of the afternoon. He left her at 7.00. She felt a vague sense of loss a moment after he kissed her cheek and was gone.
At 8.00 on Sunday evening Linder knocked on Berger's door. She would not be sleeping there now that Beckman was home, and this visit was not connected with her job. But during the time she had spent at Berger's house they had both grown to enjoy the long conversations they had in the kitchen. She had discovered a great liking for Berger. She recognized in her a desperate woman who succeeded in concealing her true nature. She went to work apparently calm, but in reality she was a bundle of nerves.
Linder suspected that her anxiety was due not solely to Poison Pen. But Berger's life and problems were none of her business. It was a friendly visit. She had come out here just to see Berger and to be sure that everything was alright. The couple were in the kitchen in a solemn mood. It seemed as though they had spent their Sunday working their way through one or two serious issues.
Beckman put on some coffee. Linder had been there only a few minutes when Berger's mobile rang.
Berger had answered every call that day with a feeling of impending doom.
"Berger," she said.
"Hello, Ricky."
Blomkvist. Shit. I haven't told him the Borgsjo file has disappeared.
"Hi, Micke."
"Salander was moved to the prison in Goteborg this evening, to wait for transport to Stockholm tomorrow."
"O.K."
"She sent you a... well, a message."
"Oh?"
"It's pretty cryptic."
"What did she say?"
"She says: 'Poison Pen is Peter Fredriksson.'"
Erika sat for ten seconds in silence while thoughts rushed through her head. Impossible. Peter isn't like that. Salander has to be wrong.
"Was that all?"
"That's the whole message. Do you know what it's about?"
"Yes."
"Ricky... what are you and that girl up to? She rang you to tip me off about Teleborian and - "
"Thanks, Micke. We'll talk later."
She turned off her mobile and looked at Linder with an expression of absolute astonishment.
"Tell me," Linder said.
Linder was in two minds. Berger had been told that her assistant editor was the one sending the vicious emails. She talked non-stop. Then Linder had asked her how she knew Fredriksson was her stalker. Then Berger was silent. Linder noticed her eyes and saw that something had changed in her attitude. She was all of a sudden totally confused.
"I can't tell you..."
"What do you mean you can't tell me?"
"Susanne, I just know that Fredriksson is responsible. But I can't tell you how I got that information. What can I do?"
"If I'm going to help you, you have to tell me."
"I... I can't. You don't understand."
Berger got up and stood at the kitchen window with her back to Linder. Finally she turned.
"I'm going to his house."
"You'll do nothing of the sort. You're not going anywhere, least of all to the home of somebody who obviously hates you."
Berger looked torn.
"Sit down. Tell me what happened. It was Blomkvist calling you, right?"
Berger nodded.
"I... today I asked a hacker to go through the home computers of the staff."
"Aha. So you've probably by extension committed a serious computer crime. And you don't want to tell me who your hacker is?"
"I promised I would never tell anyone... Other people are involved. Something that Mikael is working on."
"Does Blomkvist know about the emails and the break-in here?"
"No, he was just passing on a message."
Linder cocked her head to one side, and all of a sudden a chain of associations formed in her mind.
Erika Berger. Mikael Blomkvist. Millennium. Rogue policemen who broke in and bugged Blomkvist's apartment. Linder watching the watchers. Blomkvist working like a madman on a story about Lisbeth Salander.
The fact that Salander was a wizard at computers was widely known at Milton Security. No-one knew how she had come by her skills, and Linder had never heard any rumours that Salander might be a hacker. But Armansky had once said something about Salander delivering quite incredible reports when she was doing personal investigations. A hacker...
But Salander is under guard on a ward in Goteborg.
It was absurd.
"Is it Salander we're talking about?" Linder said.
Berger looked as though she had touched a live wire.
"I can't discuss where the information came from. Not one word."
Linder laughed aloud.
It was Salander. Berger's confirmation of it could not have been clearer. She was completely off balance.
Yet it's impossible.
Under guard as she was, Salander had nevertheless taken on the job of finding out who Poison Pen was. Sheer madness.