“Sometime around midnight he had a fit. He was totally insane. We were up in the
sleeping loft. He put a T-shirt around my neck and pulled it as tight as he could. I
blacked out. I don’t have the slightest doubt that he really was trying to kill me, and
for the first time that night he managed to complete the rape.”
Harriet looked at Blomkvist. Her eyes entreated him to understand.
“But he was so drunk that somehow I managed to get away. I jumped down from
the loft and fled. I was naked and I ran without thinking, and ended up on the jetty
by the water. He came staggering after me.”
Blomkvist suddenly wished that she would not tell him anything more.
“I was strong enough to shove an old drunk into the water. I used an oar to hold
him under until he wasn’t struggling any more. It didn’t take long.”
When she stopped, the silence was deafening.
“And when I looked up, there stood Martin. He looked terrified, but at the same
time he was grinning. I don’t know how long he was outside the cabin, spying on
us. From that moment I was at his mercy. He came up to me, grabbed me by the
hair, and led me back to the cabin—to Gottfried’s bed. He tied me up and raped
me while our father was still floating in the water. And I couldn’t even offer any
resistance.”
Blomkvist closed his eyes. He was terribly ashamed and wished that he had left
Harriet Vanger in peace. But her voice had taken on a new force.
“From that day on, I was in his power. I did what he told me to do. I felt paralysed,
and the only thing that saved my sanity was that Isabella—or maybe it was Uncle
Henrik—decided that Martin needed a change of scenery after his father’s tragic
death, so she sent him to Uppsala. Of course this was because she knew what he
was doing to me, and it was her way of solving the problem. You can bet that
Martin was disappointed. During the next year he was home only for the Christmas
holiday. I managed to keep away from him. I went with Henrik on a trip to
Copenhagen between Christmas and New Year’s. And during the summer holiday,
Anita was there. I confided in her, and she stayed with me the whole time, making
sure that he didn’t come near me.”
“Until you saw him on Järnvägsgatan.”