Christer Malm was the art director and designer of Millennium. He was also part
owner of the magazine together with Berger and Blomkvist, but he was on a trip
abroad with his boyfriend.
“He called to say hello.”
“He’ll have to be the one who takes over as publisher.”
“Lay off, Micke. As publisher you have to count on being punched in the nose every
so often. It’s part of the job description.”
“You’re right about that. But I was the one who wrote the article that was published
in a magazine of which I also happen to be the publisher. That makes everything
look different all of a sudden. Then it’s a matter of bad judgement.”
Berger felt that the disquiet she had been carrying with her all day was about to
explode. In the weeks before the trial started, Blomkvist had been walking around
under a black cloud. But she had never seen him as gloomy and dejected as he
seemed to be now in the hour of his defeat. She walked to his side of the desk and
sat on his lap, straddling him, and put her arms round his neck.
“Mikael, listen to me. We both know exactly how it happened. I’m as much to
blame as you are. We simply have to ride out the storm.”
“There isn’t any storm to ride out. As far as the media are concerned, the verdict
means that I’ve been shot in the back of the head. I can’t stay on as the publisher
of Millennium. The vital thing is to maintain the magazine’s credibility, to stop the
bleeding. You know that as well as I do.”
“If you think I intend to let you take the rap all by yourself, then you haven’t learned
a damn thing about me in the years we’ve worked together.”
“I know how you operate, Ricky. You’re 100 percent loyal to your colleagues. If you
had to choose, you’d keep fighting against Wennerström’s lawyers until your
credibility was gone too. We have to be smarter than that.”
“And you think it’s smart to jump ship and make it look as if I sacked you?”
“If Millennium is going to survive, it depends on you now. Christer is great, but he’s
just a nice guy who knows about images and layout and doesn’t have a clue about
street fighting with billionaires. It’s just not his thing. I’m going to have to