Chap­ter 15 of The Girl Who Played with Fire opens with Malm return­ing home, feel­ing drained and emo­tion­al­ly heavy after a tax­ing day at work. Upon enter­ing his apart­ment, the spicy aro­ma from din­ner greets him, pro­vid­ing a brief moment of com­fort. He embraces his boyfriend, Arnold Mag­nus­son, and engages in light con­ver­sa­tion. How­ev­er, the mood shifts as Arnold brings up a shock­ing development—a mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion involv­ing their friend Dag, who had worked along­side them. This news deeply unset­tles Malm, and as he shares his grief and shock over the loss of his friend, the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion becomes appar­ent, sig­nal­ing a turn­ing point in their lives.

Mean­while, out­side the police press office, Cortez expe­ri­ences frus­tra­tion due to the lack of infor­ma­tion sur­round­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion. His efforts to get answers lead him to dis­cov­er that a for­mer researcher of Blomkvist’s has been iden­ti­fied as a sus­pect. Deter­mined to seek clar­i­fi­ca­tion, Cortez reach­es out to Pros­e­cu­tor Ekström, but his inquiries are met with resis­tance and eva­sion. This lack of trans­paren­cy increas­es the ten­sion sur­round­ing the case, leav­ing both Cortez and the pub­lic in the dark about the details and motives behind the mur­ders. As the inves­ti­ga­tion remains cloud­ed, it becomes clear that essen­tial answers are being with­held, which only height­ens the sense of urgency and con­fu­sion sur­round­ing the case.

In anoth­er part of the inves­ti­ga­tion, Holm­berg reflects on the dis­turb­ing crime scenes where the bod­ies of Mia Johans­son and Dag Svens­son were dis­cov­ered. The exces­sive blood­shed and bru­tal meth­ods of the killings make the sit­u­a­tion even more chill­ing. After the bod­ies are removed, Holm­berg method­i­cal­ly begins his inves­ti­ga­tion of the apart­ment, care­ful­ly doc­u­ment­ing every­thing he finds. How­ev­er, despite his thor­ough search, he finds no con­crete evi­dence that might explain the motives behind the hor­rif­ic killings. This inves­ti­ga­tion, while metic­u­lous, only serves to add more ques­tions with­out pro­vid­ing any clear answers, high­light­ing the com­plex­i­ty of the case and the uncer­tain­ty that plagues the inves­ti­ga­tion.

The inves­ti­ga­tion shifts focus to Salan­der, par­tic­u­lar­ly her rela­tion­ship with Miri­am Wu, who is linked to the mur­ders. Offi­cers debate whether Johansson’s the­sis on human traf­fick­ing may have trig­gered dan­ger for both Johans­son and Salan­der. This line of think­ing intro­duces a poten­tial con­nec­tion between Salan­der and the mur­ders, com­pli­cat­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion fur­ther. The offi­cers’ dis­cus­sions sug­gest that Salan­der’s past, includ­ing her rela­tion­ships and her involve­ment in sen­si­tive top­ics, may have con­tributed to the series of events lead­ing to the mur­ders. This shift in focus brings Salander’s char­ac­ter and past actions into sharp­er scruti­ny, adding lay­ers of intrigue to the case and com­pli­cat­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion.

As the inves­ti­ga­tion inten­si­fies, Pros­e­cu­tor Ekström holds a press con­fer­ence and announces that Salan­der is now a sus­pect in the mur­ders. Jour­nal­ists press for more details, eager to under­stand the evi­dence behind the alle­ga­tions and the pos­si­ble motives. Blomkvist, affect­ed by the events and the accu­sa­tion against Salan­der, reflects on their shared past and the com­plex­i­ty of her involve­ment in the case. He strug­gles with the idea that she could be involved in such vio­lence, despite his loy­al­ty to her. Blomkvist, how­ev­er, is deter­mined to uncov­er the truth. He believes that before any con­clu­sions can be drawn about her involve­ment, it is essen­tial to hear her side of the sto­ry, which he feels is miss­ing from the pub­lic nar­ra­tive.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Blomkvist, weighed down by wor­ry for Salan­der, resolv­ing to pur­sue the truth. He is exhaust­ed but remains stead­fast in his deter­mi­na­tion to uncov­er the real sto­ry behind the mur­ders and the involve­ment of every­one con­nect­ed to the case. Blomkvist’s com­mit­ment to find­ing answers and under­stand­ing Salander’s side of the sit­u­a­tion becomes the dri­ving force of the chap­ter. As he sets out to uncov­er the truth, the stage is set for deep­er rev­e­la­tions and the con­tin­ued unrav­el­ing of a com­plex and emo­tion­al­ly charged case. The chap­ter leaves read­ers antic­i­pat­ing the next step in Blomkvist’s search for clar­i­ty, while the ten­sion sur­round­ing Salander’s involve­ment con­tin­ues to grow.