“Tell me about her background.”
“She moved back here after graduating and started working as a teacher. She met a
man by the name of Jerry Karlsson, who unfortunately worked for the Vanger
Corporation. They married. I thought the marriage was a happy one—anyway in
the beginning. But after a couple of years I began to see that things were not as
they should be. He mistreated her. It was the usual story—he beat her and she
loyally defended him. Finally he hit her one time too many. She was seriously hurt
and ended up in the hospital. I offered my help. She moved out here to Hedeby
Island and has refused to see her husband since. I made sure he was fired.”
“But they are still married?”
“It’s a question of how you define it. I don’t know why she hasn’t filed for divorce.
But she has never wanted to remarry, so I suppose it hasn’t made any difference.”
“This Karlsson, did he have anything to do with...”
“...with Harriet? No, he wasn’t in Hedestad in 1966, and he wasn’t yet working for
the firm.”
“OK.”
“Mikael, I’m fond of Cecilia. She can be tricky to deal with, but she’s one of the good
people in my family.”
Salander devoted a week to planning Nils Bjurman’s demise. She considered—and
rejected—various methods until she had narrowed it down to a few realistic
scenarios from which to choose. No acting on impulse.
Only one condition had to be fulfilled. Bjurman had to die in such a way that she
herself could never be linked to the crime. The fact that she would be included in
any eventual police investigation she took for granted; sooner or later her name
would show up when Bjurman’s responsibilities were examined. But she was only
one person in a whole universe of present and former clients, she had met him only
four times, and there would not be any indication that his death even had a
connection with any of his clients. There were former girlfriends, relatives, casual
acquaintances, colleagues, and others. There was also what was usually defined as
“random violence,” when the perpetrator and victim did not know each other.