Nacka. He kissed her on the cheek, thanked her for all her help, and waited until she had turned the car and driven off before he called a taxi.
It was two years since Blomkvist had been to Saltsjobaden. He had only been to Berger's house a few times. He supposed that was a sign of immaturity.
Exactly how her marriage with Greger Beckman functioned, he had no idea. He had known Berger since the early eighties. He planned to go on having a relationship with her until he was too old to get out of his wheelchair. They had broken it off in the late eighties when both he and Berger had met and married other people. The hiatus had lasted little more than a year.
In Blomkvist's case the consequence of his infidelity was a divorce. For Berger it led to Beckman's conceding that their long-term sexual passion was evidently so strong that it would be unreasonable to believe that mere convention could keep them apart. Nor did he propose to lose Berger the way that Blomkvist had lost his wife.
When Berger admitted having an affair, Beckman knocked on Blomkvist's door. Blomkvist had been dreading his visit, but instead of punching him in the face, Beckman had suggested they go out for a drink. They hit three bars in Sodermalm before they were sufficiently tipsy to have a serious conversation, which took place on a park bench in Mariatorget around sunrise.
At first Blomkvist was sceptical, but Beckman eventually convinced him that if he tried to sabotage his marriage to Berger, he could expect to see Beckman come back sober with a baseball bat, but if it was simply physical desire and the soul's inability to rein itself in, that was OK as far as he was concerned.
So Blomkvist and Berger had taken up again, with Beckman's blessing and without trying to hide anything from him. All Berger had to do was pick up the telephone and tell him she was spending the night with Blomkvist when the spirit moved her, which it did with some regularity.
Beckman had never uttered a word of criticism against Blomkvist. On the contrary, he seemed to regard his relationship with his wife as beneficial; and his love for her was deepened because he knew he could never take her for granted.
Blomkvist, on the other hand, had never felt entirely at ease in Beckman's company - a dreary reminder that even liberated relationships had a price. Accordingly, he had been to Saltsjobaden only on the few occasions when Berger had hosted parties where his absence would have been remarked on.
Now he stood at the door of their substantial villa. Despite his uneasiness about bringing bad news, he resolutely put his finger on the doorbell and held it there for about forty seconds until he heard footsteps. Beckman opened the door with a towel wrapped around his waist and his face full of bleary anger that changed to astonishment when he saw his wife's lover.
"Hi, Greger," Blomkvist said.
"Good morning, Blomkvist. What the hell time is it?"
Beckman was blond and thin. He had a lot of hair on his chest and hardly any on his head. He had a week's growth of beard and a prominent scar over his right eyebrow, the result of a sailing accident some years before.
"Just after 5:00," Blomkvist said. "Could you wake Erika? I have to talk to her."
Beckman took it that since Blomkvist had all of a sudden overcome his reluctance to visit Saltsjobaden - and at that hour - something out of the ordinary must have happened. Besides, the man looked as if he badly needed a drink, or at least a bed so that he could sleep off whatever it was. Beckman held the door open and let him in.
"What happened?"
Before Blomkvist could reply, Berger appeared at the top of the stairs, tying the sash of a white terry-cloth bathrobe. She stopped halfway down when she saw Blomkvist in the hall.
"What?"
"Dag and Mia," Blomkvist said.
His face instantly revealed the news he had come to give her.
"No." She put a hand to her mouth.
"They were murdered last night. I just came from the police station."
"Murdered?" Berger and Beckman said at the same time.
"Somebody got into their apartment in Enskede and shot them. I was the one who found them."
Berger sat down on the stairs.
"I didn't want you to have to hear it on the morning news," Blomkvist said.
It was 6:59 a.m. on Maundy Thursday as Blomkvist and Berger let themselves into the