Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, The - Stieg Larsson [255]
“Was she drunk every day from when she was released until she turned eighteen? Was she drunk once a week?”
“Naturally I can’t answer that.”
“But you have just stated that she had problems with alcohol abuse.”
“She was a minor and arrested repeatedly by the police for drunkenness.”
“That’s the second time you have said that she was arrested repeatedly. How often did this occur? Was it once a week or once every other week?”
“No, it’s not a matter of so many individual occasions …”
“Lisbeth Salander was arrested on two occasions for drunkenness, once when she was sixteen, once when she was seventeen. On one of those occasions she was so blind drunk that she was taken to hospital. These are the repeatedly you refer to. Was she intoxicated on more than these occasions?”
“I don’t know, but one might fear that her behaviour was—”
“Excuse me, did I hear you correctly? You do not know whether she was intoxicated on more than two occasions during her teenage years, but you fear that this was the case. And yet you write reports maintaining that Lisbeth Salander was engaged in repeated alcohol and drug abuse?”
“That is the social service’s information, not mine. It has to do with Lisbeth Salander’s whole lifestyle. Not surprisingly her prognosis was dismal after her treatment was interrupted, and her life became a round of alcohol abuse, police intervention, and uncontrolled promiscuity.”
“You say ‘uncontrolled promiscuity’.”
“Yes. That’s a term which indicates that she had no control over her own life. She had sexual relations with older men.”
“That’s not against the law.”
“No, but it’s abnormal behaviour for a sixteen-year-old girl. The question might be asked as to whether she participated in such encounters of her own free will or whether she was in a situation of uncontrollable compulsion.”
“But you said that she was very probably a prostitute.”
“That may have been a natural consequence of the fact that she lacked education, was incapable of completing school or continuing to higher education, and therefore could not get a job. It’s possible that she viewed older men as father figures and that financial remuneration for sexual favours was simply a convenient spin-off. In which case I perceive it as neurotic behaviour.”
“So you think that a sixteen-year-old girl who has sex is neurotic?”
“You’re twisting my words.”
“But you do not know whether she ever took money for sexual favours.”
“She was never arrested for prostitution.”
“And she could hardly be arrested for it since prostitution is not a crime in our country.”
“Well, yes, that’s right. In her case this has to do with compulsive neurotic behaviour.”
“And you did not hesitate to conclude that Lisbeth Salander is mentally ill based on these unverifiable assumptions? When I was sixteen years old, I drank myself silly on half a bottle of vodka which I stole from my father. Do you think that makes me mentally ill?”
“No, of course not.”
“If I may be so bold, is it not a fact that when you were seventeen you went to a party and got so drunk that you all went out on the town and smashed the windows around the square in Uppsala? You were arrested by the police, detained until you were sober, and then let off with a fine.”
Teleborian looked shocked.
“Is that not a fact, Dr Teleborian?”
“Well, yes. People do so many stupid things when they’re seventeen. But—”
“But that doesn’t lead you – or anyone else – to believe that you have a serious mental illness?”
Teleborian was angry. That infernal lawyer kept twisting his words and homing in on details. She refused to see the larger picture. And his own childish escapade … How the hell had she got hold of that information?
He cleared his throat and spoke in a raised voice.
“The reports from social services were unequivocal. They confirmed that Lisbeth Salander had a lifestyle that revolved around alcohol, drugs and promiscuity. Social services also said that she was a prostitute.”
“No, social services never said that she was a prostitute.”
“She was arrested at—”
“No. She was not arrested,” Giannini