The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Chapter 25 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Saturday, July 12 – Monday, July 14

  • Blomkvist sleeps. Salander takes pictures of Martin's basement.
  • She finds binders with headshots of women and Martin's notes.
  • She takes the binders and Martin's laptop and goes back to the guesthouse.
  • Martin has been killing since the 1960s, at least two women per year for the last fifteen years.
  • In one of the binders Salander finds pictures of a naked teen girl shying from the camera. Salander puts those pictures in her pocket, burns the binders, and drops the laptop off a bridge.
  • Dirch Frode comes over and Salander tells him what they've learned about Martin.
  • He wants to go to the police. She says to keep her name and Blomkvist's out of it.
  • She tells him they haven't figured out what happened to Harriet, but are about to.
  • Blomkvist wants to go to the police, but Salander is making it hard for him, and he doesn't.
  • Salander shows Blomkvist the pictures of the teen girl. They think it's Harriet.
  • They think Gottfried and Martin raped her, and that Martin kept raping her after Gottfried died.
  • Here's how they picture it: while Martin is away at school, everything is OK. On Children's Day, Harriet realizes he's back home and then disappears.
  • Blomkvist and Salander fly to London and meet up with some hackers.
  • Blomkvist goes to Anita's home. She knows Martin's dead, and she won't talk to Blomkvist.
  • Anita makes a call to a woman in Australia. Salander and the hackers listen to and trace the call.
  • Anita tells the woman about Martin's death, and the woman is happy.
  • Anita tells her about Blomkvist and the woman says the phone's not safe. Anita should write her.
  • Next, Salander and Blomkvist tour London. Then Salander learns that her mother has died.
  • Blomkvist says he will postpone the trip to Australia and go back to Stockholm with her.
  • Salander says no, and she and Blomkvist say good-bye at the hotel.