an hour showing the pictures to a group of elderly people. They were very helpful,
but none of them could identify the couple.
At 5:00 he went back to Solvändan and knocked on Burman’s door. This time he
had better luck. The Burmans, both the man and the wife, were retired, and they
had been out all day. They invited Blomkvist into their kitchen, where his wife
promptly made coffee while Mikael explained his errand. As with all his other
attempts that day, he again drew a blank. Burman scratched his head, lit a pipe,
and then concluded after a moment that he did not recognise the couple in the
photographs. The Burmans spoke in a distinct Norsjö dialect to each other, and
Blomkvist occasionally had difficulty understanding what they were saying. The
wife meant “curly hair” when she remarked that the woman in the picture
had knövelhära.
“But you’re quite right that it’s a sticker from the carpentry shop,” her husband said.
“That was clever of you to recognise it. But the problem was that we handed out
those stickers left and right. To contractors, people who bought or delivered
timber, joiners, machinists, all sorts.”
“It’s turning out to be harder to find this couple than I thought.”
“Why do you want to find them?”
Blomkvist had decided to tell the truth if anyone asked him. Any attempt to make
up a story about the couple in the pictures would just sound false and create
confusion.
“It’s a long story. I’m investigating a crime that occurred in Hedestad in 1966, and I
think there’s a possibility, although a very small one, that the people in the
photographs might have seen what happened. They’re not in any way under
suspicion, and I don’t think they’re even aware that they might have information
that could solve the crime.”
“A crime? What kind of crime?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you any more than that. I know it sounds bizarre that
someone would come here almost forty years later, trying to find this couple, but
the crime is still unsolved, and it’s only lately that new facts have come to light.”
“I see. Yes, this is certainly an unusual assignment that you’re on.”