“Why Moscow?”
“I just saw somewhere that exciting things often happen there. Have you ever been to Moscow?”
“No. Just answer my questions. So, you went out that night.”
“You already know that.”
“Were you and Eva good friends?”
“Why else would we have gone out together? Do I seem like the kind of person who would go out with people she didn’t like?”
For the first time Wallander thought he could detect a note of emotion in her voice. Impatience.
“How long have you known each other?”
“Not very long.”
“How long?”
“A few years.”
“She’s five years younger than you are.”
“She looks up to me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“She’s told me so herself. She looks up to me.”
“Why is that?”
“You’ll have to ask her yourself.”
I will, Wallander thought. I have a lot of things to ask her.
“Can you tell me what happened that night?”
“Jesus Christ!”
“You have to, whether you want to or not. We can stay here all night if we have to.”
“We had a beer.”
“Even though Eva Persson is only fourteen?”
“She looks older.”
“Then what happened?”
“We ordered another beer.”
“And after that?”
“We called a cab. But you know all this. Why do you keep asking?”
“Had you already decided to attack this taxi driver?”
“We needed the money.”
“For what?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Let me see if I have this straight: you needed money, but not for anything in particular.”
“Right.”
No, that’s not right, Wallander thought. He had noticed a note of insecurity in her answer. He immediately grew more attentive.
“Normally, when you need money it’s for something in particular.”
“Not in our case.”
Oh, yes it was, Wallander thought. But he decided to leave the matter for now.
“How did you come up with the idea of robbing a taxi driver?”
“We talked about it.”
“At the restaurant?”
“Yes.”
“So you hadn’t talked about it earlier?”
“Why would we have done that?”
Lötberg was staring down into his hands.
“Would it be correct to say that you had no intention of assaulting the taxi driver before you went to the restaurant? Whose idea was it?”
“It was mine.”
“Eva had no objections?”
“No.”
This doesn’t hang together, Wallander thought. She’s lying, but she’s remarkably collected.
“You ordered the taxi from the restaurant, then waited until it arrived. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“But where did the hammer and knife come from? If you hadn’t planned the attack in advance, I mean.”
Sonja Hökberg looked steadily into Wallander’s eyes.
“I always carry a hammer with me,” she said. “And Eva always has a knife.”
“Why?”
“You never know what’s going to happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“The streets are full of crazy people. You have to be able to defend yourself.”
“So you mean to say you always go out with this hammer in your purse?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever used it before?”
Lötberg looked up.
“That question bears no relevance to this case,” he said.
“What does that mean?” Sonja Hökberg asked.
“Relevance? That he has no business asking that question.”
“I can answer anyway. I had never used the hammer before. But Eva cut someone once. Some creep who was trying to feel her up.”
Wallander was struck by a sudden thought and veered away from his earlier line of questioning.
“Did you meet anyone at that restaurant? Had you made a date with anyone?”
“No.”
“You don’t have a boyfriend?”
“No.”
That answer came a Little too quickly, Wallander thought. He made a mental note of it.
“The taxi came and you left.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do then?”
“What do you think? We told him where we wanted to go.”
“And you said you wanted to be driven out to Rydsgård. Why?”
“I don’t know. We had to say something and that was the first thing that came to mind.”
“Eva sat up front with the driver, and you sat in the backseat. Did you decide on that beforehand?”
“That was the plan.”
“What plan?”
“That we would get the driver to stop because Eva wanted to get in the back seat with me. And that’s when we were going to get him.”
“So you had already decided to use your weapons?”
“Not if he had been younger.”
“What would you have done then?”
“Then we would have got him to stop by pulling up our skirts and being suggestive.”
Wallander noticed he had started to sweat. Her obvious detachment from the situation was starting to get to him.
“Suggesting what exactly?”
“What do you think?”
“You would entice him into thinking he could have sex with you?”
“You dirty old fuck.”
Lötberg leaned forward.
“You should watch your language.”
Sonja Hökberg looked over at him.
“I’ll use whatever language I please.”
Lötberg sat back again. Wallander decided to move on.
“But, as it happened, the taxi driver was an older man. You got him to stop. Then what?”
“I hit him in the head. Eva stabbed him with the knife.”
“How many times did you strike him?”
“I don’t know. A couple of times. I wasn’t counting.”
“You weren’t afraid of killing him?”
“We needed the money.”
“That wasn’t what I was asking. What I want to know is, were you aware that the wounds you were inflicting could be fatal?”
Sonja Hökberg shrugged. Wallander waited but she didn’t say anything. He didn’t feel he had the energy to repeat the last question.
“You say you needed money. For what?”
“Nothing in particular. I told you.”
“Then what happened?”
“We took his wallet and the cell phone and walked home.”
“What happened to the wallet?”
“We divided up the cash. Then Eva threw it away somewhere.”
Wallander looked briefly through Martinsson’s notes. Johan Lundberg had been carrying around 600 kronor. They had found the wallet in a wastepaper basket after getting directions from Eva Persson. Sonja Hökberg had taken the cell phone. The police had found it in her bedroom.
Wallander turned off the tape recorder. Sonja Hökberg followed his movements with her eyes.
“Can I go home now?”
“No, as a matter of fact,” Wallander said. “You are nineteen years old and that means you count as an adult in our courts. You have committed a felony, and you will be formally arraigned.”
“And that means?”
“You’ll have to stay here at the station.”
“Why?”
Wallander looked at Lötberg, then stood up.
“I think your attorney can probably explain it to you.”
Wallander left the room. He felt sick to his stomach. Sonja Hökberg had not been putting on an act in there. She had no sense of wrongdoing. Wallander walked into Martinsson’s office and sat down in a chair. Martinsson was on the phone but gestured that he would be off soon. While Wallander waited he felt a strong urge to smoke. That almost never happened. But his meeting with Sonja Hökberg had been unusually disturbing.