'It's probably best if you call and ask if he's home.'
Svedberg looked up the number. Eklund picked up almost immediately.
'We can come any time,' Svedberg said when he had finished the brief conversation.
They took his car, which was better than Wallander's. Svedberg drove quickly and confidently. Wallander travelled west along Strandvägen for the second time that day. He told Svedberg about his visits to the nursing home and Elisabeth Lamberg.
'I can't escape the feeling that this woman is important,' he said. 'And that she definitely has something to do with Simon Lamberg.'
They continued on in silence. Wallander enjoyed the view, somewhat distractedly. He also dozed off for a moment. His cheek no longer hurt, although it was still discoloured. His tongue had also started to get used to the temporary crown.
Svedberg only needed to ask for directions once in order to find Eklund's address in Trelleborg. It was a red-brick apartment building in the centre of town. Eklund was on the ground floor. He had spotted them and was waiting with an open door. He was a large man with abundant grey hair. When he shook Wallander's hand, he squeezed so hard it almost hurt. He invited them into the small apartment. Coffee had been set out. Wallander immediately assumed that Eklund lived on his own. The apartment was tidy but nonetheless projected the impression of a single man living alone. He had this idea confirmed as soon as he sat down.
'I've been on my own for the past three years,' he said. 'My wife died. That was when I moved here. We only had one year together in retirement. One morning she lay dead in the bed.'
Neither of the detectives said anything. There was nothing to say. Eklund picked up the plate of pastries. Wallander chose a piece of Bundt cake.
'You were the driver on a charter bus trip to Austria in 1981,' he started. 'Markresor were the organisers. You left from Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, with Austria as your final destination.'
'We were going to Salzburg and Vienna. Thirty-two passengers, one travel director and me. The bus was a Scania, completely new.'
'I thought that bus trips to the Continent went out of vogue after the 1960s,' Svedberg said.
'They did,' Eklund said. 'But they came back. Markresor – Ground Travel – may seem like a silly name for a travel agency, but they were on the right track. There turned out to be a lot of people who absolutely did not want to go up in the air and be tossed to some distant holiday destination. There were people who really wanted to experience travelling.
And for that you have to stay on the ground.'
'I've heard that you kept the passenger lists,' Wallander said.
'It became an obsession,' Eklund said. 'I look through them sometimes. I don't remember most of them. Some names bring out memories. Most of them good, some that you'd rather forget.'
He got up and reached for a plastic sleeve on a shelf. He held it out to Wallander. It contained a list of thirty-two names. He picked out the name Lamberg almost immediately. He went slowly through the rest of the names, none of which had appeared in the context of the investigation before. More than half of the passengers came from the middle of Sweden. There was also a couple from Härnösand, a woman from Luleå, as well as seven individuals from southern Sweden. From Halmstad, Eslöv and Lund. Wallander passed the list to Svedberg.
'You said you had pictures from the trip? That Lamberg had taken?'
'Because of his profession, he was appointed our official photographer. He took almost all of the shots. Those who wanted copies wrote their names on a list. Everyone received what they had ordered. He kept his promises.'
Eklund lifted a newspaper. Under it there was an envelope with photographs.
'Lamberg gave me all of these free of charge. He had chosen them himself. I wasn't the one who picked them out.'
Wallander slowly looked through the stack of pictures. There were nineteen in all. He already sensed that Lamberg would not appear in any of them, since he had been behind the camera. But in the second-to-last one he appeared in a group shot. On the back someone had written that the photo had been taken in a rest area between Salzburg and Vienna. Even Eklund was in it. Wallander assumed that Lamberg had used a timer. He went through the stack one more time. Studied details and faces. Suddenly he noticed a woman's face that appeared again and again. She always stared straight into the camera. And smiled. When Wallander looked at her features, he had the feeling that there was something familiar about it, without being able to put his finger on what it was.
He asked Svedberg to take a look at them.
'What do you remember of Lamberg from that trip?'
'To begin with I didn't notice him very much. But then there was plenty of drama.'
Svedberg looked up quickly.
'What do you mean?' Wallander asked.
'Maybe one shouldn't talk about these kinds of things,' Eklund said hesitantly. 'He's dead now. But he got together with one of the ladies on the trip. And it was not an uncomplicated matter.'
'Why not?'
'Because she was married. And her husband was there.'
Wallander let this sink in.
'There was something else,' Eklund said, 'that probably didn't help matters much.'
'What was that?'
'She was a minister's wife. He was a man of the Church.'
Eklund pointed him out in one of the pictures. The hymn book flashed through Wallander's head. He realised he was sweating. He glanced at Svedberg. He had the feeling his colleague was having the same associations.
Wallander grabbed the stack of photographs, taking out one where the unknown woman was smiling at the camera.
'Is this her?' he asked.
Eklund looked at it and nodded.
'It is. Can you imagine? A minister's wife from a parish outside Lund.'
Wallander looked at Svedberg again.
'How did the whole thing end?'
'I don't know. And I'm not even sure if the minister discovered what was going on behind his back. To me he seemed very unaware of worldly things. But the whole situation on the trip was very uncomfortable.'
Wallander looked at the image of the woman. Suddenly he knew who she was.
'What is the name of this family?'
'Wislander. Anders and Louise.'
Svedberg studied the passenger list and wrote down their address.
'We need to borrow these photos for a while,' Wallander said. 'You'll get them back of course.'
Eklund nodded.
'I hope I haven't said too much,' he said.
'Quite the opposite. You've been a big help.'
They said goodbye, thanked him for the coffee and walked out onto the street.
'This woman fits the description of the woman who visits Matilda Lamberg,' Wallander said. 'I want to confirm that it is her, as soon as possible. Why she visits Matilda, I don't know. But that will have to be a later question.'
They hurried to the car and left Trelleborg. Before they left, however, Wallander called Ystad from a phone booth and, after considerable effort, managed to get hold of Martinsson. Wallander quickly explained what had happened and asked Martinsson to find out if Anders Wislander was still minister of a parish outside Lund.
They would come in to the station as soon as they had been to Rynge.
'Do you think she could be the one?' Svedberg asked later.
Wallander sat silent for a long time before answering.
'No,' he said finally. 'But it could be him.'
Svedberg glanced at him.
'A minister?'
Wallander nodded.
'Why not? Ministers are ministers, but also human. Of course it's possible. And aren't there any number of brass objects in a church?'
They stopped only briefly in Rynge. The director immediately identified the unknown woman in the picture Wallander showed her. Then they continued on to the station in Ystad and went straight into Martinsson's office. Hansson was also there.