Salander story. She had met her maybe five times during the years she had worked at Milton Security and had never had so much as a single conversation with her. She regarded Salander as a sullen and asocial individual with a skin like a rhino. She had heard that Armansky himself had taken Salander on and since she respected Armansky she assumed that he had good reason for his endless patience towards the sullen girl.
Poison Pen is Peter Fredriksson.
Could she be right? What was the proof?
Linder then spent a long time questioning Erika on everything she knew about Fredriksson, what his role was at S.M.P., and how their relationship had been. The answers did not help her at all.
Berger had displayed a frustrating indecision. She had wavered between a determination to drive out to Fredriksson's place and confront him, and an unwillingness to believe that it could really be true. Finally Linder convinced her that she could not storm into Fredriksson's apartment and launch into an accusation - if he was innocent, she would make an utter fool of herself.
So Linder had promised to look into the matter. It was a promise she regretted as soon as she made it, because she did not have the faintest idea how she was going to proceed.
She parked her Fiat Strada as close to Fredriksson's apartment building in Fisksatra as she could. She locked the car and looked about her. She was not sure what she was going to do, but she supposed she would have to knock on his door and somehow get him to answer a number of questions. She was acutely aware that this was a job that lay well outside her remit at Milton, and she knew Armansky would be furious if he found out what she was doing.
It was not a good plan, and in any case it fell apart before she had managed to put it into practice. She had reached the courtyard and was approaching Fredriksson's apartment when the door opened. Linder recognized him at once from the photograph in his personnel file which she had studied on Berger's computer. She kept walking and they passed each other. He disappeared in the direction of the garage. It was just before 11.00 and Fredriksson was on his way somewhere. Linder turned and ran back to her car.
Blomkvist sat for a long time looking at his mobile after Berger hung up. He wondered what was going on. In frustration he looked at Salander's computer. By now she had been moved to the prison in Goteborg, and he had no chance of asking her anything.
He opened his Ericsson T10 and called Idris Ghidi in Angered.
"Hello. Mikael Blomkvist."
"Hello," Ghidi said.
"Just to tell you that you can stop that job you were doing for me."
Ghidi had already worked out that Blomkvist would call since Salander had been taken from the hospital.
"I understand," he said.
"You can keep the mobile as we agreed. I'll send you the final payment this week."
"Thanks."
"I'm the one who should thank you for your help."
Blomkvist opened his iBook. The events of the past twenty-four hours meant that a significant part of the manuscript had to be revised and that in all probability a whole new section would have to be added.
He sighed and got to work.
At 11.15 Fredriksson parked three streets away from Berger's house. Linder had already guessed where he was going and had stopped trying to keep him in sight. She drove past his car fully two minutes after he parked. The car was empty. She went on a short distance past Berger's house and stopped well out of sight. Her palms were sweating.
She opened her tin of Catch Dry snuff and tucked a teenage-sized portion inside her upper lip.
Then she opened her car door and looked around. As soon as she could tell that Fredriksson was on his way to Saltsjobaden, she knew that Salander's information must be correct. And obviously he had not come all this way for fun. Trouble was brewing. Which was fine by her, so long as she could catch him red-handed.
She took her telescopic baton from the side pocket of her car door and weighed it in her hand for a moment. She pressed the lock in the handle and out shot a heavy, spring-loaded steel cable. She clenched her teeth.
That was why she had left the Sodermalm force.
She had had one mad outbreak of rage when for the third time in as many days the squad car