Dark blue Mercedes van

The Dark blue Mercedes van is both a traceable piece of evidence and an unresolved presence in the investigation: rental records connect it to Fu Cheng, and Wallander recognizes it as the vehicle that brought Tynnes Falk’s body back to the cash machine. Its discovery in a fogbound car park coincides with an attempt to shoot Wallander, but the van’s driver escapes, leaving the vehicle itself to carry the investigation forward without resolving who was behind the attack.

Rental trail and false identities

Hansson uncovers the van’s connection to the case after going through the records again at Wallander’s request. A small car-rental company in Malmö has reported a dark blue Mercedes van stolen; it should have been returned on Wednesday. The rental was made under Fu Cheng’s name and paid for with an American Express card. The missing vehicle gives the police a concrete lead, but its paperwork quickly turns into a trail of misleading details.

The address given for the rental was Hotel St Jörgen, where no guest named Fu Cheng had stayed. Hotel staff did remember a man of Asian appearance, listed as Andersen and said to be from Denmark, whom the company believed matched its description of the renter. He had paid cash for his room. The address he supplied was in Vedbaek, but the street did not exist. By the time Wallander hears the report, the trail has stopped at a name, a possible alias, and an invented address. He decides not to keep searching for the van immediately, directing Hansson toward other pressing work instead.

Discovery in the fog

The van reappears while Wallander is searching for Robert Modin. In thick, localized fog, Wallander reaches a car park near a small meditation garden and hears a vehicle approaching. He circles back rather than moving directly toward it, then sees a dark blue Mercedes van at the entrance. Its driver’s door is open. He recognizes it as the vehicle that had carried Falk’s body back to the cash machine.

The discovery does not establish who is now using the van. Wallander believes the person in the area may be looking for Modin, but realizes that the same person could also be watching him. As he tries to catch his mobile phone before it falls, a shot explodes behind him. He drops and crawls away, concluding that the gunman may have heard his voice. The phone’s sudden interruption of his movement has an immediate physical consequence: bending to catch it saves his life. The van remains nearby, but the attacker is unseen.

Police search and missing driver

After firing into the air to make the gunman reveal himself, Wallander hears sirens and runs out of the car park. Hansson arrives in the first patrol car. Wallander reports what happened and insists that no one enter without proper protection; the team needs dogs and must be ready for the possibility that the assailant will shoot his way out. Officers put on protective vests and helmets and establish a barrier while they wait for the fog to clear.

At one o’clock on Saturday, October 18, Wallander borrows Hansson’s phone and considers calling Elvira Lindfeldt, but hangs up before she answers. The fog does not lift until half past one. When it disperses, the van and Martinsson’s car are still there, but no person is in sight. Wallander retrieves his mobile and concludes that the gunman must have escaped on foot. A search of the van provides nothing that identifies its driver.

Dog units pick up a scent leading toward the water, but later lose the trail along the coast. Wallander orders fingerprints taken and asks that they be compared with evidence from Apelbergsgatan, Runnerströms Torg, the power substation, Sonja Hökberg’s handbag, and Siv Eriksson’s flat. The comparison is a deliberate attempt to make the vehicle’s presence speak to the wider pattern of the investigation; the available account does not report a matching result.

Evidence and unresolved significance

The van’s importance rests on its repeated position between separate parts of the case. Rental records attach it to Fu Cheng through a card payment and a false address; Wallander recognizes it as the means by which Falk’s body was returned to the cash machine; and its later appearance in the search for Modin places it in the vicinity of an armed assailant. These links make the vehicle more than a discarded clue, but they do not prove that the renter, the person who returned Falk’s body, and the gunman are one and the same.

The van is found, yet the person associated with it remains absent. Its open driver’s door and its presence in the fog sharpen the threat without revealing who has brought it there or whether the gunman has used it. The police can examine the vehicle, track a scent toward the coast, and request fingerprints, but the immediate search ends with no driver and no identification. In that sense, the van is a material connection that narrows the mystery while preserving its central uncertainty.