The White Lioness by Henning Mankell Read Free Book Online Page A

Linda."
    "They're going to be at my sister's today," Akerblom said. "She'll be here shortly to pick them up. Can I offer you a cup of tea?"
    "Yes, please," Wallander said.
    He hung up his overcoat, removed his shoes, and went into the kitchen. The girls were standing in the doorway, watching him.
    Where shall I start? Wallander wondered. Will he understand that I have to open every drawer, and go through every one of her papers?
    The girls were collected, and Wallander finished his tea.
    "We have a press conference at 10.00," he said. "That means we shall have to make public your wife's name, and ask for anybody who might have seen her to come forward. As you will realise, that implies something else. We can no longer discount the possibility that a crime has been committed."
    Wallander had foreseen the risk that Akerblom might go to pieces and start weeping. But the pale, hollow-eyed man, immaculately dressed in suit and tie, seemed to be in control of himself this morning.
    "We have to go on believing that there's a straightforward explanation for your wife's disappearance," Wallander said. "But we can no longer exclude anything at all."
    "I understand," Akerblom said. "I've been clear about that all the time."
    Wallander pushed his teacup to one side, said thank you, and got to his feet. "Have you thought of anything else we ought to know about?"
    "No," Akerblom said. "It's a complete mystery."
    "Let's go through the house together," Wallander said. "I hope you understand that I have to look through all her drawers, clothes, everything that could give us a clue."
    "She keeps everything in good order," Akerblom said.
    They began upstairs, and worked their way down to the basement and the garage. Wallander noticed that Louise Akerblom was fond of pastel shades. There was nowhere a dark curtain or tablecloth to be seen. The house exuded joie de vivre . The furniture was a mixture of old and new. When he was drinking his tea, he had noticed how well equipped the kitchen was with machines and gadgets. Their everyday life was evidently not restricted by excessive puritanism.
    "I'll have to drive down to the office for a while," Akerblom said, when they had finished their tour of the house. "I take it I can leave you here on your own."
    "No problem," Wallander said. "I'll save my questions till you get back. Or I'll give you a call. In any case, I have to leave for the station shortly before 10.00, for the press conference."
    "I'll be back before then," Akerblom said.
    When Wallander was on his own, he began by searching every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen and examined the refrigerator and the freezer. One thing intrigued him. In a cupboard under the sink was a copious supply of alcohol. That didn't square with the impression he had of the Akerblom family.
    He continued with the living room, without finding anything of note. Then he went upstairs. He ignored the girls' room. He searched the bathroom first, reading the labels on bottles from the pharmacist and making a note of some of Louise Akerblom's medicines in his note pad. He stood on the bathroom scales, and was dismayed to see how much he weighed. Then he moved on to the bedroom. He always felt uncomfortable going through a woman's clothes: it was as if somebody was watching him without his knowing it. He went through all the pouches and cardboard boxes in the wardrobes. Then he came to the chest of drawers where she kept her underwear. He found nothing that surprised him, nothing that told him anything he didn't already know. When he was finished, he sat on the edge of the bed and looked around the room.
    Nothing, he thought. Absolutely nothing.
    He sighed, and moved on to the next room, which was used as a study. He sat at the desk, opening drawer after drawer. He immersed himself in photograph albums and bundles of letters. He didn't come across a single photograph in which Louise Akerblom was not smiling or laughing. He replaced everything carefully, closed the