someone had heard the shot. So she ought to leave the area right away. She could always find Lundin at some later date and ask him the question under less stressful circumstances. She secured the weapon's safety, zipped it into her jacket pocket, and picked up her backpack.
She had gone about ten yards down the road when she stopped and turned around. She walked back slowly and studied Lundin's motorcycle.
"Harley-Davidson," she said. "Sweet."
CHAPTER 27
Wednesday, April 6
It was a beautiful spring day as Blomkvist drove Berger's car south towards Nynasvagen. Already there was a hint of green in the black fields, and there was real warmth in the air. It was perfect weather to forget all his problems and drive out for a few days to be at peace in his cabin in Sandhamn.
He had agreed with Bjorck that he would be there at 1:00, but he arrived early and stopped in Dalaro to have coffee and read the papers. He did not prepare for the meeting. Bjorck had something to tell him, and Blomkvist was determined that this time he would come away from Smådalaro with concrete information about Zala.
Bjorck met him in the driveway. He looked more self-assured, more pleased with himself than he had two days before. What sort of move are you planning? Blomkvist did not shake hands with him.
"I can give you information about Zala," Bjorck said, "but I have certain conditions."
"Let's hear them."
"I won't be named in Millennium's expose."
"Agreed."
Bjorck looked surprised. Blomkvist had accepted straight off, without argument, the point about which Bjorck was expecting to have a long negotiation. That was his only card. Information about the murders in exchange for anonymity. Blomkvist had agreed, and given up the chance of a strong headline in the magazine.
"I'm serious," Bjorck said. "And I want it in writing."
"You can have it in writing, but a document like that wouldn't be of any use to you. You've committed a crime that I know about and which I'm bound to report to the police. But you know things, and you're using your position to buy my silence. I've thought about the matter and I accept. I won't mention your name in Millennium. Either you take my word for it or you don't."
While Bjorck thought about it, Blomkvist said: "I have some conditions too. The price of my silence is that you tell me everything you know. If I discover that you're hiding something, our agreement is void, and I'll hang your name out to dry on every single news headline in Sweden, just as I did with Wennerstrom."
Bjorck shuddered at the memory.
"OK," he said. "I don't have a choice. I'll tell you who Zala is. But I'm going to need absolute confidentiality."
He reached out his hand. Blomkvist grasped it. He had just promised to assist in covering up a crime, but it didn't trouble him for a moment. All he had promised was that he himself and Millennium magazine would not write about Bjorck. Svensson had already written the whole story in his book. And the book would be published.
The call came through to the police in Strangnas at 3:18 p.m. It came directly to the switchboard and not through the emergency services. A man named oberg, owner of a summer cabin just east of Stallarholmen, reported that he had heard what sounded like a shot and went to see what was going on. He had found two severely wounded men. Well, one of the men may not have been so severely wounded, but he was in a lot of pain. And the cabin they were lying in front of was owned by Nils Bjurman, a lawyer. The late Nils Bjurman, that is - the man there was so much about in the papers.
The Strangnas police had already had an eventful day with an extensive traffic check in the community. During the course of the morning the traffic assignment had been interrupted when a call came in that a middle-aged woman had been killed by her boyfriend at the house they shared in Finninge. At almost the same time a fire had spread from an outhouse into a property in Storgardet. One body was found in the wreckage. And to top it all off, two cars had collided head-on on the Enkoping highway. Accordingly, the Strangnas police force was busy, almost to a man.
The duty officer, however, had been following the developments in Nykvarn that morning, and she deduced that this new commotion must have something to