Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,35
and I know it's still in there. But I'm not going to show it.
"If you are referring to the picture in the papers, I know it looks bad. On the other hand, how can a photographer find his way unseen all the way to our interrogation rooms?"
"Lisa is very concerned."
"She should listen to what I have to say," Wallander said. "She should support me, not immediately believe everything they say in the paper."
"She can't just ignore what's in the picture."
"I'm not saying she should. I hit the girl, but only because she was laying into her mother."
"You know that they have a different story."
"They're lying. But maybe you believe them?"
She shook her head. "The question is only how to prove that they're lying."
"Who's behind it?"
Her answer came quickly and firmly. "The mother. I think she's smart. She sees an opportunity to turn the attention away from what her daughter has done. And now that Hökberg is dead they can try to pin everything on her."
"Not the bloody knife."
"Oh, but they can. Even though it was recovered with Persson's help she can claim that Hökberg was the one who used it on Lundberg."
She was right. The dead can't speak. And there was a large colour photograph of a policeman who had knocked a girl to the ground. The picture was somewhat fuzzy, but no-one could have any doubts as to what it depicted.
"The prosecutor's office has demanded a quick investigation."
"Who in particular?"
"Viktorsson."
Wallander didn't like him. He had only been in Ystad since August, but Wallander had already had a couple of run-ins with him.
"It's going to be my word against theirs."
"And there's two of them, of course."
"The strange thing is that Persson doesn't even like her mother," Wallander said. "It was very clear to me when I spoke to her."
"She's probably realised that she's in deep trouble, even though she's a juvenile and won't go to jail. Therefore she's declared a temporary truce with her mother."
Wallander suddenly felt he couldn't keep talking about the subject any longer. Not right now.
"Why did you come round?"
"I heard you were sick."
"But not at death's door. I'll be back tomorrow. Tell me instead what you learned from your conversation with Persson."
"She's changed her story."
"But she can't know that Hökberg is dead?"
"That's what's so strange."
It took a while for Wallander to understand what Höglund had just said. Then it dawned on him. He looked at her.
"You're thinking something?"
"Why does one change one's story? Persson couldn't have known that Hökberg was dead when I started questioning her. But that's when she wholly changed her story. Now Hökberg is the one who did everything. Persson is innocent. They were never going to rob a taxi driver. They weren't going out to Rydsgård. Hökberg had suggested they visit her uncle who lived in Bjäresjö."
"Does he exist?"
"I've called him. He says he hasn't seen his niece in five or six years."
Wallander thought this over. "In that case there's only one explanation," he said. "Persson would never have been able to rescind her confession and fabricate another story if she wasn't sure that Hökberg would never be able to contradict it."
"I can't find another explanation either. Naturally I asked her why she hadn't said all this earlier."
"What was her answer?"
"That she hadn't wanted all the blame to fall on Sonja."
"Since they were friends?"
"Yes."
They both knew what it meant. There was only one explanation: that Persson knew that Hökberg was dead.
"What are you thinking?" Wallander said.
"That there are two possibilities. One is that Hökberg could have called Persson after she left the station. She could have told her she was planning to commit suicide."
"That doesn't sound likely."
"I don't think so either. I don't think she called Persson. I think she called someone else."
"Who later called Persson and told her Hökberg was dead?"
"It's possible."
"That would mean that Persson knows who killed Hökberg. Assuming it was a murder."
"Could it have been anything else?"
"I doubt it, but we have to wait for the result of the autopsy."
"I tried to get a preliminary report, but I suppose it takes time to work with badly burned bodies."
"I hope they realise it's urgent."
"Isn't it always?"
She looked down at her watch and got up.
"I have to get home to the kids."
Wallander thought he should say something to her. He knew what a hellish experience it was to end a marriage.
"How are things going with the divorce proceedings?"
"You've been through it yourself. You know what it's like."