Prussic acid was used as a component in certain chemical industries, including the
manufacture of dyes. A few milligrams were enough to kill a person; one litre in a
reservoir could wipe out a medium-sized city.
Obviously such a lethal substance was kept under strict control. But it could be
produced in almost unlimited quantities in an ordinary kitchen. All that was
needed was a modest amount of laboratory equipment, and that could be found in
a chemistry set for children for a few hundred kronor, along with several
ingredients that could be extracted from ordinary household products. The manual
for the process was on the Internet.
Another option was nicotine. From a carton of cigarettes she could extract enough
milligrams of the substance and heat it to make a viscous syrup. An even better
substance, although slightly more complex to produce, was nicotine sulphate,
which had the property that it could be absorbed through the skin. All she would
have to do was put on rubber gloves, fill a water pistol, and spray Bjurman in the
face. Within twenty seconds he should be unconscious, and within a few minutes
he would be dead as a door-nail.
Salander had had no idea that so many household products could be transformed
into deadly weapons. After studying the subject for several days, she was
persuaded that there were no technical impediments to making short work of her
guardian.
There were two problems: Bjurman’s death would not of itself give her back control
of her own life, and there was no guarantee that Bjurman’s successor would be an
improvement. Analysis of the consequences.
What she needed was a way to control her guardian and thus her own situation.
She sat on the worn sofa in her living room for one whole evening running through
the situation in her mind. By the end of the night, she had scrapped the idea of
murder by poison and put together a new plan.
It was not an appealing option, and it required her to allow Bjurman to attack her
again. But if she carried it off, she would have won.
At least, so she thought.