I RENE. AND the imps. And the young doctor whose name he now knew: Valtteri Muksanen.
Funny sort of name. Funny sort of day.
The imps stood there facing him, and didn’t seem to recognise him any more. They couldn’t utter a word, they were inspecting him as if he were an attraction for sightseers and giggling nervously.
A new room. Wintry light came through the windowpanes. From time to time a uniformed police officer put his head round the door, possibly suspecting that the two little girls had explosives hidden about their persons.
The doctor with the funny name, the one he’d been talking to when Irene and the children knocked at the door, withdrew, not without nodding encouragingly at Irene again and shaking hands with the girls.
Kai-Petteri Hämäläinen looked at Irene and his daughters, thinking of Niskanen. He couldn’t get the man out of his head. Irene watched the doctor as he closed the door behind him.
‘You wouldn’t think it to look at that young man, but he’s the medical director in charge of this outfit,’ said Hämäläinen, and Irene nodded.
‘Valtteri Muksanen. Funny sort of name.’
‘You think so?’ asked Irene.
‘Don’t you?’ he asked back.
She sat down beside him. The children, arms hanging by their sides, inched slightly closer to him.
‘He recommends me to stay here a little longer, but he says I’ve been extremely fortunate, and I may be able to leave hospital within the next few days.’
‘Yes,’ said Irene.
‘Good to see you here,’ he said.
Silence.
‘Come over here, imps. It’s only medicine in that tube.’
The girls went over to the bed and looked at Irene for help. Irene took his hand and stroked it. He made several faces, and the girls laughed and ventured closer still, finally sitting down cautiously on the bed.
‘Have you heard anything from the TV station? Has Tuula called? Or Mertaranta?’
‘I disconnected the phone, it was ringing the whole time.’
‘Ah.’ His mobile. He felt the impulse to reach for it, but he was still supposed to move extremely carefully, and anyway he didn’t know where it was. He’d have to ask the doctor about that.
‘It’s all over the news,’ said Irene.
He nodded. And felt a curious satisfaction. All over the news.
‘The headline announcement,’ said Irene quietly.
He made another face for the children.
‘How fragile everything is,’ said Irene.