Salander drove him to Hedestad Hospital. It took only two stitches and a good
dressing to close the wound. He was given cortisone salve for the rash from the
stinging nettles on his neck and hands.
After they left the hospital Blomkvist sat for a long time wondering whether he
ought to go to the police. He could see the headlines now. “Libel Journalist in
Shooting Drama.” He shook his head. “Let’s go home,” he said.
It was dark when they arrived back at Hedeby Island, and that suited Salander fine.
She lifted a sports bag on to the kitchen table.
“I borrowed this stuff from Milton Security, and it’s time we made use of it.”
She planted four battery-operated motion detectors around the house and
explained that if anyone came closer than twenty feet, a radio signal would trigger
a small chirping alarm that she set up in Blomkvist’s bedroom. At the same time,
two light-sensitive video cameras that she had put in trees at the front and back of
the cabin would send signals to a PC laptop that she set in the cupboard by the
front door. She camouflaged the cameras with dark cloth.
She put a third camera in a birdhouse above the door. She drilled a hole right
through the wall for the cable. The lens was aimed at the road and the path from
the gate to the front door. It took a low-resolution image every second and stored
them all on the hard drive of another PC laptop in the wardrobe.
Then she put a pressure-sensitive doormat in the entrance. If someone managed to
evade the infrared detectors and got into the house, a 115-decibel siren would go
off. Salander demonstrated for him how to shut off the detectors with a key to a
box in the wardrobe. She had also borrowed a night-vision scope.
“You don’t leave a lot to chance,” Blomkvist said, pouring coffee for her.
“One more thing. No more jogging until we crack this.”
“Believe me, I’ve lost all interest in exercise.”
“I’m not joking. This may have started out as a historical mystery, but what with
dead cats and people trying to blow your head off we can be sure we’re on
somebody’s trail.”