The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)

Lisbeth Salander purchases an apartment in Stockholm. On returning to Sweden after nearly a year living abroad, Salander reconnects with her best friend and former partner Miriam Wu and offers her free use of her old apartment in return for forwarding her mail. Later, Salander confronts Nils Bjurman after hacking into his mail and discovering that he has an appointment booked with a tattoo removal specialist. Threatening him with his own gun, she warns him not to remove the tattoo that she etched on his abdomen.

Millennium magazine welcomes Dag Svensson, a new journalist who is writing an exposé on prostitution and human trafficking in Sweden. Dag’s girlfriend, Mia Bergman, is writing her doctoral thesis on sex trafficking. Dag is nearly finished with the story and is confronting those who will be exposed by the article. Dag and his girlfriend are about to leave on a holiday and ask Mikael Blomkvist to come to his apartment and collect some photographs. At the same time Dag also asks Blomkvist to inquire about someone called “Zala,” who may have a connection to his present research. Blomkvist arrives at their apartment and finds the two lying dead. The murder weapon is tracked to Bjurman who is also deceased. Salander is the prime suspect, as her fingerprints happen to be on the gun. Salander tells Blomkvist that she did not kill anyone and that he needs to find the mysterious “Zala”.