Blomkvist started his iBook and clicked on the photograph folder.
“It’s fascinating. The visit to Norsjö was a sort of progress, but it was also a
disappointment. I found the picture, but it doesn’t tell us much.
“That woman, Mildred Berggren, had saved all her holiday pictures in albums. The
picture I was looking for was one of them. It was taken on cheap colour film and
after thirty-seven years the print was incredibly faded—with a strong yellow tinge.
But, would you believe, she still had the negative in a shoebox. She let me borrow
all the negatives from Hedestad and I’ve scanned them in. This is what Harriet saw.”
He clicked on an image which now had the filename HARRIET/bd-19.eps.
Salander immediately understood his dismay. She saw an unfocused image that
showed clowns in the foreground of the Children’s Day parade. In the background
could be seen the corner of Sundström’s Haberdashery. About ten people were
standing on the pavement in front of Sundström’s.
“I think this is the person she saw. Partly because I tried to triangulate what she was
looking at, judging by the angle that her face was turned—I made a drawing of the
crossroads there—and partly because this is the only person who seems to be
looking straight into the camera. Meaning that—perhaps—he was staring at
Harriet.”
What Salander saw was a blurry figure standing a little bit behind the spectators,
almost in the side street. He had on a dark padded jacket with a red patch on the
shoulders and dark trousers, possibly jeans. Blomkvist zoomed in so that the figure
from the waist up filled the screen. The photograph became instantly fuzzier still.
“It’s a man. He’s about five-foot eleven, normal build. He has dark-blond, semi-long
hair and is clean-shaven. But it’s impossible to make out his facial features or even
estimate his age. He could be anywhere between his teens and middle age.
“You could manipulate the image...”
“I have manipulated the image, dammit. I even sent a copy to the image processing
wizard at Millennium.” Blomkvist clicked up a new shot. “This is the absolute best I
can get out of it. The camera is simply too lousy and the distance too far.”
“Have you shown the picture to anyone? Someone might recognise the man’s
bearing or...”