September 3.1
Lisbeth Salander
Fandom: Millennium Trilogy
Word Count: 595
Armansky sets down a piece of paper in front of Lisbeth, " Gustav Oscar." There it is in black ink, a name and an address. Nothing special about the name, the writing, the address. He offers it to her like a handler shoving a piece of clothing under a bloodhound's nose to get the scent before letting it loose. Of course she doesn't see it as that, neither does he they are above that imagery but in essence it's all the same.
Lisbeth doesn't pick up the piece of paper she does pick up her empty espresso cup. She'll take the job, if she didn't want it she would have said something. Armansky lets her go without a word he's long learned that she'll deliver the needed information on her own time.
Gustav Oscar, age: thirty-five, height: six foot three inches. Hair color: light brown, eyes: brown, marital status: single, occupation: research chemist at Mirengrad Laboratories. The early primary investigation is general easy, the facts are assembled, outer appearance, basic personal facts that any person with semi regular contact with a person can find out. This is not the information clients truly care about. When they hire Milton Securities they don't do so in order to find out a persons height or weight, the do it in order to find out the true nature of a person, the risks they represent, the secrets they are hiding.
The client wants to know if there is any reason why Gustav should not get an upcoming promotion which would mean an upgraded security clearance. Lisbeth looks for the usual things that might make a person a security risk. Debt, addiction, alliances or dealings with completing companies or personnel from other companies, these send up red flags. Red flags are the flags she likes best.
Everybody has secrets but not everybody has red flags. Gustav has an impressive coffee addiction. His bank account shows at least four coffee purchases along the route he takes to work. Gustav has about 317,000.00 Kronor worth of debt from school that he pays on regularly. The only red flag popped up when she found his personal email account. Email after email, some of them steamy some of them sweet from a woman who only called herself S.
They meet every Thursday which explains the one lone coffee purchase outside his normal route. The next Thursday meeting, Lisbeth is parks her motorbike outside his residence and watches as he steps out, pressed, dressed and smelling good. She follows him outside of town at an easy pace, he's in no hurry and despite her being on a motorbike she can maintain a following speed easily.
He stops at a house and gets out of his car smoothing his hair down. Straddling her silent motorbike she lifts her digital camera with the long range lens and watches Gustav go to the door and meet the woman who answers the door. She captures the greeting and more importantly she captures the woman's face in a series of photos quick snaps one right after the other. A consensual sexual relationship is none of her concern. The woman is of age and so is Gustav except the nature of the meeting is so secretive that it has her curiosity peeked.
Mild mannered Gustav Oscar is having an affair with his bosses wife.
The ten page paper is on Armansky's desk the next evening he looks down at the presentation and then back up at his favorite researcher. "Everything here?" She thinks about the photos on the last pages and nods. "Everything."