Before the Frost
- Автор: Манкелль Хеннинг
- Серия: Linda Wallander #1
- Год: 2004
- Язык: английский
- Год: The Harvill Press
- ISBN: 978-1-84343-113-8
- Переводчик: Ebba Segerberg
- Жанр: Полицейские детективы
Электронная книга - «Before the Frost». Краткое содержание книги:
35
Her grandfather had often complained about difficult people, a category that included almost everyone, and he consequently did his best to minimize contact with other people. However, as he said, one could never avoid them completely. Linda had been particularly struck by the image he had used.
“They’re like eels,” he said. “You try to keep hold of them, but they wiggle free of your grasp. The thing about eels is also that they swim at night. By that I don’t mean you only meet difficult people at night — if anything, they seem most likely to come with their idiotic suggestions in the morning. Their darkness is of a different order; it’s something they carry inside. It’s their total obliviousness to the difficulty they cause others by their constant meddling. I have never meddled in other people’s lives.”
That was the biggest lie of his life. He had died without recognizing the extent to which he himself had often meddled in the decisions, dreams, and actions of those around him, trying in particular to bend his two children to his will.
These thoughts about difficult people came unbidden to Linda just as she was about to ring Anna’s doorbell. She paused, her finger hovering a few centimeters from the buzzer. Anna is a difficult person, she thought. She doesn’t seem to understand the worry she caused, and how her actions affect me.
When she finally rang the doorbell, Anna opened, smiling, dressed in a white blouse and dark pants. She was barefoot and had pulled her hair back into a loose knot.
Linda had decided to bring it up right away to clear the air. She threw her jacket over a chair and said:
“I have to tell you I read the last few pages of your journal. I only did it to see if there was any explanation for your disappearance.”
Anna flinched.
“Then that was what I sensed,” she said. “It was almost as if there was a different smell when I opened the pages.”
“I’m sorry, but I was so worried. I only read the last couple of pages, nothing more.”
We lie to make our half-truths seem more plausible, she thought. Anna may see through me. The journal will always be between us now. She’ll always be asking herself what I did and didn’t read.
They walked into the living room. Anna stood by the window, her back to Linda.
Linda realized she no longer knew Anna. She looked at her friend, who stood with her back turned, thinking she might as well be looking at an enemy.
“There’s one question you still need to answer.”
Linda waited for her to turn around but she didn’t.
“I hate talking to people’s backs.”
Still no reaction. You may be a difficult person, Linda thought. But sometimes difficult people go too far. Grandpa would have thrown an eel like this into the fire and let it writhe to death in the flames.
“Why did you check into that hotel under my name?”
Linda tried to interpret Anna’s back while she simultaneously wiped the sweat from her neck. This will be my curse, she had thought back in the first month of her police training. There are laughing policemen and crying policemen, but I’m going to be known as the perspiring policewoman.
Anna burst into laughter and turned around. Linda tried to judge if her laughter was genuine.
“How did you find out?”
“I called the hotel.”
“May I ask why?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you ask them, exactly?”
“It’s not so hard to figure out.”
“Tell me.”
“I asked if an Anna Westin was still there or if she had checked out. They didn’t have an Anna Westin, but they did have a Wallander, they said. It was that simple. But why did you do it?”
“What would you say if I told you I didn’t know why I used your name? Maybe I was afraid my father would run away again if he found out I had checked into the hotel where we saw each other. If you want the truth, it’s that I don’t know.”
The phone rang, but Anna made no move to pick it up. The answering machine switched on and then Zeba’s chirpy voice filled the room. She was calling for no reason, she informed them happily.
“I love people who call for no reason with so much positive energy,” Anna said.
Linda didn’t answer. She had no room to think about Zeba.
“I read a name in your diary: Birgitta Medberg. Do you know what’s happened to her?”
“No.”
“Don’t you read the papers?”
“I was looking for my father.”
“She’s been found murdered.”
Anna looked closely at her.
“Why?”
“I don’t know why.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying she was murdered. The police don’t know who did it, but they’re going to want to talk to you about her.”
Anna shook her head.
“What happened? Who would want to kill her?”
Linda decided not to reveal any details about the murder. She simply sketched out the news in broad brush-strokes. Anna’s dismay seemed completely genuine.
“When did this happen?”
“A few days ago.”
Anna shook her head again, left the window, and sat down in a chair.
“How did you know her?” Linda asked.
Anna looked narrowly at her.
“Is this a cross-examination?”
“I’m curious.”
“We rode horses together. I don’t remember the first time we met, but there was someone who had two Norwegian Fjord horses that needed exercising. Birgitta and I both volunteered to ride them. I didn’t know her at all. She never said very much. I know she mapped old pilgrimage trails. We also shared an interest in butterflies. But I don’t know anything more about her. She wrote to me fairly recently and suggested we buy a horse together. I never replied.”
Linda tried to remain alert for any hints that Anna was lying. I’m not the person who should be doing this, she thought. I should be driving a patrol car and picking up drunks. Dad should be talking to Anna, not I. It’s just that damn butterfly. It should be hanging on the wall.
Anna had already followed her gaze and read her mind.
“I took the butterfly with me when I went to look for my dad. I was going to give it to him, but then when I realized it was all my imagination, I threw it into the canal.”
It could be true, Linda thought. Or else she lies so well I can’t tell.
The phone rang again. Ann-Britt Höglund’s voice came into the room. Anna looked at Linda, who nodded. Anna picked up the receiver. The conversation was brief and Anna didn’t say much. She hung up.
“They want me to come in now,” she said.
Linda got up.
“Then you’d better go.”
“I want you to come with me.”
“Why?”
“I’d feel more secure.”
Linda hesitated.
“I’m not sure it’s appropriate.”
“But I’m not accused of anything. They just want to have a conversation with me, at least that’s what the woman said. And you’re both a police officer and my friend.”
“I’m happy to go down there with you, but I’m not sure they’ll let me stay in the room when they talk to you.”
Höglund came out into the reception area at the police station to meet Anna. She looked disapprovingly at Linda. She doesn’t like me, Linda thought. She’s the kind of woman who prefers young men with piercings and an attitude. Höglund had put on weight. Soon you’ll be dumpy, Linda thought with satisfaction. I still wonder what Dad saw in you when he courted you a few years ago.