“Who is your client?”
“A person whose name I suspect you have heard in your work. Henrik Vanger.”
Blomkvist leaned back in surprise. Henrik Vanger—of course he had heard of him.
An industrialist and former head of the Vanger companies, once renowned in the
fields of sawmills, mines, steel, metals, textiles. Vanger had been one of the really
big fish in his day, with a reputation for being an honourable, old-fashioned
patriarch who would not bend in a strong wind. A cornerstone of Swedish industry,
one of the twenty-point stags of the old school, along with Matts Carlgren of MoDo
and Hans Werthén at the old Electrolux. The backbone of industry in the welfare
state, et cetera.
But the Vanger companies, still family-owned, had been racked in the past twenty-
five years by reorganisations, stock-market crises, interest crises, competition from
Asia, declining exports, and other nuisances which taken together had consigned
the name Vanger to the backwater. The company was run today by Martin Vanger,
whose name Blomkvist associated with a short, plump man with thick hair who
occasionally flickered past on the TV screen. He did not know much about him.
Henrik Vanger had been out of the picture for at least twenty years.
“Why does Henrik Vanger want to meet me?”
“I’ve been Herr Vanger’s lawyer for many years, but he will have to tell you himself
what he wants. On the other hand, I can say that Herr Vanger would like to discuss
a possible job with you.”
“Job? I don’t have the slightest intention of going to work for the Vanger company.
Is it a press secretary you need?”
“Not exactly. I don’t know how to put it other than to say that Herr Vanger is
exceedingly anxious to meet you and consult with you on a private matter.”
“You couldn’t get more equivocal, could you?”
“I beg your pardon for that. But is there any possibility of convincing you to pay a
visit to Hedestad? Naturally we will pay all your expenses and a reasonable fee.”
“Your call comes at rather an inconvenient time. I have quite a lot to take care of
and...I suppose you’ve seen the headlines about me in the past few days.”