Page 15 (1/2)

Blomkvist reached across and stroked her hair

"You’re not alone You’ve got Christer and the rest of the staff behind you"

"Not Janne Dahl hiood I don’t trust hileeful about your troubles all autumn I don’t know if he hopes he can take over your role or whether it’s just personal chemistry between hiht," Blomkvist said

"So what should I do? Fire him?"

"Erika, you’re editor in chief and the senior shareholder of Millennium If you have to, fire him"

"We’ve never fired anyone, Micke And now you’re du to the office in theup

"If you’re going to catch that train we’ve got to get an to protest, but he held up a hand "Wait, Erika, you asked ht Well, I think the situation is shitty But if things are the way Mikael says - that he’s about to hit the wall - then he really does have to leave for his own sake We owe hiave Blomkvist an embarrassed look

"You both know that it’s you tho are Millennium I’m a partner and you’ve always been fair with azine and all that, but you could easily replace me with some other art director But since you asked for my opinion, there you have it As far as Dahlree with you And if you want to fire hi as we have a credible reason Obviously it’s extreht now, but I don’t think we have a choice Mikael, I’ll drive you to the station Erika and I will hold the fort until you get back"

"What I’er said quietly

Armansky woke up Salander when he called her at 1:30 in the afternoon

"What’s this about?" she said, drunk with sleep Her mouth tasted like tar

"Mikael Blomkvist I just talked to our client, the lawyer, Frode"

"So?"

"He called to say that we can drop the investigation of Wennerstro on it"

"Frode isn’t interested any more"

"Just like that?"

"He’s the one who decides"

"We agreed on a fee"

"How ht about it "Three full days"

"We agreed on a ceiling of forty thousand kronor I’ll write an invoice for ten thousand; you’ll get half, which is acceptable for three days of time wasted He’ll have to pay because he’s the one who initiated the whole thing"

"What should I do with thedramatic?"

"No"

"Frode didn’t ask for a report Put it on the shelf in case he comes back Otherwise you can shred it I’ll have a new job for you next week"

Salander sat for a while holding the telephone after Ar room and looked at the notes she had pinned up on the wall and the papers she had stacked on the desk What she had s and articles downloaded from the Internet She took the papers and dropped thee behaviour in the courtrooe, and Salander did not like aborting an assignment once she had started People always have secrets It’s just aout what they are

PART 2 Consequence Analyses

JANUARY 3-MARCH 17

Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man

CHAPTER 8

Friday, January 3 - Sunday, January 5

When Blohted from his train in Hedestad for the second time, the sky was a pastel blue and the air icy cold The ther;F He earing unsuitable walking shoes Unlike on his previous visit, there was no Herr Frode waiting with a warm car Blomkvist had told them which day he would arrive, but not on which train He assuling with two heavy suitcases and a shoulder bag, so he crossed the square to the taxi stand

It had snowedthe Norrland coast between Christes and piles of snow thrown up by the ploughs, the road teams had been out in full force in Hedestad The taxi driver, whose na to his ID posted on the as Hussein, nodded when Bloh weather In the broadest Norrland accent, he reported that it had been the worst snowstor his holiday in Greece over the Christer’s newly shovelled courtyard, where he lifted his suitcases on to the cobblestones and watched the taxi head back towards Hedestad He suddenly felt lonely and uncertain