The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest

Lisbeth Salander, but if a higher court were to rescind that decision, I would naturally hand them over.”

“Thank you. For how many nights during the two years that Lisbeth Salander spent at St Stefan’s was she kept in restraints?”

“I couldn’t recall that offhand.”

“She herself claims that it was 380 out of the total of 786 days and nights she spent at St Stefan’s.”

“I can’t possibly answer as to the exact number of days, but that is a fantastic exaggeration. Where do those figures come from?”

“From her autobiography.”

“And you believe that today she is able to remember accurately each night she was kept in restraints? That’s preposterous.”

“Is it? How many nights do you recall?”

“Lisbeth Salander was an extremely aggressive and violence-prone patient, and undoubtedly she was placed in a stimulus-free room on a number of occasions. Perhaps I should explain the purpose of a stimulus-free room –”

“Thank you, that won’t be necessary. According to theory, it is a room in which a patient is denied any sensory input that might provoke agitation. For how many days and nights did thirteen-year-old Lisbeth Salander lie strapped down in such a room?”

“It would be… I would estimate perhaps on thirty occasions during the time she was at the hospital.”

“Thirty. Now that’s only a fraction of the 380 that she claims.”

“Undeniably.”

“Not even 10 per cent of her figure.”

“Yes…”

“Would her medical records perhaps give us more accurate information?”

“It’s possible.”

“Excellent,” Giannini said, taking out a large sheaf of paper from her briefcase. “Then I ask to be allowed to hand over to the court a copy of Lisbeth Salander’s medical records from St Stefan’s. I have counted the number of notes about the restraining straps and find that the figure is 381, one more than my client claims.”

Teleborian’s eyes widened.

“Stop… this is classified information. Where did you get that from?”

“I got it from a reporter at Millennium magazine. It can hardly be classified if it’s lying around a newspaper’s offices. Perhaps I should add that extracts from these medical records were published today in Millennium. I believe, therefore, that even this district court should have the opportunity to look at the records themselves.”

“This is illegal –”

“No, it isn’t. Lisbeth Salander has given her permission for the extracts to be published. My client has nothing to hide.”

“Your client has been declared incompetent and has no right to make any such decision for herself.”

“We’ll come back to her declaration of incompetence. But first we need to examine what happened to her at St Stefan’s.”

Judge Iversen frowned as he accepted the papers that Giannini handed to him.

“I haven’t made a copy for the prosecutor. On the other hand, he received a copy of this privacy-invading document more than a month ago.”

“How did that happen?” the judge said.

“Prosecutor Ekstrom got a copy of these classified records from Teleborian at a meeting which took place in his office at 5.00 p.m. on Saturday, June 4 this year.”

“Is that correct?” Judge Iversen said.

Ekstrom’s first impulse was to deny it. Then he realized that Giannini might somehow have evidence.

“I requested permission to read parts of the records if I signed a confidentiality agreement,” Ekstrom said. “I had to make sure that Salander had the history she was alleged to have.”

“Thank you,” Giannini said. “This means that we now have confirmation that Dr Teleborian not only tells lies but also broke the law by disseminating records that he himself claims are classified.”

“Duly noted,” said the judge.

Judge Iversen was suddenly very alert. In a most unorthodox way, Giannini had launched a serious attack on a witness, and she already made mincemeat of an important part of his testimony. And she claims that she can document everything she says. Judge Iversen adjusted his glasses.

“Dr Teleborian, based on these records which you yourself wrote… could you now tell me how many days Lisbeth Salander was kept in restraints?”

“I have no recollection that it could have been so extensive, but if that’s what the records say, then I have to believe it.”

“A total of 381 days and nights. Does that not strike you as excessive?”

“It is unusually long… yes.”

“How would you perceive it if you were thirteen years old and someone strapped you to a steel-framed bed for more than a year? Would it feel like torture?”

“You have to understand that the patient was dangerous to herself as well as to others –”

“O.K. Let’s look at dangerous to herself. Has Lisbeth Salander ever injured herself?”

“There were such misgivings –”

“I’ll repeat the question: has Lisbeth Salander ever injured herself? Yes or no?”

“As psychiatrists we must teach ourselves to interpret the overall picture. With regard to Lisbeth Salander, you can see on her body, for example, a multitude of tattoos and piercings, which are also a form of self- destructive behaviour and a way of damaging one’s own body. We can interpret that as a manifestation of self- hate.”

Giannini turned to Salander.

“Are your tattoos a manifestation of self-hate?” she said.

“No,” Salander said.

Giannini turned back to Teleborian. “So you believe that I am also dangerous to myself because I wear earrings and actually have a tattoo in a private place?”

Palmgren sniggered, but he managed to transform the snigger into a clearing of his throat.

“No, not at all… tattoos can also be part of a social ritual.”

“Are you saying that Lisbeth Salander is not part of this social ritual?”

“You can see for yourself that her tattoos are grotesque and extend over large parts of her body. That is no normal measure of fetishism or body decoration.”

“What percentage?”

“Excuse me?”

“At what percentage of tattooed body surface does it stop being fetishism and become a mental illness?”

“You’re distorting my words.”

“Am I? How is it that, in your opinion, it is part of a wholly acceptable social ritual when it applies to me or to other young people, but it becomes dangerous when it’s a matter of evaluating my client’s mental state?”

“As a psychiatrist I have to look at the whole picture. The tattoos are merely an indicator. As I have already said, it is one of many indicators which need to be taken into account when I evaluate her condition.”

Giannini was silent for a few seconds as she fixed Teleborian with her gaze. She now spoke very slowly.

“But Dr Teleborian, you began strapping down my client when she was twelve years old, going on thirteen. At that time she did not have a single tattoo, did she?”

Teleborian hesitated and Giannini went on.

“I presume that you did not strap her down because you predicted that she would begin tattooing herself sometime in the future.”

“Of course not. Her tattoos had nothing to do with her condition in 1991.”