The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Chapter 16 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Sunday, June 1 – Tuesday, June 10

  • Six months into Blomkvist's investigation, he gets three new leads. Here are the first two.
  • First, Blomkvist notices something new about a photo of Harriet at the Children's Day parade. She seems to be looking at something beyond the camera, in horror.
  • He goes into Hedestad and finds the spot the shot was taken from.
  • The next day he has Henrik get him access to the photo archives of The Hedestad Courier.
  • Their photographers took the pictures of the Children's Day parade, Hedeby, and the tanker accident. He wants to see if there are photos Henrik doesn't have in the albums.
  • Sunday morning, he scans all the photos he doesn't presently have.
  • He goes back to Hedeby to examine them. He finds a new picture showing Harriet's bedroom, right around the time of her disappearance.
  • There's a face in the window, a face that looks like Cecilia's. He can even make out her clothes. He's worried and wonders what other lies she's told him.
  • He wakes in the night with another discovery. He jumps out of bed and looks at the photo of Harriet looking at something which scares her.
  • In the photo are a man and a woman holding a camera, taking a picture of whatever Harriet is looking at.
  • Now Blomkvist has to find the woman and see if she still has the picture. He finds another picture of the couple in the collection. They're getting into a car.
  • The license plate is only partially visible, but there's a sticker on their window. Blomkvist makes out that it says, "NORSJÖ SNICKERIFABRIK" (16.103).