the headlines in the evening papers. She is twenty-seven years old and one metre fifty centimetres tall. She has been called a psychopath, a murderer, and a lesbian Satanist. There has been almost no limit to the fantasies that have been circulated about her. In this issue, Millennium will tell the story of how government officials conspired against Salander in order to protect a pathological murderer...
He wrote steadily for fifty minutes, primarily a recapitulation of the night on which he had found Dag Svensson and Mia Johansson and why the police had focused on Salander as the suspected killer. He quoted the newspaper headlines about lesbian Satanists and the media's apparent hope that the murders might have involved S.&M. sex.
When he checked the clock he quickly closed his iBook. He packed his bag and went down to the front desk. He paid with a credit card and took a taxi to Goteborg Central Station.
Blomkvist went straight to the dining car and ordered more coffee and sandwiches. He opened his iBook again and read through his text. He was so absorbed that he did not notice Inspector Modig until she cleared her throat and asked if she could join him. He looked up, smiled sheepishly, and closed his computer.
"On your way home?"
"You too, I see."
She nodded. "My colleague is staying another day."
"Do you know anything about how Salander is? I've been sound asleep since I last saw you."
"She had an operation soon after she was brought in and was awake in the early evening. The doctors think she'll make a full recovery. She was incredibly lucky."
Blomkvist nodded. It dawned on him that he had not been worried about her. He had assumed that she would survive. Any other outcome was unthinkable.
"Has anything else of interest happened?" he said.
Modig wondered how much she should say to a reporter, even to one who knew more of the story than she did. On the other hand, she had joined him at his table, and maybe a hundred other reporters had by now been briefed at police headquarters.
"I don't want to be quoted," she said.
"I'm simply asking out of personal interest."
She told him that a nationwide manhunt was under way for Ronald Niedermann, particularly in the Malmo area.
"And Zalachenko? Have you questioned him?"
"Yes, we questioned him."
"And?"
"I can't tell you anything about that."
"Come on, Sonja. I'll know exactly what you talked about less than an hour after I get to my office in Stockholm. And I won't write a word of what you tell me."
She hesitated for a while before she met his gaze.
"He made a formal complaint against Salander, that she tried to kill him. She risks being charged with grievous bodily harm or attempted murder."
"And in all likelihood she'll claim self-defence."
"I hope she will," Modig said.
"That doesn't sound like an official line."
"Bodin... Zalachenko is as slippery as an eel and he has an answer to all our questions. I'm persuaded that things are more or less as you told us yesterday, and that means that Salander has been subjected to a lifetime of injustice - since she was twelve."
"That's the story I'm going to publish," Blomkvist said.
"It won't be popular with some people."
Modig hesitated again. Blomkvist waited.
"I talked with Bublanski half an hour ago. He didn't go into any detail, but the preliminary investigation against Salander for the murder of your friends seems to have been shelved. The focus has shifted to Niedermann."
"Which means that..." He let the question hang in the air between them.
Modig shrugged.
"Who's going to take over the investigation of Salander?"
"I don't know. What happened in Gosseberga is primarily Goteborg's problem. I would guess that somebody in Stockholm will be assigned to compile all the material for a prosecution."
"I see. What do you think the odds are that the investigation will be transferred to Sapo?"
Modig shook her head.
Just before they reached Alingsås, Blomkvist leaned towards her. "Sonja... I think you understand how things stand. If the Zalachenko story gets out, there'll be a massive scandal. Sapo people conspired with a psychiatrist to lock Salander up in an asylum. The only thing they can do now is to stonewall and go on claiming that Salander is mentally ill, and that committing her in 1991 was justified."
Modig nodded.
"I'm going to do everything I can to counter any such claims. I believe that Salander is as sane as you or I. Odd, certainly, but her intellectual gifts are undeniable." He paused to let what he had said sink in. "I'm going to