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(2) Neither Lundin nor Sonny Nieminen has said a word about what happened at Stallarholmen. Lundin has been arrested for kidnapping Miriam. Nieminen has been released.
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Salander had already discussed all of this with Giannini. She had told Giannini everything that had happened in Gosseberga, but she had refrained from telling her anything about Bjurman.
What I think you haven't understood are the rules of the game.
It's like this. Sapo got saddled with Zalachenko in the middle of the Cold War. For fifteen years he was protected, no matter what he did. Careers were built on Zalachenko. On any number of occasions they cleaned up after his rampages. This is all criminal activity: Swedish authorities helping to cover up crimes against individual citizens.
If this gets out, there'll be a scandal that will affect both the conservative and social democratic parties. Above all, people in high places within Sapo will be exposed as accomplices in criminal and immoral activities. Even though by now the statute of limitations has run out on the specific instances of crime, there'll still be a scandal. It involves big shots who are either retired now or close to retirement.
They will do everything they can to reduce the damage to themselves and their group, and that means you'll once again be a pawn in their game. But this time it's not a matter of them sacrificing a pawn--it'll be a matter of them actively needing to limit the damage to themselves personally. So you'll have to be locked up again.
This is how it will work. They know that they can't keep the lid on the Zalachenko secret for long. I have got the story, and they know that sooner or later I'm going to publish it. It doesn't matter so much, of course, now that he's dead. What matters to them is their own survival. The following points are therefore high on their agenda:
(1) They have to convince the district court (the public, in effect) that the decision to lock you up in St. Stefan's in 1991 was a legitimate one, that you really were mentally ill.
(2) They have to separate the "Salander affair" from the "Zalachenko affair." They'll try to create a situation where they can say, "Certainly Zalachenko was a fiend, but that had nothing to do with the decision to lock up his daughter. She was locked up because she was deranged--any claims to the contrary are the sick fantasies of bitter journalists. No, we did not assist Zalachenko in any crime--that's the delusion of a mentally ill teenage girl."
(3) The problem is that if you're acquitted, it would mean that the district court finds that you're not a nutcase. And that would have to mean that locking you up in 1991 was illegal. So they have to condemn you, at all costs, to the locked psychiatric ward. If the court determines that you are mentally ill, the media's interest in continuing to dig around in the "Salander affair" will die away. That is how the media work.
Are you with me?
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All of this she had already worked out for herself. The problem was that she didn't know what she should do.
Lisbeth--seriously--this battle is going to be decided in the mass media, and not in the courtroom. Unfortunately, the trial is going to be held behind closed doors "to protect your privacy."
The day that Zalachenko was shot there was a robbery at my apartment. There were no signs on my door of a break-in, and nothing was touched or moved--except for one thing. The folder from Bjurman's summer cabin with Bjorck's report was taken. At the same time, my sister was mugged and her copy of the report was also stolen. That folder is your most important evidence.
I have let it be known that our Zalachenko documents are gone, disappeared. In fact I had a third copy that I was going to give to Armansky. I made several copies of that one and have tucked them away in safe places.
Our opponents--who include several high-powered figures and certain psychiatrists--are of course also preparing for the trial, together with Prosecutor Ekstrom. I have a source who provides me with some info on what's going on, but I suspect that you might have a better chance of finding out the relevant information. This is urgent.
The prosecutor is going to try to get you locked up in the psychiatric ward. Assisting him is your old friend Peter Teleborian.
Annika won't be able to go out and do a media campaign in the same way that the prosecution can (and does), leaking information as they see fit. Her hands are tied.
But I'm not encumbered by that sort of restriction. I can write whatever I want--and I also have an entire magazine at my disposal.
Two important details are still needed:
(1) First of all, I want to have something that shows that Prosecutor Ekstrom is working with Teleborian in some inappropriate manner, and that the objective once more is to confine you to a nuthouse. I want to be able to go on any talk show on TV and present documentation that annihilates the prosecution's game.
(2) To wage a media war I must be able to appear in public to discuss things that you may consider your private business. Privacy in this situation is wildly overrated in view of all that has been written about you since Easter. I have to be able to construct a completely new media image of you, even if that, in your opinion, means invading your privacy--preferably with your approval. Do you understand what I mean?
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She opened the archive in [Idiotic_Table]. It contained twenty-six documents.
CHAPTER 14
Wednesday, May 18
Figuerola got up at 5:00 on Wednesday morning and went for an unusually short run before she showered and dressed in black jeans, a white top, and a lightweight grey linen jacket. She made coffee, poured it into a thermos, and then made sandwiches. She also strapped on a shoulder holster and took her Sig Sauer from the gun cabinet. Just after 6:00 she drove her white Saab 9-5 to Vittangigatan in Vallingby.
Martensson's apartment was on the top floor of a three-storey building in the suburbs. The day before, she had assembled everything that could be found out about him in the public archives. He was unmarried, but that did not mean that he wasn't living with someone. He had no black marks in police records, and no great fortune, and he did not seem to lead a fast life. He very seldom called in sick.
The one conspicuous thing about him was that he had licences for no fewer than sixteen weapons. Three of them were hunting rifles; the others were handguns of various types. As long as he had a licence, of course, there was no crime, but Figuerola harboured a deep scepticism about anyone who collected weapons on such a scale.
The Volvo with the registration beginning KAB was in the parking lot about thirty yards from where Figuerola herself parked. She poured black coffee into a paper cup and ate a lettuce and cheese baguette. Then she peeled an orange and sucked each segment to extinction.
At morning rounds, Salander was out of sorts and had a bad headache. She asked for a Tylenol, which she was immediately given.
After an hour the headache had grown worse. She rang for the nurse and asked for another Tylenol. That didn't help either. By lunchtime she had such a headache that the nurse called Dr. Endrin, who examined her patient briskly and prescribed a powerful painkiller.
Salander held
the tablets under her tongue and spat them out as soon as she was alone.
At 2:00 in the afternoon she threw up. This recurred at around 3:00.
At 4:00 Jonasson came up to the ward just as Dr. Endrin was about to go home. They conferred briefly.
"She feels sick and she has a strong headache. I gave her Dexofen. I don't understand what's going on with her. She's been doing so well lately. It might be some sort of flu . . ."
"Does she have a fever?" asked Jonasson.
"No. She had 98.6 an hour ago."
"I'm going to keep an eye on her overnight."
"I'll be going on vacation for three weeks," Endrin said. "Either you or Svantesson will have to take over her case. But Svantesson hasn't had much to do with her. . . ."
"I'll arrange to be her primary care doctor while you're on vacation."
"Good. If there's a crisis and you need help, do call."
They paid a short visit to Salander's sickbed. She was lying with the sheet pulled up to the tip of her nose, and she looked miserable. Jonasson put his hand on her forehead and felt that it was damp.
"I think we'll have to do a quick examination."
He thanked Dr. Endrin, and she left.
At 5:00 Jonasson discovered that Salander had developed a temperature of 100, which was noted on her chart. He visited her three times that evening and noted that her temperature had remained at 100--too high, certainly, but not so high as to present a real problem. At 8:00 he ordered a cranial X-ray.
When the X-rays came through he studied them intently. He could not see anything remarkable, but he did observe that there was a barely visible darker area immediately adjacent to the bullet hole. He wrote a carefully worded and noncommittal comment on her chart: Radiological examination gives a basis for definitive conclusions, but the condition of the patient has deteriorated steadily during the day. It cannot be ruled out that there is a minor bleed that is not visible on the images. The patient should be confined to bedrest and kept under strict observation until further notice.
Berger had received twenty-three emails by the time she arrived at SMP at 6:30 on Wednesday morning.
