Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, The - Stieg Larsson [120]
This was enough for Figuerola’s team to initiate the preliminary investigation and to set about enquiring whether the robbers had a connection to the neo-Nazi gang in Värmland, and whether the robbery could be defined as a racist crime. If so, the incident might be included in that year’s statistical compilation, which would then itself be incorporated within the European statistics put together by the E.U.’s office in Vienna.
“I’ve a difficult assignment for you,” Edklinth said. “It’s a job that could land you in big trouble. Your career might be ruined.”
“I’m all ears.”
“But if things go well, it could be a major step forward in your career. I’m thinking of moving you to the Constitutional Protection operations unit.”
“Forgive me for mentioning this, but Constitutional Protection doesn’t have an operations unit.”
“Yes, it does,” Edklinth said. “I established it this morning. At present it consists of you.”
“I see,” said Figuerola hesitantly.
“The task of Constitutional Protection is to defend the constitution against what we call ‘internal threats’, most often those on the extreme left or the extreme right. But what do we do if a threat to the constitution comes from within our own organization?”
For the next half hour he told her what Armansky had told him the night before.
“Who is the source of these claims?” Figuerola said when the story was ended.
“Focus on the information, not the source.”
“What I’m wondering is whether you consider the source to be reliable.”
“I consider the source to be totally reliable. I’ve know this person for many years.”
“It all sounds a bit … I don’t know. Improbable?”
“Doesn’t it? One might think it’s the stuff of a spy novel.”
“How do you expect me to go about tackling it?”
“Starting now, you’re released from all other duties. Your task, your only task, is to investigate the truth of this story. You have to either verify or dismiss the claims one by one. You report directly and only to me.”
“I see what you mean when you say I might land in it up to my neck.”
“But if the story is true … if even a fraction of it is true, then we have a constitutional crisis on our hands.”
“Where do you want me to begin?”
“Start with the simple things. Start by reading the Björck report. Then identify the people who are allegedly tailing this guy Blomkvist. According to my source, the car belongs to Göran Mårtensson, a police officer living on Vittangigaten in Vällingby. Then identify the other person in the pictures taken by Blomkvist’s photographer. The younger blond man here.”
Figuerola was making notes.
“Then look into Gullberg’s background. I had never heard his name before, but my source believes there to be a connection between him and the Security Police.”
“So somebody here at S.I.S. put out a contract on a long-ago spy using a 78-year-old man. It beggars belief.”
“Nevertheless, you check it out. And your entire investigation has to be carried out without a single person other than me knowing anything at all about it. Before you take one single positive action I want to be informed. I don’t want to see any rings on the water or hear of a single ruffled feather.”
“This is one hell of an investigation. How am I going to do all this alone?”
“You won’t have to. You have only to do the first check. You come back and say that you’ve checked and didn’t find anything, then everything is fine. You come back having found that anything is as