Chap­ter 3 of The Girl Who Played with Fire fol­lows Lis­beth Salan­der as she begins her day with a sense of pur­pose. Wak­ing ear­ly, she pre­pares for the day by show­er­ing and rent­ing a dune bug­gy. After pay­ing the deposit, she stops for break­fast and, while eat­ing, her mind wan­ders to Fer­mat’s the­o­rem, a math­e­mat­i­cal puz­zle that pre­oc­cu­pies her thoughts. It’s dur­ing this time that Dr. Richard Forbes, a well-dressed man, enters the restau­rant, catch­ing Salander’s atten­tion. She observes him from a dis­tance, sens­ing that his behav­ior is strange, as he moves around the area aim­less­ly, mak­ing her won­der what his true inten­tions might be.

Salan­der fol­lows Dr. Forbes through the streets of St. George’s, main­tain­ing a dis­creet dis­tance while track­ing his every move. After hours of watch­ing him and not­ing his seem­ing­ly ran­dom activ­i­ty, she wit­ness­es him vis­it­ing a restau­rant. While there, she sees him drink­ing Coca-Cola and look­ing out over the har­bor, which rais­es fur­ther sus­pi­cions. Salander’s thoughts turn to his activ­i­ties on the island of Grena­da, spec­u­lat­ing that while he appears busy, he may have ulte­ri­or motives. Her curios­i­ty grows when she receives sev­er­al encrypt­ed emails, sent by her acquain­tance Plague and his asso­ciate Bil­bo, which pro­vide her with a file con­tain­ing impor­tant infor­ma­tion about Forbes, prompt­ing her to delve deep­er into his past.

As Salan­der sifts through the file, she uncov­ers pho­tographs and doc­u­ments reveal­ing Dr. Richard Forbes as a respect­ed fig­ure in his church, but one whose pub­lic per­sona has been marred by con­tro­ver­sy. She learns that Forbes has been pre­vi­ous­ly arrest­ed for seri­ous crimes such as aggra­vat­ed bod­i­ly harm and embez­zle­ment, though he was acquit­ted. This dis­cov­ery casts a shad­ow over his char­ac­ter, as Salan­der notes that he is finan­cial­ly depen­dent on his wife, Geral­dine. She grows increas­ing­ly sus­pi­cious of his true inten­tions, pon­der­ing whether his actions are dri­ven by finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty or a more sin­is­ter motive. With her inves­ti­ga­tion into Forbes tak­ing on greater urgency, Salan­der begins to ques­tion the moral­i­ty of the man she is watch­ing and how his past might tie into his cur­rent behav­ior.

As the day pro­gress­es, Salander’s atten­tion is momen­tar­i­ly divert­ed when an impend­ing storm, named Matil­da, caus­es the weath­er to wors­en. Despite warn­ings to stay inside, she decides to check on a local boy named George Bland, who lives in a dilap­i­dat­ed shack. The wind picks up rapid­ly, and she acts quick­ly to bring George to safe­ty before the storm esca­lates. The urgency of the sit­u­a­tion doesn’t damp­en Salander’s focus on her mis­sion; instead, it high­lights her deter­mi­na­tion to act in the face of dan­ger. Once George is safe, she is pulled back into the ten­sion sur­round­ing Dr. Forbes and his wife, as she con­tin­ues her covert obser­va­tion of their lives.

The storm inten­si­fies, wreak­ing hav­oc across the area, but it also leads Salan­der to a shock­ing rev­e­la­tion. She and George wit­ness Dr. Forbes phys­i­cal­ly assault­ing his wife, Geral­dine, an encounter that sparks a moment of inter­ven­tion. Salan­der can­not stand by as Forbes’s vio­lent behav­ior esca­lates, and she steps in to pro­tect Geral­dine, using her quick think­ing to get her to safe­ty. Dur­ing the strug­gle, Salan­der leaves Forbes behind, his fate uncer­tain, but Geral­dine is safe and unharmed. The chap­ter con­cludes with the after­math of the storm, where Salander’s actions come into focus. While Geral­dine sur­vives, Richard Forbes’s death is revealed, leav­ing many ques­tions about the extent of Salander’s involve­ment. The chap­ter ends ambigu­ous­ly, with Salander’s actions unclear, adding to the mys­tery sur­round­ing her motives and the con­se­quences of her inter­ven­tion. This event sets the stage for a deep­er explo­ration of her char­ac­ter and the com­plex­i­ty of her actions, all while main­tain­ing a sense of sus­pense and unpre­dictabil­i­ty.