Disclaimer: Still do not own any characters. Thanks to all those who reviewed, keep them coming.
Chapter 8
Mikael came to an empty home that Friday; at first he did not notice anything weird. Sally was supposed to get home by eight so they could have dinner together. He started cooking; it was his turn. He made beef stew, he waited, by 11:00 PM he was worried. He called her cellphone; it was off. He called Milton Security; they had not seen her since 11:00 AM. He called Annika; no she had not contacted her today. He even called Eriksson but she had not seen Lisbeth since Cortes' party.
He went to her two apartments she was not in any of those. He went back home and checked the closet, she had taken some of her clothes and an old duffel bag. Panic rose within him. She had left him; he checked his laptop. There he found the confirmation to his biggest fear, his Sally had left him, and she barely wrote two sentences.
Good-bye Mikael. I left; do not contact me again.
He crumbled to the floor; he felt as if someone had stabbed him, this was the worst feeling he had experienced. It was pain, desolation and emptiness all coupled with deep despair and grief.
He cried; he could not believe this was happening. It was definitely surreal everything was great. He managed to go into the bar cabinet and grab the vodka. He did not even bother with a glass; he gulped the liquid down.
He wanted to get blind drunk and dull the pain, which was exactly what he did. The weekend passed in a daze of tears and alcohol. He received 10 calls from his sister who was worried about Lisbeth.
On Monday he stayed home. He managed to take a shower and buy more vodka. He received 5 more calls from Annika and 3 calls from Erika who was infuriated that he missed the board meeting scheduled for that day.
On Tuesday Annika came, she found her brother passed out on the kitchen floor. She managed to wake him up.
"Mikael wake up, hey wake up," she was worried her brother was in a very intoxicated state, there were vodka bottles all over the floor. After thirty minutes and 4 cups of coffee Mikael uttered the following words: "She left me, she's gone."
He passed out again. Annika let him sleep for a couple of hours; meanwhile she cleaned up the place. When Mikael was up again, he went into the kitchen looking for more vodka, needless to say he found none. Instead he found his baby sister, worry etched across her face.
"Mikael what happened here?" he broke down again and told her everything.
"Do you know why? Mikael there has to be an explanation. Are you sure she was not taken?" Annika was worried; maybe Lisbeth had been abducted. There could not be another feasible explanation. Mikael assured her they had not fought in a while.
"I assure you she was not taken," something inside told him that she had opted to leave by her own free will.
"You are the keen investigative mind of the family, figure something out." She was exasperated, she had to snap Mikael out of it.
Mikael could be stubborn to a fault, and she knew it. "Come-on there has to be something else. Think back."
Then suddenly he came to a realization, Sally had been complaining of nausea and was moody. Her breasts were very sensitive to the touch. She had hissed whenever she handled them while they were making love.
He related the symptoms to Annika who immediately had the correct diagnosis in her mind. She hesitated before asking, "Mikael, is there a possibility that Lisbeth is pregnant?"
"No, she's on the pill." Annika knew from personal experience that the pill could very well fail.
"Don't you wear condoms?" Her brother blushed and mumbled something.
"I'm sorry what?"
"I said Lisbeth does not like them."
Mikael started thinking about the possibility of a pregnancy and connected the dots in his mind. His Sally had fled because she was scared but of what? It was true that they had not planned on having children. But the idea of a child did not displease Mikael.
He would start looking for Lisbeth now; she had a hell of an explanation to give. They had played this game before and he would find her again.
He spent the next week and a half trying to find his Sally but it was useless. She was traceless. He punished himself for not realizing things earlier. He had wasted precious time. While he was busy having a pity party Lisbeth had left Sweden and had probably left Europe.
He had abandoned Millennium, which resulted in an altercation with Erika.
"Don't you see that the girl left you? Get a grip Mikael and start putting your life together."
He had merely glared at her, she continued, "If you ask me that girl did you a favor by leaving."
He stood up and came closer to her, he hissed "Don't you ever say that again."
Erika stormed out of his apartment.
He was about to call Armansky and ask for help, he was tired and needed someone else to help him find Lisbeth. Mikael was not sleeping properly. He could not sleep without Sally. He missed her terribly and just needed to see her and ask her why. He knew they could work things, they always did. Mikael just wanted to find her and talk to her because time was of great importance. Last time he let things go and waited for her to approach him, not this time. He would find her and settle things for good this time.
He managed to take a nap; he was awakened when somebody knocked on the door. It was probably Annika or Eriksson; they were both worried about Lisbeth's whereabouts. Eriksson came last week to assure him that she was successfully appeasing Erika and that Karim and Cortes were completing his workload.
He shook himself out of his reverie and went to open the door. His face revealed the shock he felt, there outside of his apartment stood Lisbeth Fucking Salander.