Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,56

I want her. And someone who will leave me alone when I feel like it. He tore up the page and started again. This time the text was more truthful: 50-year-old police officer, diabetic, divorced, grown-up daughter, wishes to meet someone to spend time with. The woman I'm looking for is attractive, has a good figure and is interested in sex. Send your answer to "Old Dog".

Who would respond to something like that? he wondered. Hardly anyone stable.

He turned the page over to start afresh, but was almost immediately interrupted by a knock on the door. It was already midday. It was H枚glund. He realised too late that the personal section of the newspaper was still lying face up on his desk. He crumpled it and threw it in the waste-paper basket, but he thought she had seen what he was doing, and it irritated him.

I'm never going to write a personal ad, he thought angrily. The chances are too great that someone like H枚glund would answer.

She looked tired.

"I've just finished questioning Persson," she said and sat down heavily.

Wallander pushed all thoughts of personal ads aside.

"How was she?"

"She didn't change her story. She insists that H枚kberg used both the knife and the hammer."

"I asked how she was."

H枚glund thought about it before answering. "She was different. She seemed more prepared for the questions."

"What made you think that?"

"She spoke faster. Many of her answers seemed prepared in advance. It was only when we got to the questions she wasn't expecting that she started speaking in that slow, apathetic way. That's how she protects herself, giving herself time to think. I don't know how intelligent she is, but she's not confused. She keeps track of her lies. I didn't catch a single instance of her contradicting herself in the two hours that we were at it. That's pretty impressive."

Wallander reached for his notepad. "We'll take the most important stuff now, your impressions. The rest I'll read about in your report."

"I am convinced that she's lying. Quite honestly I don't understand how a 14-year-old girl can be so hard-boiled."

"Because she's a girl?"

"I think it would be unusual even for a boy her age."

"You didn't manage to budge her at all?"

"No, not really. She sticks to her new story that she is innocent and only said what she said because she was afraid of H枚kberg. I tried to get her to tell me why she was afraid, but she wouldn't. All she said was that H枚kberg could be very tough on her."

"She's probably right about that."

H枚glund looked at her notes. "She denied taking any calls from H枚kberg, or anyone else, after H枚kberg's escape from the station."

"When did she find out H枚kberg was dead?"

"Erik H枚kberg called her mother."

"Did H枚kberg's death come as a shock to her?"

"She claims it did, but I certainly couldn't tell. Maybe she was surprised. She had no explanation as to why H枚kberg would have gone out to the substation, nor any idea who could have taken her there."

Wallander got up and walked over to the window. "Did she really have no reaction? No regret, no pain?"

"In my opinion she was in control and utterly cold. Many of her answers were prepared in advance, some pure lies. But I got the impression that she wasn't surprised by what had happened, though she claims she was."

Wallander was struck by a thought that seemed important. "Did she seem afraid of anything happening to her?"

"No, I thought about that. I don't think what happened to H枚kberg made her worried for her own life."

Wallander returned to the desk. "Let's assume that's the case. What does that mean?"

"It means Persson is at least partly telling the truth. Not about Lundberg's murder, since I'm convinced she had a hand in it. But I don't think she had much idea what else H枚kberg was involved in."

"And what would that be?"

"I don't know."

"Why did they switch seats in the restaurant?"

"Because H枚kberg complained of a draught. She won't change her line on that."

"And the man sitting behind them?"

"She claims not to have seen him or anyone else. She also says she didn't notice H枚kberg having contact with anyone other than her."

"She didn't notice anyone as they were leaving the restaurant?"

"No. That may even be true. I don't think she would qualify for the title of the World's Most Observant Person."

"Did you ask her if she had ever heard of Tynnes Falk?"

"She said she had never heard the name."

"Was that true?"

H枚glund paused. "There might have been a very slight hesitation on her part,