“No, they don’t. But the point is that I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. The
whole world would have found out. My schoolmates, all my relatives...”
“Harriet, I’m so sorry.”
“I was fourteen when he raped me the first time. And during the next year he
would take me out to his cabin. Many times Martin came along. He forced both me
and Martin to do things with him. And he held my arms while Martin...had his way
with me. When my father died, Martin was ready to take over his role. He expected
me to become his lover and he thought it was perfectly natural for me to submit to
him. At that time I no longer had any choice. I was forced to do what Martin said. I
was rid of one tormentor only to land in the clutches of another, and the only thing
I could do was to make sure there was never an occasion when I was alone with
him...”
“Henrik would have...”
“You still don’t understand.”
She raised her voice. Blomkvist saw that several of the men at the next tent were
looking at him. She lowered her voice again and leaned towards him.
“All the cards are on the table. You’ll have to work out the rest.”
She stood up and got two more beers. When she came back, Mikael said a single
word to her.
“Gottfried.”
She nodded.
“On August 7, 1965, my father forced me to go out to his cabin. Henrik was away.
My father was drinking, and he tried to force himself on me. But he couldn’t get it
up and he flew into a drunken rage. He was always...rough and violent towards me
when we were alone, but this time he crossed the line. He urinated on me. Then he
started telling me what he was going to do to me. That night he told me about the
women he had killed. He was bragging about it. He quoted from the Bible. This
went on for an hour. I didn’t understand half of what he was saying, but I realised
that he was totally, absolutely sick.”
She took a gulp of her beer.