Mikael took the magnifying glass and tried to make out the details. The
photograph was taken from too great a distance for him to be entirely sure, but
unlike all those around her, Harriet’s face lacked excitement. Her mouth was a thin
line. Her eyes were wide open. Her hands hung limply at her sides. She looked
frightened. Frightened or furious.
Mikael took the print out of the album, put it in a stiff plastic binder, and went to
wait for the next bus back into Hedestad. He got off at Järnvägsgatan and stood
under the window from which the picture must have been taken. It was at the edge
of what constituted Hedestad’s town centre. It was a two-storey wooden building
that housed a video store and Sundström’s Haberdashery, established in 1932
according to a plaque on the front door. He went in and saw that the shop was on
two levels; a spiral staircase led to the upper floor.
At the top of the spiral staircase two windows faced the street.
“May I help you?” said an elderly salesman when Blomkvist took out the binder
with the photograph. There were only a few people in the shop.
“Well, I just wanted to see where this picture was taken from. Would it be OK if I
opened the window for a second?”
The man said yes. Blomkvist could see exactly the spot where Harriet had stood.
One of the wooden buildings behind her in the photograph was gone, replaced by
an angular brick building. The other wooden building had been a stationery store
in 1966; now it was a health food store and tanning salon. Blomkvist closed the
window, thanked the man, and apologised for taking up his time.
He crossed the street and stood where Harriet had stood. He had good landmarks
between the window of the upper floor of the haberdashery and the door of the
tanning salon. He turned his head and looked along Harriet’s line of sight. As far as
he could tell, she had been looking towards the corner of the building that housed
Sundström’s Haberdashery. It was a perfectly normal corner of a building, where a
cross street vanished behind it. What did you see there, Harriet?