The White Lioness Read Free Page A

knew that women rarely abandoned their children. That worried him.
    He made a few notes on his pad.
    "Do you still have the message she left on the answering machine?" he said.
    "Yes," Akerblom said. "I didn't think of bringing the cassette with me, though."
    "That's OK, we'll sort that out later," Wallander said. "Was it clear where she was calling from?"
    "She was using the car phone."
    Wallander put down his pen and contemplated the man on the visitor's chair. His anxiety seemed absolutely genuine.
    "You can't think of any reason she might have had to go away?"
    "No."
    "She can't be visiting friends?"
    "No."
    "Relatives?"
    "No."
    "There's no other possibility you can think of ?"
    "No."
    "I hope you won't mind if I ask you some personal questions."
    "We've never quarrelled, if that's what you were wanting to know."
    Wallander nodded. "That was what I was going to ask," he said. Then he started all over again. "You say she disappeared on Friday afternoon. But you waited until Monday before coming to us?"
    "I was afraid," Akerblom said.
    Wallander stared at him in surprise.
    "Going to the police would be like accepting that something awful had happened," Akerblom said. "That's why I didn't dare."
    Wallander knew exactly what Akerblom meant. "You've been out looking for her, of course," he said.
    Akerblom nodded.
    "What other steps have you taken?" Wallander said, starting to make notes again.
    "I have prayed to God."
    Wallander stopped writing. "Prayed to God?"
    "My family are Methodists. Yesterday, we joined the whole congregation and Pastor Tureson in praying that nothing unthinkable has happened to Louise."
    Wallander could feel something gnawing away in his stomach. He tried to conceal his disquiet from the man in the chair before him.
    A mother with two children, member of a church, he thought to himself. She wouldn't disappear of her own accord. Not unless she'd gone out of her mind. Or been possessed by religion. A mother of two children would hardly stroll into the forest and take her own life. Such things do happen, but only once in a blue moon.
    Wallander knew that either there had been an accident or Louise Akerblom was the victim of a crime.
    "You realise, of course, there might have been an accident," he said.
    "I've called every hospital in Skane,"Akerblom said. "She hasn't been admitted anywhere. Besides, a hospital would have been in touch with me if anything had happened. Louise always had her ID card on her."
    "What make of car did she drive?"
    "A Toyota Corolla. 1990 model. Dark blue. Registration number MHL 449."
    Wallander wrote it all down. Then he went back to the beginning again, methodically going through the details Akerblom knew about what his wife was doing that afternoon. They looked at maps, and Wallander could feel unease growing within him.
    For God's sake, let's not have the murder of a woman on our hands, he thought. Anything but that.
    Wallander put down his pen at 10.45.
    "There is no reason to suppose that your wife won't be found safe and sound," he said, hoping his scepticism was not apparent. "But we'll treat your report with the utmost seriousness."
    Akerblom was slumped down in the chair. Wallander was afraid he might start weeping again. He felt incredibly sorry for him. He would have loved to console him. But how could he do that without showing how worried he himself felt?
    He got up from his chair. "I'd like to listen to her telephone message," he said. "Then I'll drive over to Skurup and call in at the bank. Have you got somebody to help out with the children?"
    "I don't need any help," Akerblom said. "I can manage on my own. What do you think has happened to Louise, Inspector?"
    "I don't think anything at all as yet," Wallander said. "Except that she'll soon be back home again."
    I'm lying, he thought. I don't think that. I'm just hoping.
    Wallander followed Akerblom back into town. As soon as he had listened to the message on the answering machine and gone through her desk