<P> Despite all expectation to the contrary, Blomkvist identifies new evidence in Harriet's disappearance . One clue is a pair of photographs, detailing Harriet's sudden discomfort at the sight of a young man in a prep school blazer . Another lies in Harriet's journal, which contains a set of five names and five - digit numbers believed to be old telephone numbers; however, Blomkvist's daughter Pernilla, passing through on the way to Bible camp, identifies them as passages from the Book of Leviticus . They describe rules about the treatment and punishment of women, and Blomkvist correlates one of them with the grotesque murder of a Vanger Corporation secretary in 1949 . Blomkvist realizes that he may be on the trail of a serial killer, and the scope of the resulting research makes Blomkvist request a research assistant . Vanger's lawyer suggests Salander . </P> <P> When he sees the report she prepared for Vanger, Blomkvist realises that Salander has hacked into his computer . He confronts her and asks her to help him with the investigation, to which she agrees . The two eventually become lovers, but Salander continues to keep Blomkvist at an emotional distance . Their suspicions are heightened when a local cat is left dismembered on Blomkvist's porch, and Blomkvist is fired upon from a distance during an afternoon jog . </P> <P> Blomkvist and Salander uncover the remaining four murders described in Harriet's journal, as well as several more that fit the profile: women who are sexually assaulted and then slain in accordance with a Leviticus verse . Moreover, most of the murders occurred in locations where the Vanger Corporation did business . </P> <P> They settle on Gottfried Vanger, Martin and Harriet's father, as a likely candidate but are stymied when he is discovered to have predeceased the last victim . While Salander continues to hunt through Vanger Corporation archives, Blomkvist manages to identify the antagonist who frightened Harriet so: her brother Martin . Martin takes Blomkvist prisoner, reveals that Gottfried "initiated" him into the ritual rape and murder of women before his own death, and implies that Gottfried sexually abused both him and Harriet . Martin admits to murdering dozens of women but denies killing his sister . He decides to rid himself of Blomkvist once and for all, but Salander--who had discovered the connections independently--arrives and hits Martin over the head with a golf club before cutting Blomkvist out of his restraints . Martin flees by car, pursued by Salander on her motorbike, and chooses his own fate by purposely colliding headlong with an oncoming truck . </P>

Story of the girl with the dragon tattoo