Salander found a second connection. Gottfried Vanger had participated in a
negotiation in Karlstad, where the Vanger Corporation had bought a timber
company. On the following day a farmer’s wife, Magda Lovisa Sjöberg, was found
murdered.
Salander discovered the third connection just fifteen minutes later. Uddevalla,
- The same day that Lea Persson disappeared, the local paper had interviewed
Gottfried Vanger about a possible expansion of the harbour.
When Fru Lindgren had wanted to close up and go home at 5:30, Salander had
snapped at her that she was a long way from finished yet. She could go home as
long as she left the key, and Salander would lock up. By that time the archives
manager was so infuriated that a girl like this one could boss her around that she
called Herr Frode. Frode told her that Salander could stay all night if she wanted to.
Would Fru Lindgren please notify security at the office so that they could let
Salander out when she wanted to leave?
Three hours later, getting on for 8:30, Salander had concluded that Gottfried
Vanger had been close to where at least five of the eight murders were committed,
either during the days before or after the event. She was still missing information
about the murders in 1949 and 1954. She studied a newspaper photograph of him.
A slim, handsome man with dark blond hair; he looked rather like Clark Gable
in Gone with the Wind.
In 1949 Gottfried was twenty-two years old. The first murder took place in his home
territory. Hedestad. Rebecka Jacobsson, who worked at the Vanger Corporation. Where
did the two of you meet? What did you promise her?
Salander bit her lip. The problem was that Gottfried Vanger had drowned when he
was drunk in 1965, while the last murder was committed in Uppsala in February
- She wondered if she was mistaken when she had added Lena Andersson, the
seventeen-year-old schoolgirl, to the list. No. It might not be the same signature, but
it was the same Bible parody. They must be connected.
By 9:00 it was getting dark. The air was cool and it was drizzling. Mikael was sitting
in the kitchen, drumming his fingers on the table, when Martin Vanger’s Volvo
crossed the bridge and turned out towards the point. That somehow brought
matters to a head.