mother, who in 1966 was already eighty-one, could reasonably also be eliminated.
Remaining were twenty-three family members who, according to Vanger, had to
be included in the group of “suspects.” Seven of these were now dead, and several
had now reached a respectable old age.
Blomkvist was not willing to share Vanger’s conviction that a family member was
behind Harriet’s disappearance. A number of others had to be added to the list of
suspects.
Dirch Frode began working for Vanger as his lawyer in the spring of 1962. And
aside from the family, who were the servants when Harriet vanished? Gunnar
Nilsson—alibi or not—was nineteen years old, and his father, Magnus, was in all
likelihood present on Hedeby Island, as were the artist Norman and the pastor Falk.
Was Falk married? The Östergården farmer Aronsson, as well as his son Jerker
Aronsson, lived on the island, close enough to Harriet Vanger while she was
growing up—what sort of relationship did they have? Was Aronsson still married?
Did other people live at that time on the farm?
As Blomkvist wrote down all the names, the list had grown to forty people. It was
3:30 in the morning and the thermometer read -6°F. He longed for his own bed on
Bellmansgatan.
He was awoken by the workman from Telia. By 11:00 he was hooked up and no
longer felt quite as professionally handicapped. On the other hand, his own
telephone remained stubbornly silent. He was starting to feel quite pig-headed and
would not call the office.
He switched on his email programme and looked rapidly through the nearly 350
messages sent to him over the past week. He saved a dozen; the rest were spam or
mailing lists that he subscribed to. The first email was from
[email protected]: I HOPE YOU SUCK COCK IN THE SLAMMER YOU
FUCKING COMMIE PIG. He filed it in the “INTELLIGENT CRITICISM” folder.