“TOXOPLASMOSIS?” JESSICA SAYS, phone propped between her ear and shoulder as she tears a piece of toilet paper from the roll. The others on the conference call are Yusuf, Rasmus, and the medical examiner Sissi Sarvilinna. Jessica can hear the hum of Yusuf’s car and Rasmus’ eager typing in the background; Sarvilinna she imagines standing impassively with a hands-free loop in her ear, surrounded by chrome body boxes.
“Do you believe the perpetrator’s motive is somehow related to the topic of the victim’s dissertation?” Sarvilinna asks mechanically, reinforcing the image in Jessica’s head.
“To be honest, we have no idea. But if Lea Blomqvist spent years studying the subject, we don’t want to shut out the possibility.” Jessica rises from the toilet seat, lowers the lid, and decides to wait before she flushes so the others don’t hear.
A deep sigh serves as an accent to the hum and the typing. “Lea Blomqvist wasn’t a doctor, so I don’t really understand why she chose the topic of—”
“Please, Sissi. Let’s save everyone’s time.” Jessica immediately regrets her words. So many seconds pass that Jessica is forced to check to see if the medical examiner is still on the line. “Hello. Are you—”
“Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection,” Sarvilinna spits as if she had just been waiting to interrupt Jessica. “As a matter of fact, the most common one. It can be contracted from, for instance, uncooked meat or cat feces.”
Yusuf sounds cantankerous: “Goddamn it. Doesn’t sound like we’re going to get anything out of this.”
Jessica stands in front of the mirror, phone to her ear. In the reflection, she looks at the bathtub and the black shower curtain hanging there. She can picture the patter of the shower, herself sitting at the bottom of the tub, her wet hair plastered to her face. She quickly gasps for air. “What does it have to do with aggression?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest. I should probably take a look at the dissertation,” Sarvilinna says, and everyone on the call knows she’s not kidding.
“Could it cause aggression?”
“To my understanding, the infection basically only poses a risk to fetuses and people whose immune systems are compromised. AIDS patients, for instance. I remember reading somewhere that if contracted during childhood, it can lead to abnormal brain activity. But so can many other illnesses.”
Jessica takes a few steps toward the bathtub, wraps her fingers around the plastic curtain, and slides it aside.
“OK, thank you, Sissi,” she says. A moment later, Jessica sees the other woman’s name disappear from her phone screen.
“It’s not sounding very relevant.” This is the first thing Rasmus has said during the brief call.
Jessica sighs. “We don’t know what’s relevant yet. Where are you, Yusuf?”
“En route to Kulosaari. There’s a handwritten report of what the neighbors had to say.”