05. The man who smiled

Wallander is in the midst of his worst crisis yet. He can't cope with the fact that he had to shoot a man in self-defense. Drunk on alcohol and pills, the traumatized policeman spends his days in a remote boarding house. Even a visit from his old friend Sten Torstensson doesn't shake him out of his lethargy. According to the police report, his father Gustaf, a business lawyer, was killed in a car accident. Torstensson, however, is certain that his father was murdered and asks Wallander for help.

But the detective no longer feels up to the police work. Out of curiosity, he finally takes up the investigation and learns that Torstensson has hanged himself in an office. Shortly beforehand, the lawyer received a postcard with an anonymous death threat. Torstensson's only client, the wealthy philanthropist Alfred Harderberg, received the same threat. Both cards were posted in a hotel that Wallander remembers from his childhood. The sender is a certain Jörgen Nordfeldt, division manager of a factory for special cool boxes. But he has been missing for some time. The detective receives an emergency call from which he learns that Nordfeldt is being threatened and is hiding at a campsite. Thanks to Wallander's quick-witted intervention, Nordfeldt survives an assassination attempt. When the investigator finally finds out what is being transported in the cool boxes, he uncovers a murderous business involving donor organs.

Picture: ARD Degeto/Yellow Bird/Left Bank Pictures/Steffan Hill