Firewall: A Kurt Wallander Mystery by Henning Mankell

Author:Henning Mankell [Mankell, Henning]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
ISBN: 1400031532
Amazon: B005GX1OHO
Publisher: New Press, The
Published: 2002-11-07T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

Wallander turned off the Malmö highway.

Then he drove past Apelbergsgatan and parked his car on Jorgen Krabbes Way. It took him about five minutes to walk from there to the apartment building where Falk had lived. The wind was completely gone. There were no clouds 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 inside was parked across the way and about half a block down from Falk’s house. When Wallander reached the car, the back door was opened for him and he climbed in. There was a pleasant smell of coffee in the air. Wallander thought of all the nights he had spent in cars like this one, fighting the urge to sleep, fighting the cold.

They said hello and exchanged some casual remarks. Elofsson’s colleague had only been in Ystad for about six months. His name was El Sayed and he had come originally from Tunisia. He was the first policeman with an immigrant background who had ever worked in Ystad. Wallander had been worried that El Sayed would be greeted with hostility and prejudice. He had no illusions about what his colleagues thought of getting a non-white recruit. His fears had been justified, as it turned out. El Sayed had to deal with his share of crude jokes and mean-spirited comments. How much of it he noticed and what he had been expecting, Wallander was still not sure. Sometimes he felt bad that he had never taken the time to invite El Sayed over for a meal. No one else had done so, either. But after a while the young man and his easygoing personality had grown on them, and he was slowly becoming part of the group.

“He came from a northerly direction,” Elofsson said. “From Malmö in toward Ystad. 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 his last comment.

“Tell me in detail what happened.”

“You know how it is. It’s only when they come by the second time that you really notice them.”

“What kind of a car was it?”

“A navy blue Mazda sedan.”

“Did he slow down when he passed by?”

“I don’t know if he did the first time around, but definitely the second.”

El Sayed broke in for the first time.

“He slowed down already that first time.”

The comment clearly irritated Elofsson. Probably because he didn’t want his colleague showing him up.

“But he never stopped?”

“No.”

“Did he see you?”

“Not the first time. But probably on his second time around.”

“What happened after that?”

“He came back a third time after about twenty minutes, but he didn’t slow down.”

“He was probably just checking that you were still here. Could you see if there was more than one person in the car?”

“We talked about that. We have no way of knowing for sure, but we think it was just one person.”

“Did you check in with your colleagues at Runnerstrom Square?”

“They haven’t seen it.

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