Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The - Stieg Larsson [197]
“I don’t get it. Do you want to have sex with me or not?”
“You shouldn’t have sex with people you’re working with,” he muttered. “It just leads to trouble.”
“Did I miss something here, or isn’t it true that you and Erika Berger fuck every time you get the chance? And she’s married.”
“Erika and I…have a history that started long before we started working together. The fact that she’s married is none of your business.”
“Oh, I see, all of a sudden you’re the one who doesn’t want to talk about yourself. And there I was, learning that friendship is a matter of trust.”
“What I mean is that I don’t discuss a friend behind her back. I’d be breaking her trust. I wouldn’t discuss you with Erika behind your back either.”
Salander thought about that. This had become an awkward conversation. She did not like awkward conversations.
“I do like having sex with you,” she said.
“I like it too…but I’m still old enough to be your father.”
“I don’t give a shit about your age.”
“No, you can’t ignore our age difference. It’s no sort of basis for a lasting relationship.”
“Who said anything about lasting?” Salander said. “We just finished up a case in which men with fucked-up sexuality played a prominent role. If I had to decide, men like that would be exterminated, every last one of them.”
“Well, at least you don’t compromise.”
“No,” she said, giving him her crooked non-smile. “But at least you’re not like them.” She got up. “Now I’m going in to take a shower, and then I think I’ll get into your bed naked. If you think you’re too old, you’ll have to go and sleep on the camp bed.”
Whatever hang-ups Salander had, modesty certainly was not one of them. He managed to lose every argument with her. After a while he washed up the coffee things and went into the bedroom.
They got up at 10:00, took a shower together, and ate breakfast out in the garden. At 11:00 Dirch Frode called and said that the funeral would take place at 2:00 in the afternoon, and he asked if they were planning to attend.
“I shouldn’t think so,” said Mikael.
Frode asked if he could come over around 6:00 for a talk. Mikael said that would be fine.
He spent a few hours sorting the papers into the packing crates and carrying them over to Henrik’s office. Finally he was left with only his own notebooks and the two binders about the Hans-Erik Wennerström affair that he hadn’t opened in six months. He sighed and stuffed them into his bag.
Frode rang to say he was running late and did not reach the cottage until 8:00. He was still in his funeral suit and looked harried when he sat down on the kitchen bench and gratefully accepted the cup of coffee that Salander offered him. She sat at the side table with her computer while Blomkvist asked how Harriet’s reappearance had been received by the family as a whole.
“You might say that it has overshadowed Martin’s demise. Now the media have found out about her too.”
“And how are you explaining the situation?”
“Harriet talked with a reporter from the Courier. Her story is that she ran away from home because she didn’t get along with her family, but that she obviously has done well in the world since she’s the head of a very substantial enterprise.”
Blomkvist whistled.
“I discovered that there was money in Australian sheep, but I didn’t know the station was doing that well.”
“Her sheep station is going superbly, but that isn’t her only source of income. The Cochran Corporation is in mining, opals, manufacturing, transport, electronics, and a lot of other things too.”
“Wow! So what’s going to happen now?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. People have been turning up all day, and the family has been together for the first time in years. They’re here from both Fredrik and Johan Vanger’s sides, and quite a few from the younger generation too—the ones in their twenties and up. There are probably around forty Vangers in Hedestad this evening. Half of them are at the hospital wearing