where Martin Vanger has his villa today, and the pastor lived on this side of the
bridge. He had been in bed, nursing a cold, when the accident took place; he had
missed the drama, but someone had telephoned and he was on his way to the
bridge. Harriet stopped him on the road and apparently wanted to say something
to him, but he waved her off and hurried past. Falk was the last person to see her
alive.”
“How did she die?” Blomkvist said again.
“I don’t know,” Vanger said with a troubled expression. “We didn’t get Aronsson out
of his car until around 5:00—he survived, by the way, although he was not in good
shape—and sometime after 6:00 the threat of fire was considered past. The island
was still cut off, but things began to calm down. It wasn’t until we sat down at the
table to have our longdelayed dinner around 8:00 that we discovered Harriet was
missing. I sent one of the cousins to get Harriet from her room, but she came back
to say that she couldn’t find her. I didn’t think much about it; I probably assumed
she had gone for a walk or she hadn’t been told that dinner was served. And during
the evening I had to deal with various discussions and arguments with the family.
So it wasn’t until the next morning, when Isabella went to find her, that we realised
that nobody knew where Harriet was and that no-one had seen her since the day
before.” He spread his arms out wide. “And from that day, she has been missing
without a trace.”
“Missing?” Blomkvist echoed.
“For all these years we haven’t been able to find one microscopic scrap of her.”
“But if she vanished, as you say, you can’t be sure that she was murdered.”
“I understand the objection. I’ve had thoughts along the same lines. When a person
vanishes without a trace, one of four things could have happened. She could have
gone off of her own free will and be hiding somewhere. She could have had an
accident and died. She could have committed suicide. And finally, she could have
been the victim of a crime. I’ve weighed all these possibilities.”
“But you believe that someone took Harriet’s life. Why?”
“Because it’s the only reasonable conclusion.” Vanger held up one finger. “From the
outset I hoped that she had run away. But as the days passed, we all realised that
this wasn’t the case. I mean, how would a sixteen-year-old from such a protected
world, even a very able girl, be able to manage on her own? How could she stay