had already opened the door. Edklinth paused on the threshold.
"I'm not interested in having a general discussion with you. If you want to explain yourself, then I'll sit down and turn the tape recorder back on. All of Swedish officialdom - and the Prime Minister in particular - is eagerly waiting to hear what you have to say. If you tell me, then I can go and see the Prime Minister tonight to give him your version of events. If you don't tell me, you will be charged and convicted anyway."
"Please sit down," Wadensjoo said.
It was evident to everyone that he was resigned to it already. Blomkvist exhaled. He was there with Figuerola, Prosecutor Gustavsson, the otherwise anonymous Sapo officer Stefan, and two other altogether nameless individuals. Blomkvist suspected that one of them at least was there to represent the Minister of Justice.
"I had nothing to do with the murders," Wadensjoo said when Edklinth started the tape recorder again.
"Murders?" Blomkvist whispered to Figuerola.
"Ssshh," she said.
"It was Clinton and Gullberg. I had no idea what they intended. I swear it. I was utterly shocked when I heard that Gullberg had shot Zalachenko. I couldn't believe it... I simply couldn't believe it. And when I heard about Bjorck I thought I was going to have a heart attack."
"Tell me about Bjorck's murder," Edklinth said without altering his tone. "How was it carried out?"
"Clinton hired some people. I don't even know how it happened, but it was two Yugoslavs. Serbs, if I'm not mistaken. Georg Nystrom gave them the contract and paid them afterwards. When I found out, I knew it would end in disaster."
"Should we take this from the beginning?" Edklinth said. "When did you first start working for the Section?"
Once Wadensjoo had begun to talk he could not be stopped. The interview lasted for almost five hours.
CHAPTER 26
FRIDAY, 15.VII
Teleborian's appearance inspired confidence as he sat in the witness box in the courtroom on Friday morning. He was questioned by Prosecutor Ekstrom for some ninety minutes and he replied with calm authority to every question. The expression on his face was sometimes concerned and sometimes amused.
"To sum up..." Ekstrom said, leafing through his sheaf of papers. "It is your judgement as a psychiatrist of long standing that Lisbeth Salander suffers from paranoid schizophrenia?"
"I have said that it is unusually difficult to make a precise evaluation of her condition. The patient is, as you know, almost autistic in her relation to doctors and other figures of authority. My assessment is that she suffers from a serious mental disorder, but that at the present time I cannot give an exact diagnosis. Nor can I determine what stage of the psychosis she is in without more extensive study."
"At any rate, you don't consider her to be sane."
"Indeed her entire history presents most compelling proof that she is not sane."
"You have been allowed to read what Lisbeth Salander has termed her 'autobiography', which she has presented to the district court. What are your comments on this?"
Teleborian threw up his hands and shrugged.
"How would you judge the credibility of her account?"
"There is no credibility. It is a series of assertions about various individuals, one story more fantastical than the other. Taken as a whole, her written explanation confirms our suspicions that she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia."
"Could you give an instance?"
"The most obvious is of course the description of the alleged rape by her guardian Advokat Bjurman."
"Could you expand on that?"
"The description is extremely detailed. It is a classic example of the sort of grotesque fantasy that children are capable of. There are plenty of parallel examples from familial incest cases in which the child gives an account which falls through due to its utter improbability, and for which there is no forensic evidence. These are erotic fantasies which even children of a very young age can have... Almost as if they were watching a horror film on television."
"But Lisbeth Salander is not a child, she is a grown woman," Ekstrom said.
"That is correct. Although it remains to be seen exactly what her mental level may be. But basically you are correct. She is a grown woman, and presumably she believes in the account she has presented."
"So you're saying it is all lies."
"No. If she believes what she says, then it is not a lie. It's a story which shows that she cannot distinguish fantasy from reality."