YUSUF TURNS OFF the expressway at the Kulosaari exit. The clustered gray-and-black clouds have parted for the moon, and a strong wind tosses the crowns of the tall trees. Finnish rap is playing on the radio.
Jessica glances at the text message she has just received. She doesn’t recognize the number, but the drunken, suggestive contents and the signature kingdick88 leave no doubt as to the sender’s identity.
“We ‘missed the most important thing’? What the fuck does that mean?” Yusuf says after a lengthy silence, making the gears shriek by shifting into second midramp when he’s still going well over sixty.
“Tech went up to that bedroom to take pictures too,” Jessica says, browsing her iPad screen. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary here.”
“What if the old lady hadn’t noticed the writing?”
“Someone would have noticed it when the skating track was combed by helicopter.”
“But were Helminen’s abductors specifically referring to Adlerkreutz’s window? What we saw from there? The Koponens’ house, the house next door, the street, the yards, the hedges . . .”
“The sea, the island opposite . . .”
“Which was scoured with a fine-tooth comb.”
“Maybe there was something on the ice? A figure or text we didn’t notice?”
“They would have seen that from the chopper.”
“Damn it. Is there still a patrol outside the Koponens’ house?”
“Yes. I can call in reinforcements if you’re nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” Jessica says as Yusuf drives past the former Iraqi embassy and toward the shore.
“What about what Helminen said about someone close to me?” Jessica says flatly.
“Could just be a scare tactic.”
“But what if it’s true? Think about it. The writing that appeared in my notebook. The teeth in the sandwiches delivered to the police station. What if these witch hunters have a mole at the station?”
“Eww, creepy.” Yusuf pulls over between the Koponen and Adlerkreutz residences. A police van is still there. He opens his door. “OK, let’s go give this old lady a heart attack.”