The White Lioness by Henning Mankell Page B

writing a summary in my office until then."
    "I will try to put together an overview of the tip-offs we've had," Svedberg said. "Somebody might have seen Mrs Akerblom on Friday with a man who could be Stig Gustafson."
    "Do that," Wallander said. "And let us have all you know about that man."
    The press conference dragged on for an hour and a half. By then Wallander had tried to compose a summary under various headings and draw up a plan for the next phase of the investigation.
    Bjork and Martinsson were exhausted when they came to the meeting which was in Bjork's room.
    "Now I understand how you usually feel," said Martinsson, flopping down into a chair. "The only thing they didn't ask about was the colour of her underwear."
    Wallander reacted angrily. "That was unnecessary," he said.
    Martinsson opened his arms wide in apology.
    "I'll try and give you a summary," Wallander said. "We know how it all started, so I'll skip that bit. Anyway, we've found Louise Akerblom. She's been shot through the forehead. My guess is that she was shot at close range. But we'll know for sure later. We don't know if she was subjected to sexual assault. Nor do we know if she was ill-treated or held prisoner, or indeed where she was killed. Nor when. But we can be sure she was dead when she was put down that well. We've also found her car. It's essential we get a preliminary report from the hospital as soon as possible. Not least as to whether there was a sexual assault. Then we can start checking up on known offenders."
    Wallander took a slurp of coffee before continuing.
    "As for motive and murderer, we only have one track to follow so far," he said. "The engineer Stig Gustafson, who's been persecuting her and pestering her with hopeless declarations of love. We haven't found him yet. You know more about that, Svedberg. You can also give us a summary of the tip-offs we've had. Further complications in this investigation are the severed black finger and the house that blew up. Things have been made no clearer by the fact that Nyberg found the remains of a sophisticated radio transmitter in the ashes, and the butt of a handgun used mainly in South Africa, if I understood him properly. In one sense the finger and the pistol are linked by that fact. Not that it helps much. We still don't know if the murder and the explosion are connected."
    Wallander was finished, and looked at Svedberg, who was leafing through the stack of papers he had in front of him. "I'll start with the tip-offs," he said. "I'm thinking of writing a book one of these days called People Who Want to Help the Police . It'll make me a rich man. As usual we've had curses, blessings, confessions, dreams, hallucinations, and a handful of sensible tips. As far as I can see, though, there's only one of immediate interest. The warden of the Rydsgard estate is quite certain he saw Louise Akerblom driving past last Friday afternoon. The time is about right. That means we know which route she took. Apart from that there's very little of interest. We do know, of course, it's often a day or two before the best tip-offs come in. They come from sensible people who hesitate before getting in touch. As for Gustafson, we haven't managed to discover where he's moved to. But he's supposed to have an unmarried female relative in Malmo. Unfortunately we don't know her first name. The Malmo telephone directory is full of Gustafsons, as you would expect. We'll just have to get down to it and divide the list between us. That's all I have to say."
    Wallander sat in silence for a moment. Bjork looked expectantly at him. "Let's concentrate our efforts," Wallander said, at length. "We have to find Gustafson, that's the first priority. If the only lead we have is that relative in Malmo, then that's the one we'll have to follow up. Everybody in this station who's capable of picking up a phone will have to help. I'll join in and assist with the telephoning, as soon as I've dealt with the hospital." Then he