Girl Who Played with Fire, The - Stieg Larsson [175]
The problem was that there was no light in any of the apartment’s windows.
She walked to a pizzeria a few streets away, where she ordered a Hawaiian and sat in a corner to read the evening papers. Just before 9:00 she bought a caffè latte at the Pressbyrå kiosk and returned to the building. The apartment was still in darkness. She entered the stairwell and sat on the steps to the attic. From there she had a view of Sandström’s door half a flight down. She drank her latte while she waited.
Inspector Faste finally tracked down Cilla Norén, lead singer of the Satanist group Evil Fingers, at the studio of Recent Trash Records in an industrial building in Älvsjö. It was a cultural collision of about the same magnitude as the Spanish first encountering the Carib Indians.
After several futile attempts at Norén’s parents’ house, Faste had succeeded at the studio, where according to her sister she was “helping out” with the production of a CD by the band Cold Wax from Borlänge. Faste had never heard of the band, which seemed to consist of guys in their twenties. As soon as he entered the corridor outside the studio he was met by a wall of sound that took his breath away. He watched Cold Wax through a window and waited until there was a pause in the cacophony.
Norén had raven black hair with red and green braids and black eye makeup. She was on the chubby side and wore a short skirt and top which revealed a pierced belly button. She had a belt full of rivets around her hips and looked like something out of a French horror movie.
Faste held up his police ID and said he needed to talk to her. She went on chewing gum and gave him a sceptical look. She pointed to a door and led him into a sort of canteen, where he tripped and almost fell over a bag of trash that had been dumped right by the door. Norén ran water into an empty plastic bottle, drank about half of it, and then sat down at a table and lit a cigarette. She fixed Faste with her clear blue eyes.
“What is Recent Trash Records?”
She seemed bored out of her skull.
“It’s a record company that produces new bands.”
“What’s your role here?”
“I’m the sound engineer.”
Faste gave her a hard look. “Are you trained to do that?”
“Nope. I taught myself.”
“Can you make a living from it?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’m just curious. I assume you’ve read about Lisbeth Salander in the papers lately.”
She nodded.
“We believe that you know her. Is that correct?”
“Could be.”
“Is it correct or not correct?”
“It depends what you’re looking for.”
“I’m looking for an insane woman who committed a triple murder. I want information about Lisbeth Salander.”
“I haven’t heard from Lisbeth since last year.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Sometime in the fall two years ago. At Kvarnen. She used to hang out there, but then she stopped coming.”
“Have you tried to get in touch with her?”
“I’ve called her mobile a few times. The number’s been disconnected.”
“And you don’t know how to get hold of her otherwise?”
“No.”
“What is Evil Fingers?”
Norén looked amused. “Don’t you read the papers?”
“What does that mean?”
“They say we’re a Satanist band.”
“Are you?”
“Do I look like a Satanist?”
“What does a Satanist look like?”
“Well, I don’t know who’s dumber—the police or the newspapers.”
“Listen here, young lady, this is a very serious matter.”
“Whether we’re Satanists or not?”
“Stop screwing around and answer the question.”
“And what was the question?”
Faste closed his eyes for a second and thought about a visit he had paid to the police in Greece when he was on vacation some years earlier. The Greek police, despite all their problems, had one big advantage compared to the Swedish police. If this young woman had taken the same attitude over there he would have been able to bend her over and give her three whacks with a baton. He looked at her.
“Was Lisbeth Salander