It was the first photograph in the album, the last picture taken of Harriet Vanger on
that fateful day on Järnvägsgatan in Hedestad, while she had been watching the
Children’s Day parade.
The photograph was an odd one to have included in the album. It was put there
because it was taken the same day, but it was the only one of the photographs not
of the accident on the bridge. Each time Blomkvist and (he supposed) everyone
else had looked at the album, it was the people and the details in the pictures of
the bridge that had captured their attention. There was no drama in the picture of a
crowd at the Children’s Day parade, several hours earlier.
Vanger must have looked at the photograph a thousand times, a sorrowful
reminder that he would never see her again.
But that was not what Blomkvist had reacted to.
It was taken from across the street, probably from a first-floor window. The wide-
angle lens had caught the front of one of the floats. On the flatbed were women
wearing glittering bathing suits and harem trousers, throwing sweets to the crowd.
Some of them were dancing. Three clowns were jumping about in front of the float.
Harriet was in the front row of the crowd standing on the pavement. Next to her
were three girls, clearly her classmates, and around and behind them were at least
a hundred other spectators.
This is what Blomkvist had noticed subconsciously and which suddenly rose to the
surface when the bus passed the exact same spot.
The crowd behaved as an audience should. Their eyes always follow the ball in a
tennis match or the puck in an ice hockey rink. The ones standing at the far left of
the photograph were looking at the clowns right in front of them. The ones closer
to the float were all looking at the scantily clad girls. The expressions on their faces
were calm. Children pointed. Some were laughing. Everyone looked happy.
All except one.
Harriet Vanger was looking off to the side. Her three friends and everyone else in
her vicinity were looking at the clowns. Harriet’s face was turned almost 30° to 35°
to her right. Her gaze seemed fixed on something across the street, but beyond the
left-hand edge of the photograph.