"Good. I'd like to have a word in private with you if you have a moment."
Jonasson unlocked the door and ushered the visitor in. "How can I help you?"
"It's about one of your patients, Lisbeth Salander. I need to visit her."
"You'll have to get permission from the prosecutor. She's under arrest and all visitors are prohibited. And any applications for visits must also be referred in advance to Salander's lawyer."
"Yes, yes, I know. I thought we might be able to cut through all the red tape in this case. I'm a physician, so you could let me have the opportunity to visit her on medical grounds."
"Yes, there might be a case for that, but I can't see what your objective is."
"For several years I was Lisbeth Salander's psychiatrist when she was institutionalized at St Stefan's. I followed up with her until she turned eighteen, when the district court released her back into society, albeit under guardianship. I should perhaps mention that I opposed that action. Since then she has been allowed to drift aimlessly, and the consequences are there for all to see today."
"Indeed?"
"I feel a great responsibility towards her still, and would value the chance to gauge how much deterioration has occurred over the past ten years."
"Deterioration?"
"Compared with when she was receiving qualified care as a teenager. I thought we might be able to come to an understanding here, as one doctor to another."
"While I have it fresh in my mind, perhaps you could help me with a matter I don't quite understand... as one doctor to another, that is. When she was admitted to Sahlgrenska hospital I performed a comprehensive medical examination on her. A colleague sent for the forensic report on the patient. It was signed by a Dr Jesper H. Loderman."
"That's correct. I was Dr Loderman's assistant when he was in practice."
"I see. But I noticed that the report was vague in the extreme."
"Really?"
"It contains no diagnosis. It almost seems to be an academic study of a patient who refuses to speak."
Teleborian laughed. "Yes, she certainly isn't easy to deal with. As it says in the report, she consistently refused to participate in conversations with Dr Loderman. With the result that he was bound to express himself rather imprecisely. Which was entirely correct on his part."
"And yet the recommendation was that she should be institutionalized?"
"That was based on her prior history. We had experience with her pathology compiled over many years."
"That's exactly what I don't understand. When she was admitted here, we sent for a copy of her file from St Stefan's. But we still haven't received it."
"I'm sorry about that. But it's been classified Top Secret by order of the district court."
"And how are we supposed to give her the proper care here if we can't have access to her records? The medical responsibility for her right now is ours, no-one else's."
"I've taken care of her since she was twelve, and I don't think there is any other doctor in Sweden with the same insight into her clinical condition."
"Which is what...?"
"Lisbeth Salander suffers from a serious mental disorder. Psychiatry, as you know, is not an exact science. I would hesitate to confine myself to an exact diagnosis, but she has obvious delusions with distinct paranoid schizophrenic characteristics. Her clinical status also includes periods of manic depression and she lacks empathy."
Jonasson looked intently at Dr Teleborian for ten seconds before he said: "I won't argue a diagnosis with you, Dr Teleborian, but have you ever considered a significantly simpler diagnosis?"
"Such as?"
"For example, Asperger's syndrome. Of course I haven't done a psychiatric evaluation of her, but if I had spontaneously to hazard a guess, I would consider some form of autism. That would explain her inability to relate to social conventions."
"I'm sorry, but Asperger's patients do not generally set fire to their parents. Believe me, I've never met so clearly defined a sociopath."
"I consider her to be withdrawn, but not a paranoid sociopath."
"She is extremely manipulative," Teleborian said. "She acts the way she thinks you would expect her to act."
Jonasson frowned. Teleborian was contradicting his own reading of Salander. If there was one thing Jonasson felt sure about her, it was that she was certainly not manipulative. On the contrary, she was a person who stubbornly kept her distance from those around her and showed no emotion at all. He tried to reconcile the picture that Teleborian was painting with his own image of Salander.