The White Lioness Read Online Free Page B

Gustav Hallden, whom he had met once before. He also asked Hallden to keep his visit confidential.
    "After all, we're not sure if anything serious has happened," Wallander said.
    "I get it," Hallden said. "You just think something may have happened."
    Wallander nodded. That's exactly how it was. How could you possibly be sure just where the boundary was between thinking and knowing?
    His train of thought was interrupted by somebody addressing him. A fuzzy voice saying: "I believe you wanted to talk to me."
    Wallander turned round. "Are you Moberg, the assistant manager?"
    The man said that he was. He was young, surprisingly young according to Wallander's idea of how old an assistant manager should be. But there was something else that immediately attracted his attention.
    One of the man's cheeks was noticeably swollen.
    "I still have some trouble speaking."
    Wallander couldn't understand what the man was saying.
    "We'd better wait," Moberg said. "Shouldn't we wait until the injection has worn off ?"
    "Let's try anyway," Wallander said. "I'm short of time, I'm afraid. If it doesn't hurt too much when you talk."
    Moberg shook his head and led the way into a small meeting room at the back.
    "This is exactly where we were," the assistant manager said. "You're sitting in Mrs Akerblom's chair. Hallden said you wanted to talk about her. Has she disappeared?"
    "She's been reported missing," Wallander said. "I expect she's just visiting relatives and forgot to tell them at home."
    He could see even from Moberg's swollen expression that he regarded Wallander's reservations with scepticism. Fair enough, thought Wallander. If you're missing, you're missing. You can't be partially missing.
    "What was it you want to know?" asked the assistant manager, pouring a glass of water from the carafe on the table and gulping it down.
    "All that happened last Friday afternoon," Wallander said. "In detail. Exact time, what she said, what she did. I also want the name of the parties buying and selling the house that was being exchanged, in case I need to contact them later. Had you met Louise Akerblom before?"
    "I met her several times," Moberg said. "We were involved in four of her company's property deals."
    "Tell me about last Friday."
    Moberg took his diary from the inside pocket of his jacket. "The meeting had been set for 2.15," he said. "Louise Akerblom turned up a couple of minutes early. We exchanged a few words about the weather."
    "Did she seem tense or worried?"
    Moberg thought for a moment before answering. "No," he said. "On the contrary, she seemed happy. Before, I always thought she was uptight, but not on Friday."
    Wallander nodded, encouraging him to go on.
    "The clients arrived, a young couple called Nilson. And the seller, representing the estate of somebody who had died in Sovde. We sat down here and went through the whole procedure. There was nothing out of the ordinary. All the documents were just so. The deeds, the mortgage, the loan forms, the bank draft. It didn't take long. Then we broke up. I rather think we all wished one another a pleasant weekend, but I can't remember exactly."
    "Was Louise Akerblom in a hurry?"
    The assistant manager thought it over again. "Could be," he said. "Maybe she was. I'm not sure. But there is something I'm quite certain about."
    "What?"
    "She didn't go straight to her car." Moberg pointed at the window, which looked over a small car park. "Those lots are for the bank's customers. I saw her park there when she arrived. It was a quarter of an hour after she'd left the bank before she drove off. I was still in here, on the telephone. That's how I could see everything. I think she had a bag in her hand when she got to the car. As well as her briefcase."
    "A bag?" Wallander said. "What did it look like?"
    Moberg shrugged. Wallander could see the injection was wearing off.
    "What does a bag look like?" said the assistant manager. "I think it was a paper bag. Not plastic."
    "And then she drove off