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speak for themselves."
    Bjork was just about to intervene when the telephone rang.
    "I said we shouldn't be disturbed," Bjork said.
    Wallander quickly put his hand over the receiver.
    "It could be Akerblom," he said. "Maybe it's best if I talk to him."
    He picked up the phone and gave his name.
    "Robert Akerblom here. Have you found Louise?"
    "No," Wallander said. "Not yet."
    "The widow just called," Akerblom said. "I have a map. I'm going there myself to take a look."
    "I'll take you there," Wallander said. "That'll be best. I'll come right away. Can you make a few copies of the map? Five will do."
    "OK," Akerblom said.
    Wallander thought how truly religious people were usually law-abiding and compliant with authority. Yet nobody could have stopped Akerblom from going out on his own to look for his wife.
    Wallander slammed down the receiver. "We have a map now," he said. "We'll take two cars to start with. Akerblom wants to come. He can come with me."
    "Shouldn't we take a few patrol cars?" Martinsson said.
    "We'd have to drive in a convoy if we did that," Wallander said. "Let's take a look at the map first, and draw up a plan. Then we can send out everything we've got."
    "Call me if anything comes up," Bjork said. "Here or at home."
    Wallander almost ran down the corridor. He had to know if the track just petered out, or if Louise Akerblom was still out there somewhere.
    They took the map Akerblom had sketched to the widow's instructions, and spread it out over the bonnet of Wallander's car, which Svedberg had dried first with his handkerchief.
    "E14," Svedberg said. "As far as the exit for Katslosa and Lake Kade. Take a left to Knickarp, then a right, then left again, and look for a dirt road."
    "Wait a minute," Wallander said. "If you'd been in Skurup, which road would you have taken then?"
    There were lots of possibilities. After some discussion Wallander turned to Akerblom. "What do you think?" he said.
    "Louise would have taken a minor road," he said without hesitation. "She didn't like the traffic on the E14. I think she'd have gone by way of Svaneholm and Brodda."
    "Even if she was in a hurry? If she wanted to be home by 5.00?"
    "Even so," Akerblom said.
    "You take that road," Wallander said to Martinsson and Svedberg. "We'll go straight to the house. We can use the car phone if we need to."
    They drove out of Ystad. Wallander let Martinsson and Svedberg pass, since they had the longer distance to travel. Akerblom sat staring straight ahead. Wallander kept glancing at him. He was rubbing his hands anxiously, as if he couldn't make up his mind whether or not to clasp them together. Wallander could feel Akerblom's tension. What would they find?
    He slowed down as they approached the exit for Lake Krageholm, let a truck pass, and recalled having driven along this same road one early morning two years before, when an old farmer and his wife had been beaten to death in a remote farmhouse. He shuddered at the memory, and thought - as he so often did - of his colleague Rydberg, who died last year. Every time Wallander was faced with an investigation out of the ordinary, he missed the experience and advice of the older man.
    What's going on in this country of ours? he said to himself. Where have all the old-fashioned thieves and conmen gone? Where does all this senseless violence come from?
    The map was lying by the gear lever.
    "Are we going the right way?" he said, to break the silence in the car.
    "Yes," Akerblom said, without taking his eyes off the road. "We should take a left just over the brow of this next hill."
    They drove into the Krageholm forest. The lake was on their left, shimmering through the trees. Wallander slowed down, and they started looking out for the turning.
    It was Akerblom who saw it first. Wallander had already driven past. He reversed and came to a halt.
    "You stay in the car," he said. "I'll go and look around."
    The actual turning into the dirt road was almost overgrown. Wallander got down on