“No, no, no, not the Pentecostals. She’s looking for the forbidden truth. She is not a
good Christian.”
Then Pastor Falk seemed to forget all about Blomkvist and started talking with the
other patients.
He got back to Hedeby Island just after 2:00. He walked over to Cecilia Vanger’s and
knocked on the door, but without success. He tried her mobile number again but
no answer.
He attached one smoke alarm to a wall in the kitchen and one next to the front
door. He put one fire extinguisher next to the woodstove beside the bedroom door
and another one beside the bathroom door. Then he made himself lunch, which
consisted of coffee and open sandwiches, and sat in the garden, where he was
typing up the notes of his conversation with Pastor Falk. When that was done, he
raised his eyes to the church.
Hedeby’s new parsonage was quite an ordinary modern dwelling a few minutes’
walk from the church. Blomkvist knocked on the door at 4:00 and explained to
Pastor Margareta Strandh that he had come to seek advice on a theological matter.
Margareta Strandh was a dark-haired woman of about his own age, dressed in
jeans and a flannel shirt. She was barefoot and had painted toenails. He had run
into her before at Susanne’s Bridge Café on a couple of occasions and talked to her
about Pastor Falk. He was given a friendly reception and invited to come and sit in
her courtyard.
Blomkvist told her that he had interviewed Otto Falk and what the old man had
said. Pastor Strandh listened and then asked him to repeat it word for word.
“I was sent to serve here in Hedeby only three years ago, and I’ve never actually
met Pastor Falk. He retired several years before that, but I believe that he was fairly
high-church. What he said to you meant something on the lines of ‘keep to
Scripture alone’—sola scriptura—and that it is sufficientia scripturae. This latter is an
expression that establishes the sufficiency of Scripture among literal believers. Sola
fide means faith alone or the true faith.”
“I see.”