might have come home for Christmas or other holidays, but during that following
year he didn’t see Harriet very often. She was able to get some distance from him.”
“And she started studying the Bible.”
“And in light of what we now know, it didn’t have to be for any religious reasons.
Maybe she simply wanted to know what her father had been up to. She brooded
over it until the Children’s Day celebration in 1966. Then suddenly she sees her
brother on Järnvägsgatan and realises that he’s back. We don’t know if they talked
to each other or if he said anything. But no matter what happened, Harriet had an
urge to go straight home and talk to Henrik.”
“And then she disappeared.”
After they had gone over the chain of events, it was not hard to understand what
the rest of the puzzle must have looked like. Blomkvist and Salander packed their
bags. Before they left, Blomkvist called Frode and told him that he and Salander
had to go away for a while, but that he absolutely wanted to see Henrik Vanger
before they left.
Blomkvist needed to know what Frode had told Henrik. The man sounded so
stressed on the telephone that Blomkvist felt concerned for him. Frode said that he
had only told him that Martin had died in a car accident.
It was thundering again when Blomkvist parked outside Hedestad Hospital, and the
sky was filled once more with heavy rain clouds. He hurried across the car park just
as it started to rain.
Vanger was wearing a bathrobe, sitting at a table by the window of his room. His
illness had left its mark, but Vanger had regained some colour in his face and
looked as if he were on the path to recovery. They shook hands. Blomkvist asked
the nurse to leave them alone for a few minutes.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Vanger said.
Mikael nodded. “On purpose. Your family didn’t want me to come at all, but today
everyone is over at Isabella’s house.”
“Poor Martin,” Vanger said.