Firewall (1998) by Henning Mankell

Author:Henning Mankell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Henning Mankell
ISBN: 9781407017686
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1998-08-22T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Wallander drove past Apelbergsgatan and parked on Jorgen Krabbes Vag. It took him about 5 minutes to walk from there to Falk's building. The wind had died down. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was gradually getting chillier. October in Ystad was always a month that had trouble making up its mind.

The undercover car with Elofsson and his colleague was parked on the other side of the street and about half a block down. When Wallander reached the car, the back door was opened for him and he climbed in. There was a pleasant smell of coffee inside. Wallander thought of all the nights he had spent in cars like this one, fighting the desire to sleep, fighting the cold.

They exchanged some casual remarks. Elofsson's colleague had only been in Ystad for about six months. His name was El Sayed and he came originally from Tunisia. He was the first policeman with an immigrant background to have worked in Ystad. Wallander had been worried that El Sayed would meet with hostility and prejudice. He had no illusions about what his colleagues thought of getting a non-white recruit. As it turned out his fears had been justified. El Sayed had to put up with his share of off-colour jokes and mean-spirited comments. How much of it he noticed and had been expecting, Wallander was still not sure. Sometimes he felt badly that he had never taken the time to invite him over for a meal. No-one else had either. But after a while the young man and his easygoing personality had grown on them and he was becoming part of the group.

"He came from a northerly direction," Elofsson said. "From the Malmo road. At least three times."

"When was he here last?"

"Just before I called you. I tried your regular phone first. You must be a deep sleeper."

Wallander ignored this. "Tell me again, every detail," he said.

"You know how it is. It's only when they go past the second time that you really take notice."

"What was the car?"

"A navy blue Mazda saloon."

"Did he slow down as he went past?"

"I don't know if he did the first time, but he definitely did the second."

El Sayed broke in for the first time. "He slowed down the first time."

This comment clearly irritated Elofsson.

"But he never stopped?"

"No."

"Did he see you?"

"Not the first time. But possibly on his second time around."

"What happened after that?"

"He came back the third time after about 20 minutes, but didn't slow down."

"He may just have been checking that you were still here. Could you see if there was more than one person in the car?"

"We talked about that. We think it was just one person."

"Did you tell your colleagues at Runnerstroms Torg?"

"They haven't seen it."

Wallander found that puzzling. If someone was keeping a check on Falk's flat, he would also be interested in his office. He thought about it. The only explanation he could think of was that whoever the person in the car was he didn't know of the existence of the office.

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