the passenger seat stabbed him in the chest with a knife. They took the driver's wallet and his mobile and left. The driver was able to make an emergency call on the taxi radio despite his condition.
His name was Johan Lundberg and he was about 60 years old. He had been a taxi driver almost all his adult life. He had given good descriptions of both girls. Martinsson had been able to get their names by using these descriptions while interviewing other people who had been in the restaurant.
The girls had been arrested in their homes. Both were now in custody despite their age, because of the enormity of the crime and the violence involved. Lundberg had been conscious when admitted at the hospital, but his condition had deteriorated. He was now unconscious, and the doctors were unsure of the prognosis. As a motive for the crime, Martinsson reported, the girls had offered only the explanation that they "needed money".
Wallander made a face. He had never known anything like it – two girls responsible for an act of such pointless brutality. According to Martinsson's notes, the younger girl had excellent grades at school. The older one was a hotel receptionist and had earlier worked as a nanny in London. She had applied for a place on a foreign-language course at the university. Neither had been in trouble before.
I just don't get it, Wallander thought. This total lack of respect for human life. They could have killed that taxi driver, and it may even turn out that way. Two girls. If they had been boys I could maybe understand, if only because by now I'm used to it.
He was interrupted by a knock on the door. His colleague Ann-Britt Höglund was in the doorway. As usual she looked pale and tired. Wallander thought about the change in her life since she first came to Ystad. She had been one of the best in her class at Police Training College and had arrived with a great deal of energy and ambition. Today she still possessed a strong will, but she was changed. The paleness in her face came from within.
"Do you want me to come back later?" she said.
"No, not at all."
She sat down gingerly in the rickety chair opposite him. Wallander pointed to the papers in front of him. "Do you have anything to say about this?" he asked.
"Is it the taxi driver case?"
"Yes."
"I've talked to the older girl, Hökberg. She gave me clear and strong answers, answered everything. And seemed to have not a trace of remorse. The other girl has been in custody with the social welfare people because of her age."
"Can you understand it?"
Höglund paused before answering. "Yes and no. We know that crime has spread down to the ranks of the very young."
"Forgive me, but I don't recall a case of two teenage girls attacking anyone with a knife and a hammer. Were they drunk?"
"No. But I don't know if that should surprise us. Maybe the surprise is that something like this didn't happen sooner."
Wallander leaned over the desk. "You'll have to run that last part by me again."
"I don't know if I can explain it."
"Give it a try."
"Women aren't needed in the workforce any more. That era is over."
"But that doesn't explain why a young girl would assault a taxi driver."
"There has to be something more to it than we know. Neither you nor I believe that people are born evil."
Wallander shook his head. "I cling to that belief," he said, "though at times it's a challenge."
"Just look at the magazines young girls are reading. Now it's all about beauty again, nothing else. How to get a boyfriend and find meaning for life through his interests and dreams, that sort of thing."
"Wasn't that what they were always about?"
"No. Think of your own daughter. Didn't she have her own ideas about what to do with her life?"
Wallander knew that she was right. "Yes, but that doesn't get me to the point of knowing why they attacked Lundberg," he said.
"But you should know. Young girls are slowly starting to see through the messages society sends them. When they work out they aren't needed, that in fact they're superfluous, they react just as viciously as boys. And go on to commit crimes, among other things."
Wallander was quiet. He now understood the point Höglund had been trying to make.
"I don't think I can explain it any better," she said. "Shouldn't you talk to them yourself?"
"Martinsson has suggested it."
"Actually, I stopped