One Step Behind

"I'm going to search his flat later tonight."

Wallander made sure that he had Birch's mobile number, then crossed the street to his car. It was 10.30 p.m.

Before he had a chance to start the car, the phone buzzed in his pocket and he answered.

"Is this Kurt Wallander?"

"Yes."

"Lone Kjær here. I just wanted to tell you that the woman we're calling Louise is at the Amigo right now. What do you want us to do?"

Wallander made a quick decision. "I'm already in Malmö. I'll be right over. If she leaves, have someone follow her."

"There's a boat leaving at 11 p.m., I think. That brings you to Copenhagen at around 11.45 p.m. I'll meet you on this side."

"Just don't lose her," Wallander said. "I need this one."

"We'll watch over her well, I promise."

Wallander hung up and stared unseeing into the darkness, his excitement growing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Wallander picked her out as soon as he got off the boat. She was wearing a leather coat, she had short blond hair, and she was younger than he imagined, and smaller. But there was no doubt that she was in the force. Why, he couldn't have said, but he could always pick out the police officer in a group of strangers.

He stopped in front of her and they exchanged greetings.

"Louise is still at the bar," she said.

"If that really is her name," Wallander said.

"Why is she so important to your investigation?"

Wallander had been thinking about this on the way over. He couldn't co

"I think she may have interesting information for us. Of course, a bar is hardly the best place for this kind of a conversation."

"You can always use my office."

A police car was waiting for them, and they drove away in silence. Wallander thought about the last time he had been in Copenhagen. It was when he'd attended a performance of Tosca at Det Kongelige theatre. He'd gone to a bar after the performance and was dead drunk by the time he caught the last boat for Malmö.

Lone Kjær was speaking to someone on the car radio.

"She's still there," she said, pointing out the window. "It's across the street. Do you want me to wait for you?"

"Why don't you come in?"

The broken neon sign simply read "igo". Wallander was about to meet the woman he'd been wondering about since he'd found her photograph in Svedberg's secret compartment under the floorboards.

They opened the door, pushed aside the heavy red curtain, and entered the bar. It was warm and smoky inside, the lighting was tinged red, and it was full of people. A man walked towards them on his way out.

"All the way at the end of the bar," he said to Lone Kjær.

Wallander nodded to him, then left Kjær by the door and started making his way through the crowd.

He caught sight of her. She was sitting at the far end of the bar. Her hair looked just as it had in the photograph. Wallander stood frozen, watching her. She looked like she was alone, although there were people on either side of her. She was drinking a glass of wine. When she turned her head in his direction, he slipped behind a tall man who was drinking a beer. When Wallander looked again she was staring down at her glass of wine. Wallander turned, nodded to Kjær, and made his way over to Louise.

He was in luck. Just as he reached her, the man on her left stood up and left. Wallander sank down on the bar stool, and she glanced at him quickly.

"I think your name is Louise," Wallander said. "My name is Kurt Wallander, and I'm a police officer from Ystad. I need to speak to you."

She tensed up for a moment, then relaxed and smiled.

"All right, but I'd like to visit the ladies' room first, if you don't mind. I was just about to get up when you sat down."

She got up and walked towards the back of the room, where there were signs to the men's and women's lavatories.

The bartender caught Wallander's eye, but he shook his head to indicate he wouldn't be ordering anything. She doesn't speak with a Scanian dialect, he thought. But she is Swedish.

Kjær came closer. Wallander gave her a sign that everything was proceeding smoothly. The clock hanging on the wall advertised a brand of whisky that Wallander had never heard of. Four minutes went by. Wallander looked over at the area leading to the lavatories. A man walked by, then another. He tried to concentrate on his questions, wondering which he should ask first.

Seven minutes had gone by now, and he realised something was wrong. He got up and walked towards the lavatories. Kjær appeared at his side.

"Go into the ladies' room and look around."

"Why? She hasn't come out again. I would have seen her if she had tried to leave."

"Something's wrong," Wallander said. "I want you to check for me."

Kjær went into the women's lavatory and Wallander waited. She was back again almost immediately.

"She's not in there."

"Damn it," Wallander said. "Is there a window in there?"

Without waiting for an answer he jerked the door open and went in. Two women were adjusting their make-up in front of the mirror. Wallander hardly noticed them. Louise was gone. He ran out again.

"She must still be here somewhere," Kjær said in disbelief. "I would have seen her."

"But she isn't," Wallander said.

He made his way to the front door through a throng of people that seemed to be getting thicker all the time. The bouncer looked like a wrestler.

"Ask him," Wallander said. "We're looking for a woman with medium-length dark hair. Did anyone like that leave recently? It would have been ten minutes ago at the most."

Kjær asked the bouncer but he shook his head, and said something that Wallander didn't catch.

"He's sure," she yelled over the noise in the room.

Wallander turned and started pushing his way through the crowd again. He was looking for her, but part of him knew she was already gone.

Finally he gave up, and made his way over to the bartender. He couldn't see the glass of wine Louise had been drinking.

"Where's the glass that was here?" he asked.

"I've already washed it."

Wallander waved to Kjær and she came over. He pointed to the top of the bar.

"I don't know how likely we are to get anything, but let's try for some fingerprints."

"It'll be a first for me," she said. "I've never had to cordon off a section of a bar before. But I'll make sure it's done."

Wallander left and walked out into the street. He was drenched with sweat and shaking with anger. How could he have been so stupid? That smile, her willingness to speak with him, just a trip to the ladies' room first. Why hadn't he seen through it?

Kjær came out after ten minutes. "I really don't know how she did it," she said. "I know I would have seen her if she had tried to leave."

But the pieces were starting to fit together. Slowly Wallander understood what must have happened. There was only one answer. It was so unexpected that he needed time to grasp its full implication.

"Can we go to your office?" he asked. "I need time to think."

When they got there, Kjær brought him a cup of coffee and repeated her question.

"I just don't understand how she got away without being seen."

"That's because she never left," Wallander said. "Louise is still in there somewhere."

She looked at him with surprise. "Still there? Then why did we come here?"

Wallander shook his head dully. He was frustrated at his lack of awareness. He had sensed that there was something strange about her hair the first time he'd seen her picture in Svedberg's flat.

I should have seen it back then, he thought. That it was a wig.

She repeated her last question.

"In a way, Louise is still in the bar," he answered, "because Louise is just an act, put on by someone else. A man. That wrestler who was guarding the door said three men left the bar during the last ten minutes. One of them was Louise, with her wig in her pocket and all her make-up wiped off."