going to happen, but I was right.
The man made signs to Wallander to come closer and to put his arms up. He pulled out Wallander's gun and threw it into a rubbish bin next to the cash machine. Then he held out a credit card with his left hand and recited some numbers in heavily accented Swedish: "One, five, five, one."
He dropped the card onto the pavement and pointed his gun at it. Wallander picked it up. The man took a few steps to one side and looked again at his watch. Then he pointed to the cash machine. His movements were more brittle now. For the first time the man looked nervous. Wallander walked to the machine. When he turned slightly he could see Modin still where he had stopped. Right now Wallander didn't care what would happen when he put the card in and entered the numbers. Modin was alive. That was all that was important. But how could he continue to protect him? Wallander was searching for a way out. If he tried to attack the man behind him he would be shot at once. Probably Modin would not have time to escape. Wallander fed the card into the machine, and as he did so a shot rang out. The bullet hit the ground behind him and ricocheted. The tall man turned away. Wallander saw Martinsson on the other side of the street, some 25 metres away. He flung himself at the rubbish bin and pulled out his gun. The man aimed and fired at Martinsson but missed. Wallander raised his gun, sighted and squeezed the trigger. He hit the man in the chest and he collapsed.
"What's happening?" Martinsson shouted.
"It's safe to come over," Wallander shouted back.
The man on the pavement was dead.
"What made you come here?" Wallander said.
"If your theory was correct, then it had to be here," Martinsson said. "It makes sense that Falk would have chosen the cash machine closest to his house and the one he always passed on his evening walks. I asked Nyberg to watch the cashpoint where I was."
Martinsson pointed at the dead man. "Who is he?"
"I don't know. But I think his name starts with a C."
"Is it all finished now?"
"I believe so, but I don't know what it is that's finished."
Wallander felt that he should be thanking Martinsson, but he said nothing. Instead he walked over to Modin. Time enough to talk to Martinsson later.
Modin's eyes were filled with tears.
"He told me to walk towards you. He said that otherwise he would kill my mother and father."
"We'll deal with all that in due course," Wallander said. "How are you feeling?"
"He told me to say I had to stay and finish my work in Malm枚. Then he shot her. And we left. I was shut in the boot and could hardly breathe. But we were right."
"Yes," Wallander said. "We were right."
"Did you find my notes?"
"Yes."
"I didn't start taking it seriously soon enough. A cash machine. A place where people come to take out their money."
"You should have said something," Wallander said. "But maybe I should have thought of it myself. We knew it had something to do with money, after all. It should have been an obvious hiding place for something like that."
"A cash machine as the launching pad for a virus bomb," Modin said. "It has a certain finesse, don't you think?"
Wallander looked at the boy beside him. How much longer could he handle the strain? He was struck by the sense of having stood like this sometime before, with a boy at his side, and he realised that he was thinking of Stefan Fredman. The boy who was now dead and buried.
"What was it that happened?" Wallander said. "Do you think you can tell me?"
Modin nodded. "He was there when she let me in. He threatened me. They locked me in the bathroom. Then I heard him start screaming at her. I could understand him since he was speaking English. At least the parts I could hear."
"What did he say?"
"That she hadn't done her job. That she had shown weakness."
"Did you hear anything else?"
"Only the shots. When he came to unlock the door I thought he was going to kill me too. He had the gun in his hand. But he said I was his hostage and that I had to do what he told me. Otherwise he would kill my parents." Modin's voice had begun to wobble.
"No hurry for the rest," Wallander said. "That's enough. That's