06. The Fifth Woman

Wallander has already experienced a lot, but this time even he is shocked: Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and writer of well-behaved nature poetry, has been pierced by sharpened bamboo sticks in a pile pit. The investigation is overshadowed by the death of his father Povel, with whom the detective had a broken relationship. Wallander throws himself into work, but even the supposedly routine case of the missing florist Gosta Runfeldt proves to be rather complicated. Runfeldt is found murdered, tied to a tree. The victim is severely emaciated, his fingernails filthy and his underwear heavily soiled. The murderer had apparently held Runfeldt captive and tortured him.

Eriksson and Runfeldt were killed with a strange meticulousness. The third murder, committed against the successful businessman Eugen Blomberg, also fits into this strange pattern: Blomberg was put into a plastic bag weighed down with stones and pushed into a lake. As he drowned, he was forced to look his murderer in the eye. In his search for a motive, Wallander examines the victims' private lives and discovers another connection. The three men raped their spouses, forced them to have abortions and even drove them to their deaths. Are they revenge killings? The trail leads to an anonymous aid organization for abused women.

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