back. He waited several months before he sold them to a British tabloid. He was paid 9,000 pounds for the photographs and they gave rise to sensational headlines.
He still did not know how Salander had managed it, but after the photographs were published, he had a visit from her. She knew that he was the one who had sold them. She was going to expose him to Armansky if he ever did anything like that again. She would have exposed him immediately if she could have proved it - but she obviously could not. From that day on he had felt her watching him. He had seen her little piggy eyes every time he turned around.
He felt stressed and frustrated. The only way to get back at her was to undermine her credibility by adding his contributions to the gossip about her in the canteen. But not even that had been very successful. He did not dare draw attention to himself, since for some unknown reason she was under Armansky's protection. He wondered what sort of hold she had over Milton's CEO, or if it was possible that the old bastard was fucking her in secret. But even though nobody at Milton was especially enamoured of Salander, the staff had great respect for Armansky and so they accepted her peculiar presence. It was a monumental relief to him when she began to play less of a role and finally stopped working at Milton altogether.
Now an opportunity had presented itself for him to get even. And it was risk-free. She could accuse him of anything she liked - nobody would believe her. Not even Armansky would take the word of a pathologically sick murderer.
Bublanski saw Faste coming out of the elevator with Bohman and Hedstrom from Milton. He had been sent down to bring these new colleagues through security. Bublanski was not entirely enchanted with the idea of giving outsiders access to a murder investigation, but the decision had been made way over his head and... what the hell, Bohman was a real police officer with a lot of miles on him. Hedstrom had graduated from the police academy and so could not be an outright idiot. Bublanski pointed towards the conference room.
The hunt for Salander was in its sixth day and it was time for a major evaluation. Prosecutor Ekstrom did not take part in the meeting. The group consisted of criminal inspectors Modig, Faste, Andersson, and Holmberg, reinforced by four officers from the search unit of the National Criminal Police. Bublanski began by introducing their new colleagues from Milton Security and asking if either of them wanted to say a few words. Bohman cleared his throat.
"It's been a while since I was last in this building, but some of you know me and know that I was a police officer for many years before I switched to the private sector. The reason we're here is that Salander worked for Milton over several years and we feel a measure of responsibility. Our job is to try and assist in her arrest. We can contribute some personal knowledge of her, but we're not here in any way to mess up the investigation or to try to trip you up."
"Tell us what she was like to work with," Faste said.
"She wasn't exactly a person you warmed to," Hedstrom said. He stopped when Bublanski held up his hand.
"We'll have a chance to talk in detail during the meeting. But let's take things one by one and get a grip on where we stand. After this meeting, you two will have to go to Prosecutor Ekstrom and sign a confidentiality statement. Let's begin with Sonja."
"It's frustrating. We had a breakthrough just a few hours after the murders and were able to identify Salander. We found where she lived - or at least where we thought she lived. After that, not a trace. We've received around thirty calls from people who think they've seen her, but so far they've all been false alarms. She seems to have gone up in smoke."
"That's a little hard to believe," Andersson said. "She looks unusual and has tattoos and shouldn't be that hard to find."
"The police in Uppsala went in with their weapons drawn yesterday after receiving a tip. They surrounded and scared the hell out of a fourteen-year-old boy who did look a lot like Salander. The parents were quite upset."
"It's a handicap that we're searching for someone who looks like a fourteen-year-old. She could melt into