He soon changed his mind. The strange young woman talked with him impersonally, without ever smiling or showing any warmth. Or coolness, for that matter. He had sat paralysed as, over the course of a few minutes, she obliterated the professional façade of sophisticated respectability that he was always so careful to maintain.
“What is it that you want?” he had asked.
“I’ve stolen a sum of money,” she replied with great seriousness. “I need a crook who can administer it.”
He had stared at her, wondering whether she was deranged, but politely he played along. She might be a possible mark for a con game that could bring in a small income. Then he had sat as if struck by lightning when she explained whom she had stolen the money from, how she’d done it, and what the amount was. The Wennerström affair was the hottest topic of conversation in the world of international finance.
“I see.”
The possibilities flew through his head.
“You’re a skilled business lawyer and stockbroker. If you were an idiot you would never have gotten the jobs you did in the eighties. However, you behaved like an idiot and managed to get yourself fired.”
He winced.
“In the future I will be your only client.”
She had looked at him with the most ingenuous expression he had ever seen.
“I have two conditions. The first is that you never ever commit a crime or get mixed up in anything that could create problems for us and focus the authorities’ attention on my companies and accounts. The second is that you never lie to me. Never ever. Not a single time. And not for any reason. If you lie to me, our business relationship will terminate instantly, and if you make me angry enough I will ruin you.”
She poured him a glass of wine.
“There’s no reason to lie to me. I already know everything worth knowing about your life. I know how much you make in a good month and how much in a bad month. I know how much you spend. I know that you never really have enough money. I know that you owe £120,000 in both long-term and short-term debts, and that you always have to take risks and skim some money to make the loan payments. You wear expensive clothes and try to keep up appearances, but in reality you’ve gone to the dogs and haven’t bought a new sports jacket in several months. But you did take an old jacket in to have the lining mended two weeks ago. You used to collect rare books but have been gradually selling them off. Last month you sold an early edition of Oliver Twist for £760.”
She stopped talking and fixed him with her gaze. He swallowed hard.
“Last week you actually made a killing. A quite clever fraud perpetrated against that widow you represent. You robbed her of £6,000, which she’ll probably never miss.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“I know that you were married, that you have two children in England who don’t want to see you, and that you’ve taken the big leap since your divorce and now have primarily homosexual relationships. You’re probably ashamed of that and avoid the gay clubs, and you avoid being seen in town with any of your male friends. You regularly cross the border into Spain to meet men.”
MacMillan was shaken to the core. And he was suddenly terrified. He had no idea how she had come by all this information, but she knew enough to destroy him.
“And I’m only going to say this one time. I don’t give a shit who you have sex with. It’s none of my business. I want to know who you are, but I will never use what I know. I won’t threaten you or blackmail you.”
MacMillan was no fool. He was perfectly aware, of course, that her knowledge of all that information about him constituted a threat. She was in control. For a moment he considered picking her up and throwing her over the edge of the terrace, but he restrained himself. He had never in his life been so scared.
“What do you want?” he managed to say.
“I want to have a partnership with you. You will bring to a close all the other business you’re handling and will work exclusively for me. You will make more money from my company than you could ever dream of making any other way.”
She explained what she required him to do, and how she wanted the arrangements to be made.
“I want to be invisible,” she said. “And I want you to take care of my affairs. Everything has to be legitimate. Whatever money I make on my own will not have any connection to our business together.”
“I understand.”
“You have one week to phase out your other clients and put a stop to all your little schemes.”
He also realized that he had been given an offer that would never come around again. He thought about it for sixty seconds and then accepted. He had only one question.
“How do you know that I won’t swindle you?”
“Don’t even think about it. You’d regret it for the rest of your miserable life.”
He had no reason to cook the books. Salander had made him an offer that had the potential of such a silver lining that it would have been idiotic to risk it for bits of change on the side. As long as he was relatively discreet and did not get involved in any financial chicanery, his future would be assured.
Accordingly, he had no thought of swindling Ms. Salander.
So he went straight, or as straight as a burned-out lawyer who was administering an astronomical sum of stolen money could go.
Salander was simply not interested in the management of her finances. MacMillan’s job was to invest her money and see to it that there were funds to cover the credit cards she used. She told him how she wanted her finances to be handled. His job was to make sure it was done.
A large part of the money had been invested in gilt-edged funds that would provide her with economic independence for the rest of her life, even if she chose to live it recklessly and dissolutely. It was from these funds that her credit card bills were paid.
The rest of the money he could play with and invest as he saw fit, provided that he did not invest in anything that might cause problems with the police in any way. She forbade him to engage in stupid petty crimes and cheap con games which—if he was unlucky—might prompt investigations which in turn could put her under scrutiny.
All that remained was to agree on how much he would make on the transactions.
“I’ll pay you £500,000 as a retainer. With that you can pay off all your debts and have a good deal left over. After that you’ll earn money for yourself. You will start a company with the two of us as partners. You get 20 percent of all the profits generated. I want you to be rich enough that you won’t be tempted to cheat, but not so rich that you won’t make an effort.”
He had started his new job on February 1 the year before. By the end of March he had paid off all his debts and stabilized his personal finances. Salander had insisted that he make cleaning up his own affairs a priority so that he would be solvent. In May he dissolved the partnership with his alcoholic colleague George Marks. He felt a twinge of conscience towards his former partner, but getting Marks mixed up in Salander’s business was out of the question.
He discussed the matter with Salander when she returned to Gibraltar on another unheralded visit in early July and discovered that MacMillan was working out of his apartment instead of from the office he had previously occupied.
“My partner’s an alcoholic and wouldn’t be able to handle this. And he would be an enormous risk factor. At the same time, fifteen years ago he saved my life when he took me into his business.”
She pondered this for a while as she studied MacMillan’s face.
“I see. You’re a crook who’s loyal. That could be a commendable quality. I suggest you set up a small account that he can play around with. See to it that he makes a couple of thousand a month so he gets by.”
“Is that OK with you?”
She nodded and looked around his bachelor pad. He lived in a studio apartment with a kitchen nook on one of the alleys near the hospital. The only pleasant thing about the place was the view. On the other hand, it was a view that was har
d to avoid in Gibraltar.
“You need an office and a nicer place to live,” she said.
“I haven’t had time,” he said.
Then she went out and found an office for him, choosing a 1,400-square-foot place with a little balcony facing the sea in Buchanan House on Queensway Quay, which was definitely upmarket in Gibraltar. She hired an interior decorator to renovate and furnish it.
MacMillan recalled that while he had been busy shuffling papers, Salander had personally supervised the installation of an alarm system, computer equipment, and the safe that she had already rummaged through by the time he entered the office that morning.
“Am I in trouble?” he said.
She put down the folder with the correspondence she had been perusing. “No, Jeremy. You’re not in trouble.”
“That’s good,” he said as he poured himself some coffee. “You have a way of popping up when I least expect it.”
“I’ve been busy lately. I just wanted to get an update on what’s been happening.”
“I believe you were suspected of killing three people, you got shot in the head, and you were charged with a whole assortment of crimes. I was pretty worried for a while. I thought you were still in prison. Did you break out?”
“No. I was acquitted of all the charges and released. How much have you heard?”
He hesitated a moment. “Well, when I heard that you were in trouble, I hired a translation agency to comb the Swedish press and give me regular updates. I’m familiar with the details.”
“If you’re basing your knowledge on what you read in the papers, then you’re not familiar at all. But I dare say you discovered a number of secrets about me.”
He nodded.
“What’s going to happen now?” he said.
She gave him a surprised look. “Nothing. We keep on exactly as before. Our relationship has nothing to do with my problems in Sweden. Tell me what’s been happening since I’ve been away. Have you been doing all right?”
“I’m not drinking, if that’s what you mean.”
“No. Your private life doesn’t concern me so long as it doesn’t encroach on our business. I mean, am I richer or poorer than I was a year ago?”
He pulled out the guest chair and sat down. Somehow it did not matter to him that she was sitting in his chair.
“You turned over 2.5 billion Swedish kronor to me. We put 200 million into personal funds for you. You gave me the rest to play with.”
“And?”
“Your personal funds haven’t grown by much more than the amount of interest. I could increase the profit if—”
“I’m not interested in increasing the profit.”
“OK. You’ve spent a negligible amount. The principal expenses have been the apartment I bought for you and the fund you started for that lawyer Palmgren. Otherwise you’ve just had normal expenses. The interest rate has been favourable. You’re running about even.”
“Good.”
“The rest I invested. Last year we didn’t make very much. I was a little rusty and spent the time learning the market again. We’ve had expenses. We didn’t really start generating income until this year. Since the start of the year we’ve taken about seven million. Dollars, that is.”
“Of which 20 percent goes to you.”
“Of which 20 percent goes to me.”
“Are you satisfied with that?”
“I’ve made more than a million dollars in six months. Yes, I’m satisfied.”
“You know … you shouldn’t get too greedy. You can cut back on your hours when you’re satisfied. Just make sure you spend a few hours on my affairs every so often.”
“Ten million dollars,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“When I get ten million together I’ll pack it in. It was good that you turned up in my life. We have a lot to discuss.”
“Fire away.”
He threw up his hands.
“This is so much money that it scares the shit out of me. I don’t know how to handle it. I don’t know the purpose of the company besides making more money. What’s all the money going to be used for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Me neither. But money can become an end in itself. It’s crazy. That’s why I’ve decided to call it quits when I’ve earned ten million for myself. I don’t want the responsibility any longer.”
“Fair enough.”
“But before I call it a day I want you to decide how this fortune is to be administered in the future. There has to be a purpose and guidelines and some kind of organization that can take over.”
“Mmm.”
“It’s impossible to conduct business this way. I’ve divided up the sum into long-term fixed investments—real estate, securities, and so forth. There’s a complete list on the computer.”
“I’ve read it.”
“The other half I’ve put into speculation, but it’s so much money to keep track of that I can’t keep up. So I set up an investment company on Jersey. At present you have six employees in London. Two talented young brokers and some clerical staff.”
“Yellow Ballroom Ltd.? I was wondering what that could be.”
“Our company. Here in Gibraltar I’ve hired a secretary and a promising young lawyer. They’ll be here in half an hour, by the way.”
“I know. Molly Flint, forty-one, and Brian Delaney, twenty-six.”
“Do you want to meet them?”
“No. Is Brian your lover?”
“What? No.” He looked shocked. “I don’t mix—”
“Good.”
“By the way, I’m not interested in young guys … inexperienced ones, I mean.”
“No, you’re more attracted to men with a tough attitude than to some snot-nosed kid. It’s none of my business. But, Jeremy …”
“Yes?”
“Be careful.”
Salander had not planned to stay in Gibraltar for more than two weeks; just long enough, she thought, to get her bearings. But she suddenly discovered that she had no idea what she was going to do or where she should go. She stayed for three months. She checked her email once a day and replied promptly to messages from Giannini on the few occasions her lawyer got in touch. She did not tell her where she was. She did not answer any other email.
She still went to Harry’s Bar, but now she came in only for a beer or two in the evenings. She spent large parts of her days at the Rock Hotel, either on her balcony or in bed. She got together with a thirty-year-old Royal Navy officer, but it was a one-night stand and all in all an uninteresting experience.
She was bored.
Early in October she had dinner with MacMillan. They had met up only a few times during her stay. It was dark and they drank a fruity white wine and discussed what they should use her billions for. And then he surprised her by asking what was upsetting her.
She studied his face for a long time and pondered the matter. Then she, just as surprisingly, told him about her relationship with Miriam Wu, and how Mimmi had been beaten and almost killed. And she, Lisbeth, was to blame. Apart from one greeting sent by way of Giannini, Salander had not heard a word from Mimmi. And now she was in France.
MacMillan listened in silence.
“Are you in love with her?” he said at last.
Salander shook her head.
“No. I don’t think I’m the type who falls in love. She was a friend. And we had good sex.”
“Nobody can avoid falling in love,” he said. “They might want to deny it, but friendship is probably the most common form of love.”
She looked at him in astonishment.
“Will you get angry if I say something personal?”
“No.”
“Go to Paris, for God’s sake,” he said.
She landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport at 2:30 in the afternoon, took the airport bus to the Arc de Triomphe, and spent two hours wandering around the nearby neighbourhoods trying to find a hotel room. She walked south towards the Seine and finally
found a room at a small hotel, the Victor Hugo on rue Copernic.
She took a shower and called Miriam Wu. They met that evening at a bar near Notre-Dame. Mimmi was dressed in a white shirt and jacket. She looked fabulous. Salander instantly felt shy. They kissed each other on the cheek.
“I’m sorry I haven’t called, and that I didn’t come to the trial,” Mimmi said.
“That’s OK. The trial was behind closed doors anyway.”
“I was in the hospital for three weeks, and then it was chaos when I got home to Lundagatan. I couldn’t sleep. I had nightmares about that bastard Niedermann. I called my mother and told her I wanted to come here, to Paris.”
Salander said she understood.
“Forgive me,” Mimmi said.
“Don’t be such an idiot. I’m the one who’s come here to ask you to forgive me.”
“For what?”
“I wasn’t thinking. It never occurred to me that I was putting you in such danger by turning over my old apartment to you. It was my fault that you were almost murdered. You’d have every right to hate me.”
Mimmi looked shocked. “Lisbeth, I never even gave it a thought. It was Ronald Niedermann who tried to murder me, not you.”
They sat in silence for a while.
“All right,” Salander said finally.
“Right,” Mimmi said.
“I didn’t follow you here because I’m in love with you,” Salander said.
Mimmi nodded.
“We had great sex, but I’m not in love with you.”
“Lisbeth, I think—”
“What I wanted to say was that I hope you … damn.”
“What?”
“I don’t have many friends. …”
Mimmi nodded. “I’m going to be in Paris for a while. My studies at home were a mess so I signed up at the university here instead. I’ll probably stay at least one academic year. After that I don’t know. But I’m going to go back to Stockholm. I’m still paying the service charges on Lundagatan and I mean to keep the apartment. If that’s OK with you.”
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy Bundle Page 174
