Wallander thought about asking Törngren to leave. But he saw an opportunity and decided to take it.
“I want a third party present,” he said.
Törngren kept smiling.
“A witness to the interview?”
“I’ve had bad experiences with reporters before.”
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re welcome to have ten witnesses.”
Wallander looked down at his watch. It was twenty-five minutes past seven.
“I’ll give you half an hour. No more.”
“When?”
“Right now.”
They walked in together. Irene said that Martinsson had already come in. Wallander told Törngren to wait while he went to Martinsson’s office. He was doing something on his computer. Wallander quickly explained the situation.
Martinsson seemed to hesitate.
“As long as you don’t flare up.”
“Do I usually say things I don’t mean?” Wallander objected.
“It happens.”
Martinsson was right.
“I’ll keep it in mind. Come on.”
They sat down in one of the smaller conference rooms. Törngren put his little tape recorder on the table. Martinsson kept himself in the background.
“I spoke to Eva Persson’s mother last night,” Törngren said. “They have decided to press charges against you.”
“For what?”
“For assault. What’s your reaction?”
“There was never any question of assault.”
“That’s not what they say. And I have a picture of what happened.”
“Do you want to know what happened?”
“I’d be delighted to hear your version.”
“It’s not a version. It’s the truth.”
“It’s their word against yours, you know.”
Wallander was starting to realize the impossibility of what he was trying to do and regretted allowing the interview. But it was too late now. He simply told Törngren him what happened. Eva Persson had attacked her mother and Wallander had tried to separate them. The girl had been wild. He had slapped her.
“Both the mother and the girl deny this.”
“Nonetheless, it’s what actually happened.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that she started hitting her mother?”
“Eva Persson had just confessed to murder. It was a tense moment. At such times unexpected things can happen.”
“Eva Persson told me last night that she had been forced to confess.”
Wallander and Martinsson looked at each other.
“Forced?”
“That’s what I said.”
“And who forced her to do this?”
“The officers who interrogated her.”
Martinsson was upset.
“That’s the damndest thing I ever heard,” he said. “We most certainly do not coerce anyone during our interrogations.”
“I’m just repeating what she said. She now denies everything. She says she’s innocent.”
Wallander looked hard at Martinsson, who didn’t say anything else. Wallander felt completely calm.
“The pre-investigation is far from complete,” he said. “Eva Persson is tied to the crime, and even if she has decided to retract her confession it doesn’t change anything at this point.”
“You’re saying she’s lying.”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Why not?”
“Because in order to do so I would have to reveal information about an ongoing investigation. Information that is still classified.”
“But you are claiming she’s lying?”
“Those are your words. I can only tell you what actually happened.”
Wallander was starting to see the headlines. But he knew what he was doing was right. Eva Persson and her mother were cunning, but it wasn’t likely to help them in the long run. Nor would exaggerated and emotional newspaper coverage.
“The girl is very young,” Törngren said. “She claims she was pulled into these tragic events by her much older friend. Doesn’t that sound plausible? Couldn’t Eva Persson be telling the truth?”
Wallander considered telling the truth about Sonja Hökberg. The most recent events had not yet been made public, but he decided against saying anything. It would still give him an advantage.
“You and your newspaper are not the ones in charge of this investigation. We are. If you wish to draw your own conclusions and arrive at your own judgment, we can’t stop you. But the reality is probably going to turn out to be something quite different. Not that it will be given much space in your paper.”
Wallander let his hands fall palms down on the table to signal the end of the interview.
“Thank you for your time,” Törngren said and started putting his tape recorder away.
“Martinsson will show you out,” Wallander said.
He left the room without shaking hands. While he was getting his mail he tried to judge how the interview with Törngren had gone. Was there something he should have added? Was there something he should have expressed differently? He carried a cup of coffee back to his office with the mail tucked under his arm. He decided that the conversation with Törngren had gone well, even if he couldn’t control what eventually showed up in the newspaper report. He sat down and started going through the mail. There was nothing that couldn’t wait. He reminded himself of Enander’s visit, shuffled through his notes in the top desk drawer, and called the coroner’s office in Lund. He was lucky and was immediately put through to the pathologist in question. Wallander briefly described Enander’s visit. The pathologist listened carefully and took down the relevant information. He ended the conversation after he had promised to notify Wallander if any of the new information was likely to lead to the revision of the conclusions of the autopsy.
At eight o’clock, Wallander got up and went to the large conference room. Lisa Holgersson was already there, as well as the attorney Lennart Viktorsson. Wallander felt a surge of adrenaline when he caught sight of him. Most people would probably keep a low profile after ending up on the front page of the newspaper. Wallander had gone through his moment of weakness the day before when he left the station early. But now he was ready for battle. He sat down in his chair and started speaking.
“As you all know, the evening papers ran a photograph of Eva Persson last night in which she had fallen down because I had slapped her. Although both the girl and her mother claim otherwise, what happened was that the girl was hitting her mother in the face and I was trying to intervene. She was in a fury. To snap her out of it, I slapped her. It was just hard enough to knock her off balance and she fell. This is also what I told the reporter who snuck into the station. I met with him this morning, as Martinsson can report.”
He paused before continuing and looked around at the people gathered at the table. Chief Holgersson seemed put out. He sensed that she had wanted to be the one to bring it up.
“I’ve been told that there will be an internal investigation of the matter, which is fine with me. But now I think we should turn our attention to the matter at hand: Lundberg’s murder and sorting out what actually happened to Sonja Hökberg.”
Holgersson started speaking as soon as he was finished. Wallander didn’t like the expression on her face. He still felt like she was letting him down.
“I think it goes without saying that you will no longer be allowed to question Eva Persson,” she said.
Wallander nodded.
“Even I understand that much.”
I should really have said more, he thought. That a police officer’s first duty is to stand by his colleagues — not uncritically, not at any price. But as long as it is a question of one person’s word against another. This lie is easier for her than standing up for the uncomfortable truth.