The Hummingbird (51 page)

So everything’s finally going well, but I’m still really worried about Adan. The thought of her being taken into foster care feels awful, but at least now I know she’s safe. It’s hard for me that we can’t keep in touch. I hope she’s been placed with a nice family. Thanks for forwarding her my message. Otherwise she’d be frightened all the time; she’d think I was really dead. But I’ll see her again. At the very latest when she turns 18 and can travel out here by herself.

As for my fucking arsehole of a family. It serves them right that they think they’re still being investigated for my disappearance. Now it’s their turn to sit at home shitting themselves, wondering what’s going to happen
next – just like yours truly did for years. It’s not like they can be convicted of anything, because there’s nothing to link them to my disappearance. I know it sounds cruel, but I don’t pity them in the least.

Maybe Mehvan. But just a bit.

Love B.

P.S. Juse is applying for school exchange next year. Guess where?

After reading everything carefully, Anna deleted the message and removed it from her email trash folder. Then she destroyed the email account altogether; it had been created for one reason only. Now nothing could link her to Bihar or her disappearance. Finally Anna switched off her computer. She expected to feel a sense of relief, but there was none.

From her wallet she took out the business card that she had been turning in her fingers every now and then for some time now.

Pink Ink. Professional Tattooing and Piercing. Because You’re Unique.

She thought of that striking face, covered in tattoos, the arms and fingers decorated with ink patterns.

Then she dialled the number on the card.

THANK YOU

Thank you to Aino, Ilona and Robert for the love, the creativity, the light that shines from each and every one of you.

Thank you to everyone at Otava, particularly Aleksi. Thank you to Jaakko, Maija and Jani for advice regarding police procedure, to Satu for tips on forensic science and to Sari for correcting a few medical details. As you can see, details aside, imagination still won the day.

Thank you to my mother for reading to me indefatigably when I was a child. Without you this would never have happened.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KATI
HIEKKAPELTO
is a special needs teacher by training. She lives on an old farm on the island of Hailuoto in Northern Finland with her children and sizeable menagerie. Hiekkapelto has taught immigrants and lived in the Hungarian region of Serbia. This is her first novel. The sequel,
The Defenceless,
will be published in 2015 by Arcadia Books.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

DAVID
HACKSTON
is a British translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. He graduated from University College London in 1999 with a degree in Scandinavian Studies and now lives in Helsinki where he works as a freelance translator. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation.

Copyright

Arcadia Books Ltd 139
Highlever Road
London W10 6PH
www.arcadiabooks.co.uk

First published in the United Kingdom by Arcadia Books 2014
Originally published as
Kolibri
by Otava, 2013
Copyright © Kati Hiekkapelto 2013
English language translation copyright © David Hackston 2014

Kati Hiekkapelto asserted her moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This Ebook edition published in 2014

ISBN 978–1–909807–75–4

Arcadia Books is grateful for the financial support of FILI, who provided a translation grant for this project.

Typeset in Garamond by MacGuru Ltd

Arcadia Books supports English PEN
www.englishpen.org
and
The Book Trade Charity
www.btbs.org