The Pyramid Read Online Free Page B

if it would be all right for me to come by this evening.'
    'What did he say?'
    'That it would be fine. Why else would I have come? I am not an intrusive person. People have such bizarre preconceptions about doorto- door salesmen.'
    It was likely that the man was lying.
    'Let's take the whole thing from the top,' Wallander said.
    'What is it that's happened?' the man interrupted.
    'Artur Hålén is dead,' Wallander answered. 'And that is as much as
I can say at this point.'
    'But if the police are involved then something must have happened.
Was he hit by a car?'
    'For now that is as much as I can say,' Wallander repeated and wondered why he had to overdramatise the situation.
    Then he asked the man to tell him the whole story.
    'I am Emil Holmberg,' the man began. 'I am actually a school biology teacher. But I'm trying to sell encyclopedias to save up for a trip to
Borneo.'
    'Borneo?'
    'I'm interested in tropical plants.'
    Wallander nodded for him to continue.
    'I walked around the neighbourhood here last week and knocked on people's doors. Artur Hålén showed some interest and asked me to come in. We sat here in the kitchen. I told him about the encyclopedia, what it cost, and showed him a copy of one of the volumes. After about half an hour he signed the contract. Then I called him today and he said that it would be all right for me to come by this evening.'
    'Which day were you here last week?'
    'Tuesday. Between around four and half past five.'
    Wallander recalled that he had been on duty at that time. But he saw no reason to tell the man that he lived in the building. Especially since he had claimed to be a detective.
    'Hålén was the only one who showed any interest,' Holmberg continued. 'A lady on one of the upper floors started to tell me off for disturbing people. These things happen, but not too often. Next door to here there was no one home, I remember.'
    'You said that Hålén made his first payment?'
    The man opened his briefcase where he kept the books and showed
Wallander a receipt. It was dated the Friday from the week before.
    Wallander thought it over.
    'How long was he supposed to make payments for this encyclopedia?'
    'For two years. Until all twenty instalments were paid for.'
    This makes no sense, Wallander thought, no sense at all. A man who was planning to commit suicide doesn't agree to sign a two-year contract.
    'What was your impression of Hålén?' Wallander asked.
    'I don't think I know what you mean.'
    'How was he? Calm? Happy? Did he appear worried?'
    'He didn't say very much. But he was genuinely interested in the encyclopedia. I am sure of that much.'
    Wallander did not have anything else to ask. There was a pencil on the kitchen windowsill. He searched for a piece of paper in his pocket.
The only thing he found was his grocery list. He turned it over and asked Holmberg to write down his number.
    'We will most likely not be in touch again,' he said. 'But I'd like to have your telephone number as a precaution.'
    'Hålén seemed perfectly healthy,' Holmberg said. 'What is it really that has happened? And what will now happen with the contract?'
    'Unless he has relatives that can take it over, I don't think you'll get paid. I can assure you that he is dead.'
    'But you can't tell me what has happened?'
    'I'm afraid not.'
    'It sounds sinister to me.'
    Wallander stood up to indicate that their talk was over. Holmberg stood rooted to the spot with his briefcase.
    'Would I be able to interest you, Detective Inspector, in an encyclopedia?'
    'Detective Sergeant,' Wallander said, 'and I don't need an encyclopedia right now. At least not at the moment.'
    Wallander showed Holmberg out to the street. Only when the man had turned the corner on his bike did Wallander go back in and return to Hålén's apartment. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and in his mind walked back over everything that Holmberg had said. The only reasonable explanation he could come up with was that Hålén had arrived at his