Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,140

enough brains in your thick head to take my advice for once."

"I had my doubts."

"But not any more?"

She asked about Elvira and they talked for a long time. She was happy for him, though he kept trying to play it down. It was too early to read something into it. For now, it was enough not to have spent another Friday night alone.

"That's not true," she said. "I know you. You're hoping this will turn out to be the real thing. So am I." Then she changed the subject. "I want you to know that I saw that picture in the paper. It was a bit of a shock. Someone at the restaurant showed it to me and asked if that was my dad."

"What did you say?"

"I thought about saying no, but I didn't."

"That was nice of you."

"I simply made up my mind it couldn't be true."

"It isn't."

He told her what had actually happened, and about the internal investigation. He told her he was confident the truth would come out.

"It's important for me to hear this right now," she said. "It's very important right now."

"Why?"

"I can't tell you why. Not yet."

Wallander's curiosity was piqued. During the past few months he had begun to suspect that Linda's plans for the future had taken a new turn. But in what direction he had no idea. If he ever raised the subject, she always changed it. They ended their conversation by talking about when she was next coming to Ystad. She thought she could make it in mid-November, but not before.

Wallander put the phone down and wondered if she would ever get a real job and think of settling in Ystad. She's got something on her mind, he thought. But for some reason she won't tell me what it is.

It was pointless trying to guess what she was up to. He looked at the time. It was 8.20 a.m. Martinsson would soon be picking up Alfredsson, the computer specialist from Stockholm. Wallander thought about how Modin had turned up so unexpectedly at the restaurant the night before. He had seemed very sure of his discovery. Wallander should let Martinsson know, but something inside him stopped him from having more contact with Martinsson than absolutely necessary. He had lingering doubts about what H枚glund had told him, doubts which were caused mainly because he wanted it to be untrue. To lose Martinsson as a trusted friend would create an impossible work environment. The betrayal would be too hard to bear. He believed he had trained Martinsson the way Rydberg had trained him, but Wallander had never been tempted to or had any wish to overthrow Rydberg's authority.

The force is a wasp's nest, he thought angrily. Nothing but envy, gossip and intrigue. I've always liked to imagine that I remained above it all, but now it seems I've been pulled into the very maelstrom. I'm a leader whose successor is getting impatient.

Overcoming his reluctance, he called Martinsson on his mobile. After all, Modin had forced his father to drive him in all the way from L枚derup the night before. They had to take him seriously. He may have already been in touch with Martinsson, but if not, Wallander's call could be important. Martinsson had just parked and was on his way to the terminal. Modin had not yet contacted him. Wallander briefly explained the situation.

"It seems a little strange," Martinsson said. "How could he have thought of this when he didn't have access to the computer any more?"

"You'll have to ask him that."

"He's wily," Martinsson said. "I wouldn't put it past him to have copied some of that material onto his own computer."

Martinsson said he would call Modin, and they agreed to be in touch again in the afternoon.

Wallander felt that Martinsson sounded absolutely normal. Either he's much better at this game of deception than I could have imagined, he thought, or else what H枚glund told me isn't right.

Wallander got to the station at 8.45 a.m. When he reached his office there was a message on his desk. Something has come up he read in Hansson's jerky handwriting. Wallander sighed over his colleague's inability to communicate more effectively. "Something" was his trademark. The question was always what this "something" referred to.

The coffee machine in the canteen had been fixed. Nyberg was eating his breakfast. Wallander sat across from him.

"If you ask me about my vertigo, I'm leaving," Nyberg said.

"I'll pass then."

"I feel fine," Nyberg said. "I just wish retirement would hurry up and get here. Even