The Defenceless (23 page)

NILS HAD FINALLY ESTABLISHED
the origin of the cloakroom tag. He eagerly told the team what he had found out at the analysis group’s weekly meeting of all police divisions. The tag came from the Millennium Club, the biggest nightclub in the downtown area. The doorman couldn’t remember when it had gone missing or who had taken it, because hundreds of people visited the club every night and cloakroom tickets disappeared all the time. The doorman showed Nils a box full of spare tags. People lost all kinds of things when they were drunk.

‘But that’s not all,’ Nils added mysteriously. ‘The doorman looked familiar, so I looked into his background.’

Nils paused. He looked at Anna.

‘He’s a member of the Hell’s Angels,’ he said eventually.

The conference room was filled with a hubbub of conversation. Anna glanced at Esko, who nodded knowingly to himself. Sari whispered something into Anna’s ear, but Anna couldn’t make out what. Virkkunen stood up and asked for silence.

‘Right, everyone,’ he said, cleared his throat and lifted his spectacles. ‘It now seems clearer than ever that the gangs are somehow implicated in the events and deaths at the house in Leppioja. This is an extremely serious matter, particularly as two civilians have lost their lives. We must find out everything we can about Riitta Vehviläinen’s life and her death. We mustn’t rule out other lines of enquiry, though the Black Cobras and the Hell’s Angels are now our prime suspects. Riitta knew something about what was going on in that house, and she paid a heavy price. I want that caretaker interviewed immediately. Keep your eyes and ears open. And be careful.
These are hard-boiled criminals we’re dealing with. An officer’s life is worth nothing at all to these people,’ Virkkunen emphasised, and looked at Esko.

Anna was given the task of breaking the news to Riitta’s daughter, Leena Rekola. Leena and her family lived in a post-war, prefabricated house on the outskirts of the city centre. Anna stepped cautiously across the icy car park. The yard hadn’t been gritted and her feet kept slipping. Beneath the apple tree was a heap of snow with tunnels and windows dug into it and brightly coloured plastic buckets and spades scattered nearby. A child’s bike was lying on the path, skis and poles were propped at the side of the house. Though she couldn’t see Leena’s children, the yard was so full of happy, chaotic life that Anna felt almost faint having to walk across it bearing such terrible news. I won’t get through this, she thought and rang the doorbell.

Leena opened the door. Her expression said it all; she already knew what Anna had to say.

‘Come in,’ said Leena. Anna stepped into the cosy house, which had been renovated with painstaking reverence for the old-fashioned feel of the building. Leena took her coat, put it on a clothes hanger and hung it in the closet.

‘Tea or coffee?’ she asked.

‘Tea, please.’

They went into the kitchen. There were no sounds of children, and the television and radio were silent. The atmosphere in the house was peaceful. It would be nice to live here, thought Anna.

‘I don’t have cake or anything,’ said Leena as she put some water on to boil and set cups on the table. ‘I’ve been trying to lose weight, so I don’t want to fill the cupboards with temptation.’

‘It doesn’t matter. I don’t really feel like eating,’ said Anna.

Once the tea was ready, Leena sat down across the table from Anna.

‘Have you found my mother?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ said Anna. She could feel a lump in her throat, and it wouldn’t go away no matter how much she tried to swallow.

‘Where?’

‘At the landfill site at Mustikkamäki.’

‘So she’s dead?’

‘Yes.’

‘How?’

‘The coroner will release a statement about your mother’s death once she has examined the body. But what we do know is…’

Anna had to take a breath. She couldn’t put this into words. This was the worst thing about police work, meeting victims’ relatives, telling them what had happened to their loved ones.

‘Is what? Just say it. I sensed all along that something terrible had happened.’

‘Her throat had been slit with a large knife. We found a knife some time ago in the woods near Ketoniemi, but the police will have to compare the blood found on the knife to a sample from your mother before we can say with any certainty if it was the murder weapon. At present that is our assumption.’

Leena sat still and quiet. She looked at Anna unblinking as large, round tears formed in the corners of her eyes, ran down her cheeks and dropped on the table and into her teacup. Then she began to tremble. The weeping wrenched her body so strongly that Anna thought she might fall from her chair.

‘I’m very sorry,’ said Anna. How meaningless it sounded. ‘My sincerest condolences.’

‘I’m glad she’s been found. At least now we know what happened. Uncertainty is the worst thing of all, or so they say,’ said Leena through her sobs. ‘I’ll have to call my husband. He’s out skating with the children. I want them to come home straight away.’

‘Of course, by all means,’ said Anna.

Leena went into the other room; her weepy voice could be heard in the kitchen.

‘They’ll be here soon,’ she said when she returned. ‘My husband is in shock. I hope he’s able to drive safely.’

‘I’m afraid there are a number of things I still have to ask you.
Are you able to answer now or would you prefer me to come back tomorrow?’

‘Let’s do it now,’ said Leena and rubbed her eyes, smudging mascara across her cheek. ‘I want the killer found straight away.’

‘Good. Do you have any idea how your mother could have ended up in Ketoniemi? We believe that’s where she was stabbed. Did she have any friends there?’

‘No. I’ve already said she didn’t have many friends. How did she end up at the landfill site?’

‘We still have to establish that. Her body was placed in a large plastic bag. The driver noticed her as he was emptying the rubbish truck.’

‘Good God. It’s sick, completely sick. How can I tell my children something like that?’

‘Don’t tell them any details, not yet at least. Perhaps when they’re older. For now it’s enough just to say their grandmother has died.’

‘Mother didn’t know anyone in Ketoniemi,’ said Leena quietly and started crying once again.

‘We looked into the number your mother had called shortly before she disappeared.’

‘Villy. Is he the killer?’

‘Villy’s full name is Vilho Karppinen. He was your mother’s neighbour.’

‘Why on earth would she call him?’

‘Can you tell us anything about that? Did your mother know Vilho well?’

‘I don’t know. She never spoke about anyone called Vilho.’

‘Somehow their stories are linked, and so are their deaths.’

‘This is all so shocking,’ Leena gasped.

The front door rattled and the sounds of people taking coats off came from the hallway. A tall, bearded man, his eyes bleary with tears, stepped into the kitchen and took Leena in his arms. Three children looked at their parents in shock. Anna thought of her own grandmother, whose condition had worsened. She felt like one of those children.

‘I’ll leave you in peace,’ said Anna. ‘We’ll be in touch, and please call me immediately if you think of anything that seems important, anything at all.’

‘Yes,’ came Leena’s stifled sob from within her husband’s arms.

Anna returned to the police station with a heavy heart. It would be best to go straight home, climb under the duvet, eat some chocolate and listen to music, forget all the terrible things that had happened and sleep for at least ten hours, she thought, exhausted. But she had work to do, so she would have to struggle on for a few hours yet. Esko was already waiting for her.

The caretaker from Leppioja had been called in for questioning. He seemed nervous and frightened, almost childlike as he sat squirming on a chair at the table in the interview room. All his arrogance had disappeared somewhere along the way, Anna noted contentedly.

‘You can start by telling us where you were on the twelfth of March,’ Esko boomed.

Esko was always stern and intimidating in interview situations, but now Anna noticed that he could be downright terrifying.

‘At work,’ Kari Haapsaari answered abruptly.

‘What, all day? We’re particularly interested in your movements that evening and night.’

‘After work I went home. That evening someone called me out because of a burst pipe, so I had to take care of that.’

‘Where?’

‘In Vesala.’

Anna and Esko glanced at once another. The rubbish truck had driven through Vesala.

‘What time was that?’

‘Around eight o’clock. Why are you asking?’

‘We suspect your involvement in the recent deaths at the house in Leppioja. You already know about Marko Halttu and Vilho Karppinen, and now Riitta Vehviläinen has been found dead.’

‘How can you think I had anything to do with it? I haven’t done
anything,’ the man said in a panic and fidgeted with his shirt buttons, his eyes wide with fear.

‘Because you’re already involved in some illegal activities, aren’t you? We know all about the construction and renovation projects you’ve managed, the receipt fraud and your links to a certain motorbike gang.’

‘What the hell?’ yelled the caretaker.

‘Yes, what the hell?’ Esko snapped. ‘But we’re not interested in your dodgy finances. Don’t worry. Officers from the fraud squad will want to talk to you about that shortly. We’re interested in what’s been going on in Leppioja.’

‘I don’t know anything about that. You can believe what you like.’

‘We don’t believe a word of it. Did Vilho and Riitta find out about your little side business? Is that why you had to shut them up?’

‘What are you talking about? Of course I didn’t!’

‘You told us earlier that Vilho had complained about noises coming from the pipes and that you’d visited his apartment. Was that the real reason you went there? Was it something else he wanted to talk about?’

‘Like what?’

‘Something to do with the pipe renovation, for instance. Had Vilho realised that what he’d read in the documents handed out by the housing association didn’t quite match what he’d seen, heard and calculated for himself?’

‘He complained about a noise.’

‘How could brand new pipes have made such a racket?’ Anna asked.

The caretaker glared at her. ‘That’s what I thought too.’

‘Besides, Marko Halttu, another resident at the house, was involved in a drug racket operated by the Hell’s Angels. Might it be the case that during this pipe renovation you ended up owing the Angels some money, and they started asking you to do them little favours in the house where everything had started going wrong?’ Esko suggested.

‘You’re wrong. That’s not what happened,’ Haapsaari shouted.

‘So what did happen?’

‘I haven’t killed anybody. I went straight home from Vesala at around ten o’clock. My wife can verify it.’

‘And we will verify if you’re lying,’ Esko added chillingly.

THE AIR SMELT
of the thawing earth, dog’s droppings and last autumn’s rotten leaves revealed beneath the melting snow. Snow buntings flew in a wild flock across the ice-covered shoreline, their white wings fluttering like small, happy fans. How magnificent the migratory birds are, thought Anna. This was something she loved about her northern city and the surrounding countryside. With the proximity of the sea, you couldn’t help noticing the return of the birds. They came in waves; like the sea itself. First came a few solitary birds, daring and cautious, the rooks, seagulls and snow buntings, soon to be followed by the geese, swans, ducks, then the waders and smaller birds that eat insects, and the air that had been so silenced by the winter months was suddenly filled with the birds’ agitated cries and calls, squawks and singing. Anna wasn’t a passionate bird-watcher, she could only identify a few of the most common species, but there was something fascinating about migratory birds. They lived in the north and the south, flew tirelessly back and forth, and always found their way home. It was incredible.

Anna was walking towards the forensics laboratory. Streams of water trickled into the drains; the crunch of footsteps on snow had turned to a squelch. Her phone rang in her pocket. It was Gabriella. She had told the girl not to call her again.

‘
Szia
,’ said Anna after wondering whether or not to answer.

‘Szia. Hogy vagy?’

‘Jól, köszi. És te?’

‘Listen, Anna. I need to talk.’

‘Well?’

‘I’m sorry I was so rude last time.’

‘Apology accepted,’ said Anna curtly. Though it isn’t really, she thought.

‘I must have been really worn out.’

‘It’s all right,’ said Anna.

‘Really?’

‘Let’s just forget about it.’

‘Thanks, Anna. Listen, I’ve been thinking about things, and you know what, I’d really like to stay in Finland for another year. I thought I could study Finnish at the Open University; it could come in really handy when I go back to Hungary.’

‘
És?
’ asked Anna, slightly puzzled.

‘I thought you might be able to help me out. I’d like to find another family that needs an au pair.’

Anna thought about this for a moment. She’d been horrible to Gabriella for no good reason; she was the one that should be apologising, not the other way round. Anna had been avoiding her, though the girl just seemed in need of a friend. Again she thought of the migratory birds that always find their way home. Gabriella was like one of them, but Anna … Gabriella was right; Anna really was envious. It was hard to admit, but it was the truth.

‘I might have an idea,’ she said eventually and heard Gabriella gasp with excitement. ‘One of my colleagues might be interested. I could talk to her.’

‘Oh, Anna, thank you! Great. You’re a treasure.’

‘Well, not quite,’ said Anna, embarrassed.

‘Hogy van a nagymamád?’

‘Not very well. Her condition has worsened.’

‘I’m sorry. Tell Ákos I said hello when you next talk to him. When is he coming back?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Anna. A sense of yearning gripped her stomach.

Anna said goodbye to Gabriella and stepped into the large, white building through the heavy front door. She took the lift down to the basement where Linnea was already waiting for her.

Riitta Vehviläinen was lying on her back on the metallic gurney.
She was small and thin. It would have been easy to drag her out of the woodland and throw her in a rubbish bin. What a gruesome end to a human life, thought Anna. To end up in a tip amongst bags of rubbish.

‘I’ve done the preliminary autopsy, measured and weighed the organs, that sort of thing,’ said Linnea. ‘We can concentrate on the wound to the throat and other signs of violence, and the
livor mortis
, of course. I’ll try and estimate her time of death as precisely as possible.’

Anna shuddered. Riitta was so ghostly pale. Anna had seen plenty of bodies during her time with patrol. It was an unavoidable part of police work, but it still felt terrible every time. She took out her camera and began photographing the body.

Linnea leaned over to examine the neck and spoke her findings aloud into a dictation machine.

‘Slightly curved, almost horizontal wound at the front of the neck, clean-edged and sharp at both ends, twenty-one centimetres in length. The wound is gaping, and without pulling back the skin its width from top to bottom is around five centimetres. Blood has flowed from the wound, drying around the neck and chest area. The wound is around three centimetres deep. Horizontal wounds severing the carotid artery and surrounding veins are visible on both sides.’

Anna watched, captivated, as Linnea worked; she listened to her voice, which had become cold and matter-of-fact.

Finally Linnea switched off the Dictaphone and spoke to Anna. ‘So, in layman’s terms, this slit was caused by an extremely sharp weapon and probably in a single motion. The victim would have died from blood loss very quickly.’

‘Surely the killer must have been covered in blood,’ Anna wondered.

‘Not necessarily. The easiest way to slit someone’s throat is from behind. That means only the hands would be covered in blood spatter.’

‘True.’

‘Judging by the level of
livor mortis
, I estimate that death occurred some time ago. The marks are a brownish-red colour, because of the sub-zero temperatures we’ve had lately. What’s more, the body has begun to dry out slightly.’

‘When?’

‘As you know, I can’t say for sure, but I imagine some time at the beginning of March. The first two weeks. I’ll be in touch straight away if I can make my estimate any more specific.’

‘Vilho Karppinen died on the twelfth,’ said Anna.

‘This woman died around the same time. It could even be the same day.’

‘Interesting. That fits our theory. Did you find anything else?’

‘Let’s see. There are no defensive marks on the hands, and there are no other stab wounds on the body.’

‘So she went off with her killer without being coerced and walked into the woods like a lamb to the slaughter.’

Linnea smirked. ‘You probably won’t believe it, but I’m a country girl at heart. We had lambs at home, and they don’t walk calmly to the slaughterhouse either. They struggle and fight back as much as they can. Believe me. I know. But you’re right; this lady wasn’t taken anywhere by force.’

‘Okay,’ said Anna and switched off the camera. ‘Let’s be in touch when anything new comes to light.’

‘Join me for a drink on Friday night,’ Linnea suggested.

‘I don’t think I’ll have time,’ said Anna, somewhat frustrated. Did she always have to ask?

‘Somehow I knew you’d say that. Have a good weekend.’

Anna tried to smile, but she noticed Linnea seemed hurt. Once this case is tied up, I must ask her out for an evening, Anna resolved.

Nils called Anna as she was walking back to the station. The sea opened up before her, white and grey. The snow buntings had flown elsewhere. Nils had established the route the rubbish truck had
taken and had examined all the bins in the area. In only three places were the bins large enough to hold something the size of a human body.

‘But none of them is anywhere near Leppioja,’ said Nils with disappointment.

‘The killer was moving by car. They could have dumped Riitta anywhere. As far away from her own home as possible, of course.’

‘One of the bins was in a well-hidden place. If I needed to dump a body, I’d use that one. None of the surrounding houses has a direct view out to this bin.’

‘But have a chat with the neighbours anyway. Maybe one of them saw something.’

‘I’ll get on to it.’

‘There were tyre tracks at the crime scene. Have we learned anything else about the vehicle?’

‘No, but those gang members drive around in an SUV.’

‘Get Esko to look into the car.’

‘Have you got any new information?’ asked Nils.

‘I’ve just been to the autopsy. I’ll tell you all about it at the meeting tomorrow morning and show you the photographs. Riitta probably died at around the same time as Vilho.’

Nils whistled at the other end of the telephone. It stung Anna’s ear.

‘Sari and I are going to Leppioja later on. We’ll have to talk to the neighbours again.’

‘Good luck with that. See you in the morning.’

‘You too,’ said Anna. Something pleasant flared in her chest. Nils was a really nice guy.

The sound of children playing came from behind the Kumpula family’s door. Their mother opened the door, and Anna could see that a box of Lego had been emptied across the hallway floor. The children were sitting on the rug, building something with great concentration, and only glanced up at the police officers standing at the door
before continuing to play, as though nothing in the world could have disturbed them. Anna felt a fleeting sense of longing, a desire to go back to a time that had been lost forever. She thought of her grandmother, who always fetched a box of toys from a bedroom cupboard every time Anna visited, battered old Barbies with tangled, fuzzy hair, rubber figurines with gnawed heads and legs.

‘It’s a bit crowded here at the moment, but do come in,’ said Virpi Kumpula apologetically. ‘Let’s go through to the kitchen.’

Anna and Sari followed her, stepping over children and pieces of Lego.

‘I’ve heard about the other terrible things going on here, not just that Halttu,’ said Virpi as they sat at the kitchen table. ‘Would you like some coffee?’

‘No, thank you,’ said Sari. ‘You’re right. Two other neighbours have died in suspicious circumstances. Vilho Karppinen and Riitta Vehviläinen.’

‘It’s shocking. We’re frightened here,’ said Virpi.

‘That’s perfectly understandable, but I don’t think you’re in any danger. It seems the elderly victims had one way or another got themselves mixed up with the same group of organised criminals that is somehow responsible for Halttu’s death. They possibly saw something they weren’t supposed to see,’ Anna explained and looked at Sari.

‘We haven’t seen anything, thank goodness,’ said Virpi and glanced at her children playing in the hallway.

‘Have you had any problems with the pipework since the renovations?’ asked Anna.

‘No, why?’ Virpi seemed perplexed.

‘Vilho Karppinen had complained to the housing association about noises from the new pipes.’

‘I haven’t heard any noises.’

‘How well do you know the caretaker of this building?’

‘I’ve never actually seen him. I only know his name from the paperwork given to us by the housing association.’

‘Did the pipe renovation go as planned, as far as you know?’

‘Yes. Everything happened on time. We had no complaints. It was expensive, of course, but there’s nothing you can do about that. Why do you ask?’

‘We’re looking into a line of enquiry involving the caretaker here. Have you heard any rumours about him?’

‘No. He’s never here really.’

‘Good. Did you know Riitta or Vilho?’

‘I knew who they were. I mean, we said hello to one another in the stairwell, sometimes had a chat out in the yard, the way neighbours normally talk to one another, nothing more than that. We’ve never visited one another’s flats, for instance. Riitta hardly ever went out in the yard, but Vilho was in much better shape. He spent a lot of time outdoors.’

‘Did you ever notice anything strange about them? Did they seem worried, afraid?’

‘No. But I did notice Riitta ringing Vilho’s doorbell fairly frequently. And she went inside his flat too.’

‘Really? When did you last see Riitta?’

‘Maybe a couple of weeks ago, a month perhaps. She was standing at Vilho’s door when I came back from work.’

‘Did you talk to her?’

‘No. Hang on … yes. Riitta seemed a bit flustered and explained that she’d run out of salt and had to borrow some from Vilho. How did they die?’ Virpi looked worriedly at Anna and Sari.

‘I’m afraid we’re not at liberty to reveal any details at the moment.’

‘Did anybody else ever ring Vilho’s doorbell?’ asked Sari.

‘Well, I don’t spy on all my neighbours’ guests. It’s not as if there was a constant flow of people in and out.’

‘The scary lady upstairs,’ said a bright little boy’s voice. A blond boy of around eight had appeared at the kitchen door.

‘What?’ said Virpi. ‘Those children of mine are always listening in to grown-ups’ conversations,’ she continued apologetically.

‘What about the lady upstairs?’ asked Anna and gave the boy an encouraging smile.

‘She was always ringing Mr Karppinen’s doorbell too.’

Mrs Lehmusvirta opened the door with the same sour expression as before.

‘What is it now?’ she snapped, opening the door only a few centimetres.

‘Can we come in?’ Anna asked as jovially as she could muster. ‘We’re interviewing everyone in the house again.’

‘Why?’

‘Because two of your neighbours, Vilho Karppinen and Riitta Vehviläinen, have died.’

‘They were old.’

‘That’s true,’ said Sari. ‘But both died in suspicious circumstances, so if you wouldn’t mind…’

‘Very well, come in,’ Mrs Lehmusvirta groaned, opened the door a few centimetres more and disappeared inside the apartment.

It was dark inside. The hallway was heavy with stagnant air and the thick stench of food, meat and gravy. Anna felt sick. She suddenly felt a craving for mushroom soup. I must have some later on, she thought and wondered what had brought on this sudden urge. Normally she never ate mushrooms.

‘How well did you know Karppinen and Vehviläinen?’ Sari asked in the drab kitchen fitted with dated, dark-brown wooden cupboards. The curtains were pulled shut; only a faint light came from the lamp above the stove, making the pedantically scoured hob gleam.

‘Not very well. I knew Riitta better than Vilho.’

‘Witnesses say you have been seen at Karppinen’s door regularly. Why did you visit him if you didn’t know him very well?’ asked Anna. The woman’s cocky, uptight attitude was beginning to annoy her.

The woman didn’t answer straight away. She began angrily
scrubbing the kitchen table with a cloth, muttering something about the crumbs that were taking over the whole house.