RAUNO WAS IN A PATROL CAR driving towards the city. He was returning from a meeting with his old acquaintances Aune Toivola and Yki Raappana. And he had something interesting to tell the team. As she did every day, Aune had gone to sleep early on Monday evening – without her hearing aid – and hadn’t heard a thing. Yki Raappana, on the other hand, had heard a car driving towards the shore at around 9 p.m. on Monday evening. After Riikka’s death he had begun paying particular attention to people moving around on the path. The old man wouldn’t admit to being afraid, but Rauno could smell his fear. It was no wonder, he had thought, being a decrepit old man living in a remote place where someone had been brutally murdered. He would certainly have been afraid, or would at least have been on his guard. Poor Yki had been on his guard since August – and his alertness was of great use to the investigation. After hearing the car, Yki had gone out into his front garden. It was already dark at that time of night. Soon afterwards he had heard a shot. There was still the occasional duck shooter wandering around late in the season, so the sound of gunshot was nothing out of the ordinary. Except that now the sun set at around 7 p.m., so any birds flying over in the evening would have passed hours earlier and no hunter would have been able to make out prey in the dark – unless that prey was the size of a grown man.
Yki had put on some extra clothes and decided to wait outside until the car came back along the path. And it came back soon enough. Yki had crouched down in the bushes near the edge of the path and had seen a red car hurtling past. And the best of it was, Yki knew one make of car from another: it was a Volkswagen Golf, an old model, precisely the kind that had been sighted in the vicinity of the previous murders. He hadn’t been able to make out the registration number; his sight wasn’t as sharp as it had been when he was younger and it was too dark. It had looked as though the plates were covered in mud. He said he might have seen the same car drive past once before. The previous time Yki had only managed to get a fleeting glimpse of it, so he couldn’t be entirely sure. The old man proudly showed Rauno a blue jotter where he had noted down details of every car he’d spotted on the path since 22 August. There weren’t very many of them, perhaps an average of seven a day. He had guessed that the killer would return to the scene of the crime. Rauno had praised the man, and Yki could have burst with glee. Apparently as a younger man he had considered taking a job in the police force. Rauno commented that Yki’s career as a forester had been a loss for the police service; a man this sharp could have been a lot of use. Yki was thrilled and offered to make some coffee. Though Rauno was eager to get back to the station with the news, he didn’t have the heart to refuse. The old man had already taken up plenty of his time.
Now Rauno felt like putting his foot on the accelerator and getting back to the station as soon as possible. This was a breakthrough. With this information they would quickly identify the old red Volkswagen, and there was no doubt it would belong to the killer.
He exceeded the speed limit without even noticing it. There was little traffic and he hadn’t yet reached the city limits. Just then he saw something black in the corner of his right eye. In a split second, he realised that the black spot was moving – and that it was coming towards him. Rauno slammed on the brakes. The car began to swerve across the road, still slippery from the rain. The huge male elk stopped in the middle of the road as if demanding to be hit. This is the end, was all Rauno had time to think before the impact.
Sari was finding it hard to concentrate. She was sitting in her car near the Helmersons’ house looking alternately at her telephone and at the houses along the street. She had received another text message. The tone was the same as before, sexist and intimidating. Frightening. It was time to get to work on finding out who was sending them. And she would have to interview all of Helmerson’s neighbours. Where should she start?
Sari shifted her phone from one hand to the next. They had to catch the killer. This prank caller was a much smaller threat, if indeed a threat at all.
Unless they were one and the same person.
Sari didn’t want to give the possibility any more thought. She contacted a friend at the National Criminal Police who specialised in mobile phones, computers, data surveillance and everything in between. He promised to do all he could. Sari got out of the car and began walking towards the first house on the street, the neighbours opposite the Helmersons. The front garden was large and well taken care of; the house had a handsome brick façade. It was the same as all the houses and gardens in the area. There was no answer when Sari rang the doorbell. She tried again but there was no one at home. She made a note of the name on the letter box and went to the next house. An elderly, grey-haired man was outside raking the garden.
‘Good afternoon,’ said Sari and showed her identification.
‘Afternoon,’ the man replied, propped his rake by the shed wall and asked her inside.
‘I’m sure you’ve already heard the news,’ she said.
‘Yes. Terrible stuff. We all keep the doors locked these days. People don’t dare go about their business now. Feels like there’s someone aiming a gun at me when I’m out here raking the garden.’
‘Did you see anything suspicious going on at the Helmersons’ house two evenings ago?’
‘Not that I noticed.’
‘Did you ever see a red car?’
‘Veli-Matti drives a black BMW. And Kaarina has a silver Nissan. I haven’t seen any red cars round here, no.’
‘What about people? Anyone other than the Helmersons?’
‘They have visitors every now and then, but I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary.’
‘If you think of anything, please call me. Even something that might seem insignificant could be very important,’ she explained and handed the man her card.
‘Very well. I’ll be in touch if something comes to mind.’
The man escorted Sari to the gate, returned to his rake and continued gathering piles of leaves on the grass.
Sari went to the next house.
This time the door was opened by a woman in her fifties. The coffee was already brewing. Good, she thought. This woman clearly keeps her eyes open.
Sari introduced herself and explained why she was there.
‘Oh yes, I’ve seen a red car – quite frequently, in fact,’ said the woman. Sari couldn’t contain her excitement.
‘When? Was it here two evenings ago?’
‘No, I haven’t seen it for a while now.’
‘During the summer?’
The woman thought for a moment.
‘No, it wasn’t there in the summer either. But in the spring it was parked out there quite a bit. Whenever Kaarina went to her mother’s place, that red car would turn up soon afterwards. Well, not every time but quite often. It wasn’t parked in the Helmersons’ driveway or even outside the house, but over there, a bit further away.’
‘Think carefully. Precisely when in the spring was it here?’
‘Well … from March until May, perhaps?’
‘How often did you see the car?’
‘Hard to say. A dozen times in total?’
‘Did you see who was driving it?’
‘It was a woman.’
‘What did she look like?’
‘You know, that kind of woman.’
‘The kind of woman that sleeps with married men. A whore,’ the neighbour hissed.
‘What did she look like?’
‘I never got a good look at her. I don’t really know.’
‘Short, tall, thin, fat, blonde, brunette?’
‘Average size. I don’t know about her hair.’
‘What about age?’
‘I’ve no idea. But they’re generally younger, aren’t they?’
Sari approached the window from where you could see on to the street. From this window the Helmersons’ front door was completely hidden and the front garden was at too sharp an angle to get a good view. It would be impossible to get a proper look at anyone visiting the Helmersons’ house.
A red car had been sighted in the area last spring, almost six months ago. What on earth could this mean?
‘Still, sometimes I thought it looked like Kaarina.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Yes, sometimes it looked as though it was Kaarina Helmerson driving that car.’
Sari’s telephone rang. It was Virkkunen.
‘I’ve told Forensics to leave the Helmersons’ place for now.’
‘Why? I was going there next,’ Sari exclaimed.
‘We’ve just received a call from Seppo Vilmusenaho. He’s a PE teacher at Saloinen primary – Veli-Matti’s colleague. He said he saw the lights on in Veli-Matti’s classroom at around 6.30 p.m. on Monday evening.’
‘And?’
‘And there was a red car in the school car park. At the time, he didn’t pay the car much attention, because he’d been so interested in the classroom lights. Seppo told us he’d been annoyed that Veli-Matti could be so careless, given that he was leading the school’s Green Energy Project. He had decided to mention the matter to Veli-Matti, but as soon as news of the murder came out he remembered our call for any sightings of a red car. Seppo believes that the killer was there in Veli-Matti’s classroom.’
‘Could Veli-Matti have jogged back to work?’
‘I’ve sent Forensics out to the school. Get down there. The Helmersons’ house can wait.’
‘Okay. And by the way, the red car has been spotted around this neighbourhood. Last spring.’
Virkkunen whistled quietly.
‘We’re on to something,’ he said. ‘We’re finally on to something.’
The running tracks around Häyrysenniemi were deserted. Nobody dared go out there any longer. Now the track was lined only by the evenly positioned street lights. Anna had driven from Café Penguin directly to Asemakylä. Throughout the journey happiness flickered inside her.
Esko had accepted her, out of the blue, without forewarning, just like that. Anna hadn’t dared hope for such a thing. She had prepared herself to put up with Esko’s snide comments and verbal attacks till the end of time.
Still, the deserted running track succeeded in quashing her happiness. Would anybody ever dare run here again? This time Anna didn’t wander off along the track. She decided to start her investigation from the spot where you could see both the parking area and the start of the track: the scene of Ville Pollari’s murder. Anna turned her back to the street lamps and the running track and scanned in the opposite direction.
The terrain was mostly covered with thick scrub, but running south from the start of the track there was a strip of older pine forest. That’s one place there wouldn’t be thicket to block someone’s view. Anna walked along the strip of land, covered in lichen and moss. The ground was even, no hills or bumps where anyone could have been hiding. Anna was about to turn back when she noticed something behind a large pine tree. From a distance it looked like nothing but a tangle of metal. She ran up to the tree and found a folding deckchair knocked to the ground, perhaps blown over by the wind. Its metallic parts were rusty, the fabric frayed at the edges. It could have been lying there for years.
Anna righted the chair and sat down on it, facing the running track. She could just make out the parking area; Anna could see the faint contour of her car. With a pair of binoculars, it would have been easy to watch people running round the track, she thought. Was the deckchair here by accident? Could this have been the killer’s vantage point?
Anna carefully examined the area around the chair but couldn’t see any sweet wrappers or anything else of interest. She took the chair with her to give it to the forensics team. Perhaps they would be able to find some fingerprints on it.
On her way back Anna stopped at the Pollaris’ house, but it was as deserted as the running track. Maria had gone to her mother’s house in Jyväskylä. I hope everything’s okay with the baby, she thought as she sat at the end of the Pollaris’ driveway for a moment and let her eyes press shut, almost falling asleep.
Again she was woken by the sound of her telephone.
It was Rauno’s wife, whom Anna hadn’t yet met. Nina Forsman was calling from the hospital. She was so hysterical that Anna could barely make out a word. She understood that something serious had happened to Rauno. Anna shook the sleep from her body with a cigarette, and as soon as she had smoked it, she set off for the hospital.
Inside the hospital, everything was white and so bright that it hurt Anna’s head. Floral-print curtains in the emergency room attempted to soften the feel of being in an institution. Rauno was lying on a metal-framed bed, linked up to numerous tubes and monitors. His face was hidden behind a large oxygen mask. A petite woman sat next to the bed. She jumped up as Anna stepped into the room and offered a delicate hand. She’s like a bird, the thought flashed through Anna’s mind, not like a mouse at all.
‘Hello, I’m Rauno’s wife – Nina. I don’t think we’ve met.’
‘Fekete Anna. Sorry we had to meet like this. Where are the girls?’
‘I took them to my mother’s. I haven’t told them anything yet. I don’t know what to say. They’re still so little,’ Nina agonised.
‘The doctors here can give you advice on what to do,’ Anna tried to comfort her. ‘There’s no rush. They don’t need to hear it straight away.’
‘Yes,’ Nina whimpered. ‘You’re right.’
‘What happened?’
‘He hit an elk. It’s a miracle that he’s still alive.’
‘What’s his condition?’
‘I don’t know exactly. The doctors don’t know. He’s got some fractures in his right thigh and he’s broken several ribs.’
‘What about his head?’
Nina began to weep.
‘He might not…’ she stammered. ‘He might never wake up. Or if he does, he won’t be the same Rauno that we all know.’
Anna began to tremble. The room felt cold. Was there a window open somewhere? Anna examined the windows, but there was no way of opening them. What a ridiculous thought – an open window in an emergency room where people are fighting for their lives. Rauno’s struggle seemed peaceful. He was calm, as though he was sleeping off his exhaustion. Anna realised that she wished she was lying there instead of him. She felt like removing the tubes and waking him up, ordering him to go home and sort out whatever had gone on between him and his wife. Anna would lie down there herself, there beneath the warm blankets; she’d pull on the faded hospital gown, place the oxygen mask over her mouth, connect the sensors to her chest, head and fingers, insert the drip into her own arm and drift into a liberating slumber. What a wonderful state. Only death could be better than this.
Thankfully Rauno didn’t look like he was dying. The steady beeping on the monitor showed that his heart was beating evenly and kept alive the glimmer of hope that he might just pull through this. His face had been spared the worst of the damage. That was something.
‘And I’d just decided to get a divorce,’ Nina said all of a sudden.
Anna snapped back to the real world, yanked herself into that state of consciousness needed to communicate with people, to listen to them and comfort them, the state she no longer had the strength to deal with. She didn’t know what to say, and decided not to say anything.
‘I doubt it’ll be possible now,’ Nina continued.
‘Take things one step at a time,’ said Anna.
‘For the children’s sake. After this, dealing with a divorce would be too much for them.’
‘For them, yes, but for you too.’
‘What can I tell them?’ Nina continued sobbing. ‘How can I bring them here to see their father like this?’
Anna took Nina’s hand and pressed it gently. She didn’t have any answers, in any language.
‘Why did you call me?’ she asked eventually. ‘I mean, we don’t know one another…’
‘I don’t know,’ Nina replied. ‘Was there … Is there anything going on between you two?’ she asked abruptly.
‘What? Not at all. Don’t even think that,’ said Anna.
Nina gave a cautious smile as tears trickled down her cheeks.