be able to defend yourself."
"So you always go out with this hammer in your hand-bag?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever used it before?"
Lötberg looked up. "That question has no relevance to this case," he said.
"What does that mean?" Sonja Hökberg said.
"Relevance? That he has no business asking that question."
"I can answer anyway. I had never used the hammer before. But Eva cut someone once. Some creep who was trying to feel her up."
Wallander was struck by a thought and veered away from his earlier line of questioning. "Did you meet anyone at that restaurant? Had you made a date with anyone?"
"No."
"You don't have a boyfriend?"
"No."
That answer came a little too quickly, Wallander thought. He made a mental note of it.
"The taxi came and you left."
"Yes."
"What did you do then?"
"What do you think? We told him where we wanted to go"
"And you said you wanted to be driven to Rydsgård. Why?"
"I don't know. We had to say something and that was the first thing that came to mind."
"Eva sat up front with the driver, and you sat in the back. Did you decide on that beforehand?"
"That was the plan."
"What plan?"
"That we would get the driver to stop because Eva wanted to get in the back seat with me. And that's when we were going to get him."
"So you had already decided to use your weapons?"
"Not if he had been younger."
"What would you have done then?"
"Then we would have got him to stop by pulling up our skirts and being suggestive."
Wallander felt that he had started to sweat. Her insouciance was getting on his nerves.
"Suggesting what exactly?"
"What do you think?"
"You would entice him into thinking he could have sex with you?"
"You dirty old fuck."
Lötberg leaned forward. "You should watch your language."
Hökberg looked at him. "I'll use whatever language I please."
Lötberg sat back again. Wallander decided to move on.
"But, as it happened, the taxi driver was an older man. You got him to stop. Then what?"
"I hit him in the head. Eva stabbed him with the knife."
"How many times did you strike him?"
"I don't know. A couple of times. I wasn't counting."
"You weren't afraid of killing him?"
"We needed the money."
"That wasn't what I was asking. What I want to know is, were you aware that the wounds you were inflicting could have been mortal?"
Sonja Hökberg shrugged. Wallander waited, but she didn't say anything. He didn't feel he had the energy to repeat the last question.
"You say you needed money. For what?"
"Nothing special. I told you."
"Then what happened?"
"We took his wallet and the mobile phone and walked home."
"What happened to the wallet?"
"We divided up the cash, then Eva threw it away somewhere."
Wallander looked swiftly through Martinsson's notes. Lundberg had been carrying around 600 kronor. They had found the wallet in a waste-paper basket, after getting directions from Persson. Hökberg had taken the mobile phone. The police had found it in her bedroom.
Wallander gave the time and that he was concluding the interview and turned off the tape recorder. Hökberg followed his movements with her eyes.
"Can I go home now?"
"No, as a matter of fact, you can't," Wallander said. "You are 19 years old and that means you count as an adult in our courts. You have committed a felony, and you will be formally arraigned."
"And that means?"
"You'll have to stay here at the station."
"Why?"
Wallander looked at Lötberg, then stood up. "I think your lawyer can explain it to you."
Wallander left the room. He felt sick to his stomach. Hökberg had not been putting on an act in there. She had no sense of wrongdoing. Wallander walked into Martinsson's office and sat down. Martinsson was on the phone but gestured that he would be off soon. While Wallander waited he felt a strong urge to smoke. That almost never happened. But his meeting with Sonja Hökberg had been profoundly disturbing.
Martinsson put the phone down. "How did it go?"
"She confessed to everything. She's as cold as ice."
"Persson is the same way and she's only 14."
Wallander looked at Martinsson with something like pleading in his eyes. "What's happening to the world?"