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back to the window. The wind had picked up and the blackbirds were gone. He thought about Mrs Fredman and the boy, playing quietly on the floor. He thought about his frightened eyes. He shook his head and thought instead of the questions he was going to ask the Hökberg girl. Martinsson's notes told him that she was the one in the back seat who had hit Lundberg on the head with a hammer. Many blows, not just one. As if she had been in a blind rage.
Wallander picked up a notebook and pen and left. Halfway there he realised that he had left his glasses behind. He went back.
There's really only one question, he thought as he returned to the conference room. Why did they do it? Their saying they needed money isn't enough. There's another answer somewhere, a deeper answer that I have to find.

CHAPTER FOUR
Sonja Hökberg did not look as Wallander had expected her to look. Afterwards he couldn't recall exactly what he had been expecting, but he knew it wasn't the person he had met in that room. Sonja Hökberg was sitting down when he came in. She was small and thin, almost to the point of transparency. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes. She could have been a model on a poster for innocence and purity. Nothing indicated that she was a crazed hammer-wielding murderess.
Wallander had been met by her lawyer and Martinsson outside the room.
"She's very much in control of herself," Lötberg said to Wallander. "I'm not sure she understands the gravity of the charges she's facing."
"It's not a matter of accusation. She's guilty," Martinsson said, firmly.
"What about the hammer?" Wallander said. "Have we found it?"
"She put it under her bed. She hadn't even tried to wipe off the blood. The other girl got rid of her knife. We're still searching for it," Martinsson said, and left.
Wallander walked into the room with the lawyer. The girl looked at them expectantly. She didn't seem at all nervous. Wallander nodded in acknowledgement and sat down. There was a tape recorder on the table. Wallander looked at her for a long time. She looked back at him.
"Do you have any gum?" she said, at last.
Wallander shook his head and looked at Lötberg, who also shook his head.
"We'll see if we can't get you some later," Wallander said, and turned on the tape recorder. "First we're going to have a little chat."
"I've already said what happened. Why can't I have some gum? I can pay for it," she said, and held up a black handbag with an oak-leaf clasp. Wallander was surprised it hadn't been confiscated. "I won't talk until I get my gum."
Wallander reached over for the phone and called the reception desk. Ebba will take care of this, he thought. Only when an unfamiliar voice came on the line did he remember that Ebba was retired now. She had been gone for six months, but Wallander had still not grown used to the new receptionist. She was a woman in her thirties, named Irene. She had been an administrative assistant in a doctor's office, and was already well liked at the police station. But Wallander missed Ebba.
"I need some gum," Wallander said. "Do you know anyone who would have any?"
"Yes," Irene said. "Me."
Wallander hung up and walked out to the reception.
"Is it for the girl?" Irene said.
"Fast thinker."
He returned to the examination room, gave Sonja Hökberg the stick of gum and realised he had forgotten to turn off the tape recorder through all of this.
"Let's begin," he said. "It's 4.15 p.m. on October 6, 1997. Kurt Wallander is questioning Sonja Hökberg."
"So do I have to tell you everything all over again?" she said.
"Yes, try to speak clearly and direct your words at the microphone."
"What about the fact that I've said it all already?"
"I may have some more questions."
"I don't feel like going over it again."
For a moment Wallander was thrown by her total lack of anxiety.
"Unfortunately you'll just have to cooperate," he said. "You have been accused of a very serious crime, and what's more you have confessed. Right now you stand