“No,” she said, giving him her crooked non-smile. “But at least you’re not like them.”
She got up. “Now I’m going in to take a shower, and then I think I’ll get into your
bed naked. If you think you’re too old, you’ll have to go and sleep on the camp
bed.”
Whatever hang-ups Salander had, modesty certainly was not one of them. He
managed to lose every argument with her. After a while he washed up the coffee
things and went into the bedroom.
They got up at 10:00, took a shower together, and ate breakfast out in the garden.
At 11:00 Dirch Frode called and said that the funeral would take place at 2:00 in the
afternoon, and he asked if they were planning to attend.
“I shouldn’t think so,” said Mikael.
Frode asked if he could come over around 6:00 for a talk. Mikael said that would be
fine.
He spent a few hours sorting the papers into the packing crates and carrying them
over to Henrik’s office. Finally he was left with only his own notebooks and the two
binders about the Hans-Erik Wennerström affair that he hadn’t opened in six
months. He sighed and stuffed them into his bag.
Frode rang to say he was running late and did not reach the cottage until 8:00. He
was still in his funeral suit and looked harried when he sat down on the kitchen
bench and gratefully accepted the cup of coffee that Salander offered him. She sat
at the side table with her computer while Blomkvist asked how Harriet’s
reappearance had been received by the family as a whole.
“You might say that it has overshadowed Martin’s demise. Now the media have
found out about her too.”
“And how are you explaining the situation?”
“Harriet talked with a reporter from the Courier. Her story is that she ran away from
home because she didn’t get along with her family, but that she obviously has
done well in the world since she’s the head of a very substantial enterprise.”