Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,39

was drawn into these tragic events by her much older friend. Doesn't that sound plausible? Couldn't Eva be telling the truth?"

Wallander considered telling him the truth about Hökberg. The most recent events had yet to be made public, but he decided against it. Anyway, it still gave him an advantage.

"You and your newspaper are not the ones in charge of this investigation. We are. If you wish to draw your own conclusions and arrive at your own judgement, we can't stop you. But the truth is going to turn out quite different. Not that your editor will give it much space."

Wallander let his hands fall palms down on the table to signal the end of the interview.

"Thank you for your time," Törngren said and started putting his tape recorder away.

"Inspector Martinsson will show you out," Wallander said.

He left the room without shaking hands. While he was collecting his post he tried to judge how the interview had gone. Was there something he should have added? Was there something he should have expressed differently? He carried a cup of coffee back to his office with his letters tucked under his arm. He decided that the conversation with Törngren had gone rather well, even if he couldn't influence what eventually appeared in the published report. He sat down and went through the post. There was nothing that couldn't wait. He reminded himself of Enander's visit, rifled through his notes in the top desk drawer and called the coroner's office in Lund. He was in luck and was put through at once to the pathologist in question. Wallander told him what Enander had said. The pathologist listened and evidently took notes. He promised to let Wallander know if any of this new information was likely to lead to a revision of the conclusions of the autopsy.

At 8 a.m., Wallander got up and went to the large conference room. Holgersson was already there, as well as the lawyer Lennart Viktorsson. Wallander felt a surge of adrenalin when he caught sight of him. Most people would probably keep a low profile after turning up in such circumstances on the front page of a newspaper. Wallander had gone through his moment of weakness the day before when he left the station early. Now he was ready for battle. He sat in his chair and started speaking.

"As you all know, the evening papers ran a photograph last night of Eva Persson, with a caption, saying that she had fallen down because I slapped her. The girl and her mother may deny this, but what happened was that the girl was hitting her mother in the face and I was trying to intervene. She was in a fury. To snap her out of it, I slapped her. Not hard, but it was enough to knock her off balance and she fell over. This is also what I told the reporter who was creeping around the station. I met him this morning, as Martinsson can report."

He paused before continuing and looked round at those who were gathered around the table. Chief Holgersson seemed put out. Probably she had wanted to be the one to bring it up.

"I have been told that there will be an internal investigation of the matter, which is fine with me. But for now I think we should turn our attention to the most important matter at hand, Lundberg's murder and sorting out what actually happened to Hökberg."

Holgersson started speaking as soon as he had finished. Wallander didn't like the expression on her face. He still felt as though she were letting him down.

"I think it goes without saying that you will not be allowed to question Eva Persson," she said.

Wallander nodded. "Even I understand that."

I should have said more, he thought. That a police officer's first duty is to stand by his colleagues – not uncritically, not at any price. But for as long as it is a question of one person's word against another's. Persson's lie is easier for her to swallow than standing up for the uncomfortable truth.

Viktorsson lifted his hand and interrupted Wallander's train of thought. "I will be following this internal investigation closely and I suggest that we seriously consider Eva Persson's new version of what happened. It's quite possible that it was as she says, that Sonja Hökberg was solely responsible for the planning and execution of the assault."

Wallander couldn't believe his ears. He looked around the room trying to elicit support from his closest colleagues. Hansson in his