Stieg Larsson - The Girl who played with Fire

“From day one we’ve been focusing all our energies on finding Lisbeth Salander. She is definitely a top suspect – this is based on evidence – but our picture of her is meeting resistance from everyone who knows her. Armansky, Blomkvist, and Miriam Wu don’t hold with the picture of her as a psychotic killer. Therefore I want us to expand our thinking a bit, to consider alternative killers and the possibility that Salander herself may have had an accomplice or merely have been present when the shots were fired.”

Bublanski’s comments triggered a vigorous debate, in which he encountered strong opposition from Faste as well as Bohman from Milton Security. Bohman reminded the team that the simplest explanation was most often the right one.

“It’s possible, of course, that Salander didn’t act alone, but we have no forensic trace of any accomplice.”

“We could always follow up on Blomkvist’s leads within the police,” Faste said acidly.

In the discussion, Bublanski was backed up only by Modig. Andersson and Holmberg were content with making isolated comments. Hedström from Milton was as quiet as a mouse during the whole discussion. Finally Prosecutor Ekström raised a hand.

“Bublanski – as I understand it, you don’t want to eliminate Salander from the investigation.”

“No, of course not. We have her fingerprints. But so far we have no motive. I want us to start thinking along different lines. Could several people have been involved? Could it still be related to that book about the sex trade that Svensson was writing? Blomkvist is certainly right that several people named in the book have a motive for murder.”

“How do you want to proceed?” Ekström said.

“I want two people to start looking at alternative killers. Sonja and Niklas can work together.”

“Me?” said Hedström in astonishment.

Bublanski had chosen him because he was the youngest person in the room and the one who was most likely to think outside the box.

“You’ll work with Modig. Go through everything we know so far and try to find anything we might have missed. Faste, you, Andersson, and Bohman keep on the hunt for Salander. That’s our number one priority.”

“What should I do?” asked Holmberg.

“Focus on Advokat Bjurman. Do a fresh examination of his apartment in case we missed anything. Questions?”

Nobody had any.

“OK. We’ll keep it quiet that Miriam Wu has turned up. She might have more to tell us, and I don’t want the media jumping all over her.”

Ekström agreed that they should proceed according to Bublanski’s plan.

“Right,” Hedström said, looking at Modig. “You’re the detective, you tell me what we’re going to do.”

They were in the corridor outside the conference room.

“I think we should have another talk with Mikael Blomkvist,” she said. “But first I have to discuss one or two things with Bublanski. I have tomorrow and Sunday off. That means we won’t get started until Monday morning. Spend the weekend going through the case material.”

They said goodbye to each other. Modig walked into Bublanski’s office as Ekström was leaving.

“Do you have a minute?” she said.

“Sit down.”

“I got so angry with Faste that I lost my temper.”

“He mentioned that you really laid into him.”

“He said that I obviously wanted to be alone with Wu because I was turned on by her.”

“That qualifies as sexual harassment. Would you like to file a complaint?”

“I slapped his face. That was enough.”

“You were extremely provoked.”

“I was.”

“Faste has problems with strong women.”

“I’ve noticed that.”

“You’re a strong woman and a very good cop.”

“Thanks.”

“But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t beat up the staff.”

“It won’t happen again. I didn’t even get a chance to go through Svensson’s desk at Millennium today.”

“Go home and take it easy over the weekend. We’ll get started with the new approach on Monday.”

Hedström stopped off at Central Station and had a coffee at George Café. He felt depressed. All week he had been waiting for the news that Salander had been caught. If she had resisted arrest, with a little luck some right-minded cop might have shot her.

And that was an appealing fantasy.

But Salander was still at liberty. Not only that, but Bublanski was floating the idea that she might not be the murderer. Not a positive development.

Being subordinate to Bohman was bad enough – the man was one of the most boring and least imaginative people at Milton – but now he had been put under Inspector Modig, and she was the most sceptical of the Salander lead. She was probably the one who had put doubts in Bublanski’s mind. He wondered whether the famous Officer Bubble had something going on with that bitch. It wouldn’t surprise him. He seemed thoroughly pussy-whipped by her. Of all the officers in the investigation, only Faste had enough balls to say what he thought.

Hedström was thinking hard. That morning he and Bohman had had a brief meeting at Milton with Armansky and Fräklund. A week of investigating had turned up nothing, and Armansky was frustrated that nobody had found any explanation for the murders. Fräklund had suggested that Milton Security should rethink its involvement – there were other more pressing tasks for Bohman and Hedström than to work as unpaid labour for the police.

Armansky decided that Bohman and Hedström should stay on for one more week. If by then there was no result, the assignment would be called off.

In other words, Hedström had only a week before the door to his involvement in the investigation would slam shut. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

After a while he took out his mobile and called Tony Scala, a freelance journalist who made a living writing drivel for men’s magazines. Hedström had met him a few times. He told Scala that he had one or two bits of information about the investigation into the murders in Enskede. He explained how he had ended up right in the middle of the hottest police investigation in years. Scala took the bait at once: it might turn into a scoop for a major magazine. They agreed to meet for a coffee an hour later at the Aveny on Kungsgatan.

Scala was fat. Seriously fat.

“If you want information from me there are two preconditions,” Hedström said.

“Shoot.”

“First, no mention of Milton Security in the article. Our role is as consultants only.”

“Although it is newsworthy given that Salander worked at Milton.”

“Cleaning and stuff like that,” Hedström said, brushing him off. “That’s no news.”

“If you say so.”

“Second, you have to slant the article so it sounds as though a woman leaked the information.”

“How come?”

“To divert suspicion from me.”

“All right. So what have you got?”

“Salander’s lesbian girlfriend just showed up.”

“OK, excellent! The chick she signed over the Lundagatan apartment to? The one who disappeared?”

“Miriam Wu. Is that worth anything to you?”

“You’d better believe it. Where was she?”

“Out of the country. She claims she hadn’t even heard about the murders.”

“Is she a suspect at all?”

“No. Not yet anyway. She was interviewed today and released three hours ago.”

“I see. Do you believe her story?”

“I think she’s lying through her teeth. She knows something.”

“Great stuff, Niklas.”

“But check her out. We’re talking about a girl who goes in for S&M with Salander.”

“You know this for a fact?”

“She admitted to it during the interview. We found handcuffs, leather outfits, whips, and the whole shebang when we searched the place.”