The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Page 50

Salander looked at the charts and saw that the firm had many factories, offices, and sales outlets. At every site where a murder was committed, there was also a red dot, sometimes several, indicating the Vanger Corporation.
She found the first connection in 1957. Rakel Lunde, Landskrona, was found dead the day after the V&C. Construction Company clinched an order worth several million to build a galleria in the town. V&C. stood for Vanger and Carlen Construction. The local paper had interviewed Gottfried Vanger, who had come to town to sign the contract.
Salander recalled something she had read in the police investigation in the provincial record office in Landskrona. Rakel Lunde, fortune-teller in her free time, was an office cleaner. She had worked for V&C. Construction.
At 7:00 in the evening Blomkvist called Salander a dozen times and each time her mobile was turned off. She did not want to be disturbed.
He wandered restlessly through the house. He had pulled out Vanger's notes on Martin's activities at the time of Harriet's disappearance.
Martin Vanger was in his last year at the preparatory school in Uppsala in 1966. Uppsala. Lena Andersson, seventeen-year-old preparatory school pupil. Head separated from the fat.
Vanger had mentioned this at one point, but Blomkvist had to consult his notes to find the passage. Martin had been an introverted boy. They had been worried about him. After his father drowned, Isabella had decided to send him to Uppsala - a change of scene where he was given room and board with Harald Vanger. Harald and Martin? It hardly felt right.
Martin Vanger was not with Harald in the car going to the gathering in Hedestad, and he had missed a train. He arrived late in the afternoon and so was among those stranded on the wrong side of the bridge. He only arrived on the island by boat some time after 6:00. He was received by Vanger himself, among others. Vanger had put Martin far down the list of people who might have had anything to do with Harriet's disappearance.
Martin said that he had not seen Harriet on that day. He was lying. He had arrived in Hedestad earlier in the day and he was on Jarnvagsgatan, face to face with his sister. Blomkvist could prove the lie with photographs that had been buried for almost forty years.
Harriet Vanger had seen her brother and reacted with shock. She had gone out to Hedeby Island and tried to talk to Henrik, but she was gone before any conversation could take place. What were you thinking of telling him? Uppsala? But Lena Andersson, Uppsala, was not on the list. You could not have known about it.
The story still did not make sense to Blomkvist. Harriet had disappeared around 3:00 in the afternoon. Martin was unquestionably on the other side of the water at that time. He could be seen in the photograph from the church hill. He could not possibly have hurt Harriet on the island. One puzzle piece was still missing. An accomplice? Anita Vanger?
From the archives Salander could see that Gottfried Vanger's position within the firm had changed over the years. At the age of twenty in 1947, he met Isabella and immediately got her pregnant; Martin Vanger was born in 1948, and with that there was no question but that the young people would marry.
When Gottfried was twenty-two, he was brought into the main office of the Vanger Corporation by Henrik Vanger. He was obviously talented and they may have been grooming him to take over. He was promoted to the board at the age of twenty-five, as the assistant head of the company's development division. A rising star.
Sometime in the mid-fifties his star began to plummet. He drank. His marriage to Isabella was on the rocks. The children, Harriet and Martin, were not doing well. Henrik drew the line. Gottfried's career had reached its zenith. In 1956 another appointment was made, another assistant head of development. Two assistant heads: one who did the work while Gottfried drank and was absent for long periods of time.
But Gottfried was still a Vanger, as well as charming and eloquent. From 1957 on, his work seemed to consist of travelling around the country to open factories, resolve local conflicts, and spread an image that company management really did care. We're sending out one of our own sons to listen to your problems. We do take you seriously.
Salander found a second connection. Gottfried Vanger had participated in a negotiation in Karlstad, where the Vanger Corporation had bought a timber company. On the following day a farmer's wife, Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, was found murdered.
Salander discovered the third connection just fifteen minutes later. Uddevalla, 1962. The same day that Lea Persson disappeared, the local paper had interviewed Gottfried Vanger about a possible expansion of the harbour.
When Fru Lindgren had wanted to close up and go home at 5:30, Salander had snapped at her that she was a long way from finished yet. She could go home as long as she left the key, and Salander would lock up. By that time the archives manager was so infuriated that a girl like this one could boss her around that she called Herr Frode. Frode told her that Salander could stay all night if she wanted to. Would Fru Lindgren please notify security at the office so that they could let Salander out when she wanted to leave?
Three hours later, getting on for 8:30, Salander had concluded that Gottfried Vanger had been close to where at least five of the eight murders were committed, either during the days before or after the event. She was still missing information about the murders in 1949 and 1954. She studied a newspaper photograph of him. A slim, handsome man with dark blond hair; he looked rather like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind.
In 1949 Gottfried was twenty-two years old. The first murder took place in his home territory. Hedestad. Rebecka Jacobsson, who worked at the Vanger Corporation. Where did the two of you meet? What did you promise her?
Salander bit her lip. The problem was that Gottfried Vanger had drowned when he was drunk in 1965, while the last murder was committed in Uppsala in February 1966. She wondered if she was mistaken when she had added Lena Andersson, the seventeen-year-old schoolgirl, to the list. No. It might not be the same signature, but it was the same Bible parody. They must be connected.
By 9:00 it was getting dark. The air was cool and it was drizzling. Mikael was sitting in the kitchen, drumming his fingers on the table, when Martin Vanger's Volvo crossed the bridge and turned out towards the point. That somehow brought matters to a head.
He did not know what he should do. His whole being was burning with a desire to ask questions - to initiate a confrontation. It was certainly not a sensible attitude to have if he suspected Martin Vanger of being an insane murderer who had killed his sister and a girl in Uppsala, and who had also very nearly succeeded in killing him too. But Martin was also a magnet. And he did not know that Blomkvist knew; he could go and see him with the pretext that... well, he wanted to return the key to Gottfried Vanger's cabin. Blomkvist locked the door behind him and strolled out to the point.
Harald Vanger's house was pitch dark, as usual. In Henrik's house the lights were off except in one room facing the courtyard. Anna had gone to bed. Isabella's house was dark. Cecilia wasn't at home. The lights were on upstairs in Alexander's house, but they were off in the two houses occupied by people who were not members of the Vanger family. He did not see a soul.
He paused irresolutely outside Martin Vanger's house, took out his mobile, and punched in Salander's number. Still no answer. He turned off his mobile so that it would not start ringing.
There were lights on downstairs. Blomkvist walked across the lawn and stopped a few yards from the kitchen window, but he could see no-one. He continued on around the house, pausing at each window, but there was no sign of Martin. On the other hand, he did discover that the small side door into the garage was slightly open. Don't be a damn fool. But he could not resist the temptation to look.
The first thing he saw on the carpenter's bench was an open box of ammunition for a moose rifle. Then he saw two gasoline cans on the floor under the bench. Preparations for another nocturnal visit, Martin?
"Come in, Mikael. I saw you on the road."
Blomkvist's heart skipped a beat. Slowly he turned his head and saw Martin Vanger standing in the dark by a door leading into the house.
"You simply couldn't stay away, could you?"
His voice was calm, almost friendly.
"Hi, Martin," Blomkvist said.
"Come in," Martin repeated. "This way."
He took a step forward and to the side, holding out his left hand in an inviting gesture. He raised his right hand, and Blomkvist saw the reflection of dull metal.
"I have a Glock in my hand. Don't do anything stupid. At this distance I won't miss."
Blomkvist slowly moved closer. When he reached Martin, he stopped and looked him in the eye.
"I had to come here. There are so many questions."
"I understand. Through the door."
Blomkvist entered the house. The passage led to the hall near the kitchen, but before he got that far, Martin Vanger stopped him by putting a hand lightly on Blomkvist's shoulder.
"No, not that way. To your right. Open the door."
The basement. When Blomkvist was halfway down the steps, Martin Vanger turned a switch and the lights went on. To the right of him was the boiler room. Ahead he could smell the scents of laundry. Martin guided him to the left, into a storage room with old furniture and boxes, at the back of which was a steel security door with a deadbolt lock.
"Here," Martin said, tossing a key ring to Blomkvist. "Open it."
He opened the door.
"The switch is on the left."
Blomkvist had opened the door to hell.
Around 9:00 Salander went to get some coffee and a plastic-wrapped sandwich from the vending machine in the corridor outside the archives. She kept on paging through old documents, looking for any trace of Gottfried Vanger in Kalmar in 1954. She found nothing.
She thought about calling Blomkvist, but decided to go through the staff newsletters before she called it a day.
The space was approximately ten by twenty feet. Blomkvist assumed that it was situated along the north side of the house.
Martin Vanger had contrived his private torture chamber with great care. On the left were chains, metal eyelets in the ceiling and floor, a table with leather straps where he could restrain his victims. And then the video equipment. A taping studio. In the back of the room was a steel cage for his guests. To the right of the door was a bench, a bed, and a TV corner with videos on a shelf.
As soon as they entered the room, Martin Vanger aimed the pistol at Blomkvist and told him to lie on his stomach on the floor. Blomkvist refused.
"Very well," Martin said. "Then I'll shoot you in the kneecap."
He took aim. Blomkvist capitulated. He had no choice.
He had hoped that Martin would relax his guard just a tenth of a second - he knew he would win any sort of fight with him. He had had half a chance in the passage upstairs when Martin put his hand on his shoulder, but he had hesitated. After that Martin had not come close. With a bullet in his kneecap he would have lost his chance. He lay down on the floor.
Martin approached from behind and told him to put his hands on his back. He handcuffed him. Then he kicked Mikael in the crotch and punched him viciously and repeatedly.
What happened after that seemed like a nightmare. Martin swung between rationality and pure lunacy. For a time quite calm, the next instant he would be pacing back and forth like an animal in a cage. He kicked Blomkvist several times. All Blomkvist could do was try to protect his head and take the blows in the soft parts of his body.
For the first half hour Martin did not say a word, and he appeared to be incapable of any sort of communication. After that he seemed to recover control. He put a chain round Blomkvist's neck, fastening it with a padlock to a metal eyelet on the floor. He left Blomkvist alone for about fifteen minutes. When he returned, he was carrying a litre bottle of water. He sat on a chair and looked at Blomkvist as he drank.
"Could I have some water?" Blomkvist said.
Martin leaned down and let him take a good long drink from the bottle. Blomkvist swallowed greedily.
"Thanks."
"Still so polite, Kalle Blomkvist."
"Why all the punching and kicking?" Blomkvist said.
"Because you make me very angry indeed. You deserve to be punished. Why didn't you just go home? You were needed at Millennium. I was serious - we could have made it into a great magazine. We could have worked together for years."
Blomkvist grimaced and tried to shift his body into a more comfortable position. He was defenceless. All he had was his voice.
"I assume you mean that the opportunity has passed," Blomkvist said.
Martin Vanger laughed.
"I'm sorry, Mikael. But, of course, you know perfectly well that you're going to die down here."
Blomkvist nodded.
"How the hell did you find me, you and that anorexic spook that you dragged into this?"
"You lied about what you were doing on the day that Harriet disappeared. You were in Hedestad at the Children's Day parade. You were photographed there, looking at Harriet."
"Was that why you went to Norsjo?"
"To get the picture, yes. It was taken by a honeymoon couple who happened to be in Hedestad."
He shook his head.
"That's a crass lie," Martin said.
Blomkvist thought hard: what to say to prevent or postpone his execution.
"Where's the picture now?"
"The negative? It's in a safe-deposit box at Handelsbanken here in Hedestad... You didn't know that I have a safe-deposit box?" He lied easily. "There are copies in various places. In my computer and in the girl's, on the server at Millennium, and on the server at Milton Security, where the girl works."
Martin waited, trying to work out whether or not Blomkvist was bluffing.
"How much does the girl know?"
Blomkvist hesitated. Salander was right now his only hope of rescue. What would she think when she came home and found him not there? He had put the photograph of Martin Vanger wearing the padded jacket on the kitchen table. Would she make the connection? Would she sound the alarm? She is not going to call the police. The nightmare was that she would come to Martin Vanger's house and ring the bell, demanding to know where Blomkvist was.