Wolves and Angels (27 page)

Koskinen was afraid that she would burst into tears again, but
instead
she
took a couple of steps back
.

“Do you know any reliable and affordable real estate agents who could handle selling my diner? I don’t have the energy to deal with the hassle.”

Koskinen thought. He did know one, but not an honest one. Emilia’s new partner was a professional real estate agent. But Koskinen wouldn’t recommend him even to his worst enemy, if he happened to come by one of those someday.

“I can ask around,” he said, standing up. “I’ll see you out.”

They went down to the first floor in the elevator. Koskinen couldn’t come up with anything that seemed worth saying, and Riitta Makkonen seemed to have lapsed into her own world as well. They shook hands at the front doors. Her grip was insubstantial and hurried. She mumbled something incoherent, ran out onto the street, and disappeared from sight.

Koskinen circled back by the duty desk.

“Did you see whether Pekki left yet?” he asked Tiikko.

“He hasn’t notified me of anything at least.”

“Good,” Koskinen said and then turned to go. However, Tiikko yelled after him.

“Wait!”

“Yeah?” Koskinen stopped and wondered, irritated, if this was going to be something frivolous about the trail run again.

“Have you thought it over?”

“Thought what over?”

“My wife’s sister.” Tiikko’s pockmarked face took on a conspiratorial, knowing look. “Should I set up that coincidental dinner, or do you want a blind date?”

“Not now, not yet,” Koskinen said impatiently. “I’ve got all kinds of other things going on.”

“I understand.” Tiikko nodded. “You’ve got to get ready to pull your Flying Finn act tomorrow. Let’s talk again after the race.”

Koskinen spun around quickly and jogged up the stairs taking three at a time. Pekki was in his office and looked at him in surprise when he walked in wearing a dark expression.

“Well, what now?”

“Your theory is wrong,” Koskinen said and then felt his mood improve. “The Adolf Kantola case doesn’t have anything to do with the wheelchair murders.”

Pekki adjusted his glasses and cocked his head. “And how did you figure that out so quick?”

“I just did.”

Koskinen handed Pekki a page ripped out of his notebook.

Pekki looked at the two names written on the paper. “Who are they?”

“Kantola’s assailants, either together or separately. Two
nineteen
-year-old kids. I’d bet my own head that
they have nothing to do with
Timonen
and
Salmi
.”

In some other situation Koskinen probably would have laughed at Pekki’s expression. It was the picture of consternation. His mouth wouldn’t close, and his eyes kept making funny up-down, up-down motions between the cross-ruled sheet of paper and Koskinen. His words were also more like a ham-fisted book blurb: “What…where…when…?”

But Koskinen didn’t feel like savoring the situation any further. He repeated Riitta Makkonen’s story: the reason for Mika’s flight, the hiding of the stolen goods, and how she had revealed the circumstances of Kantola’s assault half unintentionally. He also mentioned that she probably didn’t know how Mika’s friends’ last job had ended.

It still took Pekki a while to digest it all. He scratched behind his ear, leaving his hair sticking up in that spot. Koskinen thought that it was about time for Pekki to pay a visit to the barber. His bangs were touching his eyebrows, and in the back his hair was all the way down to his collar. But everyone at the station knew that Pekki only had his hair trimmed twice a year, in the spring in a light summer cut and then the next time not until right before Christmas.

Pekki finally pulled himself together with admirable composure.
“So that’s how it is. I guess all that’s left is to issue the APB.”

“Do it,” Koskinen said. “And also notify Järvelin. He’ll appreciate us helping him clear up these vacation robberies. I know he has a pretty hefty folder of unsolved break-ins on the shelf.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to call him yourself?” Pekki grinned. “There’s probably a cold one in it.”

Koskinen shook his head. “I’m going to Wolf House.”

Koskinen saw how Pekki suddenly grew uncomfortable. He rubbed the red marker stains on his palm and talked as if his conversation partner were under the desk.

“Um
...
”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t see any point in you wasting your time over there anymore. Now that the Kantola case is solved, I can take the lead again.”

“Fat chance!”

Koskinen’s absoluteness surprised Pekki. “What do you mean ‘fat chance’?”

“This is my case now.”

“Yours?” Pekki was getting agitated now. “What do you mean cavorting around like this? Wasn’t it enough that you ruined the morning meeting by questioning my theory before I even had a chance to explain it?”

“Well, didn’t it turn out to be worthy of questioning?”

Koskinen’s sneer was the last straw. Pekki sprang to his feet behind his desk and pointed his finger at Koskinen.

“And what the hell were you thinking giving Eskola the Laine tail.”

“He’ll do just as well at it as any of us.”

“Do you really have to go sticking your nose into every little thing? None of our old lieutenants interfered with field
work
. I wish you’d just sit behind your big desk with your red pen looking for typos in reports.”

This was too much for Koskinen. He stepped right up nose-to-nose with Pekki and unloaded everything that had been weighing on him since morning.

“This is my case. End of discussion. Without me mucking things up, Rauha
Salmi
would still be alive.”

Pekki took a step back. “Huh?”

“I should have put Wolf House under 24-hour guard on Wednesday morning. As soon as we figured out that
Timonen
was from there.”

Pekki sat back in his chair. He stared at the red stains on his hands.

“There’s no point beating yourself over something like that. I should’ve thought of the same thing.”

Koskinen turned to the door. Over his shoulder he said, “So let’s get to work and make sure there isn’t a third victim.”

17.

The institutional routine that had taken shape at Wolf House over the years had been severely disrupted. They couldn’t even manage to serve breakfast. The cooks were so upset that they were unable to prepare anything beyond coffee, but there probably wouldn’t have been any takers for anything more hearty anyway.
T
he residents had
n
evertheless
gathered in the dining room,
slump
ing
in their wheelchairs. Only an occasional quiet sob was audible. Those who were able wiped tears from their eyes.

Rauha
Salmi
’s death had affected everyone.

Koskinen had arrived half an hour after his colleagues. He found Kaatio in the dining room, sitting near the doorway with a mug of coffee and a dry-looking half of a cinnamon bun in front of him.

“How are things going here?”

“I think we should have already picked up the taxi driver,” Kaatio said, wiping crumbs from the corners of his mouth. “He didn’t have an alibi for last night either.”

“You already interviewed him?”

“He stopped by a few minutes ago picking up one of the residents for a trip to the dentist.”

“And you let him?”

“He’s under surveillance.”

“Right.” Koskinen nodded. “How did he seem?”

“Nervous.”

“Who wouldn’t be affected by this mess?”

“Still.” Kaatio curled his lips. “
It was a different kind of
nervousness.
More like guilt.
”

“Probably just afraid his taxi voucher scam will come out.”

“Could be. Still, I would’ve brought him in for a few days.”

“Won’t work.” Koskinen shook his head. “We don’t have any evidence against him.
Just n
ot having an alibi isn’t enough…”

“What about that he was heard and seen visiting here on the night of the first death?”

“Heard and seen
,
” Koskinen snorted. “Taisto Toivakka heard the sound of a car and saw the flash of some tail lights. He’s seventy years old.”

“Does Laine know about Toivakka’s statement?”

Koskinen thought he understood what Kaatio was getting at. He remembered the conversation he had had with Laine on Wednesday.

“I told him that someone had seen his van, but not who. Even though he asked.”

Koskinen looked at Kaatio’s face, weather beaten from
all the
time on the
soccer
field
s
. “There might be something to your idea.”

“What idea?”

“But if the motive was to silence a troublesome witness, then why wasn’t the victim Taisto Toivakka instead of Rauha
Salmi
?”

“I don’t know,” Kaatio said. “But in any case, you’re closing in on the problem I’ve been sitting here wondering about all morning.”

“What problem?”

“The differ
ence in the victims—Timonen
and
Salmi
were complete opposites. Raymond was a brawler who was disliked by everyone, whereas everyone liked Rauha. From the very first statements I took, it was clear that she was the most gentle, innocent person alive.”

Koskinen looked past Kaatio at the people sitting in the hall, sorrowful hunched figures waiting for their turn to be interviewed. Just yesterday Rauha
Salmi
had been
sitting in their midst. Maybe after eating she had sat admiring the autumn vista through the tall windows, watched
The Bold and the Beautiful
, or listened to the evening service.

“Yeah, why
Salmi
?” He turned back to Kaatio. “Maybe she really knew something about
Timonen
’s death.”

“But what?”

“You said she was trying to explain something to you on Wednesday.”

“Yeah.” Kaatio nodded. “I’ve wracked my brain, but I just can’t figure out what on earth she meant by those words: ‘no dance.’”

“
Salmi
wanted to tell us something,” Koskinen said, his eyes half shut. “Both nurses were there then, Anniina Salonen and Lea Kalenius. I asked them what
Salmi
was trying to say, but
both of them shrugged it off: d
on’t listen to her, she’s senile…”

“That was the impression I got too.”

“But nobody gets killed just for being empty-headed.”

Kaatio flicked crumbs of cinnamon bun off the tablecloth as if he were making penalty kicks.

“If we leave the nurses off the list of suspects at this point, then we unavoidably end up back at Laine again.”

“How so?”

“Laine transported
Salmi
to the doctor, to church, and who knows where else, dozens of times. He probably understood her speech better than most. Yesterday, he drove her to her rehab center.
Apparently her asthma
was bad
enough that
the meds made her bloodwork look like she was a doper trying to get on the Olympic cross-country ski team.
”

Kaatio
paused,
and then continued:
“Maybe
Salmi
said something on that trip that made Laine draw his own conclusions.”

Koskinen couldn’t help but join in the train of thought.

“Who knows?” he said. “So Eskola just took off trailing Laine?”

“Yeah. He snuck out to his Honda and then waited half a minute before starting after the taxi. It’s easy to follow that big of a vehicle, even if it has a good head start.”

Kaatio had a down
-
fuzz mustache and his upper lip was thinner than his lower, which together made his smile look more like a cunning smirk.

“It took me a while to realize how clever it was to make Eskola do the tail.”

“Clever?” Koskinen’s brows went up. “Clever how?”

“He isn’t here getting in the way. And besides, surveill
ance is
a piece of cake during the day. Laine will strike at night if he strikes at all.”

“I wasn’t thinking about it that way,” Koskinen said. “Eskola can take a break for an afternoon nap and then get back to his post for the night.”

Kaatio looked at him in surprise. “You mean you’re going to have him pull a night shift too?”