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. Hedstrom from Milton was as quiet as a mouse during the whole discussion. Finally Prosecutor Ekstrom 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?" Ekstrom said.
"I want two people to start looking at alternative killers. Sonja and Niklas can work together."
"Me?" said Hedstrom 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."
Ekstrom agreed that they should proceed according to Bublanski's plan.
"Right," Hedstrom 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 Ekstrom 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."
Hedstrom stopped off at Central Station and had a coffee at George Cafe. 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.
Hedstrom was thinking hard. That morning he and Bohman had had a brief meeting at Milton with Armansky and Fraklund. A week of investigating had turned up nothing, and Armansky was frustrated that nobody had found any explanation for the murders. Fraklund had suggested that Milton Security should rethink its involvement - there were other more pressing tasks for Bohman and Hedstrom than to work as unpaid labour for the police.
Armansky decided that Bohman and Hedstrom should stay on for one more week. If by then there was no result, the assignment would be called off.
In other words, Hedstrom had only a week before the door to his involvement