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

drawer, and tried the next one. Tax returns and insurance documents, school reports and conveyancing deeds, nothing out of the ordinary.
    It was only when he opened the bottom drawer in the last of the chests that he was surprised. At first he thought it contained nothing but plain white writing paper. When he felt the bottom of the drawer, however, his fingers came into contact with a metal object. He took it out and sat there, frowning.
    A pair of handcuffs. Not toy handcuffs; real ones. Made in England. He put them on the desk in front of him. They don't have to be significant, he thought. But they were well hidden. And I suspect Akerblom would have taken them away, if he had known they were there.
    He put the handcuffs in his pocket and closed the drawer.
    Then he went down to the basement rooms and the garage. On a shelf over a little workbench he found a few neatly made balsa wood model aeroplanes. He pictured Akerblom in his mind's eye. Maybe once he'd dreamed of becoming a pilot?
    The telephone started ringing in the background. He hurried to answer it.
    By this time it was 9 a.m.
    "Could I speak to Inspector Wallander?" It was Martinsson.
    "Speaking," Wallander said.
    "You'd better get out here," Martinsson said. "Right away."
    Wallander could feel his heart beating faster. "Have you found her?" he said.
    "No," Martinsson said. "Not her, and not the car either. But there's a house on fire not far away. Or, to be more accurate, the house exploded. I thought there might be a link."
    "I'm on my way," Wallander said.
    He scribbled a note for Akerblom and left it on the kitchen table.
    As he drove to Krageholm, he tried to work out the implications of what Martinsson had said. A house had exploded? What house?
    He overtook three big trucks in succession. The rain was now so heavy that the wipers could only keep the windscreen partially clear.
    Just before he reached the shattered oak tree, the rain eased a little and he could see a column of black smoke rising above the trees. A police car was waiting for him by the oak. One of the men inside indicated he should take the right-hand turning. As they swung in from the main road, Wallander noted the road was one of those he'd taken by mistake the previous day, the one with the most tyre marks. There was something else about that road, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was right now.
    When he got to where the fire was, he recognised the house. It was to the left, and only just visible from the road. The firemen were already at work. Wallander got out of his car, and was immediately hit by the heat of the blaze. Martinsson was striding towards him.
    "People?" Wallander said.
    "None," Martinsson said. "Not as far as we know. In any case, it's impossible to go inside. The heat is terrific. The house has been empty for more than a year since the owner died. A farmer told me the background. Apparently, whoever was dealing with the estate couldn't make up his mind whether to rent it or sell it."
    "So what happened?" Wallander said, eyeing the enormous clouds of smoke.
    "I was out on the main road," Martinsson said. "One of the army search lines had got into a bit of a mess. Then there was this bang. It sounded like a bomb going off. At first I thought a plane had crashed. Then I saw the smoke. It took me five minutes at most to get here. Everything was in flames. Not just the house, but the barn as well."
    Wallander tried to think. "A bomb," he said. "Could it have been a gas leak?"
    Martinsson shook his head. "Even 20 canisters of calor gas could not have made an explosion of that force," he said. "Fruit trees in the back have snapped off. Or been blown up by the roots. It must have been deliberate."
    "The whole area is crawling with police and soldiers," Wallander said. "An odd time to choose for arson."
    "Exactly what I thought," Martinsson said. "That's why I thought right away there could be a connection."
    "Any ideas?"
    "No," Martinsson said. "None at all."
    "Find out