The Pyramid by Henning Mankell Read Free Book Online

getting a cup of coffee?'
    They walked into Wallander's apartment. Hemberg looked at the overturned bowl and the pool of water on the floor.
    'Were you trying to put the fire out yourself?'
    'I was taking a footbath.'
    Hemberg regarded him with interest.
    'Footbath?'
    'Sometimes my feet hurt.'
    'Then you must have the wrong kind of shoes,' Hemberg said. 'I patrolled for more than ten years but my feet never gave me any trouble.'
    Hemberg sat down at the kitchen table while Wallander prepared the coffee.
    'Did you hear anything?' Hemberg asked. 'Anyone on the stairs?'
    'No.'
    Wallander thought it was embarrassing to admit he was sleeping this time as well.
    'If anyone had been moving around out there, would you have heard them?'
    'You can hear the front door slam,' Wallander said with deliberate vagueness. 'I probably would have heard someone come in. If the person didn't stop the door from slamming.'
    Wallander set out a packet of plain vanilla wafers. It was the only thing he had to serve with the coffee.
    'There's something strange here,' Hemberg said. 'Everything points to the fact that it was a perfect suicide. Hålén must have had a steady hand. He aimed well. Straight through the heart, no hesitation. The medical examiners aren't done yet, but we don't need to look for a cause of death other than suicide. There is none. The question is rather what this person was looking for. And why someone tried to burn down the apartment. It's probably the same person.'
    Hemberg nodded to Wallander, indicating that he wanted more coffee.
    'Do you have an opinion on this?' Hemberg asked abruptly. 'Show me now if you can think.'
    Wallander was completely unprepared for this.
    'The person who was here last night was looking for something,' he started. 'But probably he didn't find anything.'
    'Because you interrupted him? Because otherwise he would have left already?'
    'Yes.'
    'What was he looking for?'
    'I don't know.'
    'And now tonight someone sets fire to the apartment. Let us assume it is the same person. What does this mean?'
    Wallander pondered this.
    'Take your time,' Hemberg said. 'If you are to make a good detective you have to learn to think methodically, and it is often the same thing as thinking slowly.'
    'Perhaps he didn't want anyone else to find what he had been looking for?'
    'Perhaps,' Hemberg said. 'Why "perhaps"?'
    'Because there could be another explanation.'
    'Like what, for example?'
    Wallander searched frantically for an alternative without finding one.
    'I don't know,' he replied. 'I can't find another alternative. At least not right now.'
    Hemberg took a wafer.
    'I can't either,' he said. 'Which means that the explanation may still be in the apartment. Without us having been able to find it. If this had all stopped at the nightly visit, this case would have ended as soon as the results of the weapons examination and autopsy were in. But with this fire, we'll probably have to do another round in there.'
    'Did Hålén really not have any relatives?' Wallander asked.
    Hemberg pushed away his cup and got to his feet.
    'Come by my office tomorrow and I'll show you the report.'
    Wallander hesitated.
    'I don't know when I'll get time for that. We have to do a sweep of the Malmö parks tomorrow. Drugs.'
    'I'll talk to your superior officer,' Hemberg said. 'We'll work it out.'
    A little after eight the following day, 7 June, Wallander was reading through all of the case material that Hemberg had collected on Hålén.
It was extremely sparse. He had no fortune but also no debt. He appeared to have lived completely within the means of his pension.
The only recorded relative was a sister who had died in 1967 in
Katrineholm. The parents had passed away earlier.
    Wallander read the report in Hemberg's office while Hemberg attended a meeting. He returned shortly after half past eight.
    'Have you found anything?' he asked.
    'How can a person be so alone?'
    'You may ask,' Hemberg said, 'but it gives us no answers. Let's go over