The Ystad–Świnoujście ferry route links Ystad with Świnoujście in Poland and becomes a crucial passage in the search for Jonas Landahl. Landahl boards after leaving his home with a single small wheeled case; when the ferry returns to Ystad, a body is found in its engine room, forcing the investigation to reconsider what his departure meant.

Route and Setting

The route is presented through the ferry journey between Poland and Ystad. On the crossing that brings Landahl back, the captain estimates that the trip from Świnoujście takes about seven hours. The ship carries roughly 200 passengers, most of them Polish truckers, as well as a delegation from the Swedish cement industry returning from an investment conference. The ordinary traffic of passengers and vehicles provides the setting for a body to pass through the journey unnoticed.

Landahl’s Departure

After a neighbour reports that the Landahl house is empty, Ann-Britt Höglund traces the taxi that collected its grown son on Snappehanegatan. The driver, Östensson, remembers picking up a young man called Jonas shortly before 2 p.m. and taking him to the Ystad ferry terminal. Landahl had only one small case on wheels. He sat looking out of the window, seemed untroubled, and left the driver a tip. The destination appears to be Poland, although the driver cannot name a further destination beyond the ferry’s route.

The Return and Discovery

The route becomes part of the case again when a ferry approaching Ystad reports trouble with one of its propeller axles. Investigating the malfunction, the crew find a dead body in the engine room. Kurt Wallander is called from home and summons Martinsson, Hansson, Nyberg, and Chief Holgersson; he tells the officer on duty that a suspected murderer is returning from Poland, but dead. The body is so badly mangled that it cannot immediately be identified, and the ferry’s passengers and crew provide no clear account of how it reached the axle. Hansson establishes that it could have been there from the start of the voyage, before the ship left Poland.

Landahl’s death closes an investigative avenue that had seemed promising, but the journey does not settle whether he fled because he was the killer. Wallander considers that his departure may have had another explanation, leaving the ferry’s return with a grim double meaning: it brings the missing man back, while making the circumstances of his flight harder to read.