Then Wallander said goodbye and hung up.
As he did so, he realised that what he had just said to Martinsson was no longer true. In just a few seconds, everything had changed.
He stood by the phone for more than five minutes. Then he drank his coffee, dressed and went down to his car. At 7.30 he walked through the police-station door for the first time in 18 months. He nodded to the security guard in reception, made a beeline for Bjork's office and knocked on the door. Bjork stood up as he came in, and Wallander noticed that he was thinner. He could see, too, that Bjork was uncertain as to how to deal with the situation.
I'm going to make it easy for him, Wallander thought. He won't understand a thing at first, but then, neither do I.
"Naturally we're pleased to hear you seem to be better," Bjork began, hesitantly. "But, of course, we'd prefer you to be coming back to work rather than leaving us. We need you." He gestured towards his desk, piled high with papers. "Today I have to respond to important matters such as a proposed new design for police uniforms, and yet another incomprehensible draft for a change in the system involving relations between the county constabulary and the county police chiefs. Have you kept up with this?"
Wallander shook his head.
"I wonder where we're heading?" said Bjork, glumly. "If the new uniform design goes through, it's my belief that in future police officers will look like something between a carpenter and a ticket collector."
He looked at Wallander, inviting a comment, but Wallander said nothing.
"The police were nationalised in the 1960s," Bjork said. "Now they're going to do it all over again. Parliament wants to abolish local constabularies and create something entirely new and call it the National Police Force. But the police has always been a national force. What else could it be? The sovereign legal systems of independent provinces were lost in the Middle Ages. How do they think anybody can get on with a day's work when they're buried under an avalanche of woolly memoranda? To cap it all I have to prepare a lecture for a totally unnecessary conference on what they call 'refusal-of-entry techniques'. What they mean is what to do when aliens who can't get a visa have to be loaded on to buses and ferries and deported without too much kerfuffle and protest."
"I realise you're very busy," Wallander said, thinking that Bjork hadn't changed an atom. He'd never got his role as Chief of Police under control. The job controlled him.
"I've got all the papers here," Bjork went on. "All we need is your signature, and you're an ex-policeman. I have to accept your decision, even if I don't like it. By the way, I hope you don't mind, but I've called a press conference for 9 a.m. You've become a famous police officer in the last few years, Kurt. Even if you've acted a little strangely every now and again, there's no denying you've done a lot for our good name and reputation. They do say that there are police cadets who claim to have been inspired by you."
"I'm sure that's not true," Wallander said. "And you can cancel the press conference."
He could see that this annoyed Bjork.
"Out of the question," he said. "It's the least you can do for your colleagues. Besides, Swedish Police magazine is going to run a feature on you."
Wallander walked up to Bjork's desk.
"I'm not packing it in," he said. "I've come here today to start work again."
Bjork stared at him in astonishment.
"There won't be a press conference," Wallander said. "I'm starting work again as of now. I'm going to get the doctor to sign a certificate to say I'm fit. I feel good. I want to work."
"I hope you're not pulling my leg," said Bjork, uneasily.
"No," Wallander said. "Something's happened that's changed my mind."
"This is very sudden."
"For me as well. To be precise it's just over an hour since I changed my mind. But I have one condition. Or rather, a request."
Bjork waited.
"I want to be in charge of the Sten Torstensson case," Wallander said. "Who's in charge at the moment?"
"Everybody's involved," Bjork said. "Svedberg and Martinsson are in the main team, together with me. Akeson is the prosecutor in charge."
"Young Torstensson was a friend of mine," Wallander said.
Bjork nodded and rose to his feet. "Is this really true?" he said. "Have you really changed your mind?"
"You heard what I said."
Bjork walked round his desk and stood face to face with Wallander. "That's the best piece of news I've heard for a very long time," he said. "Let's tear these documents up. Your colleagues are in for a surprise."
"Who's got my old office?" Wallander said.
"Hanson."
"I'd like it back, if possible."
"Of course. Hanson's on a course in Halmstad this week anyway. You can move in straight away."
They walked down the corridor together until they came to Wallander's old office. His nameplate had been removed. That threw him for a moment.
"I need an hour to myself," Wallander said.
"We have a meeting at 8.30 about the Torstensson murder," Bjork said. "In the little conference room. You're sure you're serious about this?"
"Why shouldn't I be?"
Bjork hesitated before continuing. "You have been known to be a bit whimsical, even injudicious," he said. "There's no getting away from that."
"Don't forget to cancel the press conference," Wallander said.
Bjork reached out his hand. "Welcome back," he said.
"Thanks."
Wallander closed the door behind Bjork and immediately took the phone off the hook. He looked round the room. The desk was new. Hanson had brought his own. But the chair was Wallander's old one.
He hung up his jacket and sat down.
Same old smell, he thought. Same furniture polish, same dry air, same faint aroma of the endless cups of coffee that get drunk in this station.
He sat for a long time without moving.
He'd agonised for a year and more, searched for the truth about himself and his future. A decision had gradually formed and broken through the indecision. Then he had started reading a newspaper and everything had changed.
For the first time in ages he felt a glow of satisfaction.
He had reached a decision. Whether it was the right one he could not say. But that didn't matter any more.
He reached for a notepad and wrote: Sten Torstensson. He was back on duty.
Chapter 3
At 8.30, when Bjork closed the door of the conference room, Wallander felt as if he had never been away. The year and a half that had passed since his last investigation meeting had been erased. It was like waking up from a long slumber during which time had ceased to exist.
They were sitting around the oval table, as so often before. As Bjork had still not said anything, Wallander assumed his colleagues were expecting a short speech to thank them for their friendship and cooperation over the years. Then he would take his leave and the rest would concentrate on their notes and get on with the search for the killer of Sten Torstensson.
Wallander realised that he had instinctively taken his usual place, on Bjork's left. The chair on the other side was empty. It was as if his colleagues did not want to intrude too closely on somebody who did not really belong any more. Martinsson sat opposite him, sniffing loudly. Wallander wondered when he had ever seen Martinsson without a cold. Next to him sat Svedberg, rocking backwards and forwards on his chair and scratching his bald head with a pencil, as usual.
Everything would have been just as before, it seemed to Wallander, had it not been for the woman in jeans and a blue blouse sitting on her own at the opposite end of the table. He had never met her, but he knew who she was, and even knew her name. It was almost two years since they had started talking about strengthening the Ystad force, and that was when the name Ann-Britt Hoglund had cropped up for the first time. She was young, had graduated from Police Training College barely three years before, but had already made a name for herself. She had received one of two prizes awarded on the basis of final examinations and general achievements in the assessment of her fellow cadets. She came from Svarte originally, but had grown up in the Stockholm area. Police forces all over the country had tried to enrol her, but she made it clear she would like to return to Skane, the province of her birth, and took a job with the Ystad force.