Salander wanted to see; each report contained a chart of the firm’s divisions
throughout Sweden.
Salander looked at the charts and saw that the firm had many factories, offices, and
sales outlets. At every site where a murder was committed, there was also a red dot,
sometimes several, indicating the Vanger Corporation.
She found the first connection in 1957. Rakel Lunde, Landskrona, was found dead
the day after the V. & C. Construction Company clinched an order worth several
million to build a galleria in the town. V. & C. stood for Vanger and Carlén
Construction. The local paper had interviewed Gottfried Vanger, who had come to
town to sign the contract.
Salander recalled something she had read in the police investigation in the
provincial record office in Landskrona. Rakel Lunde, fortune-teller in her free time,
was an office cleaner. She had worked for V. & C. Construction.
At 7:00 in the evening Blomkvist called Salander a dozen times and each time her
mobile was turned off. She did not want to be disturbed.
He wandered restlessly through the house. He had pulled out Vanger’s notes on
Martin’s activities at the time of Harriet’s disappearance.
Martin Vanger was in his last year at the preparatory school in Uppsala in
- Uppsala. Lena Andersson, seventeen-year-old preparatory school pupil. Head
separated from the fat.
Vanger had mentioned this at one point, but Blomkvist had to consult his notes to
find the passage. Martin had been an introverted boy. They had been worried
about him. After his father drowned, Isabella had decided to send him to
Uppsala—a change of scene where he was given room and board with Harald
Vanger. Harald and Martin? It hardly felt right.
Martin Vanger was not with Harald in the car going to the gathering in Hedestad,
and he had missed a train. He arrived late in the afternoon and so was among those
stranded on the wrong side of the bridge. He only arrived on the island by boat
some time after 6:00. He was received by Vanger himself, among others. Vanger
had put Martin far down the list of people who might have had anything to do with
Harriet’s disappearance.