aunt. The nephew’s alibi was significantly weaker, and he was taken into custody
for a while, but released for lack of evidence. Even so, many people in the village
thought it highly probable that he was guilty.
The police followed another lead. A part of the investigation concerned the search
for a pedlar who was seen in the area; there was also a rumour that a group of
“thieving gypsies” had carried out a series of raids. Why they should have
committed a savage, sexually related murder without stealing anything was never
explained.
For a time suspicion was directed at a neighbour in the village, a bachelor who in
his youth was suspected of an allegedly homosexual crime—this was back when
homosexuality was still a punishable offence—and according to several
statements, he had a reputation for being “odd.” Why someone who was
supposedly homosexual would commit a sex crime against a woman was not
explained either. None of these leads, or any others, led to a charge.
Salander thought there was a clear link to the list in Harriet Vanger’s date book.
Leviticus 20:16 said: “If a woman approaches any beast and lies with it, you shall kill
the woman and the beast; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.” It
couldn’t be a coincidence that a farmer’s wife by the name of Magda had been
found murdered in a barn, with her body so arranged and tied up in a horse stall.
The question was why had Harriet Vanger written down the name Magda instead
of Lovisa, which was apparently the name the victim went under. If her full name
had not been printed in the TV listing, Salander would have missed it.
And, of course, the more important question was: was there a link between
Rebecka’s murder in 1949, the murder of Magda Lovisa in 1960, and Harriet
Vanger’s disappearance in 1966?
On Saturday morning Burman took Blomkvist on an extensive tour of Norsjö. In the
morning they called on five former employees who lived within walking distance of
Burman’s house. Everyone offered them coffee. All of them studied the
photographs and shook their heads.
After a simple lunch at the Burman home, they got in the car for a drive. They
visited four villages near Norsjö, where former employees of the carpentry shop