"She's holding up very well, coming across as a complete psychopath. She's merely being herself."
"Wonderful."
"Today has mostly been about what happened at the cabin in Stallarholmen. Tomorrow it'll be about Gosseberga, interrogations of people from forensics and so forth. Ekstrom is going to try to prove that Salander went down there intending to murder her father."
"Well..."
"But we may have a technical problem. This afternoon Ekstrom called Ulrika von Liebenstaahl from the guardianship agency. She started going on about how I had no right to represent Lisbeth."
"Why so?"
"She says that Lisbeth is under guardianship and therefore isn't entitled to choose her own lawyer. So, technically, I may not be her lawyer if the guardianship agency hasn't rubber-stamped it."
"And?"
"Judge Iversen is to decide tomorrow morning. I had a brief word with him after today's proceedings. I think he'll decide that I can continue to represent her. My point was that the agency has had three whole months to raise the objection - to show up with that kind of objection after proceedings have started is an unwarranted provocation."
"Teleborian will testify on Friday, I gather. You have to be the one who cross-examines him."
On Thursday Prosecutor Ekstrom explained to the court that after studying maps and photographs and listening to extensive technical conclusions about what had taken place in Gosseberga, he had determined that the evidence indicated that Salander had gone to her father's farmhouse at Gosseberga with the intention of killing him. The strongest link in the chain of evidence was that she had taken a weapon with her, a Polish P-83 Wanad.
The fact that Alexander Zalachenko (according to Salander's account) or possibly the police murderer Ronald Niedermann (according to testimony that Zalachenko had given before he was murdered at Sahlgrenska) had in turn attempted to kill Salander and bury her in a trench in woods nearby could in no way be held in mitigation of the fact that she had tracked down her father to Gosseberga with the express intention of killing him. Moreover, she had all but succeeded in that objective when she struck him in the face with an axe. Ekstrom demanded that Salander be convicted of attempted murder or premeditation with the intent to kill and, in that case, grievous bodily harm.
Salander's own account stated that she had gone to Gosseberga to confront her father, to persuade him to confess to the murders of Dag Svensson and Mia Johansson. This statement was of dramatic significance in the matter of establishing intent.
When Ekstrom had finished questioning the witness Melker Hansson from the technical unit of the Goteborg police, Advokat Giannini had asked some succinct questions.
"Herr Hansson, is there anything at all in your investigation or in all the technical documentation that you have compiled which could in any way establish that Lisbeth Salander is lying about her intent regarding the visit to Gosseberga? Can you prove that she went there with the intention of murdering her father?"
Hansson thought for a moment.
"No," he said at last.
"Do you have anything to say about her intent?"
"No."
"Prosecutor Ekstrom's conclusion, eloquent and extensive as it is, is therefore speculation?"
"I believe so."
"Is there anything in the forensic evidence that contradicts Lisbeth Salander's statement that she took with her the Polish weapon, a P-83 Wanad, by chance simply because it was in her bag, and she didn't know what she should do with the weapon having taken it the day before from Sonny Nieminen in Stallarholmen?"
"No."
"Thank you," Giannini said and sat down. Those were her only words throughout Hansson's testimony, which had lasted one hour.
Wadensjoo left the Section's apartment on Artillerigatan at 6.00 on Thursday evening with a feeling that he was hedged about by ominous clouds of turmoil, of imminent ruin. For several weeks he had known that his title as director, that is, the chief of the Section for Special Analysis, was but a meaningless label. His opinions, protests and entreaties carried no weight. Clinton had taken over all decision-making. If the Section had been an open and public institution, this would not have been a problem - he would merely have gone to his superior and lodged his protests.
As things stood now, there was no-one he could protest to. He was alone and subject to the mercy or disfavour of a man whom he regarded as insane. And the worst of it was that Clinton's authority was absolute. Snot-nosed kids like Sandberg and faithful retainers like Nystrom... they all seemed to