ingebjorg9 | Five First Dates: Date Three

I've just realised that I haven't posted anything since June. Ouch. You don't want to know about the drama that's going on in my life just now, suffice it to say that I'm very tempted to up sticks and do a runner to Ystad to get away from it. Anyway, date three, in which Wallander finds out more than he needs to know...

It took a lot of persuading from Linda for Wallander to agree to go on another date after the debacle he had had with Agata. It was three weeks before his colleagues at the station had stopped sniggering and teasing him about it. Even Chief Holgersson, who he had expected to take a dim view of his date with a suspect, had stifled a smile or two during her rather excruciating interrogation of him. He wasn't ready to trawl the newspaper for another potential train wreck of a date.

In the event, though, it was an acquaintance who had set him up on a blind date with a woman who was, apparently, the "perfect match" for him. Beautiful, intelligent, not too young but not too old either: she sounded too good to be true. Wallander was sceptical, but secretly curious about this woman. In his experience there was always a catch with a woman that perfect.

So now he was waiting at the bar of the Saltsjöbaden Hotel, nursing a Scotch and waiting for a woman wearing a red carnation. How clichéd, he thought. Still, it was Eriksson's idea, not his.

Someone was coming in now. It was a woman; she had turned to hold the door for the person behind her, but he could see she was slim, with long silver hair. She turned round. She was wearing a red carnation on her smart blue suit. She was… Lisa Holgersson.

It took a moment to register with her that the man with the matching carnation was Kurt Wallander, her subordinate. She stopped dead in her tracks and her mouth opened and shut a few times before they both managed to gasp: "You?"

They stared at each other for a few seconds until Wallander managed to compose himself.

"Er, would you like a drink?" he ventured.

She nodded and sank down on the seat beside him.

"Red wine, please," she said, very quietly.

When she got the glass she took a long drink from it, then sat and contemplated the colour of the wine for quite some time. Wallander was uncomfortable with the silence and tried to break it.

"Well, this is, er…"

"Awkward?" she cut in, sharply.

"Unexpected."

"You can say that again." Holgersson emptied her glass and asked the barman for another.

"I thought you were married?" said Wallander, his toes curling.

"I was married. Nineteen years. Then the rat just up and left, without a word to me about it. Do you want to know where he is now?" her voice was loud and incredulous. "He's shacked up in Skurup with a 22-year-old barmaid." She emptied the second glass of wine and asked the barman for a third.

"Lisa," said Wallander quietly. "We've both had a… surprise tonight. Why don't we have some coffee?" The rate at which she was downing the wine was beginning to alarm him. He could understand the shock of finding that your bind date was a colleague – hell, he was just as shocked—but she was normally so controlled and reserved. Seeing her behave like this was unprecedented.

"I'm fine," she insisted, taking another mouthful of wine.

He escorted her to a table by the window, where at least she would have to get up and walk to the bar if she wanted more wine. He was at a loss with how to make conversation in this situation. Fortunately, Holgersson wasn't. The wine was beginning to take effect.

"That idiot Eriksson won't know what's hit him when I get back to him about this. What was he thinking pairing me up with you?" Wallander was a little stung by his.

"I wasn't even aware that he knew you."

"Oh, he does, all right. Met him through my husband. Ha! Maybe that explains a few things. For a while I thought he had feelings for me, you know, but as it happened brunettes are more his type. Much the same as my husband, really."

Please stop, thought Wallander. Throw your drink at me, threaten me with the sack, grill me about Agata again. Anything, as long as you stop telling me all this stuff.

By now Holgersson was on her fourth glass of wine and her usually steely blue eyes were beginning to water. Wallander would rather have liked to have fallen through the floor at this point.

"Kurt, you have no idea what that man put me through. Thank you so much for listening to all this. I needed to get it off my chest." Holgersson paused, and hiccupped.

"Look, Lisa," said Wallander awkwardly. "Why we don't we go and get something to eat? You look like you could do with a meal."

"Yes, let's do that," Holgersson slurred. "You're so kind. I really like you, Kurt, I think I always have. You're my best officer, you know?"

So that'll be why you didn't back me up when that girl made those false allegations of brutality against me, he thought bitterly. That little episode had really coloured his view of his chief. He didn't feel especially inclined to be kind to her now, but the fallout would be too great if he wasn't.

He hailed a taxi and they went to his flat. He left Holgersson on the sofa while he went into the kitchen, made some very strong black coffee and began to cook the first thing that came to hand, which was pasta. There was a jar of ready-made sauce in the cupboard; he thanked Heaven for small mercies. Holgersson meekly took the coffee and a plate of pasta, and consumed them. That was the easy part. The difficult part was persuading her to go home. In the end, he bundled in a taxi, praying that she made it home without any major disasters.

He went to bed, wondering what, if anything, Holgersson would say to him the next morning.

The next day he went into the station at the same time as usual, wondering if Holgersson was in yet. He peeked into her office, only to see her sitting with her head in her hands, massaging her temples. A box of painkillers and several empty coffee cups sat on her desk. He cleared his throat softly and she jumped.

"Come in. Close the door," she ordered, regaining some of her composure. He obeyed, and sat down in the spare chair.

"Look Kurt, I'll get right to the point," she said. "I may have said and done some things last night that I shouldn't have." Wallander stayed silent, but pulled a non-committal face.

"I'm sorry you had to hear all that… stuff." She blushed very slightly. "I don't intend for it to happen again. And Kurt, you do not say anything about last night to anyone, understood?"

"Perfectly, Lisa. Perfectly." Wallander got up and went to his own office. What a woman. He doubted he would ever be able to look at her in quite the same way again.