Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,26

and circuit breakers.

Wallander moved aside so that Martinsson could take a look.

"Oh Christ," Martinsson groaned.

Wallander called out to Hansson to get Nyberg on the line and organise the back-up they needed.

"And tell them to bring a generator," he said. "We'll need it to get some light in here."

He turned back to Martinsson.

"What's the guy's name, the one who discovered the body?"

"Olle Andersson."

"What was he doing here?"

"Sydkraft had sent him down to take a look. They always have trained men on call in case of emergencies."

"Have a chat with him. See if you can get some specifics on the sequence of events from him. And don't walk around too much in here or Nyberg will be on your case."

Martinsson took Andersson with him to one of the cars. Wallander was left alone. He crouched down and shone his torch on the body. Nothing remained of the clothes. It was like looking at a mummy, or a body that had been discovered in a bog after a thousand years. But this was a twentieth-century substation. He tried to think back to when the power had been cut off. That had been some time around 11 p.m. Now it was almost 1 a.m. If the body had caused the power cut then this happened about two hours ago.

Wallander got up and let his torch rest on the floor. What had happened here? A person goes to a remote power substation and causes a major blackout by killing him or herself. Wallander made a face. That made no sense. The questions were starting to pile up. He bent down to pick up the torch. The only thing to do was to wait for Nyberg.

At the same time something was bothering him. He let the beam of light from the torch travel over the blackened remains. He didn't know what was causing this feeling, but it was as if he were sensing something that was no longer there. But that had been there.

He walked out of the building and examined the reinforced steel door. He could see no signs of a forced entry. There were two impressive locks. Wallander started walking back the way he had come. He tried to retrace his steps so that he wouldn't interfere with any tracks that might also be there. At the gates he examined the lock. It had been forced open. What did that mean? The gates had been clumsily cut open, but a reinforced steel door had posed no problem?

Martinsson was in Andersson's car. Hansson was making phone calls from his own car. Wallander tried to shake the rain off his coat and got into Martinsson's car. The engine was running and the windscreen wipers were still on high. He turned up the heat. His throat ached. He turned the radio on to get the latest news. He listened and began to realise the enormity of what was happening.

A quarter of Skåne was without power. It was dark from Trelleborg to Kristianstad. The hospitals were using their emergency generators, but otherwise the power cut was total. A Sydkraft executive had been reached and had said that the problem had been located. He was expecting the power in most areas to be restored in half an hour.

There won't be any power coming from here in half an hour, that's for sure, Wallander thought. He wondered if the executive really knew what had happened.

I have to let Lisa Holgersson know about this, he thought. He reached for Martinsson's mobile phone and dialled her number. It took a while for her to answer.

"Wallander here. Have you noticed the power's off?"

"A blackout? I was sleeping."

Wallander explained the situation. She became fully alert.

"Do you want me to come down?"

"I think you should get in touch with Sydkraft and tell them that their power problem now also involves a police investigation."

"What do you think has happened? Is it a suicide?"

"I can't tell. I don't know."

"What about sabotage? A terrorist act?"

"I don't think we can answer that question yet either. In fact, we can't rule out any of these things."

"I'll call Sydkraft. Keep me posted."

Wallander hung up. Hansson came running through the rain over to the car. Wallander opened the door.

"Nyberg is on his way. How did things look in there?"

"Pretty bad. There was nothing left, not even a face."

Hansson didn't answer. He ran through the rain, back to his own car.

Twenty minutes later Wallander saw the lights of Nyberg's car appear in the rear-view mirror. Wallander stepped out of the car and greeted