Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The - Stieg Larsson [105]
He shook his head. He was beginning to feel very ill indeed.
“You’re going to get a present from me so you’ll always remember our agreement.”
She gave him a crooked smile and climbed on to the bed and knelt between his legs. Bjurman had no idea what she intended to do, but he felt a sudden terror.
Then he saw the needle in her hand.
He flopped his head back and forth and tried to twist his body away until she put a knee on his crotch and pressed down in warning.
“Lie rather still because this is the first time I’ve used this equipment.”
She worked steadily for two hours. When she was finished he had stopped whimpering. He seemed to be almost in a state of apathy.
She got down from the bed, cocked her head to one side, and regarded her handiwork with a critical eye. Her artistic talents were limited. The letters looked at best impressionistic. She had used red and blue ink. The message was written in caps over five lines that covered his belly, from his nipples to just above his genitals: I AM A SADISTIC PIG, A PERVERT, AND A RAPIST.
She gathered up the needles and placed the ink cartridges in her rucksack. Then she went to the bathroom and washed. She felt a lot better when she came back in the bedroom.
“Goodnight,” she said.
She unlocked one of the handcuffs and put the key on his stomach before she left. She took her DVD and his bundle of keys with her.
It was as they shared a cigarette some time after midnight that he told her they could not see each other for a while. Cecilia turned her face to him in surprise.
“What do you mean?”
He looked ashamed. “On Monday I have to go to prison for up to three months.”
No other explanation was necessary. Cecilia lay in silence for a long time. She felt like crying.
Dragan Armansky was suspicious when Salander knocked at his door on Monday afternoon. He had seen no sign of her since he called off the investigation of the Wennerström affair in early January, and every time he tried to reach her she either did not answer or hung up saying she was busy.
“Have you got a job for me?” she asked without any greeting.
“Hi. Great to see you. I thought you died or something.”
“There were things I had to straighten out.”
“You often seem to have things to straighten out.”
“This time it was urgent. I’m back now. Have you got a job for me?”
Armansky shook his head. “Sorry. Not at the moment.”
Salander looked at him calmly. After a while he started talking.
“Lisbeth, you know I like you and I like to give you jobs. But you’ve been gone for two months and I’ve had tons of jobs. You’re simply not reliable. I’ve had to pay other people to cover for you, and right now I actually don’t have a thing.”
“Could you turn up the volume?”
“What?”
“On the radio.”
…the magazine Millennium. The news that veteran industrialist Henrik Vanger will be part owner and will have a seat on the board of directors of Millennium comes the same day that the former CEO and publisher Mikael Blomkvist begins serving his three-month sentence for the libel of businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström. Millennium’s editor in chief Erika Berger announced at a press conference that Blomkvist will resume his role as publisher when his sentence is completed.
“Well, isn’t that something,” Salander said so quietly that Armansky only saw her lips move. She stood up and headed for the door.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“Home. I want to check some stuff. Call me when you’ve got something.”
The news that Millennium had acquired reinforcements in the form of Henrik Vanger was a considerably bigger event than Lisbeth Salander had expected. Aftonbladet’s evening edition was already out, with a story from the TT wire service summing up Vanger’s career and stating that it was the first time in almost twenty years that the old industrial magnate had made a public appearance. The news that he was becoming part owner of Millennium was viewed