Svedberg stared at him in surprise.

"Will that be possible?" he asked.

"We must get on to the meteorological office," Wallander said. "They know all there is to know about the weather and the wind. We ought to be able to get a rough idea of where the boat has come from. And I want to know everything we can find out about the life-raft itself. Where it was made, what type of vessels might carry such rafts. Everything."

He nodded towards Martinsson.

"That's your job."

"Shouldn't we begin by running a computer search to see if the men are listed anywhere as missing?" Martinsson asked.

"You can start by doing that," Wallander said. "Get in touch with the coastguards, contact all their stations along the south coast. And see what Björk has to say about bringing in Interpol straight away. It's obvious that if we're going to trace who they are, we'll have to cast our nets wide from the very beginning."

Martinsson nodded and made a note on a sheet of paper. Svedberg chewed thoughtfully on his pencil.

"The forensic team will give the men's clothes a thorough going over," Wallander continued. "They must find some clues."

There was a knock on the door and Norén came in, carrying a rolled-up nautical chart.

"I thought you might need this," he said.

They spread it out over his desk and pored over it, as if planning a naval battle.

"How fast does a life-raft drift?" Svedberg asked. "Currents and winds can slow it down as well as speed it up."

They contemplated the chart in silence. Then Wallander rolled it up again and stood it in the corner behind his chair. Nobody had anything to say.

"Let's get going, then," he said. "We can meet here again at 6 p.m. and see how far we've got."

As Svedberg and Norén left the room, Wallander asked Martinsson to stay behind.