Below the Surface

by Leena Lehtolainen

  “When did you have this discussion with Ms. Hackman?”

  “The day Dad got out of the hospital, sometime in the middle of September. I went to pick up Mom and Dad, but I drove by Annukka’s office on the way. No one else was there. Annukka said she was fine sitting on the information. It would give her something to publish that hadn’t been in the papers yet.”

  “Why did you wait until now to tell me this?”

  “Because I came to ask you to keep it quiet!” Andreas placed his hands on his knees and leaned toward me, and the alarm in his eyes looked anything but fake. “Sasha’s going to recover, but he’ll be weak for a long time. Dad is still recovering too, and it’s already a miracle he survived Sasha’s accident. And Heli is a complete mess. I’m not asking for myself; I’m asking for them.”

  “Did Annukka blackmail you and Heli?”

  “People like her don’t like silence; they want publicity.”

  I wasn’t sure what game Andreas was playing or whether he was really a gambler at all. He had at least as strong a motive to kill Hackman as Kervinen did, and his alibi wasn’t any great shakes. I knew that I should have called in a witness and had Andreas repeat his story on tape, but I decided to take a risk myself. Maybe the road to solving the crime would be through Heli and Andreas’s trust.

  “So Annukka promised not to publicize your affair before Sasha’s biography appeared?”

  Andreas stood and walked to the window. The day was cloudy despite the cold, and the occasional snowflakes looked lost as they fell slowly to the ground.

  “Right. We got a couple months of a grace period to arrange things. Of course I should have left and Heli should have asked Sasha to forgive her. That sounds simple, but the reality was a little different. Do you know how it feels to sit ten centimeters from the woman you love and not even be able to touch her? Do you know how it feels to read about your brother’s happy, functional marriage and know that it’s true and a big fucking lie all at the same time? Do you know how it feels when someone thinks it’s their right to reveal your feelings to the whole world as if they belong to everyone, as if anyone should get to comment on them and mock them? ‘Look at that goddamn loser,’ they’d say. ‘When he couldn’t keep up with his brother on the track, he tried to take his wife instead.’ I’m not arguing that I don’t deserve every nasty thing anyone has said and is going to say about me. I’m a good-for-nothing bastard and I know it. But I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone else.”

  “I think you already did,” I responded quietly.

  “Yes, I did.”

  However cathartic this may have been for Andreas, I needed to get back to what I really wanted to know.

  “Did Annukka Hackman tell you where she stored the manuscript to her book?”

  Andreas looked at me, startled.

  “The newspapers said the police have it!”

  “And we do. Do you have a copy of it too?”

  “No,” Andreas answered, but he turned his face toward the window again so it fell into shadow. “I know this is ridiculous, but can you keep your subordinates from leaking this to the press?”

  “I always require my subordinates to respect witnesses’ privacy.”

  “Thank you.” Andreas returned to the table and sipped the rest of his coffee. His hands were surprisingly small and his fingers surprisingly slender for such a tall man. Instinctively I looked at his feet as well. His shiny black shoes were at least size forty-four. The Smeds family probably owned any number of rubber boots.

  “Heli’s coming back to Finland tomorrow. They’re keeping Sasha sedated for now to reduce the stress on his body and allow the pressure in his brain to return to normal. At least I can go to the airport to meet her, and there’s nothing wrong with hugging your sister-in-law. Oh God, this is so messed up!”

  “Be prepared to repeat everything you just told me in an official interview later. And do you know whether Jouko Suuronen is in Finland?”

  “He’s coming on the same flight as Heli tomorrow. The Citroën team will take care of Sasha. How could he make such a stupid driving mistake? He was the best in the world! If Heikki dies, Sasha will never forgive himself.”

  Maybe Andreas was afraid that Sasha had found out and caused the accident on purpose. Whatever the case, he didn’t seem to have any more information, so I said I had work to do and asked him to leave. I called someone to escort him back downstairs. After the door closed behind them, I remained sitting on the couch. The coffee was giving me heartburn, so I searched for some antacid tablets in my purse. I knew I was probably doing the wrong thing by protecting Heli and Andreas, and it was making me anxious. A strong intuition told me that Heli wasn’t capable of murder or of protecting a murderer, but people have done much crazier things for love before.

  Since we were running out of options, I decided to issue all the search warrants I’d been considering, knowing I’d end up with half the world breathing down my neck, especially Jouko Suuronen and the media. The compensation planning questionnaire suddenly felt like a pleasant diversion. It was mostly multiple choice, so it didn’t require much thought. My colleagues and I had watched with great amusement as the parliamentary election candidates had promised to increase police funding and salaries. People’s sense of insecurity was increasing, and the police were seen as the heroes who would drive the drug dealers and motorcycle gangs out of their neighborhoods onto some reservation somewhere. But that required money. No wonder public support for the death penalty had been on the rise. Longer jail sentences would require increased social spending, but executions might save money. Few dared to utter such thoughts out loud, but I knew there were people even in my own profession who’d had enough of constantly catching and interrogating the same people. Lähde and Autio ran a betting pool on our most common suspects, laying down money on how long it would take each convicted knife fighter or rapist to get collared again for the same crime after their release. Usually the one who bet on the shorter time won. Actually homicides had decreased lately, although that was hard to believe if you watched the news.

  I almost had the survey filled out when my door buzzer rang. I pressed the green button, curious since most of my colleagues knew my door wasn’t locked and always just knocked. Ursula walked in wearing a strangely uncertain expression.

  “What’s up?” I said as I typed the last few words on the survey form. The typewriter felt clunky and old fashioned, but the form wasn’t available in an electronic format yet.

  “You probably aren’t going to like what you’re about to hear, but you’re the head of this unit, and I have to file a sexual harassment complaint.”

  “OK. What’s the problem?” I asked calmly, although I couldn’t remember ever being so bewildered.

  “It’s Pekka Koivu. I could have let what happened at the Christmas party go because he was drunk, but today was different.” Ursula sat down on the couch and crossed her legs. Her eye makeup and panty hose were both a shiny silver, and her nails had the same silvery polish on them I’d seen Friday night. Ursula had a confident sense of style.

  “What did Koivu do?” I had a hard time believing what I was hearing, even though Koivu had tried to get me to spend the night with him when we were at the Helsinki PD. I only had to say no once, though.

  “At the Christmas party he tried to grope me under my skirt when I came out of the bathroom. He suggested we get a room together at the hotel. When I said that didn’t work for me, he started calling me a whore for giving it up to everyone else in the unit. As if that was any of his business! Today we happened to be in the elevator together, and he pushed me against the wall and stuck his hand down my skirt.” Ursula’s face burned red, and there were tears in her eyes.

  “Were there any witnesses?”

  “Of course not! He was careful about where he attacked me. The bathroom hall was empty, and no one else was in the elevator. I demand that he be transferred to another unit.”

  12

  The rest of the day was a
mess. Of course I had to call Koivu in for questioning. I caught him at the Jääskeläinen search. He’d promised Anu he’d go straight home from there, but I said he had to come back to the station. Antti would have to pick up our kids. Ursula waited at the station to see if Koivu would confess. Sexual harassment was nothing new in our department, and a couple of times the alleged victim, instead of the accused perpetrator, had been moved into another job. I didn’t want that, although I couldn’t bear the thought of giving up working with Koivu.

  Koivu and I had first met a decade ago when we were both on the force in Helsinki. He then followed a woman to Joensuu in the northeast of the country, but shortly thereafter I ended up filling in as sheriff for the summer in my hometown just up the road. When Koivu’s romance ended, he was easy to lure to Espoo. He was a trusted partner and friend, like a brother to me, and I never would have imagined my brother being a sexual predator. When I realized I was already defending Koivu, I started to get irritated with myself. A minidress didn’t give anyone the right to grope a woman, nor did her flirting with other men. Nothing did.

  It was past four when Koivu finally sat down in my office. Without any introduction or attempt to soften it, I told him about Ursula’s accusations. Koivu went pale, took off his glasses, and looked at me like an alien from outer space.

  “You don’t believe that shit, do you? The truth is exactly the opposite. Ursula was the one who was chasing me around the Christmas party! I even told you so. If anyone was committing sexual harassment it was her, but men aren’t supposed to get upset over that; we’re supposed to like it! Ursula can tell me I’m hot all she wants, but if I say the same thing it’s a crime. Fuck this . . .”

  “Did you tell her she was hot?”

  “Yes, when she asked if I liked her new party dress. I said it was hot. That’s it. And yes, I was in the elevator with her today, but I didn’t lay a finger on her. I’m not interested in her.”

  “So Ursula’s lying?”

  “Yes. Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

  I shook my head, but I didn’t feel terribly relieved. It was just Koivu’s word against Ursula’s, and everyone in the building knew what close friends Koivu and I were. I was furious at Ursula for playing with something so serious, and angry at myself that I’d been so enthusiastic to hire her. My instincts had failed me.

  “I’ll try to talk some sense into Ursula. I don’t know if she’s mentioned this to anyone besides me yet. Hopefully not.”

  “Why on earth would she make an accusation like this?” Koivu rubbed his glasses on his shirt sleeve, then put them back on his face.

  “Hard to say. I’ll talk to her again. You go home, and say hi to Anu.”

  Koivu shook his head and stood up. Recently, he’d begun to look even more like a teddy bear, with his noticeable belly. Suddenly I felt like patting it, but I didn’t. Instead I went to find Ursula, who shared an office with Autio. She was sitting in front of her computer, with a picture of a rally car showing on the screen. Apparently she was tracking Sasha Smeds’s condition.

  “I had a chat with Koivu,” I told her. “He denies harassing you.”

  Ursula stood up and took a step toward me. The foundation and powder on her face couldn’t cover the way she blushed.

  “Of course he does. What did you expect? The only question is whether you believe him or me. Don’t you understand that it always works this way, Maria? The woman is always labeled as a liar. You always trumpet your feminism, but when the rubber meets the road, you take the men’s side. It doesn’t feel good. Could you please leave my office?”

  I looked Ursula straight in the eyes. They were bright blue, and there wasn’t a single clump in her mascara.

  “Listen, Ursula, spreading lies about other people isn’t part of my feminism.”

  “Why do you believe Koivu and not me? Did you ask Koivu to prove he hadn’t harassed me? Doesn’t it say a lot about a man that he chose some Vietnamese girl for a wife? They’re so obedient and submissive. No equality required!”

  Ursula’s description fit Anu Wang so poorly I couldn’t contain my laugh. At Koivu’s wedding reception, his male colleagues had teased him mercilessly about being henpecked.

  “Have you ever met Anu, Koivu’s wife?” I asked. “I’m guessing not. Let’s just say your little theory doesn’t hold much water.” I felt like telling Ursula that I knew about the Puustjärvi incident, but fortunately I managed to hold my tongue. That had nothing to do with this.

  “So you intend to ignore this?” Ursula asked in a rage. “Well I don’t! I’ll take it as high as I have to. I’ll talk to the ombudsman today and make sure everyone knows my boss isn’t taking me seriously. Then we’ll see who has to leave!”

  “I agree that it’s in everyone’s best interest that this matter gets cleared up,” I replied calmly, even though I could feel my own cheeks burning and wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. Then I left Ursula’s office before I could say anything else I might regret.

  I had to go sit in my office for a while before I dared to get behind the wheel. The whole time a revolting doubt nagged at me: maybe Ursula was right. Of course I was relieved that the case would shift from me to the ombudsman and the department’s workplace safety officer, but I wouldn’t be able to avoid some involvement.

  On the way home, the lights from the surrounding cars and buildings seemed to stab at my eyes; all I wanted was complete darkness. Nonetheless, I decided to stop by the Big Apple Mall to see if I could find Antti a fun combination birthday/name day gift, since both were coming up in a couple of weeks. As I wandered the halls of the shopping hell, I felt strangely divorced from reality. Christmas songs played faintly in the background, even though we’d barely made it to mid-November. We’d promised to go to Antti’s parents’ cabin in Inkoo for Christmas, because the idea of staying in the White Cube was so awful, and Antti’s father didn’t have many Christmases left. I’d promised to bake the ham, even though Antti’s mother didn’t approve of such unhealthy fare. The Sarkelas even only drank organic wine nowadays.

  I walked up the stairs to the second floor and started when I saw two familiar figures sitting in the café: Rauha and Viktor Smeds. They were holding hands. The Smedses had been together for forty years, and they still obviously felt a great deal of affection for one another. The sight of them made me swallow hard. I tried to slip by them unnoticed but failed. Rauha looked up just as I was walking into the men’s clothing store next door.

  “Detective Kallio, come over here!” It was a command, not a request, so I obeyed. There were two half-empty café au laits at the Smedses’ table, along with a cheese sandwich cut in two. Taking a chair from a neighboring table, I sat down even though I hadn’t been invited to.

  “Do you know why we’re here? We’re running away from the police. We left Andreas to handle them. They came at four o’clock and started going through our things. Is that really necessary?”

  “You aren’t the only ones whose house is being searched,” I said.

  “What are you looking for? The gun Ms. Hackman was killed with? We don’t have any guns other than Sasha’s hunting rifle, and it hasn’t been used in years. There are always races during hunting season.”

  “So the rest of you aren’t shooters?”

  “Viktor used to go out in the forest with the boys. But I don’t know how to shoot. My father thought guns were the root of all evil. Luckily he was too old to be sent to the front during the war, because he would have preferred to kill himself than raise a weapon at another person. The boys went to the army of course, although I was against it.”

  “My husband did civil service. Maybe my son will choose the army to rebel,” I offered.

  “Maybe. How old is your son?”

  “Just two. I’m really sorry about Sasha’s accident, but I understand he’ll pull through.”

  Viktor Smeds trembled, and Rauha squeezed his hand tighter.

  “We’ve known from the beginning that something
like this could happen,” Rauha said. “If you play with death, there’s always the danger that the game will go too far.”

  Rauha’s face was hard. I wondered if this attitude toward Sasha’s accident was a coping mechanism: her son had chosen his sport and the risks that went with it. Rauha and Viktor didn’t fit in the glossy world of the shopping center. People their age didn’t appear in any of the advertisements, and if they did, they were what you might call well preserved: slim, barely any wrinkles, always smiling. Viktor was a frail old man who probably couldn’t walk from one end of the mall to the other, and Rauha’s face bore the years she had lived, but I guessed most of the wrinkles were from laughter rather than tears. Their shopping bag was crocheted out of old panty hose. My mother had made a similar one in the late sixties.

  “I think I do know your in-laws, the Sarkelas,” Rauha said. “I saw your mother-in-law at the post office yesterday and she expressed her condolences about Sasha’s accident. They aren’t from Degerö originally, are they?”

  “No, they’re from Vyborg.”

  “So they know what it’s like to have to leave your home without any hope of returning too. When the police came today and started poking around everywhere, I remembered leaving the farm back in the fall of ’44. I was only six at the time, but the memory is still vivid. We only had a few days to pack our things, to dig up the potatoes and the root vegetables and empty the cellars. The cows had to walk for kilometers because all the trucks were busy with the war. Maybe it was a mistake to stay so close, in Innanbäck. Home was only a few kilometers away, but still out of reach. The people from Karelia had to go farther when the Russians took their land. Hopefully it was easier for them.”

  “My mother-in-law spent her school years in Turku and never adapted to the dialect,” I said and motioned the waiter over. I ordered a cappuccino, even though I knew Antti was already waiting at home with dinner.