recorder.
“I understand there was a little problem with Criminal Inspector Faste,” Bublanski said.
“He had difficulty concentrating,” said Modig neutrally.
“He’s an idiot,” said Miriam Wu.
“Criminal Inspector Faste actually does have many good points, but he may not be the best choice to interview a young woman,” said Bublanski, looking Miriam Wu in the eye. “I shouldn’t have entrusted him with the task. I apologize.”
Miriam Wu looked surprised. “Apology accepted. I was quite unfriendly to you at first too.”
Bublanski waved it off.
“May I ask you a few more things? With the tape recorder off?”
“Go ahead.”
“The more I hear about Lisbeth Salander, the more puzzled I become. The picture I get from the people who know her is inconsistent with the documentation from the social welfare and psychiatric agencies.”
“So?”
“Please give me some straight answers.”
“All right”
“The psychiatric evaluation that was done when Salander was eighteen concludes that she is mentally retarded.”
“Nonsense. Lisbeth is probably smarter than anyone I know.”
“She never graduated from school and doesn’t even have a certificate that says she can read and write.”
“Lisbeth reads and writes a whole lot better than I do. Sometimes she sits and scribbles mathematical formulas. Pure algebra. I have no clue about that sort of math.”
“Mathematics?”
“It’s a hobby she’s taken up.”
“A hobby?” asked Bublanski after a moment.
“Some sort of equations. I don’t even know what the symbols mean.”
Bublanski sighed.
“Social services wrote a report after she was brought in one time from Tantolunden when she was seventeen. It indicated that she was supporting herself as a prostitute.”
“Lisbeth a whore? Bullshit. I don’t know what sort of work she does, but I’m not the least bit surprised that she had a job at that security company.”
“How does she make a living?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she a lesbian?”
“No. Lisbeth has sex with me, but that isn’t the same thing as being a dyke. I don’t think she knows herself what sort of sexual identity she has. I’d guess she’s bisexual.”
“What about the fact that you two use handcuffs and that sort of thing? Is Salander sadistically inclined, or how would you describe her?”
“You misunderstood all those sex toys. We may use handcuffs sometimes for role-playing, but it has nothing to do with sadism or violence. It’s a game.”
“Has she ever been violent towards you?”
“No. I’m usually the dominant one in our games.”
Miriam Wu smiled sweetly.
The afternoon meeting at 3:00 resulted in the first serious disagreement of the investigation. Bublanski gave an update and then explained that he felt they should be widening their scope.
“From day one we’ve been focusing all our energies on finding Lisbeth Salander. She is definitely a top suspect – this is based on evidence – but our picture of her is meeting resistance from everyone who knows her. Armansky, Blomkvist, and Miriam Wu don’t hold with the picture of her as a psychotic killer. Therefore I want us to expand our thinking a bit, to consider alternative killers and the possibility that Salander herself may have had an accomplice or merely have been present when the shots were fired.”
Bublanski’s comments triggered a vigorous debate, in which he encountered strong opposition from Faste as well as Bohman from Milton Security. Bohman reminded the team that the simplest explanation was most often the right one.
“It’s possible, of course, that Salander didn’t act alone, but we have no forensic trace of any accomplice.”
“We could always follow up on Blomkvist’s leads within the police,” Faste said acidly.
In the discussion, Bublanski was backed up only by Modig. Andersson and Holmberg were content with making isolated comments. Hedstrom from Milton was as quiet as a mouse during the whole discussion. Finally Prosecutor Ekstrom raised a hand.
“Bublanski – as I understand it, you don’t want to eliminate Salander from the investigation.”
“No, of course not. We have her fingerprints. But so far we have no motive. I want us to start thinking along different lines. Could several people have been involved? Could it still be related to that book about the sex trade that Svensson was writing? Blomkvist is certainly right that several people named in the book have a motive for murder.”
“How do you want to proceed?” Ekstrom said.
“I want two people to start looking at alternative killers. Sonja and Niklas can work together.”
“Me?” said Hedstrom in astonishment.
Bublanski had chosen him because he was the youngest person in the room and the one who was most likely to think outside the box.
“You’ll work with Modig. Go through everything we know so far and try to find anything we might have missed. Faste, you, Andersson, and Bohman keep on the hunt for Salander. That’s our number one priority.”
“What should I do?” asked Holmberg.
“Focus on Advokat Bjurman. Do a fresh examination of his apartment in case we missed anything. Questions?”
Nobody had any.
“OK. We’ll keep it quiet that Miriam Wu has turned up. She might have more to tell us, and I don’t want the media jumping all over her.”
Ekstrom agreed that they should proceed according to Bublanski’s plan.
“Right,” Hedstrom said, looking at Modig. “You’re the detective, you tell me what we’re going to do.”
They were in the corridor outside the conference room.
“I think we should have another talk with Mikael Blomkvist,” she said. “But first I have to discuss one or two things with Bublanski. I have tomorrow and Sunday off. That means we won’t get started until Monday morning. Spend the weekend going through the case material.”
They said goodbye to each other. Modig walked into Bublanski’s office as Ekstrom was leaving.
“Do you have a minute?” she said.
“Sit down.”
“I got so angry with Faste that I lost my temper.”
“He mentioned that you really laid into him.”
“He said that I obviously wanted to be alone with Wu because I was turned on by her.”
“That qualifies as sexual harassment. Would you like to file a complaint?”
“I slapped his face. That was enough.”
“You were extremely provoked.”
“I was.”
“Faste has problems with strong women.”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“You’re a strong woman and a very good cop.”
