The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

evening?”
    “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know, Erika,” he said, and then he left the magazine offices and went out onto Götgatsbacken.
    The storm and the freezing rain lashed against him and he swore, and for a moment considered dashing into Pocketshop to buy yet another English detective novel to escape into. Instead he turned into Sankt Paulsgatan and as he was passing the sushi restaurant on the right-hand side his mobile rang. He was sure that it would be Berger. But it was Pernilla, his daughter, who had certainly chosen the worst possible time to get in touch with a father who already felt bad about how little he did for her.
    “Hello, my darling,” he said.
    “What’s that noise?”
    “It’s the storm, I expect.”
    “O.K., O.K., I’ll be quick. I’ve been accepted on the writing course at Biskops Arnö school.”
    “So, now you want to be a writer,” he said, in a tone which was too harsh and almost sarcastic, and that was unfair in every way.
    He should have simply congratulated her and wished her luck, but Pernilla had had so many difficult years hopping between one Christian sect and another, and from one course to another without finishing anything, that he felt exhausted by yet another change of direction.
    “I don’t think I detected a whoop of joy there.”
    “Sorry, Pernilla. I’m not myself today.”
    “When are you ever?”
    “I’m just not sure writing is such a good idea, given how the profession is looking right now. I only want you to find something that will really work for you.”
    “I’m not going to write boring journalism like you.”
    “Well, what are you going to write then?”
    “I’m going to write for real.”
    “O.K.,” he said, without asking what she meant by that. “Do you have enough money?”
    “I’m working part-time at Wayne’s Coffee.”
    “Would you like to come to dinner tonight, so we can talk about it?”
    “Don’t have time, Pappa. It was just to let you know,” she said, and hung up, and even if he tried to see the positive side in her enthusiasm it just made his mood worse. He took a short cut across Mariatorget and Hornsgatan to reach his apartment on Bellmansgatan.
    It felt as if he had only just left. He got a strange sense that he no longer had a job and that he was on the verge of entering a new existence where he had oceans of time instead of working his fingers to the bone. For a brief moment he considered tidying the place up. There were magazines and books and clothes everywhere. But instead he fetched two Pilsner Urquell from the fridge and sat down on the sofa in the living room to think everything through more soberly, as soberly as one can with a bit of beer in one’s body.
    What was he to do?
    He had no idea, and most worrying of all was that he was in no mood for a fight. On the contrary, he was strangely resigned, as if
Millennium
were slipping out of his sphere of interest. Isn’t it time to do something new? he asked himself, and he thought of Kajsa Åkerstam, a quite charming person whom he would occasionally meet for a few drinks. Åkerstam was head of Swedish Television’s “Investigative Taskforce” programme and she had been trying to recruit him for years. It had never mattered what she had offered, and how solemnly she had guaranteed backing and total integrity.
Millennium
had been his home and his soul. But now … maybe he should take the chance. Perhaps a job on “Investigative Taskforce” would fire him up again.
    His mobile rang and for a moment he was happy. Whether it was Berger or Pernilla, he promised himself he would be friendly and really listen. But no, it was a withheld number and he answered guardedly.
    “Is that Mikael Blomkvist?” said a young-sounding voice.
    “Yes,” he said.
    “Do you have time to talk?”
    “I might if you introduced yourself.”
    “My name is Linus Brandell.”
    “O.K., Linus, how can I help?”
    “I have a story for you.”
    “Tell me.”
    “I will if