“My thirty minutes are almost up, but I’m close to the end of the story. Will you give
me a reprieve?”
“Go on,” Blomkvist said.
“In short, then. I was childless—in striking contrast to my brothers and other family
members, who seemed obsessed with the need to propagate the house of Vanger.
Gottfried and Isabella did move here, but their marriage was on the rocks. After
only a year Gottfried moved out to his cabin. He lived there alone for long periods
and went back to Isabella when it got too cold. I took care of Martin and Harriet,
and they became in many ways the children I never had.
“Martin was...to tell the truth, there was a time in his youth when I was afraid he
was going to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was weak and introverted and
melancholy, but he could also be delightful and enthusiastic. He had some
troubled years in his teens, but he straightened himself out when he started at the
university. He is...well, in spite of everything he is CEO of what’s left of the Vanger
Corporation, which I suppose is to his credit.”
“And Harriet?”
“Harriet was the apple of my eye. I tried to give her a sense of security and develop
her self-confidence, and we took a liking to each other. I looked on her as my own
daughter, and she ended up being closer to me than to her parents. You see,
Harriet was very special. She was introverted—like her brother—and as a teenager
she became wrapped up in religion, unlike anyone else in the family. But she had a
clear talent and she was tremendously intelligent. She had both morals and
backbone. When she was fourteen or fifteen I was convinced that she was the
one—and not her brother or any of the mediocre cousins, nephews, and nieces
around me—who was destined to run the Vanger business one day, or at least play
a central role in it.”
“So what happened?”
“Now we come to the real reason I want to hire you. I want you to find out who in
the family murdered Harriet, and who since then has spent almost forty years
trying to drive me insane.”