Attempted Shooting of Wallander at Falk’s Apartment

The attempted shooting at Tynnes Falk’s apartment turns an investigation into a direct threat against Kurt Wallander, but leaves the central question unresolved: was the gunman after Wallander, or after something still hidden in Falk’s flat? A bullet passes close enough to make survival a matter of a sudden bodily reaction and a loose rug. The attacker vanishes, leaving Wallander with physical evidence of the shot but no face, name, or certain motive.

Causes and Background

The shooting follows a break-in at Falk’s apartment. Someone had stolen Falk’s diary and a photograph, and his body had also been taken; to Wallander, these acts suggested that whoever was responsible did not want the police examining the material. He regretted having failed to take the photograph when he had the chance. The earlier thefts give the later attack a possible purpose: Wallander suspects that the intruder returned to look for something not found during the first visit. That connection remains a working theory, not a solved motive.

The apartment building supplies a small but suggestive contrast. A neighbor tells Wallander that almost everyone in the building had installed a security door, while Falk had not. She describes him as someone who kept to himself, though Wallander doubts she is telling him everything. His former wife, Marianne Falk, had described him as anxious and surrounded by enemies. Neither detail identifies the shooter, but both reinforce how little Wallander knows about the life and dangers surrounding the dead man.

The Shot and Wallander’s Escape

Wallander is alone in the flat when footsteps sound on the stairs. He expects Marianne, who is due to return, and goes into the hall to greet her. As he reaches toward the front door, he senses a threat from behind it and jerks back. He trips on the rug; the bullet aimed at his chest passes between his body and his left arm, tearing a small hole in his jacket. He ends up on the floor of the hall cupboard beneath Falk’s coats. His instinctive retreat saves him before he can identify or even see the person who fired.

The later reconstruction establishes the narrowness of the escape. Nyberg extracts the bullet from the wall beside the living-room door jamb, and the entry hole in Wallander’s jacket helps the officers work out the bullet’s path. That evening, Wallander measures the distance from his sleeve to where he believes his heart is: nine centimetres. The bullet is the kind that would make a crater-like wound, and Wallander understands why the marksman needed only one shot: a hit would have been fatal. The violence is therefore not an exchange of fire but a single, nearly decisive attempt, interrupted by Wallander’s fall.

The Flight and the Failed Search

Wallander sees no more than a rapidly moving shadow beyond the door. In the immediate confusion, he thinks he has been hit and mistakes a cry for his own; it is Marianne’s. She has been struck in the face and knocked backward on the stairs as the fleeing figure passes. Her later bruise is visible on the left side of her jaw. She hears the shot and the runner but does not get a good look at the assailant. When Wallander asks, she eventually confirms that the person was a man, though neither she nor Wallander can describe him further.

The escape appears to have been through the building’s front entrance: the cellar door is locked. Yet officers in the patrol car outside see no one leave. They had noticed Marianne entering, and they hear the shot without immediately recognizing it, but do not observe the fleeing person. Martinsson has the building searched from top to bottom, including the flats of nervous senior citizens and a more composed therapist; officers look in cupboards and under beds without finding the attacker. A regional alert is issued, but its prospects are poor because the witnesses can provide no useful description. The bullet in the wall, and the damage to Wallander’s jacket, remain material proof that the assault was real.

Uncertain Target and Aftermath

Wallander and Martinsson consider whether the shooter was the same person who broke into the apartment. Wallander’s explanation is that the intruder came back for something missed the first time. Höglund presses a different question: whom was the gunman trying to kill? Wallander has considered that possibility from the outset, including whether the attack might relate to his earlier visit to the flat or to someone watching him when he looked out of a window. He does not tell his colleagues about that concern. Instead, he dismisses his presence as bad luck and insists that the investigation should focus on what the intruder wanted and on bringing Marianne back to inspect the apartment.

The incident also recalls Wallander’s earlier brush with death. As a young officer in Malmö, he was stabbed, and the blade came within ten centimetres of his heart. He had made a mantra of the thought that there is a time for living and a time for dying; now the distance measured after the shooting is one centimetre closer. He pours himself whisky that evening and considers the shrinking margin. The comparison gives the attack a personal history without resolving its meaning: Wallander has survived another near-fatal wound, but survival does not make him willing to speak openly about fear.

Höglund recognizes that silence from her own experience. About a year earlier, she was shot and badly wounded in a field outside Ystad after Wallander ordered her to advance without realizing that a suspect had Hansson’s dropped gun. Her recovery was long, and she later told Wallander that fear surfaced in her dreams. She urges him to talk to someone, but he rejects the suggestion and says he does not want to discuss the shooting. Höglund challenges his tendency to let the police officer displace the person beneath the role. Her response makes the aftermath more than a forensic puzzle: the near miss tests the trust between colleagues and exposes Wallander’s resistance to accepting the human consequences of police work. When Marianne returns, Wallander turns to the practical task of having her inspect every room, drawer, and curtain for anything missing. The search for the gunman’s purpose continues, while the question of whether the shot was meant for Wallander remains unanswered.