Chapter 21 Chapter 21

Salander had an ominous feeling as she browsed through the e-mails of Home, the news editor.He is fifty-eight years old this year, and he is not in the range she set, but because he and Erica don't like each other, he is still included.He was a scheming guy who would write letters to different people about how they were criticized for their poor performance. Salander could tell at a glance that Home didn't like Erica, and he did use a lot of space to talk about what the rotten woman said and did.He only visits work-related websites online, and if he has other interests, he presumably does a Google search on another computer.

She kept him as one of the possible candidates for the poisonous pen, but not the most likely.Salander took a moment to wonder why she didn't think it was him, and finally concluded that he was too arrogant to bother sending an anonymous letter.If he wanted to call Erica a bitch, he would yell it out loud.And he didn't seem like the type to sneak into Erica's house in the middle of the night. At ten o'clock in the evening, she paused and entered the "Stupid Table", and found that Blomkvist hadn't come back yet. She felt a little anxious, not knowing what he was doing, and whether she had caught up with Taylor Pollian's date.

She then went back to the Swedish Morgan Post server. Next on the list was sports deputy editor Corey Lundin, twenty-nine.As soon as she opened his mailbox, she stopped and bit her lip.Then it was closed again and improved into Erica's mailbox. She pulled back, and there were not many letters in the mailbox, because the account was only activated on May 2.The first letter was a noon memorandum from Frederickson.On Erica's first day at work, several people sent letters welcoming her to the Swedish Morgan Post. Salander carefully read every letter in Erica's mailbox.She could see that, from day one, her correspondence with Home had been veiled with hostility.They didn't seem to agree on anything, and Salander also saw that Home had sent several letters, saying trivial things, purely to anger Erica.

She skips spam, junk mail, and press memos, concentrating only on personal correspondence.She watched budget calculations, advertising and marketing plans, and a week-long conversation with chief financial officer Selber, mostly arguing about layoffs.The legal director also sent several sullen letters to Erica about a special correspondent named Johannes, as if she had upset the director by sending him a report.Aside from the initial welcome letter, none of the executives seemed to take Erica's claims or proposals seriously. After a while, Salander pulled back to the front, counting silently in her heart.Among all the middle and high-level executives in the newspaper, only four people did not join the ranks of slander and slander. Germany.

Have they never heard of women in the Swedish Morgan Post?The department heads are all men. Of the four, Erica and Strandlund had the least contact, exchanging only two e-mails, and the kindest and most touching letter was from the front-page editor, Gunner.The Temple House's messages are always to the point and concise. If these men were going to tear Erica apart, why did they hire her in the first place? The closest colleague to Erika seems to be Frederikssen.He was sort of playing the shadow role, and she watched from the sidelines during meetings.He would prepare memos, write summaries for Erica of various articles and issues, and keep things moving.

He sends Erica a dozen emails a day. Salander picked out the letters that Fredrisen had sent to Erica and read them all.On several occasions, he objected to Erica's decisions and offered relative proposals.Erica seemed to trust him because most of them later changed their minds or accepted his objections.He never showed hostility, but neither did he have any personal friendship with Erica. After closing Erica's mailbox, Salander pondered for a moment. Then he opened Frederick's mailbox. The plague has been messing with the home computers of various employees of the Swedish Morgan Post all night, with little success.He finally got access to Home's computer, because the home and office computers were always connected; morning or evening, he could go in and read what he was writing.Home's personal computer was almost the most boring one the plague had ever invaded. As for the eighteen people on Salander's list, the invasion process was not smooth.One reason is that none of these people were online on Saturday night.He was beginning to tire of the impossible task when Salander knocked him at ten-thirty.

Plague sighed.This girl used to be his student, but now she is better than him. Blomkvist returned to Salander's apartment in Moseback just minutes before midnight.He feels very tired.After taking a shower and making coffee, start Salander's computer and type her ICQ. Susan woke up immediately when she heard the beeping of the earphones, and someone touched the sensor installed in the first-floor foyer.She pushed herself up on her elbows and checked the time. It was five twenty-three on Sunday morning.She slipped out of bed quietly, put on jeans, a T-shirt, and cloth shoes, stuffed the Macy's sprayer into her back pocket, and picked up the telescoping baton.

She passed silently through the door to Erica's bedroom, found it still closed, and locked it, too. She stood at the stairs upstairs and listened attentively. She heard the faint clink of cups and plates and the sound of movement on the first floor.So she went downstairs slowly, and stopped in the foyer to listen again. There was the sound of chairs being pulled in the kitchen.Holding on to her baton, she sneaked over to the kitchen door, where she saw an unshaven, bald man sitting at a dining table, drinking orange juice and reading the Swedish Morgan Post.Sensing someone, he looked up.

"who are you?" Susan sighed in relief and leaned against the doorpost. "Greg Beckman, I guess. Hi, I'm Susan Lind." "Really? Are you going to hit me on the head or do you want to drink juice?" "Okay," said Susan, putting down her baton. "I mean juice." Beckman took a glass from the kitchen counter and poured some for her. "I'm an employee of Milton Security," Susan said. "I think it's best for your Madam to explain why I'm here." Beckman stood up. "Is something wrong with Erica?" "Your Madam is fine, but there is a little trouble. We have been trying to contact you in Paris."

"Paris? Why Paris? I'm in Helsinki." "Really? I'm sorry, but your wife thought you were in Paris." "That's next month." After finishing speaking, Beckman walked towards the kitchen door. "The bedroom door is locked and you need a combination to open it," Susan said. "What did you say... what password?" She told him the three-digit password to open the bedroom door.Then he ran upstairs. At ten o'clock on Sunday morning, Jonathan came to Salander's room. "Hello, Liz." "Hello." "Just wanted to let you know: the police will be here at lunchtime."

"it is good." "You don't seem too worried." "I'm not worried." "I have a present for you." "Gift? Why?" "You're one of the most interesting patients I've had in a long time." "Really?" Salander didn't quite believe it. "I heard that you are very interested in DNA and genes." "Who is talking loudly? It's probably the female psychiatrist." Jonathan nodded. "If you feel bored in the detention center... this is the latest research on DNA." He handed her a book called "The Helix—The Mystery of DNA," by Professor Yoshito Takamura of the University of Tokyo.Salander opened the book and looked at the table of contents. "Pretty," she said. "One day I really want to hear from you how you can understand these textbooks that even I can't understand." As soon as Jonathan left, Salander immediately took out the computer.Last chance.She learned from the personnel department of the "Swedish Morgan Post" that Frederickson had been working at the newspaper for six years.During this period, he took two long sick leave: two months in 2003 and three months in 2004.She also saw from the personnel data that the reason for the two leave of absence was physical exhaustion.Erica's former editor-in-chief, Moreland, questioned at one point whether Fredriesen would really be able to continue as an associate editor. Crap, crap, crap.Nothing specific was found. At eleven forty-five, the plague hit her. Salander logged out of ICQ and looked at the clock only to realize that it was almost noon, so she quickly sent a message to Yahoo's "Stupid Table" community: Michael.important.Call Erica right away and tell her that the poisonous pen is Frederickson. After sending the message, she heard movement in the hallway, so she wiped the screen of the Palm T3 before turning it off and putting it in the alcove behind the bedside table. "Hi, Liz." It was Annika who appeared at the door. "Hi." "The police will be here in a moment. I brought you some clothes, I hope they are the right size." Salander looked suspiciously at the dark, crisp cotton trousers and pink shirt she had chosen. Two uniformed policewomen from Gothenburg came to take her, and Annika also went to the detention center together. As she walked along the corridor from the ward, Salander noticed several medical staff staring at her curiously.She gave them a friendly nod, and several of them waved back.As if by coincidence, Jonathan was standing next to the service desk, and they looked at each other and nodded.Before they had even turned the corner, Salander noticed that he was heading for her room. During the entire process of being transferred to the detention center, Salander never said a word to the police. Blomkvist turned off his computer at seven o'clock on Sunday morning and sat uneasily at Salander's desk for a while, staring blankly ahead. Then I went into her bedroom, looked at the huge double bed, and then went back to her studio later, turned on the phone and called Figuelaura. "Hi, it's Michael." "Hello, are you up already?" "I just got done and was about to go to bed. Just wanted to say hello." "Men who just want to call and say hello usually have ulterior motives." He laughed. "Blomkvist...you can come and sleep here if you want." "I'd be a terrible partner." "I'll get used to it." So he took a taxi and went to the Rue Pontonnie. On Sunday, Erica and her husband lay in bed, chatting and napping, before changing in the afternoon and going for a walk at the steamboat pier. "The Swedish Morgan Post was a mistake," Erica said when she got home. "Don't say that. It's tough right now, but it's what you expect. After a while, things will work out." "I'm not talking about the work, which I can handle, but the vibe." "I know." "I didn't like it there, but then again, it's been a few weeks and you can't just walk away." She sat at the kitchen table, staring darkly ahead.Beckman had never seen his wife so helpless. At 11:30 on Sunday morning, a policewoman brought Salander into the office of Officer Erlander of the Gothenburg Police Station. This was the first time Inspector Fast met her. "You're really hard to catch," Fast said. Salander watched him for a long time, secretly pleased that he was a fool, and decided not to waste too much time caring about his existence. "Inspector Glenella Waring will go to Stockholm with you," Erland said. "Okay." Fast said, "Then let's go right away. There are many people who want to have a serious talk with you, Salander." Erlander bid her farewell, but she paid no heed. For the sake of convenience, they decided to drive her to Stockholm, driven by Hua Lin.When they first set off, Fast sat in the front seat and turned his head back whenever he wanted to talk to Salander.Arrived in Alynthos and had to stop because of a sore neck. Salander looked out the window at the scenery.In her heart Fast does not exist. Tyler Pollyan was right, she was an idiot.Fast thought.When you arrive in Stockholm, you have to find a way to change your attitude. He sneaked glances at Salander from time to time, trying to make some assessment of the woman he had been chasing so hard for so long.Seeing her skinny at the first sight, even Fast couldn't help wondering, how much does she weigh?But he reminded himself that she wasn't really a woman because she was gay. Though claims about Satanism may be exaggerated, she doesn't look like it. The irony is that he was tempted to arrest her for the three murders she was originally involved in, but the fact saved him from investigating.Even skinny girls can handle weapons.It turned out that she was arrested for hurting the boss of the Sulfur Lake Motorcycle Club, and she was beyond doubt guilty.She's sure to try to refute that, but they have the relevant forensic evidence. Figolaura wakes Blomkvist at one o'clock in the afternoon.She had been sitting on the balcony, finally finishing the book on the ancient gods, while listening to Blomkvist's snoring from the bedroom.so peaceful.When she walked in to see him, she suddenly realized that there had never been a man who attracted her so much in all these years. This feeling is both pleasant and unsettling.He was there, but he was not a stable element in her life. They went out to Melastran North Road for coffee together, and she took him home afterward, where he stayed in bed all afternoon.He left at seven o'clock.After he kissed her cheek and left, she felt lost for a while. At eight o'clock on Sunday night, Susan knocked on Erica's door.Now that Beckman had gone home, she didn't have to spend the night there, and the visit had nothing to do with work at the moment.During her time at Erica's house, the two had gotten used to long conversations in the kitchen.She discovers that she likes Erica, and that she is a woman who is deeply hopeless but cleverly hides her true nature.When she goes to work, she looks calm on the surface, but she is very nervous inside. Susan suspects her anxiety isn't just about the poisonous pen, but Erica's life and problems have nothing to do with her.This is just a friendly visit.She's only here to check on Erica, to make sure everything's okay.The couple sat in the kitchen with serious faces, as if they had been trying to solve a major problem or two all Sunday. Beckmann made coffee.Within a few minutes of Susan's arrival, Erica's cell phone rang. Erica answered every call that day with a sense of impending doom. "Erica," she said. "Hi, Lily." Blomkvist, damn it, I haven't told him Bosher's data is missing. "Hi, Michael." "Salander was taken to the Gothenburg Detention Center today and is waiting to be transferred to Stockholm tomorrow." "Oh." "She has...a message for you." "yes?" "It's like a code." "what did she say?" "She said: 'Peter Friedrichsen is a poisonous pen.'" Erika sat quietly for ten seconds with a lot of thoughts in her mind.impossible.Frederickson wasn't that kind of guy.Salander must have made a mistake. "that's all?" "That's it. Do you know what she's talking about?" "Know." "Lily... what are you doing with that girl? She called and asked you to tell me about Tyler Pollyan and..." "Thanks, Michel. We'll talk later." She turned off her phone and looked at Susan in disbelief. "Go ahead," said Susan. Susan was a little hesitant.Erica was told that the malicious letters were from her deputy editor, and she couldn't stop talking.Then Susan asked how she knew that Frederick was the stalker, but Erica remained silent.Susan watched her eyes and noticed a change in her attitude.She became helpless in a blink of an eye. "I can't tell you..." "What do you mean you can't tell me?" "Susan, I just know that Frederickson did it, but I can't tell you where the information came from. What should I do?" "If you want me to help you, you have to tell me." "I... can't, you don't understand." Erica got up and stood by the kitchen window, her back turned to Susan.Turn around at last. "I'm going to his house." "You must never do this kind of thing. You can't go anywhere, especially the home of someone who obviously hates you." Erica looked distraught. "Sit down and tell me what happened. Blomkvist called you just now, right?" Erica nodded. "I...I hired a hacker today to filter employees' home computers." "Aha, you're probably committing a major computer crime by doing this. Don't you want to tell me who the hacker is?" "I promised not to tell anyone... There are other people involved. It has to do with Michael's current job." "Does Blomkvist know about the e-mails and the break-in here?" "I don't know, he's just conveying information." Susan tilted her head, and a series of thoughts suddenly appeared in her mind. Erica.Blomkvist. "Millennium".The police broke into Blomkvist's apartment and installed bugs.I watch the watchers.Blomkvist frantically wrote a story about Salander. Salander was a computer geek, which was well known within Milton Security.No one knew where she learned these techniques, and Susan had never heard rumors that Salander might be a hacker.However, Armansky once said that Salander had delivered a very incredible report when conducting private investigations.hacker…… But Salander is under guard in a ward in Gothenburg. It's ridiculous! "Are you talking about Salander now?" Susan asked. Erika's expression was like an electric shock. "I can't discuss where the news came from. Not a word." Susan laughed out loud. Salander was right.Erica's reaction couldn't be more clear.She was completely off balance. But it's impossible! Salander was under guard, but she still found out the identity of the poisonous pen.too crazy! Susan racked her brains to think. She didn't understand the ins and outs of the Salander incident.When she was working in Milton, they met maybe five times, but never spoke to each other.In her eyes, Salander was a sullen, unsociable person, with a protective layer as thick as a rhinoceros.She heard that it was Armansky who hired Salander himself. She respected Armansky very much and believed that there must be his reasons for his extreme patience with this gloomy girl. The poisonous pen is Frederickson. Is what she said true?What proof does she have? Susan then spent a long time asking Erica how much she knew of Frederikssen, what role he played in the Swedish Morgan Post, and what their relationship was like.The answers I got were not helpful. Erika wavered to the point of frustration.She was determined to drive to Fredliesen's place to confront him, and she refused to believe it was true.In the end Susan convinced her that she must not rush to the Fredrickson's house on a whim and accuse him to his face--it would be embarrassing for her if he were innocent. So Susan agreed to investigate for her, but she regretted it as soon as she said it, because she didn't know where to start. She drove to Fiske Cetra, parked her Fiat as close as possible to the building where Fredrikson lived.She locked the car and looked around, not quite sure what to do, but figured she'd have to knock on his door anyway and ask him to answer some questions.She knew very well that this job had already exceeded Milton's limit, and she also knew that Armansky would be furious if he found out. It was a bad plan, but it was aborted before it could be put into action.She had just entered the atrium, and was about to walk towards the building where Fredrickson lived, when the door opened.Susan recognized him immediately, having seen his photo when she was researching personnel data on Erica's computer.She continued to walk, passing him.He walked towards the garage.It was almost eleven o'clock, and Frederickson still planned to go out.Susan turned and ran back to her car. After Erica hung up, Blomkvist stared at the phone for a long time, wondering what was going on.He looked at Salander's computer dejectedly. At this time, she had been sent to the detention center in Gothenburg, and there was no chance to ask her any more questions. He turned on the Ericsson T10 and dialed Anye Rui's Jidi. "Hi, I'm Blomkvist." "Hello." Giddy replied. "I just want to tell you that the work I asked you to do before can stop." Giddy had expected Blomkvist to call, because Salander had already been released from the hospital. "I understand," he said. "You can keep that mobile phone as agreed, and the final payment will be remitted to you this week." "thanks." "I should thank you for your help." Blomkvist fired up his laptop, and the events of the past twenty-four hours meant that a significant portion of the manuscript needed to be revised, possibly even an entirely new chapter added. He sighed and got to work. At 11:15, Frederickson parked the car three blocks from Erica's house.Susan had already guessed his destination, so she stopped staring at him.It took him a full two minutes to park the car before she drove past.There was no one in the car.She drove past Erica's house and drove a short distance, parking the car out of sight.At this point her palms began to sweat. She lifted the lid off the can of Catch Dry smokeless tobacco and stuffed a small pinch inside her upper lip. Then she opened the car door and looked around.When she saw that Frederikssen was going to Saltshobagen, she knew that Salander's information was correct.He obviously didn't come here for fun.Trouble is brewing.But she doesn't care, as long as he can be caught on the spot. She picked up the telescoping baton from the glove bag by the door, weighed it in her hand, and pressed a button on the handlebar, which immediately popped out a thick elastic steel cable.She gritted her teeth. That's why she left the Sodermalm police station. At that time, a woman in Hagerstan called the police three times in three days, screaming that her husband had beaten her and asked for help. The first two times, the situation had been resolved when the police arrived.But by the third time the patrol car drove up to the woman's home, Susan was mad. They detained her husband in the stairwell while another woman was questioned.No, she didn't want to call the police.No, it was all a misunderstanding.No, he's fine... It's all her fault actually.It was she who angered him... And that bastard just stood there grinning grinningly, staring directly at Susan. She couldn't say why she did it.Anyway, something exploded in her heart. She took out her baton and swung it at the man's face.The first blow was not strong enough, and it only made his lips swell and his feet kneel.For the next ten seconds, the baton in her hand rained down on his back, lower back, hips and shoulders before colleagues grabbed her and half-hugged her outside. She was never charged, but that very night she handed in her resignation and went home crying for a week.When she regained her composure, she went to see Armansky and explained her behavior and why she had left the police force, saying she was looking for a job.Armansky was skeptical and said only that it would take a while to think about it.After waiting for six weeks, she was already desperate, before he received a call from him offering to try her out. Susan frowned, slipping the baton into the belt at the back of her waist.She checked that the Macy's spray was in her right pocket, and the laces of her cloth shoes were tied tight, and then she walked back to Erica's house and slipped into the courtyard. She knew there were no motion detectors outside the house, so she walked silently across the lawn along the hedge at the edge of the house.She can't see him.After walking around the house and standing still, he was spotted in the dark near Beckman's studio. It never occurred to him how foolish he was to come back here. He half crouched down, trying to peek through the curtains in the room next to the living room.Then he moved to the porch and peered through the slit in the drawn curtains of the large picture window. Susan suddenly smiled. She crossed the lawn to the corner of the house while his back was still turned to her.She crouched behind the gooseberry bushes at the end of the gable and waited.She could see him through the leaves.From Fredrisen's position, he looked down into the foyer and part of the kitchen.He seemed to find something interesting and watched for ten minutes before starting to move again.This time he moved closer to Susan. As he passed her round the corner, she rose to her feet and said in a low voice: "Hello, Frederickson." He stopped abruptly and turned around. She saw his eyes gleaming in the dark.Although he couldn't see his expression, he could hear him holding his breath and feel his panic. "The solution can be simple or complex," she said. "We're going to your car now..." He turned suddenly and wanted to run away. Susan raised her baton and struck him hard, mercilessly, on his left knee. He fell to the ground with a howl. She raised her baton again, but stopped herself just in time.She seemed to feel Armansky's eyes staring back at her. She bent down, turned him over and pressed him to the ground, knelt on his lower back with one knee, grabbed his right hand and twisted it behind his back, and handcuffed him.He was weak and did not resist. Erica turned off the living room light and limped upstairs.Now there is no need for crutches, but the soles of the feet still hurt when I exert a little force.Beckman turned off the lights in the kitchen and followed his wife upstairs.He had never seen her so unhappy.No matter what he said, it could not soothe her, nor relieve her inner anxiety. After she undressed and went to bed, she turned her back to her husband. "It's not your fault, Beckman," she said as she heard her husband move closer to her. "You are not well," he said. "I want you to stay home and rest for a few days." He put his arms around her shoulders, and although she didn't push away, she didn't respond.He lowered his head and carefully kissed her neck, hugging her. "No matter what you say or do it won't make it better. I know I need a break. I feel like I got on an express train only to find out I got on the wrong one." "We could go out to sea for a few days and get away from it all." "No, I can't stay away from all this." She turned to look at him and said, "The last thing I can do now is to escape. I have to settle things first before I can leave." "Okay," Beckman said, "I can't seem to be of much help." She smiled feebly. "Yeah, you didn't. But thanks for being by my side, I love you like crazy, you know that." He mumbled something. "I just can't believe it's Frederiksson," Erica said. "He never made me feel an iota of hostility." When Susan was thinking about whether to ring the doorbell of Erica's house, she saw that the lights on the first floor were turned off.She looked down at Frederickson, who said nothing and did not move.She thought for a long time before making up her mind. She reached down and grabbed the handcuffs, pulled him to his feet, and pushed him against a wall. "Can you stand by yourself?" she asked. He made no reply. "Okay, let's take the easy way. If you struggle a little, your right foot will get the same treatment. If you struggle again, I'll break your arm. Understand?" She heard his heavy breathing.Out of fear? She pushed him all the way to the parking lot on the street and had to help him because he was limping so badly.As soon as I got to the car, I met a man who was out walking his dog.The man paused to look at the handcuffed Frederikssen. "The police are handling the case." Susan said firmly, "Go home." The man turned around and walked back. She put Fredrisen in the back seat and she drove back to his house in Fisksetra.It was half past twelve and no one was seen when I entered the building.Susan found his key and followed him up to the fifth floor. "You can't come into my house," said Fredrisen. These were the first words he said after being handcuffed.She opened the door of the apartment and pushed him inside. "You have no right to do this, you have to apply for a search warrant..." "I'm not a policeman," she said in a low voice. He couldn't help but stare at her suspiciously. She grabbed his shirt, dragged him into the living room, and pushed him onto the couch.The two bedroom apartment is very neatly maintained with the bedrooms to the left of the living room, the kitchen across the hall and a small studio off the living room. She poked her head into the studio and breathed a sigh of relief.unambiguous evidence.At first glance, she saw the photos in Erica's photo album scattered on the table next to the computer, and he also pinned more than thirty photos to the wall behind the computer. She was surprised to see the results of this display.Erica was a beautiful woman, and her sex life was even more active than Susan's. She heard Frederick move, went back to the living room, gave him another blow on the lower back, and dragged him into the studio where he sat on the floor. "You stay here obediently," she said. She went into the kitchen and found paper bags from Quinsum.Then the photos were removed one by one, and the emptied photo album and Erica's diary were found. "Where's the tape?" she asked. Frederick didn't answer.Susan went to the living room and turned on the TV. There was a tape in the VCR, but it took her a while to find the channel to watch the tape and check it.After she took out the video tape, she rummaged around to confirm that there was no copy tape. After she found Erica's teenage love letters and Bosher's folder, she turned her attention to Frederickson's computer.His personal computer was connected to an all-friend scanner, and as soon as he lifted the lid, he saw a photo of Erica at some extreme nightclub party, which was New Year's Eve 1986, according to the banner on the wall. She started the computer and found that she needed to enter a password. "What's the password?" she asked. Frederick refused to answer. Susan suddenly felt extremely calm.She knew that strictly speaking, she had committed one crime after another tonight, including illegal detention and even kidnapping.But she didn't care, and felt almost ecstatic. After a moment she shrugged, pulled a Swiss Army knife from her pocket, unplugged all the computer cables, turned the computer around, and opened the back with a screwdriver.It took her fifteen minutes to disassemble the computer and remove the hard drive. She took everything, but just to be on the safe side, she rummaged through desk drawers, piles of papers, and bookshelves.She inadvertently caught a glimpse of an old graduation album on the window sill, which was the 1978 yearbook of Jurholm High School.Isn't Erika born in the upper class of Jurholm?She opened the yearbook and began to browse through the graduates of that year. She found Erica, eighteen, wearing a school cap and a dimpled smile.She was wearing a thin white cotton dress and was holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand.Looks like a typical innocent, high-achieving high school student. Susan almost ignored the connection between the two, but on the next page, if there was no text, she would not have recognized him anyway.Peter Friedrichsen.He's in the same class as Erica.Susan studied the photo of a thin boy in a school cap looking serious at the camera. Her eyes happened to meet Frederickson. "She was already a bitch by then." "That's interesting," said Susan. "She slept with every boy in school." "I doubt it." "She's a scum..." "Don't say it. What happened? She won't let you take off her pants?" "She treated me like air and laughed at me. When she first entered the "Swedish Morgan Post", she didn't even recognize me." "Well," said Susan wearily, "I dare say you had a miserable childhood. How about we have a nice talk?" "What do you want?" "I'm not a policeman," Susan said, "but someone who specializes in dealing with people like you." She stopped for a while and let him think about it by himself. "I want to know if you put her picture on the Internet." He shook his head. "is that true?" He nodded. "Erica will decide for herself whether to file a complaint against you for harassment, intimidation, vandalism and intrusion, or to settle privately." He didn't speak. "If she decides to ignore you—and I don't think you're worth it—then I'll keep an eye on you." She said and held up her baton. "If you go near her house one more time, or email her, or harass her, I'll come back and beat you so badly that your mother wouldn't even recognize you. Did I make it clear?" He remained silent. "So you have a chance to influence the outcome of this matter. Interested in hearing?" He nodded slowly. "Then I will suggest that Miss Erica let you go, but you don't even think about coming back to work. That is to say, from now on, you are fired." He nodded. "You're going to disappear from her life and move out of Stockholm. I don't care how you live or where you're going, you can go to Gothenburg or Malmö to get a job, you can take more sick leave, whatever. Stop harassing Erica. Is it a deal?" Frederick began to sob. "I didn't mean to hurt her," he said, "I just..." "You just wanted her to live in dire straits, and you did succeed. Do you agree or not?" He nodded. She leaned over and turned him on his face, then uncuffed him.She picks up the paper bag from Quinsum Supermarket, which contains Erica's life, and leaves him sprawled on the floor. It was two-thirty in the morning on Monday when Susan left Fredrisen's apartment.She considered putting the matter off until the next day, then realized that if it happened to her, she would want to know right away.What's more, her car is still parked at the beach of Salt Lake.So she called a taxi. Before she could ring the doorbell, Beckman opened the door.He was wearing jeans and didn't look like he just got out of bed. "Is Erica still awake?" Susan asked. He nodded. "What happened again?" he asked. She just smiled. "Come in, we're still chatting in the kitchen." They enter the house together. "Hi, Erica," Susan greeted. "You have to learn to sleep once in a while." "What's wrong?" Susan handed out the Quinsum paper bag. "Frederessen promised not to bother you from now on. God knows if he can be trusted, but if he keeps his promise, he won't have to go to the police station to make notes and go to court. It's up to you." "So it's really him?" Susan nodded in response.贝克曼倒了咖啡，但她不想喝，过去几天她实在喝了太多咖啡。她坐下来告诉他们这天晚上屋外发生了什么事。 爱莉卡沉默了一会儿，然后上楼去，回来的时候拿着她的毕业纪念册。她盯着弗德列森的脸看了许久。 “我记得他。”她终于说道：“可是我不知道他们是同一人。如果不是这里写了，我根本不记得他的名字。” “发生了什么事？”苏珊问道。 “没有，什么事也没发生。他是一个安静又无趣到极点的别班男生，我想我们应该修过同一堂课。没记错的话，是法文课。” “他说你好像把他当空气。” “也许吧，我并不认识他，他不是我们圈子的人。” “我知道小圈圈是怎么回事。你有没有欺凌他之类的？” “没有……当然没有。我最恨欺凌了。我们在校园发起拒绝欺凌运动，我还是学生会会长。我记得他从来没跟我说过话。” “好。”苏珊说：“不过他显然记恨于你。他曾经因为压力和过度劳累，请过两次很长的病假，或许也有其他我们不知道的原因。” 她起身套上皮夹克。 “我扒了他的硬盘。严格说来这是赃物，所以不应该留给你们。你不必担心，我一回家就会把它销毁。” “等等，苏珊。我该怎么谢你？” “嗯，阿曼斯基的雷霆往我头上劈的时候，替我说说话就行了。” 爱莉卡担忧地望着她。 “你会因此惹上麻烦吗？” “不知道，真的不知道。” “我们能不能付钱给你……” “不用。不过阿曼斯基会把今晚记到账上。但愿他会，这样就表示他认同我的作为，也比较可能不会炒我鱿鱼。” “我一定会让他寄账单来。” 爱莉卡站起来给了苏珊一个长长的拥抱。 “谢谢，苏珊。只要你需要朋友，我都会在。如果有什么我能帮得上忙的……” “谢啦。那些照片别乱放。说到这个，米尔顿可以帮你安装一个质量好得多的保险箱。” 爱莉卡微笑着目送贝克曼陪苏珊走回她的停车处。