The White Lioness by Henning Mankell Page A

church Wallander had stopped at the station and taken his own car. He did not want to arrive in a police car.
    Akerblom answered almost as soon as they rang the doorbell. He's seen us, Wallander thought. The moment a car brakes in the street outside, he hurries to the nearest window to see who it is.
    He ushered them into the living room. Wallander listened to see if there was any noise. The two girls did not appear to be home.
    "I'm afraid I have to tell you your wife is dead," Wallander said. "We've found her at an abandoned house some way outside of town. She was murdered."
    Akerblom stared at him, his face motionless. It seemed he was waiting for more.
    "I very much regret this," Wallander said. "But the best I can do is to tell you exactly how it is. I'm afraid I shall also have to ask you to identify the body. But that can wait. It doesn't need to be done today. And it would be all right if Pastor Tureson were to do it."
    Akerblom kept on staring at him.
    "Are your daughters at home?" Wallander said, cautiously. "This must be awful for them."
    He turned to Tureson, appealing for help.
    "We'll do all we can to help," Tureson said.
    "Thank you for letting me know," Akerblom said, all of a sudden. "All this uncertainty has been so difficult to bear."
    "I am terribly sorry things have turned out so badly," Wallander said. "All of us on the case were hoping it would be otherwise."
    "Who?" Akerblom said.
    "We don't know," Wallander said. "But we shall not rest until we do know."
    "You'll never know," Akerblom said.
    Wallander looked at him inquiringly. "Why do you think that?" he said.
    "Nobody could have wanted to kill Louise," Akerblom said. "So how could you possibly find whoever is guilty?"
    Wallander did not know what to say. Akerblom had put his finger on their biggest problem.
    A few minutes later he stood up. Tureson accompanied him into the hall. "You have a few hours in which to contact all the closest relatives," Wallander said. "Call me if you can't locate them. We won't be able to keep the news to ourselves for very long."
    "I understand," Tureson said.
    Then he lowered his voice. "Stig Gustafson?" he asked.
    "We're still looking," Wallander said. "We don't know if it is him."
    "Have you any other leads?"
    "Could be," Wallander said, "but I'm afraid I can't answer that either."
    "For technical reasons?"
    "Exactly."
    Wallander could see that Tureson had one more question. "Well," he said. "Fire away!"
    Tureson lowered his voice so far that Wallander could hardly hear what he was saying. "Rape?" he said.
    "We don't know that yet," Wallander said.
    Wallander felt a strange mixture of hunger and uneasiness when he left the Akerbloms' house. He stopped on the Osterleden highway and struggled to eat a hamburger. He couldn't remember when he had last eaten. Then he hurried to the police station. When he got there he was met by Svedberg, who informed him that Bjork had been forced to improvise a press conference at short notice. As he knew Wallander was busy informing relatives of Louise Akerblom's death and he didn't want to disturb him, he had enlisted the help of Martinsson.
    "Can you guess how the news leaked out?" he asked.
    "Yes," Wallander said. "Peter Hanson?"
    "Wrong! Try again!"
    "One of us?"
    "Not this time. It was Morell. He saw the chance to squeeze some money from one of the evening papers if he tipped them off. He's obviously a real bastard. At least the force in Malmo have something to pin on him now. Commissioning somebody to steal four water pumps is a criminal offence."
    "He'll only get probation," Wallander said.
    They went to the canteen and poured a mug of coffee each.
    "How did Akerblom take it?" Svedberg said.
    "I don't know," Wallander said. "It must feel as if half your life has been taken away. No-one can imagine what it's like unless they've been through something similar. I can't. All I can say just now is that we'll have to have a meeting as soon as the press conference is over. I'll be