it?
M: Yes, that’s right. Berra, or Olofsson, had loaned me his car for a couple of weeks. I was going to go down to Malmö anyway. So I took the chance of going when I had a car so that I didn’t have to go by train. It’s cheaper too. Well, so I took the car and drove. How was I to know the car was hot?
P: How did it come about that Olofsson loaned you his car for such a long time just like that? Didn’t he need it himself?
M: No, he was going abroad, he said, so he didn’t need it.
P: Oh, yes, so he was to go abroad. How long was he to be away?
M: He didn’t say.
P: Were you thinking of using the car all the time until he came back?
M: Yes. If I wanted to. Otherwise I was to put it in his parking space. He lives in one of those buildings where a parking space sort of goes with the flat.
P: Has Olofsson come back home yet?
M: Not as far as I know.
P: Do you know where he is?
M: No. Perhaps he’s still in France or wherever it was he was going to.
P: Mr Malm, have you a car of your own? M:No.
P: But you have had one, haven’t you?
M: Yes, but a long time ago.
P: Did you often borrow Olofsson’s car on other occasions?
M: No, only this once.
P: How long have you known Olofsson?
M: About a year.
P: Did you often meet?
M: Not often. Sometimes.
P: What do you mean by sometimes? Once a month? Once a week? Or how often?
M: Well, perhaps about once a month. Or twice.
P: So you knew each other quite well, then?
M: Well, fairly.
P: But you must have known each other quite well if he loaned you his car just like that.
M: Yes, of course.
P: What was Olofsson’s profession?
M: What?
P: What did Olofsson do for a living?
M: I don’t know.
P: Don’t you know after having known him for at least a year?
M: No. We never talked about it.
P: What do you yourself do for a living?
M: Nothing special now…not just at the moment, that is.
P: What do you usually do?
M: Different things. Depends on what I can get.
P: What did you do last?
M: I was a car sprayer in a garage in Blackeberg.
P: How long ago was that?
M: Well, last summer. Then the garage shut down in July and I had to leave.
P: And then? Have you looked for other work?
M: Yes, but there wasn’t any.
P: How have you managed financially without work for, let’s see, nearly eight months?
M: Well, it hasn’t been too good.
P: But you must have got money from somewhere, mustn’t you, Mr Malm? You have your rent to pay and a man must eat.
M: Well, I had a bit saved up and I’ve borrowed a bit here and there and so on.
P: What were you going to do in Malmö, anyway?
M: Look up a mate of mine.
P: Before Olofsson offered to lend you the car, you were to go by train, you said. It’s quite expensive to go by train to Malmö, as you said yourself. Could you afford that?
M: We-ell…
P: How long had Olofsson had that car? The Chevrolet?
M: I don’t know.
P: But you must have noticed what car he had when you first met?
M: I didn’t think about it.
P: Mr Malm, you’ve worked with cars quite a bit, haven’t you? You were a car sprayer, you said. Isn’t it strange that you didn’t notice what make of car your friend had? Wouldn’t you have noticed if he had changed his car?
M: No, I didn’t think about it. Anyhow, I never saw much of his car.
P: Mr Malm, wasn’t it in fact so that you were going to help Olofsson sell that car?
M: No.
P: But you knew that Olofsson traded in stolen cars, didn’t you?
M: No, I didn’t know that.
P: No more questions.
Martin Beck switched off the tape recorder.
‘Unusually polite prosecutor,’ said Kollberg, yawning.
‘Yes,’ said Rönn, ‘and ineffective.’
‘Yes,’ said Martin Beck. ‘So then they let Malm go and Gunvald undertook to watch him. They hoped to get at Olofsson through Malm. It’s very probable that Malm worked for Olofsson, but taking Malm’s standard of living into consideration, he can’t have got much for his pains.’
‘He was a car sprayer too,’ said Kollberg. ‘People like that are useful when you’re handling stolen cars.’
Martin Beck nodded.
‘This Olofsson,’ said Rönn. ‘Can’t we get hold of him?’
‘No, he’s still not been traced,’ said Martin Beck. ‘It’s highly possible that Malm was telling the truth during his interrogation when he said that Olofsson had gone abroad. He’ll appear, no doubt.’
Kollberg thumped his fist irritably on the arm of his chair.
‘I just don’t understand that Larsson fellow,’ he said, glancing sideways at Rönn. ‘I mean, how can he maintain he didn’t know why he was watching Malm?’
‘He didn’t need to know, did he?’ Rönn asked. ‘Don’t start knocking Gunvald again now.’
‘For
