Black Noise
Page 36
58.
At home in Hampstead, Lia showered. Then she rang her parents in Finland.
She saw Mr Vong in the garden with Gro and went out to meet them. Gro was overjoyed at their reunion, even though Lia had only been gone a few days. The time had felt much longer for both of them.
Lia stroked the dog, bewildered at how happy such a mundane meeting could make them both.
Mr Vong had read the book Lia gave him. He thought it was very moving.
‘I had no idea what a wonderful namesake Gro has,’ Mr Vong said. ‘I should follow the news more carefully.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Lia said. ‘Maybe it’s better to keep your distance.’
She didn’t ask whether he wanted to keep Gro. She could see it in both of them.
‘Do you know, whenever we’re in the stairway, Gro’s tail wags at one door every time? Your flat, if you’re home,’ Mr Vong said. ‘If you aren’t home, it doesn’t wag.’
Bless you, Mr Vong. You always know the right words to say.
After her fitful night’s sleep on the plane and the restless day afterwards, Lia didn’t have the energy for an evening jog. After what had happened to them, in London and in Zanzibar, readjusting to normal life was difficult. It was as if she still had to be on constant alert because a new emergency could arise at any second.
On her home computer, she watched a few Someone Cares videos. She glanced at the news. An article about Zanzibar had appeared on the New York Times homepage: a major police operation was ramping up, but no details were available other than that the island was on lockdown. Due to ongoing police interviews, no one was being allowed off, not even tourists.
She wondered whether she should text Mari, but then she decided Mari had probably already seen and would want to go to the island anyway.
She considered ringing the gun range. It wasn’t late, and maybe Bob Pell would have a free lane.
But maybe not.
Zanzibar was still too close, the memory of running through the dark with a pistol in her hand and shooting Philip Dillon. She would want to experience the feeling of a weapon in her hands again though. Not now, not soon, but someday. As far as the proprietor went – Bob Pell could be an extreme last resort, someone to call if being alone became utterly unbearable at some point. Now being by herself was a relief.
One person was on her mind the whole evening. She logged on to Skype and tried to ring, but there was no answer. She left the machine on and logged in. Maybe her call would be noticed.
Half an hour later, Lia heard the Internet phone app trill. Mamia was on the line just returning Lia’s call.
Getting the video connection working took a few seconds. Mamia’s face betrayed her irritation.
‘Where on earth were you two this time?’ she asked.
Mamia had been worried and vexed that Mari hadn’t responded to her messages.
‘You kept an old lady worried for a week,’ she said reproachfully.
‘Oh, we were fine,’ Lia said. ‘Didn’t Mari send you a text message a few days ago?’
‘Yes, she did. It just said, “On a trip, talk when we can.”’
They had been in Africa, Lia said.
‘Africa? Any more precise coordinates?’ Mamia asked.
Lia laughed.
‘Ask Mari.’
‘I will. Is she all right?’
Lia thought for the space of a long intake of breath.
‘Yes. Yes, she is. We all are.’
Mamia’s face came closer to the camera.
‘I can even see through this pale computer screen that you’re not telling me everything again. But that’s fine. Just don’t think I don’t notice.’
‘Mamia?’
‘Yes?’
‘I have a question.’
‘OK.’
‘Tell me what happened that time at your family reunion, back all those years ago at Vanajanlinna Estate. Tell me all of it.’
‘You certainly are persistent,’ Mamia chided gently. ‘You seem to remember everything.’
Lia waited. She saw Mamia weighing the limits of their confidence.
‘You said once that night feels different in London from here,’ Mamia said. ‘Because there are more people to share it with.’
The same thing went for information, she said. Sometimes information changes according to how many people share it.
Lia nodded. Mamia’s eyes glistened a little. Maybe it was from the light reflecting from the screen, or maybe she was moved.
‘It wasn’t anything terribly dramatic that happened,’ Mamia said. ‘So much time has passed since then. It was mostly just sad. Such old, sad things aren’t really worth remembering.’
She hesitated, and then made her decision.
‘Yes, I can tell you. You want to understand. That’s important. Nowadays when so much information gets shared about people, we think knowing everything is important. Knowing every little detail. But the most important thing is understanding people, not knowing everything about them.’
First Lia had to promise one thing though, Mamia said.
‘That I’ll tell Mari what I know about her some day?’ Lia guessed.
Mamia nodded.
Lia looked straight into the tiny camera on the computer and at the old woman thousands of kilometres away.
‘I promise,’ Lia said.
Special thanks to
Samuli Knuuti, Ms Adkins, Nina Gimishanov, Jarkko Moilanen, Elisa Nurmi, Martha Pooley, Salla Pulli, Antti Sajantila, Deborah Gold and Peter Kelley at Galop UK, Joël Le Déroff at Ilga Europe, Maija-Liisa Ojala and Ulla Vanttaja at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, and the WSOY Literature Foundation which supported the writing of this novel.
Biographical note
Pekka Hiltunen is a Finnish author, whose debut novel in 2011 immediately became of the most acclaimed first novels in Finnish literature. The psychological thriller Cold Courage was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Prize for Best Debut of the year, a rare feat for a thriller. It won three literary prizes in Finland, including the Clue Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year, and it has been nominated for the Scandinavian Glass Key Award 2013.
Critics have pointed out that Hiltunen’s thrillers, called the Studio-series, started a whole new phase in Finnish crime lit. They combine global political topics with a smart urban setting and a nod to classical trickster novels.
Hiltunen also writes in other genres, and his books have been translated into six languages, including French and German. In 2013 he published a novel called BIG, about the tricky problem of the worldwide obesity phenomenon. Following a twenty-year career as a journalist in 2010 he received the Best Writing Editor Prize for his magazine articles. He specialises in extensive articles tackling social and political topics.
Hiltunen is a keen traveller. He loves the monthly supplements of quality British newspapers and devotes any free time to his two hobbies: holidaying away with his partner at a summer cottage by a small Finnish lake and inventing themes for imaginary surprise parties he wishes he could throw.
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Copyright
Published by Hesperus Nova
Hesperus Press Limited
28 Mortimer Street, London W1W 7RD
www.hesperuspress.com
First published by Hesperus Press Limited, 2014
© Pekka Hiltunen and WSOY
Original title ‘Sysipimeä’
First published in Finnish by Werner Söderström (WSOY) in 2012, Helsinki, Finland. Published by arrangement with Werner Söderström Ltd. (WSOY)
English language translation © Owen F. Witesman, 2014
Typeset by Sarah Newitt
Cover design by Dan Mogford
All rights reserved. This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–1–78094–377–0