Vanger thought for a moment.
“My father didn’t really know how to deal with his grandson, so I was the one who
gave him a job in the company. This was after the war. He did try to do a
reasonable job, but he was lazy. He was a charmer and good-time Charlie; he had a
way with women, and there were periods when he drank too much. It isn’t easy to
describe my feelings for him...he wasn’t a good-for-nothing, but he was not the
least bit reliable and he often disappointed me deeply. Over the years he turned
into an alcoholic, and in 1965 he died—the victim of an accidental drowning. That
happened at the other end of Hedeby Island, where he’d had a cabin built, and
where he used to hide away to drink.”
“So he’s the father of Harriet and Martin?” Blomkvist said, pointing at the portrait
on the coffee table. Reluctantly he had to admit that the old man’s story was
intriguing.
“Correct. In the late forties Gottfried met a German woman by the name of Isabella
Koenig, who had come to Sweden after the war. She was quite a beauty—I mean
that she had a lovely radiance like Garbo or Ingrid Bergman. Harriet probably got
more of her genes from her mother rather than from Gottfried. As you can see from
the photograph, she was pretty even at fourteen.”
Blomkvist and Vanger contemplated the picture.
“But let me continue. Isabella was born in 1928 and is still alive. She was eleven
when the war began, and you can imagine what it was like to be a teenager in
Berlin during the aerial bombardments. It must have felt as if she had arrived in
paradise on earth when she landed in Sweden. Regrettably she shared many of
Gottfried’s vices; she was lazy and partied incessantly. She travelled a great deal in
Sweden and abroad, and lacked all sense of responsibility. Obviously this affected
the children. Martin was born in 1948 and Harriet in 1950. Their childhood was
chaotic, with a mother who was forever leaving them and a father who was
virtually an alcoholic.
“In 1958 I’d had enough and decided to try to break the vicious cycle. At the time,
Gottfried and Isabella were living in Hedestad—I insisted that they move out here.
Martin and Harriet were more or less left to fend for themselves.”
Vanger glanced at the clock.