Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The - Stieg Larsson [210]
From To Special issue. Book publisher. Money. Yes, master. Anything else I can do for you? Dance naked at Slussplan?/E. P.S. I assume you know what you’re doing. But what do I do about Dahlman? From To Don’t do anything about Dahlman. Tell him he’s free to go right away and you aren’t sure you can pay his wages anyway. Monopoly isn’t going to survive for long. Bring in more freelance material for this issue. And hire a new managing editor, for God’s sake./M. P.S. Slussplan? It’s a date. From To Slussplan—in your dreams. But we’ve always done the hiring together./Ricky. From To And we’ve always agreed about who we should hire. We will this time too, no matter who you choose. We’re going to scupper Wennerström. That’s the whole story. Just let me finish this in peace./M. In early October Salander read an article on the Internet edition of the Hedestad Courier. She told Blomkvist about it. Isabella Vanger had died after a short illness. She was mourned by her daughter, Harriet Vanger, lately returned from Australia. Encrypted email from To Hi Mikael. Harriet Vanger came to see me at the office today. She called five minutes before she arrived, and I was totally unprepared. A beautiful woman, elegant clothes and a cool gaze. She came to tell me that she’ll be replacing Martin Vanger as Henrik’s representative on our board. She was polite and friendly and assured me that the Vanger Corporation had no plans to back out of the agreement. On the contrary, the family stands fully behind Henrik’s obligations to the magazine. She asked for a tour of the editorial offices, and she wanted to know how I see the situation. I told her the truth. That it feels as if I don’t have solid ground under my feet, that you have forbidden me to come to Sandhamn, and that I don’t know what you’re working on, other than that you are planning to sink Wennerström. (I assumed it was OK to say that. She is on the board, after all.) She raised an eyebrow and smiled and asked if I had doubts that you’d succeed. What was I supposed to say to that? I said that I would sleep a little easier if I knew exactly what you were writing. Jeez, of course I trust you. But you’re driving me crazy. I asked her if she knew what you were working on. She denied it but said that it was her impression that you were extremely resourceful, with an innovative way of thinking. (Her words.) I said that I also gathered that something dramatic had happened up in Hedestad and that I was ever so slightly curious about the story regarding Harriet Vanger herself. In short, I felt like an idiot. She asked me whether you really hadn’t told me anything. She said that she understood that you and I have a special relationship and that you would undoubtedly tell me the story when you had time. Then she asked if she could trust me. What was I supposed to say? She’s on the Millennium board, and you’ve left me here totally in the dark. Then she said something odd. She asked me not to judge either her or you too harshly. She said she owed you some sort of debt of gratitude, and she would really like it if she and I could also be friends. Then she promised to tell me the story someday if you couldn’t do it. Half an hour ago she left, and I’m still in a daze. I think I like her, but who is this person?/Erika P.S. I miss you. I have a feeling that something nasty happened in Hedestad. Christer says that you have a strange mark on your neck. From To Hi Ricky. The story about Harriet is so miserably awful that you can