The evening ended, after several rounds of vodka, at 2:00 in the morning. Blomkvist was fairly drunk as he skidded the three hundred yards to the guest house. It had been a pleasant evening.

One afternoon during Blomkvist's second week in Hedeby there was a knock on the door. He put aside the binder from the police report that he had just opened - the sixth in the series - and closed the door to his office before he opened the front door to a blonde woman well wrapped up against the cold.

"Hi. I just thought I'd come and say hello. I'm Cecilia Vanger."

They shook hands and he got out the coffee cups. Cecilia, daughter of Harald Vanger, appeared to be an open and engaging woman. Blomkvist remembered that Vanger had spoken of her appreciatively; he had also said that she was not on speaking terms with her father, her next-door neighbour. They chatted for a while before she brought up the reason for her visit.

"I understand that you're writing a book about the family," she said. "I'm not sure that I care for the idea. I wanted to see what sort of person you are."

"Well, Henrik Vanger hired me. It's his story, so to speak."

"And our good Henrik isn't exactly neutral in his attitude towards the family."

Blomkvist studied her, unsure what she was getting at. "You're opposed to having a book written about the Vanger family?"

"I didn't say that. And it doesn't really matter what I think. But by now you must have realised that it hasn't always been plain sailing to be part of this family."

Blomkvist had no idea what Vanger had said or how much Cecilia knew about his assignment. He threw out his hands.

"I'm contracted by your uncle to write a family chronicle. He has some very colourful views about members of the family, but I'll be sticking strictly to what can be documented."

Cecilia Vanger smiled but without warmth. "What I want to know is: will I have to go into exile or emigrate when the book comes out?"

"I don't expect so," Blomkvist said. "People will be able to tell the sheep from the goats."

"Like my father, for instance?"

"Your father the famous Nazi?" Blomkvist said.

Cecilia Vanger rolled her eyes. "My father is crazy. I only see him a few times a year."

"Why don't you want to see him?"

"Wait a minute - before you start in asking a lot of questions... Are you planning to quote anything I say? Or can I carry on a normal conversation with you?"

"My job is to write a book starting with Alexandre Vangeersad's arrival in Sweden with Bernadotte and going up to the present. It's to cover the business empire over many decades, but it will also discuss why the empire is in difficulty and it will touch on the animosity that exists within the family. In such a survey it's impossible to avoid having some dirty linen float to the surface. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to set out to present a malicious portrait of anyone. For example, I've met Martin Vanger; he seems to me a very sympathetic person, and that's how I'm going to describe him."

Cecilia Vanger did not reply.

"What I know about you is that you're a teacher..."

"It's actually worse than that - I'm the headmistress of Hedestad preparatory school."

"I'm sorry. I know that your uncle is fond of you, that you're married but separated... and that's about all so far. So do please go ahead and talk to me without fear of being quoted. I'm sure I'll come knocking on your door some day soon. Then it will be an official interview, and you can choose whether you want to answer my questions or not."

"So I can talk to you then or now... off the record, as they say?"

"Of course."

"And this is off the record?"

"Of course. This is a social visit after all."

"OK. Then can I ask you something?"

"Please."

"How much of this book is going to deal with Harriet?"

Blomkvist bit his lip and then said as casually as he could: "To be honest, I have no idea. It might fill a chapter. It was a dramatic event that has cast a shadow over your uncle, at the very least."

"But you're not here to look into her disappearance?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, the fact that Nilsson lugged four massive boxes over here. That could be Henrik's private investigations over the years. I looked in Harriet's old room, where Henrik keeps it, and it was gone."

Cecilia Vanger was no fool.

"You'll have to take the matter up with Henrik, not with me," Blomkvist said. "But it won't surprise you to know that Henrik has talked a lot about the girl's disappearance, and I thought it would be interesting to read through what had been collected."

Cecilia gave him another of her joyless smiles. "I wonder sometimes who's crazier, my father or my uncle. I must have listened to him on Harriet's disappearance a thousand times."

"What do you think happened to her?"

"Is this an interview question?"

"No," he said with a laugh. "I'm just curious."

"What I'm curious about is whether you're a nut case too. Whether you've swallowed Henrik's conviction or whether in fact you're the one who's egging him on."

"You think that Henrik's a nut case?"

"Don't get me wrong. He's one of the warmest and most thoughtful people I know. I'm very fond of him. But on this particular topic, he's obsessive."

"But Harriet really did disappear."

"I'm just so damn sick of the whole story. It's poisoned our lives for decades, and it doesn't stop doing so." She got up abruptly and put on her fur coat. "I have to go. You seem like a pleasant sort. Martin thinks so too, but his judgement isn't always reliable. You're welcome to come for coffee at my house whenever you like. I'm almost always home in the evening."

"Thank you," Blomkvist said. "You didn't answer the question that wasn't an interview question."

She paused at the door and replied without looking at him.

"I have no idea. I think it was an accident that has such a simple explanation that it will astonish us if we ever find out."

She turned to smile at him - for the first time with warmth. Then she was gone.

If it had been an agreeable first meeting with Cecilia Vanger, the same could not be said of his first encounter with Isabella. Harriet's mother was exactly as Henrik Vanger had warned: she proved to be an elegant woman who reminded him vaguely of Lauren Bacall. She was thin, dressed in a black Persian lamb coat with matching cap, and she was leaning on a black cane when Blomkvist ran into her one morning on his way to Susanne's. She looked like an ageing vampire - still strikingly beautiful but as venomous as a snake. Isabella Vanger was apparently on her way home after taking a walk. She called to him from the crossroad.

"Hello there, young man. Come here."

The commanding tone was hard to mistake. Blomkvist looked around and concluded that he was the one summoned. He did as instructed.

"I am Isabella Vanger," the woman said.

"Hello. My name is Mikael Blomkvist." He stuck out his hand, which she ignored.

"Are you that person who's been snooping around in our family affairs?"

"Well, if you mean am I the person that Henrik Vanger has put under contract to help him with his book about the Vanger family, then yes."

"That's none of your business."

"Which? The fact that Henrik Vanger offered me a contract or the fact that I accepted?"

"You know perfectly well what I mean. I don't care for people poking around in my life."

"I won't poke around in your life. The rest you'll have to discuss with Henrik."

Isabella raised her cane and pressed the handle against Mikael's chest. She did not use much force, but he took a step back in surprise.

"Just you keep away from me," she said, and turned on her heel and walked unsteadily towards her house. Blomkvist went on standing where he was, looking like a man who has just met a real live comic-book character. When he looked up he saw Vanger in the window of his office. In his hand he was holding a cup, which he raised in an ironic salute.

The only travelling that Blomkvist did during that first month was a drive to a bay on Lake Siljan. He borrowed Frode's Mercedes and drove through a snowy landscape to spend the afternoon with Detective Superintendent Morell. Blomkvist had tried to form an impression of Morell based on the way he came across in the police report. What he found was a wiry old man who moved softly and spoke even more slowly.

Blomkvist brought with him a notebook with ten questions, mainly ideas that had cropped up while he was reading the police report. Morell answered each question put to him in a schoolmasterly way. Finally Blomkvist put away his notes and explained that the questions were simply an excuse for a meeting. What he really wanted was to have a chat with him and ask one crucial question: was there any single thing in the investigation that had not been included in the written report? Any hunches, even, that the inspector might be willing to share with him?

Because Morell, like Vanger, had spent thirty-six years pondering the mystery, Blomkvist had expected a certain resistance - he was the new man who had come in and started tramping around in the thicket where Morell had gone astray. But there was not a hint of hostility. Morell methodically filled his pipe and lit it before he replied.

"Well yes, obviously I had my own ideas. But they're so vague and fleeting that I can hardly put them into words."

"What do you think happened?"

"I think Harriet was murdered. Henrik and I agree on that. It's the only reasonable explanation. But we never discovered what the motive might have been. I think she was murdered for a very specific reason - it wasn't some act of madness or a rape or anything like that. If we had known the motive, we'd have known who killed her." Morell stopped to think for a moment. "The murder may have been committed spontaneously. By that I mean that someone seized an opportunity when it presented itself in the coming and going in the wake of the accident. The murderer hid the body and then at some later time removed it while we were searching for her."

"We're talking about someone who has nerves of ice."

"There's one detail... Harriet went to Henrik's room wanting to speak to him. In hindsight, it seems to me a strange way to behave - she knew he had his hands full with all the relatives who were hanging around. I think Harriet alive represented a grave threat to someone, that she was going to tell Henrik something, and that the murderer knew she was about to... well, spill the beans."

"And Henrik was busy with several family members?"

"There were four people in the room, besides Henrik. His brother Greger, a cousin named Magnus Sjogren, and two of Harald's children, Birger and Cecilia. But that doesn't tell us anything. Let's suppose that Harriet had discovered that someone had embezzled money from the company - hypothetically, of course. She may have known about it for months, and at some point she may even have discussed it with the person in question. She may have tried to blackmail him, or she may have felt sorry for him and felt uneasy about exposing him. She may have decided all of a sudden and told the murderer so, and he in desperation killed her."

"You've said 'he' and 'him.'"

"The book says that most killers are men. But it's also true that in the Vanger family are several women who are real firebrands."

"I've met Isabella."

"She's one of them. But there are others. Cecilia Vanger can be extremely caustic. Have you met Sara Sjogren?"

Blomkvist shook his head.

"She's the daughter of Sofia Vanger, one of Henrik's cousins. In her case we're talking about a truly unpleasant and inconsiderate lady. But she was living in Malmo, and as far as I could ascertain, she had no motive for killing the girl."

"So she's off the list."

"The problem is that no matter how we twisted and turned things, we never came up with a motive. That's the important thing."

"You put a vast amount of work into this case. Was there any lead you remember not having followed up?"

Morell chuckled. "No. I've devoted an endless amount of time to this case, and I can't think of anything that I didn't follow up to the bitter, fruitless end. Even after I was promoted and moved away from Hedestad."

"Moved away?"

"Yes, I'm not from Hedestad originally. I served there from 1963 until 1968. After that I was promoted to superintendent and moved to the Gavle police department for the rest of my career. But even in Gavle I went on digging into the case."

"I don't suppose that Henrik would ever let up."

"That's true, but that's not the reason. The puzzle about Harriet still fascinates me to this day. I mean... it's like this: every police officer has his own unsolved mystery. I remember from my days in Hedestad how older colleagues would talk in the canteen about the case of Rebecka. There was one officer in particular, a man named Torstensson - he's been dead for years - who year after year kept returning to that case. In his free time and when he was on holiday. Whenever there was a period of calm among the local hooligans he would take out those folders and study them."

"Was that also a case about a missing girl?"

Morell looked surprised. Then he smiled when he realised that Blomkvist was looking for some sort of connection.

"No, that's not why I mentioned it. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. The Rebecka case was something that happened before Harriet Vanger was even born, and the statute of limitations has long since run out. Sometime in the forties a woman was assaulted in Hedestad, raped, and murdered. That's not altogether uncommon. Every officer, at some point in his career, has to investigate that kind of crime, but what I'm talking about are those cases that stay with you and get under your skin during the investigation. This girl was killed in the most brutal way. The killer tied her up and stuck her head into the smouldering embers of a fireplace. One can only guess how long it took for the poor girl to die, or what torment she must have endured."