The Fifth Woman (1996) by Henning Mankell

Author:Henning Mankell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Henning Mankell
ISBN: 9780099445210
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1996-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

When Wallander got back to the hotel, there was a message for him from Robert Melander. He went up to his room and dialled the number. Melander's wife answered. Wallander introduced himself, careful to thank her for the nice lunch she had prepared the day before. Melander came to the phone.

"I couldn't help thinking about things some more last night," he said. "I called the old postman too. Ture Emmanuelsson is his name. He told me that Krista Haberman received postcards regularly from Skane, a lot of them. From Falsterbo, he thought. I don't know if this means anything, but I thought I'd tell you anyway. She had a lot of bird related post."

"How did you find me?" Wallander asked.

"I called the police in Ystad and asked them. It wasn't difficult."

"Skanor and Falsterbo are well-known meeting places for bird-watchers," Wallander said. "That's the only reasonable explanation for why she got so many postcards from there. Thanks for taking the time to call me."

"I just keep wondering," Melander said, "why the car dealer should have left money to our church."

"Sooner or later we'll find out why. But it might take time. Anyway, thanks for calling."

Wallander stayed where he was after he hung up. It wasn't 8 a.m. yet. He thought about the feeling he had experienced at the train station, the feeling that something insurmountable stood before him. He also thought about the conversation with Linda. Most of all, he thought about what Melander had said and what he now faced. He was in Gavle because he had an assignment. It was six hours before his plane left and he had to turn in the rental car at Arlanda.

He got some papers out of his case. Hoglund's notes said that he should start by getting in touch with a police inspector named Sten Wenngren. He would be home all day Sunday and was expecting Wallander's call. She had also written down the name of the man who had advertised in Terminator magazine: Johan Ekberg, who lived out in Brynas. Wallander stood by the window. A cold autumn rain had started falling. Wallander wondered whether it would turn to sleet, and if there were snow tyres on the rental car. He thought again about what he had to do in Gavle. With each step he took he felt himself moving further and further away from the heart of the matter.

The feeling that there was something he hadn't discovered; that he had misinterpreted something fundamental in the pattern of the crimes, came back as he stood by the window. Why the deliberate brutality? What is it the killer wants to tell us? The killer's language was the code he hadn't been able to crack.

He shook his head, yawned, and packed his suitcase. Since he didn't know what he would talk to Sten Wenngren about, he decided to go straight to Johan Ekberg. If nothing else, he might be able to get a glimpse into the murky world where soldiers sold themselves to the highest bidder.

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