The Girl Who Played With Fire Chapter 30 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Thursday, April

  • Blomkvist is at Salander's apartment. No one answers, so he turns her key, and the alarm sounds.
  • Salander's Palm PDA alerts her to the break-in. In a few moments, the intruder will experience a paint bomb. Blomkvist thinks fast about what her password might be.
  • He quickly punches in 9277, the numbers that match the letters in "wasp," her hacker name.
  • Salander is amazed when her PDA stops beeping. Somebody knows her code. She pulls up the surveillance cameras and sees Blomkvist in her apartment.
  • Now he will know all her secrets. She thinks she trusts him with them.
  • Paolo Roberto has done some detective work too. Since the blond giant is a boxer, Paolo found record of him through his boxing contacts.
  • He too learns that the giant is Ronald Niedermann, who has a bizarre medical condition called "congenital analgesia" (30.55). The condition leaves him unable to feel pain.
  • Eriksson calls Blomkvist and tells him what Paolo has learned.
  • Blomkvist is still inside Salander's apartment. He feels a sense of terrible loneliness and wants to hug Salander. He knows she's "on the hunt" (30.105) for her horrible father.
  • He finds the DVD of Bjurman raping Salander and watches it in horror.
  • Eriksson calls Blomkvist. She's found a connection between a man named Karl Axel Bodin and Niedermann. She finds the address associated with Bodin's post office box.
  • Blomkvist thinks Salander has this information, too, and is headed for Bodin's place.
  • Salander, dresses as Irene Nesser, is staking out the post office where Niedermann has a box.
  • Soon, a young man comes and checks the box. She follows him to a farmhouse with the name K.A. Bodin on the mailbox.
  • Blomkvist is on the train. He wishes he'd rented a car instead. He's afraid he's too late.
  • Salander watches the farm house. She sees Niedermann come out. Then she sees Zala come out of the house, limping on a crutch. She moves through the woods toward the house.