however, were not going to buy the story so easily—but Berger may have
disarmed a number of critics.
None of the day’s events had changed the situation fundamentally, but they had
bought time and they had shifted the balance of power a little. Blomkvist imagined
that Wennerström had probably had an unpleasant evening. Wennerström could
not know how much, or how little, they knew, and before he made his next move
he was going to have to find out.
With a grim expression, Berger turned off the TV and the VCR after having watched
first her own and then Vanger’s interview. It was 2:45 in the morning, and she had
to stifle the impulse to call Blomkvist. He was locked up, and it was unlikely that he
was allowed to keep his mobile. She had arrived home so late that her husband
was already asleep. She went over to the bar and poured herself a healthy measure
of Aberlour single malt—she drank alcohol about once a year—and sat at the
window, looking out across Saltsjön to the lighthouse at the entrance to Skuru
Sound.
She and Blomkvist had argued heatedly when they were alone after she concluded
the agreement with Vanger. They had weathered many full-blooded arguments
about what angle to use for a specific article, the design of the magazine, the
evaluation of their sources’ credibility, and a thousand other things involved in
putting out a magazine. But the argument in Vanger’s guest house had touched on
principles that made her aware she was on shaky ground.
“I don’t know what to do now,” Blomkvist had said. “This man has hired me to
ghostwrite his autobiography. Up until now I’ve been free to get up and leave the
moment he tries to force me to write something that isn’t true, or tries to persuade
me to slant the story in a way I don’t hold with. Now he’s a part owner of our
magazine—and the only one with the resources to save Millennium. All of a sudden
I’m sitting on the fence, in a position that a board of professional ethics would
never approve.”
“Have you got a better idea?” Berger asked him. “Because if you have, spit it out,
before we type up the contract and sign it.”
“Ricky, Vanger is exploiting us in some sort of private vendetta against
Wennerström.”