Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,126

bar.

"We'll skip the carnations," she said. "I am sure we'll be able to pick each other out."

Wallander wondered what he was getting himself into, but he was also excited. It was 6.30 p.m. He had to get ready.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Wallander parked outside the Savoy at exactly 8.27 p.m. He had driven much too fast from Ystad because he thought he would be late. He had taken so long deciding what he was going to wear. He picked a clean but unironed shirt from a pile of washed clothes and then couldn't settle on which tie. Finally, he decided against wearing one at all. And his shoes needed polishing. The result was that he left the flat later than he had planned.

Hansson had also called him as he was cleaning his shoes, and asked him if he knew where Nyberg was. Wallander had not discovered why he needed to know so badly. He had kept his answers so brisk that Hansson had asked him if he was pressed for time. Wallander had been so cold that Hansson had asked no further questions. When he was about to leave, the phone rang again. This time it was Linda. There was a lull at the restaurant and her boss was on holiday, so she thought she would come and stay with him. Wallander nearly told her where he was going. Linda was the one, after all, who had encouraged him to get into this in the first place. She gathered straight away that he was in a hurry. Wallander could never put anything past her, but nevertheless he tried to convince her that he was on his way to attend to police business. They arranged that she would call the next evening.

Once on the road, Wallander realised that he was almost out of petrol. He might make it to Malm枚, but he didn't want to take a chance on it. He stopped at a petrol station outside Skurup and was worried that he might not be there on time. He still bore the scar of the time he had been 10 minutes late for a date with Mona and she had simply left.

But he did make it in time. He sat in the car for a moment and looked at his face in the mirror. He was thinner now than a few years ago and his features were more sharply defined. She wouldn't know that he had his father's face. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He forced all his expectations away. He wasn't likely to be disappointed, but she probably would be. They would meet in the bar, have a drink and that would be it. He would be in his bed by midnight. When he woke up the next day he would have forgotten her already and also be confirmed in his suspicions that this dating agency business was not for him.

He sat in the car until almost 8.40 p.m., then got out and walked across the street to the Savoy.

They saw each other at the same time. She was at a table in the far corner. Apart from a few men at the bar there were not many guests, and she was the only woman alone. Wallander caught her gaze and she smiled. When she stood up to greet him he saw that she was very tall. She was wearing a dark blue suit. Her skirt came to just above her knees and he saw that she had beautiful legs.

"Am I right?" he said, as he stretched out his hand.

"If you are Kurt Wallander, I am Elvira."

He sat down across the table from her.

"I don't smoke," she said. "But I do drink."

"So do I," Wallander said. "But not tonight. I'm driving, so I'll have to stick to mineral water."

He craved a glass of wine. Or better still, several glasses. But since that time many years ago when he had been stopped by his colleagues Peters and Nor茅n after having had one or two too many he had been very careful. They had said nothing, but Wallander knew he had been so drunk that it would have meant immediate dismissal if they had. It was one of the ugliest memories of his career. He couldn't risk anything like that again.

The waiter came to the table and took their order. Elvira ordered another glass of white wine.

Wallander felt self-conscious. Since he was a teenager he had had the idea that he looked best in profile. Now he turned his