almost popped out of his head when he heard the top stories. Bodies dug up in Nykvarn. Salander had shot a leader of Svavelsjo MC. Police hunt through the southern suburbs. The net was tightening.
He turned on his mobile.
Almost immediately that fucker Bublanski called. He said that the investigation was now redirecting its focus to identifying an alternative killer, and that Faste was to relieve Holmberg at the crime scene in Nykvarn. During the wrapping up of the Salander investigation Faste was supposed to be collecting cigarette butts in the woods. Other people would be hunting Salander.
What the hell did Svavelsjo MC have to do with all this?
Suppose there was something to the reasoning of that fucking dyke Modig.
It wasn't possible.
It had to be Salander.
He wanted to be the one who caught her. He wanted to catch her so badly that it almost made his hands hurt as he held his mobile.
Palmgren calmly watched Blomkvist pace back and forth in front of the window in the small room. It was getting on towards 7:30 in the evening, and they had been talking nonstop for almost an hour. At last Palmgren tapped on the tabletop to get Blomkvist's attention.
"Sit down before you wear out your shoes," he said.
Blomkvist sat down.
"All these secrets," Palmgren said. "I never understood the connection until you explained Zalachenko's background. All I've seen are the assessments of Lisbeth claiming that she's mentally disturbed."
"Peter Teleborian."
"He must have some sort of deal with Bjorck. They have to have been working together somehow."
Blomkvist nodded pensively. Whatever happened, Teleborian was going to be the object of journalistic scrutiny.
"Lisbeth said that I should stay away from him. That he was evil."
Palmgren looked at him sharply. "When did she say that?"
Blomkvist said nothing for some moments. Then he smiled and looked at Palmgren.
"More secrets, damn it. I've been in touch with her while she's been in hiding. By computer. Only short, cryptic messages on her part, but she has always led me in the right direction."
Palmgren sighed. "And of course you didn't tell the police."
"No. Not exactly."
"Then you haven't told me either. She's quite good with computers."
You have no idea how good.
"I have a great belief in her ability to land on her feet. She may be hard up, but she's a survivor."
Not that hard up. She stole almost three billion kronor. She's not going to starve. She has a bag full of gold, just like Pippi Longstocking.
"What I don't quite understand," Blomkvist said, "is why you didn't take up her case in all those years."
Palmgren sighed again. He felt infinitely sad.
"I failed her," he said. "When I became her trustee she was only one in a series of difficult young people with problems. I've dealt with dozens of others. I was given the assignment by Stefan Brådhensjo when he was minister of welfare. By then she was already at St.Stefan's, and I didn't even see her that first year. I talked to Teleborian a couple of times and he explained that she was psychotic and that she was getting the best possible care. I believed him - and why not? But I also talked to Jonas Beringer, who was senior clinician at that time. I don't think he had anything to do with her case. He made an assessment at my request, and we agreed to try and get her back into society again by way of a foster family. That was when she was fifteen."
"And you backed her up over the years."
"Not enough. I took her side after the episode in the tunnelbana. By then I had gotten to know her and I liked her a lot. She was feisty. I stopped them from putting her back in an institution. The price of that was that she was declared incompetent and I became her guardian."
"Presumably Bjorck wasn't running around telling the court what to decide. It would have attracted attention. He wanted her locked up, and he counted on painting a bleak picture of her through psychiatric assessments from Teleborian and others, assuming that the court would come to the logical conclusion. But instead they followed your recommendation."
"I've never thought that she ought to be under guardianship. But to be honest, I didn't do much to get the ruling reversed. I should have acted sooner and more forcefully. But I was quite enchanted by Lisbeth and... I always put it off. I had too many irons in the fire. And then I got sick."
"I don't think you should blame yourself.