Erasure of Siv Eriksson's computer files

The erasure of Siv Eriksson's computer files is a targeted break-in that shifts Wallander's investigation from a missing cache of information to the means by which someone could enter her flat. While she was away overnight, an intruder emptied her hard drive and took every backup disk and her reserve hard drive, leaving the computer equipment itself behind. The lack of damage at the doors and windows, together with a spare key once entrusted to Tynnes Falk, makes the missing data—and the access that enabled its removal—the central mystery.

Discovery and Extent of the Loss

Eriksson summons Wallander to her flat after returning from a visit to her mother in Simrishamn. She had stayed overnight because it had got late; when she returned the next morning, her computer would not start. At first she thought it had been unplugged, but she soon realized that the hard drive was empty. Her distress is visible in her shaking hands and in her repeated effort to light a cigarette, which she promptly stubs out.

The loss extends beyond the computer's main drive. Eriksson opens a cabinet and shows Wallander that every backup disk is gone, along with a reserve hard drive. Nothing remains of her work. The intruder has not taken the computer equipment, which Wallander notes must have considerable value. That contrast makes the removal appear selective: the object of the break-in was what the devices contained, not the devices themselves.

Entry and the Spare Key

Wallander checks the front door and all the windows, finding no signs of forced entry and confirming Eriksson's account. She says she checked them herself and found no marks. When he asks who else could have had access, she explains that she gave Falk a spare key so he could enter while she was away in case something happened. To her knowledge, he never used it; he had said he would keep the keys in his flat on Apelbergsgatan.

The key makes a new connection in the investigation, but not a proven identification of the intruder. Falk is dead, and Wallander reasons that someone may have used the key while Eriksson was away. He also suspects that the person who tried to shoot him may have been searching for the keys to her flat. The thought offers a possible explanation for what the attacker wanted, but the scene leaves the link as a hypothesis rather than a confirmed fact.

Password and the Targeted Search

The contents of the computer sharpen the question of motive. Eriksson says she had a password, Cookie, the nickname she had as a child. She believes nobody else knew it—not even Falk—and says it was not written down. Her mother knew the nickname, but was essentially senile; an old friend in Austria also knew it, and the two had mainly exchanged emails in recent years, which Eriksson signed with that name.

Wallander sees a possible route by which the nickname could have been discovered: those emails were stored on the computer, so someone who accessed them might have learned the password and guessed that it was also used to protect the files. Eriksson objects that the intruder would have needed the password to read the messages in the first place. The contradiction does not resolve how the computer was breached, but it reinforces Wallander's conclusion that this was no ordinary burglary: the intruder was skilled with computers as well as able to get into the flat.

Investigative Significance

For the first time in the investigation, Wallander feels he has a clear picture. He believes someone watched Eriksson and waited for an opportunity to enter while she was away, then removed her work without disturbing the visible security of the flat. Yet the reason for the data wipe remains open. Eriksson says she never worked with classified information, and when Wallander presses her to consider what someone might have wanted, she initially says there was nothing. The break-in therefore supplies a concrete method—keyed entry and deliberate deletion—while leaving the value of the stolen information unresolved.