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‘Dalköpinge,’ he said. ‘If you're interested in picturesque churches, I can supply at least thirty of them. In the whole district, of course.’
They came to the coast road and turned east. The sea was calm and greyish-blue. Freighters stood along the horizon.
‘What I mean is, if Sigbrit's dead, there are several hundred places she might be. And if someone gave her a ride, Folke or someone else, then there's a pretty good chance she's not in this district at all. In that case, the possibilities are in the thousands.’
He looked out over the coastal landscape and said, ‘Magnificent, isn't it?’
He was clearly a man who was proud of his home.
And not without reason, Martin Beck thought.
They passed Smygehuk.
The green Fiat was following them faithfully.
‘Smygehamn,’ Allwright said. ‘In my day it was called East Torp.’
The villages lay close together. Beddingestrand. Skateholm. Fishing villages, partially converted to seaside resorts, but still pretty. No high-rises and no fancy hotels.
‘Skateholm,’ Allwright said. ‘This is where my territory ends. Now we're coming into the Ystad Division. I'll take you to Abbekås. This is Dybeck. Swampy and miserable. Worst part of the whole coast. Maybe she's out there in the mud. Okay, this is Abbekås.’
Allwright drove slowly through the village.
‘Yes, this is where she lived,’ he said. ‘The woman who got me to give up women. Do you want to have a look at the harbour?’
Martin Beck didn't bother to answer.
There was a little harbour with some benches for telling fish stories and a few old men in Vega caps. Three fishing boats. Stacks of herring boxes, and some nets hung up to dry.
They got out and sat down on separate bollards. Gulls screamed above the breakwater.
The green Fiat had stopped sixty feet away. The two men stayed in the front seat.
‘Do you know them?’ said Martin Beck.
‘No,’ said Allwright. ‘They're just boys. If they want anything, they can come over here and talk. Must be damned dull just sitting there staring.’
Martin Beck said nothing. He got older and older himself, while the reporters got younger and younger. Their relations grew worse and worse every year. Besides, the police weren't popular any more, assuming they ever had been. Personally, Martin Beck didn't feel he had to be ashamed of his job, but he knew a lot of men who were, and still more who really ought to be.
‘What was all that about me and women?’ Allwright asked.
‘It occurred to me that we know very little about Sigbrit Mård. We know what she looks like and where she works, and we know she has never made trouble. We know she's divorced and doesn't have any children. And that's about all. Have you considered the fact that she's at an age when a lot of women feel frustrated, especially if they don't have any children or family or any special interests? When they're approaching menopause and starting to feel old? They feel like their lives have gone wrong, their sex lives in particular, and they often do dumb things. They're attracted to younger men, they get involved in stupid affairs. And they often get taken, financially or emotionally.’
‘Thanks for the lecture,’ Allwright said.
He picked up a board from the ground and threw it in the water. The dog splashed in immediately to retrieve it.
‘Terrific,’ Allwright said. ‘Now he'll make an even worse mess in the back seat. And so you think maybe Sigbrit had a secret sex life or something.’
‘I think it's possible. I mean we have to look into her private life. As much as we can. I mean maybe, after all, there is a chance, just maybe, that she's simply run off with some man who's seven or eight years younger. Just run away from everything in order to be happy for a while. Even if it's only two weeks or a couple of months.’
‘Get herself good and laid,’ Allwright said.
‘Or get a chance to talk to someone she thinks she can relate to.’
Allwright put his head on one side and grinned.
‘That's one theory,’ he said. ‘But I don't believe it.’
‘Because it doesn't fit.’
‘Right. It doesn't fit at all. Do you have a plan? Or is that a presumptuous question?’
‘I'm planning to wait until Lennart gets here. And then I think it's time for an informal chat with Folke Bengtsson and Bertil Mård.’
‘I'd be happy to come along.’
‘I don't doubt it.’
Allwright laughed. Then he stood up, walked over to the green car, and rapped on the side window. The driver, a young man with a red beard, rolled it down and looked at him questioningly.
‘We're going back to Anderslöv now,’ Allwright said. ‘I'll be driving through Källstorp to pick up some eggs from my brother. But you can save your paper some money if you take the road through Skivarp.’
The Fiat followed them and supervised the egg pickup.
‘They clearly don't trust the police,’ Allwright said.
Otherwise nothing much happened that day, which was Friday, 2 November.
Martin Beck made his obligatory visit to Trelleborg and met the Commissioner and the Superintendent who was head of the criminal division. He envied the police chief his office, because it had a view of the harbour.
No one had anything to say about the case.
Sigbrit Mård had been missing for seventeen days, and all anyone knew was the gossip doing the rounds in Anderslöv.
On the other hand, gossip is often well-founded.
Where there's smoke there's fire.
That evening, he got a call from Kollberg, who said he hated driving and was planning to spend the night in Växjö.
‘And how are things in Anderstorp?’ he said.
‘The name is Anderslöv.’
‘Oh yes.’
‘And it's very pleasant here, but the reporters are after us already.’
‘Put your uniform on, you'll get more respect.’
‘None of your wisecracks!’ said Martin Beck.
Then he called Rhea, but there was no answer.
He tried again an hour later and once more just before he went to bed.
This time she was home.
‘I've been trying to get you all evening,’ he said.
‘Really?’
‘What have you been up to?’
‘None of your business,’ she said cheerfully. ‘How's it going?’
‘I don't know for sure. There's a woman who's disappeared.’
‘People can't just disappear. You ought to know that – you're a detective.’
‘I think I love you.’
‘I know you do,’ she said happily. ‘I went to the cinema, and then I went to Butler's for something to eat.’
‘Good night.’
‘Was that all you wanted?’
‘No, but it can wait.’
‘Sleep well, darling,’ she said, and hung up.
Martin Beck hummed as he brushed his teeth. If anyone had been there to hear it, it would probably have sounded odd.
The next day was a holiday. All Saints' Day. He could always spoil it for someone. Månsson in Malmö for example.
6 (#ulink_36ea68e2-b959-5860-8c2f-374946ec03d6)
‘I've met a lot of gorillas in my day,’ Per Månsson said. ‘But Bertil Mård is one of the worst.’
They were sitting on Månsson's balcony overlooking Regementsgatan, enjoying a lovely day.
Martin Beck had taken the bus to Malmö, mostly for the fun of it and so he could say that he had actually travelled the stretch that Sigbrit Mård apparently had not.
He had also tried to question the bus driver, to no avail, since the man was a substitute and had not been driving on the day in question.
Månsson was a large, leisurely man, who took life easy and was seldom guilty of an overstatement. But now he said:
‘The man struck me as a bully.’
‘Lots of sea captains go a bit funny,’ said Martin Beck. ‘They're often very lonely men, and if they're the overbearing type they tend to get tough and autocratic. They turn into gorillas, as you said. The only person they'll talk to is their chief.’
‘Their chief?’
‘The Chief Engineer.’
‘Oh.’
‘A lot of them drink too much and tyrannize their crews. Or else they pretend they don't even exist. Won't even speak to their mates.’
‘You know a lot about ships.’
‘Yes, it's my hobby. I had a case once on a ship. Murder. In the Indian Ocean. On a freighter. One of the most interesting cases I ever had.’
‘Well, I know the skipper of the Malmöhus. He's a decent fellow.’
‘Passenger ships are usually a different matter. The owners put on a different kind of officer. After all, the captains have to socialize with the passengers. On the big ships, they have a captain's table.’
‘What's that?’
‘The captain's own table in the dining room. For entertaining prominent first-class passengers.’
‘I see.’
‘But Mård sailed on tramp steamers. And there's a certain difference.’
‘Yes, he was pretty damned arrogant,’ Månsson said. ‘Yelled at me and cursed his missus. Nasty son of a bitch. He thought he was something special. Rude and arrogant. I'm pretty easygoing, but I damned near lost my temper. That takes some doing.’
‘How does he make a living?’
‘He's got a brewpub in Limhamn. You know the story. He drank his liver to pieces in Ecuador or Venezuela. They had him in the hospital out there for a while. Then the shipping company flew him home. They wouldn't give him a clean bill of health, so he couldn't ship out again. He moved home to his wife in Anderslöv, but that didn't work out at all. He hit the bottle and beat her. She wanted out. He didn't. But she got her divorce, no sweat.’
‘Allwright says he's got an alibi for the seventeenth.’
‘Yes, sort of. He took the train ferry over to Copenhagen to go on a bender. But it's a rotten alibi. Seems to me. Claims he sat in the forward saloon. The ferry sails at a quarter to twelve these days – it used to sail at noon. He says he was alone in the saloon, and the waiter was hung over. And there was one crewman standing in there playing the slot machine. I often take that boat myself. The waiter, whose name is Sture, is always hung over, with bags under his eyes. And that same crewman is generally standing there stuffing one-krona pieces in the slot machine.’
Månsson took a noisy sip of his drink. He always drank the same thing, a mixture of gin and grapefruit soda. It is a Finland-Swedish speciality, called Gripenberger after some obscure officer and nobleman.
The weather was nice in Malmö. The city seemed almost inhabitable.
‘I think you ought to talk to Bertil Mård yourself,’ Månsson said.
Martin Beck nodded.
‘The witness on the ferry identified him,’ Månsson said. ‘He's got the kind of looks you don't forget. The only trouble is that all those things happen every day. The ferry leaves here at the same hour, usually with the same passengers. You can't count on the crew remembering someone a couple of weeks later, and you can't be sure they'd have the right day. Talk to him yourself and see what you think.’
‘But you have already questioned him?’
