The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Blomkvist learns that Martin has called Berger to insist that Blomkvist return to Stockholm and resume his position at the magazine. When Blomkvist confronts him, Martin assures him that he is merely thinking of the magazine’s best interest. Frode defends Martin’s behavior by describing how Martin has been stressed about saving Vanger Corporation. Additionally, Isabella has been organizing a campaign with other family members to get Blomkvist to leave.

Salander arrives at Blomkvist’s guest house on a motorbike. She details her findings and gives him the identities of the four names, plus three additional names of women who were raped and murdered in a manner associated with a biblical passage. The dates of their deaths range from 1949 to 1966. Blomkvist notices that all the women share traditionally Jewish names and his suspicions immediately land on Vanger’s brothers. Blomkvist is in disbelief that a deranged serial killer could have murdered so many women without being detected. Salander corrects him and states that the murderer is a garden variety misogynist, and the killings are all too believable.

Martin visits Blomkvist with the upsetting news that the Hedestad Courier has run an unflattering story on Blomkvist. Martin assures him he had nothing to do with the story and wants to retaliate. Blomkvist, however, believes more attention to the article will draw out the drama. Martin at first encourages Blomkvist to return to Millennium to defend himself but agrees that the best course is to help him solve the mystery of Harriet’s disappearance.

Blomkvist asks Salander to read the police report and look for clues regarding a possible serial killer. He notices that she scans the pages casually and wonders how she could have written such a detailed report on him. They look at Mildred’s photo of the parade and can only make out a male figure with a red patch on his jacket. When Salander finishes reading, she tells Blomkvist to investigate Pastor Falk due to the religious overtones of the murders. Falk was also the last one to speak with Harriet, and his parsonage was later destroyed in a fire. Salander adds that her prior research on sadism suggests that serial killers have a history of torturing animals and arson. Many of the murders on Harriet’s list include these two elements.

After a week of living in the cabin together in separate bedrooms, Salander and Blomkvist develop a mutual interest in each other. Blomkvist finds her brilliant, yet socially awkward. Salander is surprised by Blomkvist’s respect for her and feels that she may not need to keep her guard up around him. One evening, Salander climbs into his bed and tells him she wants to have sex. She states that sleeping together will not interfere with their ability to work, and they spend the night together. The next morning, Salander makes a gruesome discovery and finds the cat, Tjorven, dismembered on the porch. The animal’s body is torched and its head is propped on the seat of Salander’s motorbike.

Blomkvist and Salander are convinced that the mutilated cat is a warning that confirms they are closer to solving the mystery. Given the span of the murders from 1949 to 1966 and their recent threat, they hypothesize that the killers are possibly two people, one older and one younger. When Frode hears about the cat incident, he offers to cancel the contract, but Blomkvist insists on continuing.

Salander heads to Stockholm to acquire security monitoring equipment. She checks in with Armansky about continuing her research under an independent contract and he warmly supports her. She visits her mother on the way home and she installs motion detectors and hidden cameras around the cabin in Hedeby.

Blomkvist visits Pastor Falk, who is now 72 years old and living in a nursing home. Falk has Alzheimer’s but remembers Harriet fondly and fears she is straying from her faith by reading texts excluded from the protestant Bible. Unclear of Falk’s reference, Blomkvist visits Pastor Margareta Strandh who explains that the books are the Apocrypha, a common text for Bible scholars. Blomkvist realizes that Harriet’s interest in religion may have been because she was conducting her own investigation.

While out on a jog in the woods, Blomkvist narrowly escapes gunshots. One bullet grazes his temple and he stealthily makes his way home to dress his wound. Infuriated, he rushes over to Cecilia’s house and demands that she account for her recent whereabouts and the photo of herself in Harriet’s bedroom. Cecilia denies being his attacker and asserts that the blurry figure is not her.

Blomkvist and Salander revisit their two-person theory of the serial killings and look over the photographs again. Blomkvist believes that Cecilia is telling the truth and notices that she appears in many of the photos with her distinct blonde hair and light-colored dress. When Salander thinks aloud and recites Bible verses word for word, Blomkvist realizes that she has a photographic memory. Salander is at first disturbed that he knows her secret and runs out of the cabin, but he finds her by the harbor and compliments her on her gift. He offers his friendship but does not pressure her to talk to him. The two walk back to the cabin together without exchanging words.

On their route home, they discover the Vanger family crypt and inside they find evidence of the cat’s torture. The two quickly head to Frode’s home where Blomkvist requests that Salander gain access to the Vanger corporate archives. He tells Salander to comb through the records to see if anything suspicious occurred around the dates of the murders. She discovers that Gottfried Vanger was present during the time and location of several of the killings. The only flaw to her theory is Gottfried’s death in 1965, leaving the 1966 murder of Lena Andersson unsolved.

Blomkvist goes to Vanger’s home and searches through numerous family photo albums that Vanger did not include in Harriet’s file. He finally makes two breakthroughs: In one photo, Cecilia and Anita wear identical dresses, and in another, Martin wears a jacket with a red patch. He concludes that Anita had been the one to open Harriet’s window, and Martin’s presence had caused Harriet to appear distraught and leave the parade.

Despite solving these two identities, Blomkvist is still puzzled by the actual nature of Harriet’s disappearance. On that day, Martin was unable to reach the island before the bridge accident and was therefore stranded in Hedestad. However, Blomkvist connects the 1966 murder of Andersson to Martin’s time in prep school in Uppsala. Against his better judgment, Blomkvist decides to visit Martin under the guise of returning the keys to Gottfried’s cabin. Anticipating Blomkvist’s visit, Martin greets him with a gun and forces him down his basement torture chamber. He handcuffs and beats Blomkvist and plans to burn down the cabin along with all the evidence. Martin then lies in wait for Salander to return.