Stieg Larsson - The Girl who played with Fire

Ekström had called a press conference. His responses were evasive. No, he could not say whether Salander had dealings with the Hell’s Angels. No, he could not confirm the rumour that Salander had been seen at the warehouse in Nykvarn. No, there was nothing to indicate that this was an underworld gang war. No, it could not be confirmed that Salander alone was responsible for the Enskede murders. They were now searching for her solely to question her about the circumstances of the murders.

Salander frowned. Something had shifted within the police investigation.

She went online and first read the newspapers’ reports, then accessed the hard drives of Ekström, Armansky, and Blomkvist, one by one.

Ekström’s email contained several messages of interest, in particular a memo sent by Jan Bublanski at 5:22 p.m. The email was brisk and devastatingly critical of Ekström’s management of the preliminary investigation. It ended with what was effectively an ultimatum. He demanded (a) that Inspector Modig be reinstated, effective immediately; (b) that the focus of the investigation be redirected so as to explore alternative solutions to the Enskede murders; and (c) that research be started without delay on the figure known only as Zala.

The accusations against Salander are based on a single direct piece of evidence – her fingerprints on the murder weapon. Which, I remind you, is proof that she handled the weapon but no proof that she fired it, and even less that she fired it at the murder victims.

We now know there are other players involved. The Södertälje police have found (so far) two bodies in shallow graves close to a warehouse owned by a cousin of Carl-Magnus Lundin. It should be obvious that Salander, however violent and whatever her psychological profile, had nothing to do with those deaths.

Bublanski finished by saying that if his demands were not met he would leave the investigative team, which he did not intend to do quietly. Ekström had replied that Bublanski should do what he thought was best. Salander obtained even more surprising information from Armansky’s hard drive. A brief exchange of emails with Milton’s payroll office established that Niklas Hedström had left the company, effective immediately. He would get vacation pay and three months’ severance. An email to the manager on duty stated that if Hedström came back to the building he could be escorted to his desk to remove personal effects and then escorted from the premises. An email to the technical department advised them that Hedström’s card key was to be devalidated.

But most interesting was an exchange between Armansky and Milton Security’s lawyer, Frank Alenius. Armansky asked how Salander could best be represented in the event that she was taken into custody. Alenius replied that there was no reason for Milton to become concerned with a former employee who had committed murder – it would not reflect well upon Milton Security were the company to be so involved. Armansky replied brusquely that Salander’s involvement in any murder was still an open question, and that his concern was to provide support for a former employee whom he considered innocent.

Blomkvist had not, Salander discovered, been on his computer since early the previous day. So no news.

Bohman laid the folder on the table in Armansky’s office. He sat down heavily. Fräklund opened it and began to read. Armansky stood by the window looking out at Gamla Stan.

“This is the last report I can deliver. I’ve been kicked off the investigation,” Bohman said.

“Not your fault,” Fräklund said.

“No, not your fault,” Armansky said and sat down. He had collected all the material that Bohman had provided over the course of two weeks in a pile on the conference table.

“I talked to Bublanski. You’ve done a good job, Sonny. He is sorry to lose you, but he had no choice because of Hedström.”

“That’s OK. I discovered that I get along much better here at Milton than down at Kungsholmen.”

“Can you give us a summary?”

“Well, if the objective was to find Lisbeth Salander, then obviously we failed. It was a very messy investigation with a number of competing personalities, and Bublanski may not have had ultimate control over the search.”

“Hans Faste –”

“Faste is a real fuckup. But the problem is not just Faste and a sloppy investigation. Bublanski saw to it that all the leads were followed as far as they could be. The fact is, Salander has been damn good at covering her tracks.”

“But your job wasn’t only to pin down Salander,” Armansky said.

“No, and I’m thankful that we didn’t tell Hedström about my other assignment to act as your mole and see to it that Salander wasn’t falsely accused.”

“And what do you think today?”

“When we started I was positive that she was guilty. Today I’m not sure one way or the other. So many things don’t fit…”

“Yes?”

“Well, I would no longer consider her the prime suspect. I’m leaning more and more towards thinking there’s something to Mikael Blomkvist’s reasoning.”

“Which means that we have to identify and find the killers. Shall we take the investigation from the beginning?” Armansky said, pouring coffee.

Salander had one of the worst evenings of her life. She was thinking about when she had thrown the firebomb into Zalachenko’s car. In that instant the nightmares stopped and she had felt a great inner peace. She had had other problems, but they had always been about her, and she could handle them. Now it was about Mimmi.

Mimmi had been beaten up and was in the hospital. She was innocent. She’d had nothing to do with any of this. Her only crime was that she knew Salander.

She cursed herself. She was riddled with feelings of guilt. The blame was all hers. Her address was secret; she was safe. And then she had persuaded Mimmi to live in her apartment, at the address that anyone could find.

How could she have been so thoughtless? She might as well have beaten her up herself.

She felt so wretched that tears came to her eyes. But Salander never cried. She wiped them away.

At 10:30 she was so restless that she could not stay in the apartment. She put on her coat and boots and set off into the night. She walked down side streets until she reached Ringvägen and stood at the end of the driveway to Söder hospital. She wanted to go to Mimmi’s room and wake her up and tell her that everything was going to be all right. Then she saw blue lights from a police car near Zinken and stepped into an alleyway to avoid being seen.

She was home again just after midnight. She was freezing, so she undressed and crawled into bed. She could not sleep. At 1:00 a.m. she was up again, walking naked through the unlit apartment. She went into the guest bedroom, where there was a bed and a desk. She had never set foot in it before. She sat on the floor with her back to the wall and stared into the night.

Lisbeth Salander has a guest bedroom. What a joke.

She sat there until after 2:00, and by then she was so cold that she was shivering. Then she started to cry again.

Some time before dawn, Salander took a shower and dressed. She put on the coffeemaker and made breakfast and turned on her computer. She went into Blomkvist’s hard drive. She was surprised to discover that he had not updated his research journal, and instead she opened the folder. There was a new document titled [Lisbeth-IMPORTANT]. She looked at the document properties. It had been created at 12:52 a.m. She double-clicked.

Lisbeth, contact me right away. This story is worse than I could have dreamed. I know who Zalachenko is and I think I know what happened. I’ve talked to Holger Palmgren. I understand Teleborian’s role and why they locked you up at the clinic. I think I know who murdered Dag and Mia. I also think I know why, but I’m missing some crucial pieces of information. I don’t understand Bjurman’s role. CALL ME. CONTACT ME AT ONCE. WE CAN SOLVE THIS. Mikael