It was as they shared a cigarette some time after midnight that he told her they
could not see each other for a while. Cecilia turned her face to him in surprise.
“What do you mean?”
He looked ashamed. “On Monday I have to go to prison for up to three months.”
No other explanation was necessary. Cecilia lay in silence for a long time. She felt
like crying.
Dragan Armansky was suspicious when Salander knocked at his door on Monday
afternoon. He had seen no sign of her since he called off the investigation of the
Wennerström affair in early January, and every time he tried to reach her she either
did not answer or hung up saying she was busy.
“Have you got a job for me?” she asked without any greeting.
“Hi. Great to see you. I thought you died or something.”
“There were things I had to straighten out.”
“You often seem to have things to straighten out.”
“This time it was urgent. I’m back now. Have you got a job for me?”
Armansky shook his head. “Sorry. Not at the moment.”
Salander looked at him calmly. After a while he started talking.
“Lisbeth, you know I like you and I like to give you jobs. But you’ve been gone for
two months and I’ve had tons of jobs. You’re simply not reliable. I’ve had to pay
other people to cover for you, and right now I actually don’t have a thing.”
“Could you turn up the volume?”
“What?”
“On the radio.”