“An unforeseen obstacle for Gottfried and Martin. They couldn’t get their hands on
her as easily or control her life. But eventually...Where did the assault take place?”
“It must have been at Gottfried’s cabin. I’m almost positive that these pictures were
taken there—it should be possible to check. The cabin is in a perfect location,
isolated and far from the village. Then Gottfried got drunk one last time and died in
a most banal way.”
“So Harriet’s father had attempted to have sex with her, but my guess is that he
didn’t initiate her into the killing.”
Blomkvist realised that this was a weak point. Harriet had made note of the names
of Gottfried’s victims, pairing them up with Bible quotes, but her interest in the
Bible did not emerge until the last year, and by then Gottfried was already dead. He
paused, trying to come up with a logical explanation.
“Sometime along the way Harriet discovered that Gottfried had not only
committed incest, but he was also a serial sex murderer,” he said.
“We don’t know when she found out about the murders. It could have been right
before Gottfried drowned. It might also have been after he drowned, if he had a
diary or had saved press cuttings about them. Something put her on his track.”
“But that wasn’t what she was threatening to tell Henrik,” Blomkvist said.
“It was Martin,” Salander said. “Her father was dead, but Martin was going on
abusing her.”
“Exactly.”
“But it was a year before she took any action.”
“What would you do if you found out that your father was a murderer who had
been raping your brother?”
“I’d kill the fucker,” Salander said in such a sober tone that Blomkvist believed her.
He remembered her face as she was attacking Martin Vanger. He smiled joylessly.
“OK, but Harriet wasn’t like you. Gottfried died before she managed to do anything.
That also makes sense. When Gottfried died, Isabella sent Martin to Uppsala. He