Now a hitherto unknown photograph was telling him that she had lied when she
said that she had never been in Harriet’s room that day. Blomkvist wrestled with
the possible significance of that.
And if you lied about that, what else did you lie about?
He went through in his mind what he knew about Cecilia. An introverted person
obviously affected by her past. Lived alone, had no sex life, had difficulty getting
close to people. Kept her distance, and when she let loose there was no restraint.
She chose a stranger for a lover. Had said that she ended it because she was unable
to live with the idea that he would go from her life as unexpectedly as he had
appeared. Blomkvist supposed that the reason she had dared to start an affair with
him was precisely that he was only there for a while. She did not have to be afraid
he would change her life in any long-term way.
He sighed and pushed the amateur psychology aside.
He made the second discovery during the night. The key to the mystery was what it
was that Harriet had seen in Hedestad. He would never find that out unless he
could invent a time machine and stand behind her, looking over her shoulder.
And then he had a thought. He slapped his forehead and opened his iBook. He
clicked on to the uncropped images in the series on Järnvägsgatan and...there!
Behind Harriet and about a yard to her right were a young couple, the man in a
striped sweater and the woman in a pale jacket. She was holding a camera. When
Blomkvist enlarged the image it looked to be a Kodak Instamatic with flash—a
cheap holiday camera for people who know nothing about photography.
The woman was holding the camera at chin level. Then she raised it and took a
picture of the clowns, just as Harriet’s expression changed.
Blomkvist compared the camera’s position with Harriet’s line of vision. The woman
had taken a picture of exactly what Harriet was looking at.
His heart was beating hard. He leaned back and plucked his cigarettes out of his
breast pocket. Someone had taken a picture. How would he identify and find the
woman? Could he get hold of her snapshot? Had the roll ever been developed, and
if so did the prints still exist?