“These murders were committed over a very long period of time and all over the
country. Two occurred close together in 1960, but the circumstances were quite
different—a farmer’s wife in Karlstad and a twenty-two-year-old in Stockholm.”
Three fingers.
“There is no immediately apparent pattern. The murders were carried out at
different places and there is no real signature, but there are certain things that do
recur. Animals. Fire. Aggravated sexual assault. And, as you pointed out, a parody of
Biblical quotations. But it seems that not one of the investigating detectives
interpreted any of the murders in terms of the Bible.”
Blomkvist was watching her. With her slender body, her black camisole, the tattoos,
and the rings piercing her face, Salander looked out of place, to say the least, in a
guest cottage in Hedeby. When he tried to be sociable over dinner, she was
taciturn to the point of rudeness. But when she was working she sounded like a
professional to her fingertips. Her apartment in Stockholm might look as if a bomb
had gone off in it, but mentally Salander was extremely well organised.
“It’s hard to see the connection between a prostitute in Uddevalla who’s killed in an
industrial yard and a pastor’s wife who is strangled in Ronneby and has her house
set on fire. If you don’t have the key that Harriet gave us, that is.”
“Which leads to the next question,” Salander said.
“How on earth did Harriet get mixed up in all this? A sixteen-year-old girl who lived
in a really sheltered environment.”
“There’s only one answer,” Salander said. “There must be some connection to the
Vanger family.”
By 11:00 that night they had gone over the series of murders and discussed the
conceivable connections and the tiny details of similarity and difference so often
that Blomkvist’s head was spinning. He rubbed his eyes and stretched and asked
Salander if she felt like a walk. Her expression suggested that she thought such
practices were a waste of time, but she agreed. Blomkvist advised her to change
into long trousers because of the mosquitoes.