She left Bjurman’s office and went home, took a shower, ate two sandwiches with
cheese and pickles, and then sat on the worn-out sofa in the living room to think.
An ordinary person might have felt that her lack of reaction had shifted the blame
to her—it might have been another sign that she was so abnormal that even rape
could evoke no adequate emotional response.
Her circle of acquaintances was not large, nor did it contain any members of the
sheltered middle class from the suburbs. By the time she was eighteen, Salander
did not know a single girl who at some point had not been forced to perform some
sort of sexual act against her will. Most of these assaults involved slightly older
boyfriends who, using a certain amount of force, made sure that they had their
way. As far as Salander knew, these incidents had led to crying and angry outbursts,
but never to a police report.
In her world, this was the natural order of things. As a girl she was legal prey,
especially if she was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and had pierced
eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social status.
There was no point whimpering about it.
On the other hand, there was no question of Advokat Bjurman going unpunished.
Salander never forgot an injustice, and by nature she was anything but forgiving.
But her legal status was difficult. For as long as she could remember, she was
regarded as cunning and unjustifiably violent. The first reports in her casebook
came from the files of the school nurse from elementary school. Salander had been
sent home because she hit a classmate and shoved him against a coat peg and
drew blood. She still remembered her victim with annoyance—an overweight boy
by the name of David Gustavsson who used to tease her and throw things at her;
he would grow up to be an arch bully. In those days she did not know what the
word “harassment” meant, but when she came to school the next day, the boy had
threatened revenge. So she had decked him with a right jab fortified with a golf
ball—which led to more bloodshed and a new entry in her casebook.
The rules for social interaction in school had always baffled her. She minded her
own business and did not interfere with what anyone around her did. Yet there was
always someone who absolutely would not leave her in peace.
In middle school she had several times been sent home after getting into violent
fights with classmates. Much stronger boys in her class soon learned that it could