Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, The - Stieg Larsson [264]
“How does it feel?” she said when she hung up.
“I think I’m happy,” he said.
She laughed. “The Section is going to be a sensation. Every newsroom is going crazy for it. Do you feel like appearing on Aktuellt at 9.00 for an interview?”
“I think not.”
“I suspected as much.”
“We’re going to be talking about this for several months. There’s no rush.”
She nodded.
“What are you doing later this evening?” Berger said.
“I don’t know.” He bit his lip. “Erika … I …”
“Figuerola,” Berger said with a smile.
He nodded.
“So it’s serious?”
“I don’t know.”
“She’s terribly in love with you.”
“I think I’m in love with her too,” he said.
“I promise I’ll keep my distance until, you know … well, maybe,” she said.
At 8.00 Armansky and Linder appeared at Millennium’s offices. They thought the occasion called for champagne, so they had brought over a crate from the state liquor store. Berger hugged Linder and introduced her to everyone. Armansky took a seat in Blomkvist’s office.
They drank their champagne. Neither of them said anything for quite a while. It was Armansky who broke the silence.
“You know what, Blomkvist? The first time we met, on that job in Hedestad, I didn’t much care for you.”
“You don’t say.”
“You came over to sign a contract when you hired Lisbeth as a researcher.”
“I remember.”
“I think I was jealous of you. You’d known her only for a couple of hours, yet she was laughing with you. For some years I’d tried to be Lisbeth’s friend, but I have never once made her smile.”
“Well … I haven’t really been that successful either.”
They sat in silence once again.
“Great that all this is over,” Armansky said.
“Amen to that,” Blomkvist said, and they raised their glasses in salute.
Inspectors Bublanski and Modig conducted the formal interview with Salander. They had both been at home with their families after a particularly taxing day but were immediately summoned to return to police headquarters.
Salander was accompanied by Giannini. She gave precise responses to all the questions that Bublanski and Modig asked, and Giannini had little occasion to comment or intervene.
Salander lied consistently on two points. In her description of what had happened in Stallarholmen, she stubbornly maintained that it was Nieminen who had accidentally shot “Magge” Lundin in the foot at the instant that she nailed him with the taser. Where had she got the taser? She had confiscated it from Lundin, she explained.
Bublanski and Modig were both sceptical, but there was no evidence and no witnesses to contradict her story. Nieminen was no doubt in a position to protest, but he refused to say anything about the incident; in fact he had no notion of what had happened in the seconds after he was stunned with the taser.
As far as Salander’s journey to Gosseberga was concerned, she claimed that her only objective had been to convince her father to turn himself in to the police.
Salander looked completely guileless; it was impossible to say whether she was telling the truth or not. Giannini had no reason to arrive at an opinion on the matter.
The only person who knew for certain that Salander had gone to Gosseberga with the intention of terminating any relationship she had with her father once and for all was Blomkvist. But he had been sent out of the courtroom shortly after the proceedings were resumed. No-one knew that he and Salander had carried on long conversations online by night while she was confined to Sahlgrenska.
*
The media missed altogether her release from custody. If the time of it had been known, a huge contingent would have descended on police headquarters. But many of the reporters were exhausted after the chaos and excitement that had ensued when Millennium reached the news-stands and certain members of the Security Police were arrested by other Security Police officers.
The presenter of She at T.V.4 was the only journalist who knew what the story was all about. Her hour-long broadcast became a classic, and some months