“Because I want to ask for your help with this closing of accounts.”
“Why me? What makes you think I’d be able to help you?”
“Because as I was thinking about hiring someone, your name cropped up in the
news. I knew who you were, of course. And maybe it’s because you sat on my knee
when you were a little fellow. Don’t misunderstand me.” He waved the thought
away. “I don’t look to you to help me for sentimental reasons. It was just that I had
the impulse to contact you specifically.”
Mikael gave a friendly laugh. “Well, I don’t remember being perched on your knee.
But how could you make the connection? That was in the early sixties.”
“You misunderstood me. Your family moved to Stockholm when your father got
the job as the workshop foreman at Zarinder’s Mechanical. I was the one who got
him the job. I knew he was a good worker. I used to see him over the years when I
had business with Zarinder’s. We weren’t close friends, but we would chat for a
while. The last time I saw him was the year before he died, and he told me then that
you had got into journalism school. He was extremely proud. Then you became
famous with the story of the bank robber gang. I’ve followed your career and read
many of your articles over the years. As a matter of fact, I read Millennium quite
often.”
“OK, I’m with you, but what is it exactly that you want me to do?”
Vanger looked down at his hands, then sipped his coffee, as if he needed a pause
before he could at last begin to broach what he wanted.
“Before I get started, Mikael, I’d like to make an agreement with you. I want you to
do two things for me. One is a pretext and the other is my real objective.”
“What form of agreement?”
“I’m going to tell you a story in two parts. The first is about the Vanger family. That’s
the pretext. It’s a long, dark story, and I’ll try to stick to the unvarnished truth. The
second part of the story deals with my actual objective. You’ll probably think some
of the story is...crazy. What I want is for you to hear me out—about what I want
you to do and also what I am offering—before you make up your mind whether to
take on the job or not.”