Below the Surface

by Leena Lehtolainen

Rauha was red with rage. Her hair was sticking out every which way and her black coat was covered in dog hair.

  “Tell this woman that I want to see my son! I came to bring him fresh clothes because he asked me to. Now I want to hear with my own ears if what those nasty newspapers are saying is true. I nearly fainted when I saw the headlines in the post office today. How can they even publish trash like that? And you aren’t taking Andreas’s confession seriously, are you? When that boy’s drunk he can say anything.”

  After a moment’s consideration, I said, “How about we go to my office for a chat about Andreas and a few other things? The elevator is here on the left.” I used my keycard and pressed the button. Rauha smelled like a barn. Apparently she’d been forced to handle the milking while Heli and Andreas were away. She had probably been one of those women who went straight from the maternity ward to the fields, like my own grandmother had been.

  When we got upstairs, I asked Rauha if she wanted coffee.

  “Tea, please. Preferably herbal.”

  In the break room I found one suspiciously dry-looking bag of peppermint tea, but Lähde had eaten all the cookies again. As I returned to my office, I found Rauha sitting next to my desk, looking around curiously. She picked up the picture of my children.

  “You also have two, and so small still. You never stop worrying about them, though. As a mother yourself, you must know how well we know our own children. I know Andreas isn’t a murderer. I’d claim I was one myself to save him, but I can’t leave Viktor. His last day could come at any time. All of this has made his condition worse, and I’m afraid to leave him even for a second.”

  “Unfortunately we can’t let anyone see Andreas since the investigation is still ongoing. I wish I could, because maybe you could talk some sense into him and convince him to cooperate. Does Andreas often act violently when he’s been drinking?”

  Rauha smiled gently. “No. He’s like his father that way. First he turns cheerful and then he goes sentimental. Viktor’s never been one to drink regularly, though, and neither has Sasha. My father was a strict teetotaler. I never tasted a drop of alcohol before I moved to Sweden.”

  “What time did you return from the hospital on the day of Annukka Hackman’s death?”

  Rauha unbuttoned her coat and stirred her tea before she replied.

  “It was almost seven. Driving in the dark is difficult, and I would have liked to have left earlier. And we were so worried because Viktor hasn’t recovered as he was supposed to.”

  I wondered how Rauha was bearing the situation: her husband was deathly ill, one of her sons was gravely injured, and the other was imprisoned for murder. It was strange that she didn’t ask more about Andreas and Heli. Had she known all along? Could Heli and Andreas’s feelings have gone unnoticed?

  I remembered how completely oblivious my own parents were to my drinking in high school. I also remembered my sister, Helena’s, abortion during her senior year, which my parents still hadn’t found out about, and many other examples of how little parents could know about their offspring’s lives. It must be even easier for children to keep secrets from their parents once they’d grown up, since there’s no reason to keep tabs on adults.

  “We’re also investigating whether the pathologist Hannu Kervinen’s death is connected to Annukka Hackman’s murder. Where were you last Tuesday night?”

  “Where I usually am—sleeping in bed next to Viktor. Who is this Hannu Kervinen?”

  “Annukka Hackman’s ex-boyfriend,” I replied and poured more milk in my coffee. Apparently Lehtovuori had made it, since he liked it strong.

  “Annukka Hackman had plenty of men, and her interest in my son Sasha wasn’t just professional either. At first I thought she was just using her book as a pretense to get close to Sasha and break up his marriage.” Rauha squeezed more peppermint flavor out of the tea bag into her cup. Her fingers were wrinkled but slender, and her wedding ring appeared a little loose. “And the rest of the family were in their beds too, since Ronja didn’t bark. Our dog, I mean. She always makes a terrible racket every time anyone comes in or goes out.”

  “What about when people move around inside the house?” I asked, thinking of Andreas and Heli.

  “Then she’s quiet, thank goodness. Old men have to go to the bathroom a lot.”

  “Are you planning to meet Sasha at the airport?”

  “No. Viktor is waiting for me at home. Sasha is being cared for like a king, but Viktor only has me,” Rauha said and finished off her tea. “I assume I can at least write to Andreas. I’m sure he’s embarrassed by what he said when he was drunk, and now he feels like he can’t take it back. He was the same as a child, always acting before he thought. I understand that’s why he was such a good race-car driver. He knew how to trust his instincts. But he was always so afraid of success too. I imagine that’s why he let himself drive drunk. Some people just can’t handle things going right. Thank you for the tea, Detective. Please let my son go free.”

  Rauha stood up with the dignity of a person who was used to deciding the length of important conversations. I opened the door for her and watched as she walked down the hall with slow but purposeful steps. In pop psychology women were supposed to be divided into two groups: the ones who put their children before their spouses and the ones who put their spouses before anyone else in the world. Rauha Smeds was a good example of the latter type. Was that why her sons started racing? To rebel against their mother? Or to attract her care and attention?

  How did the psychologists categorize women like me, who often put work before family and husband, I wondered as I filled out a time sheet. Police and farmers—all stuck in the same swamp of forms that needed filling.

  Just then, Koivu stopped by my office. It was time to head to the airport to meet Sasha.

  “How did the interrogation of the hockey player go?” I asked once we were on the beltway.

  “He confessed. There was no way he could argue against such clear evidence. The neighbors saw the girl coming out of his house hysterical, and the signs of abuse and sperm sample are sufficient corroboration. A goddamn professional player! You’d think they’d have enough women. Everybody fawns over those guys. By the way, have you heard anything from Ursula?”

  “No. An employee can be away from work for three days without a note from a doctor. Are they headed to meet Sasha too?” I asked as we passed a van from one of the television channels.

  “Of course. The worse Sasha looks, the better. If they can just get someone to cry, the footage will be perfect,” Koivu said. “Has the media called you today? The new motive they found for Andreas is seriously juicy.”

  “No, strangely enough. Maybe it’s more effective to ask Heli directly on live TV. The airport may be a real circus.”

  “Maybe Ursula isn’t at home with the flu. Maybe she’s doing interviews and making the newspapers bid for the information she has. Want to bet she made copies of both versions of Hackman’s manuscript?”

  I hadn’t thought of that. Of course I’d had colleagues before who couldn’t be trusted completely. I hoped Koivu was wrong.

  We parked in the VIP lot as close to the door as we could. The airport always gave me a wistful longing to be somewhere else, and on a cold November day like this, even though I hated lounging on the beach, I could imagine myself jetting off somewhere warm and sunny. In fact, I would have preferred that as my reason for being there, as opposed to meeting Heli and Sasha. Even though I had the ability to treat the people I met on cases with professional neutrality, I didn’t always succeed. The most important thing now was not to show that to them or my coworkers.

  An airport staff member led us to a meeting room. On the way we saw the herd of reporters waiting on the other side of the glass wall. There were cameras, microphones, and at least one TV crew. One of the reporters recognized me, and ten seconds later my phone started to ring.

  “Detective Kallio, you’re at the airport too. Have you come to see Sasha or Heli?”


  “No comment. And Jouko Suuronen is on the flight too.” Something devilish in me made me say that before I hung up the phone, then switched it to silent. The interrogation room was no VIP suite; rather it was a dreary cell whose only decoration was a picture of President Tarja Halonen. She didn’t look particularly cheery either. I sat down in a chair full of holes from cigarette burns and stared for a moment through the one-way glass at the travelers walking by.

  “Haapala and Suuronen need to be out of the room when we talk to Sasha,” I said, more to myself than to Koivu. “The medical staff can stay if it’s absolutely necessary. Do you have the recorder ready?”

  The first one through the glass doors of the Arrivals area was Sasha Smeds. He lay on a wheeled gurney and was still on an IV drip. Next came the pilot and a doctor. Suuronen followed immediately after, anxiously looking at something on his phone. Heli walked slightly behind the rest of the party, with a wide-brimmed dark-green felt hat pulled down to cover her face.

  Koivu opened the door to our room, and we had to shift the furniture to one wall so Sasha’s bed could fit in. In my job I was used to looking at people who’d been viciously beaten and killed; still, I cringed when I saw Sasha’s face. The right side was still bandaged from the skin grafting, the skin of the left side was tight and lifeless, and his lips were swollen. A bandage was wrapped around his head to cover a wound on his forehead, and matted patches of hair stuck out from it. Sasha’s left arm was only bandaged at the elbow, but his right arm and hand were completely covered in gauze.

  “No longer than fifteen minutes,” the doctor told me in English. “I wouldn’t have agreed to this at all if Mr. Smeds hadn’t insisted on it.”

  Sasha’s nurse raised the head of the bed. The room was so cramped that Heli was forced to stand right next to me. Up close I could see that her face was swollen as if she’d been crying. The tiny veins on her eyelids were blue, and her nose was red. She gave me a faint nod. Suuronen carelessly barged into the room, bumping Sasha’s bed in the process, then apologizing profusely.

  “Sasha, do you want any of these people to leave?” I asked.

  “Heli and Jouko can stay.” Sasha’s voice was still strangely high like a prepubescent boy. “And Dr. James doesn’t understand Finnish.”

  While the others left, Koivu started the voice recorder and recited the name of the interviewee and the others present. I closed the door, perhaps subconsciously expecting all the reporters and photographers to run in at any moment.

  “You said you had something to tell us about your brother, Andreas Smeds’s, movements the evening of Annukka Hackman’s death.”

  “Right. Or rather I don’t have anything at all to say about them. When my parents left for the hospital, my brother, my wife, and I stayed home. Then Heli left for the store a little after three. I was worried about her going so late, because she doesn’t like driving in the dark and the road conditions weren’t great. I worked out in our gym and helped Andreas fix the tractor. Even though we weren’t in the same room the whole time, I’m absolutely certain I would have heard it if Andreas had left. I hear engines, Detective. It’s part of my job. Andreas couldn’t have killed Annukka Hackman.”

  Sasha stopped talking and, with his healthy hand, reached for a cup in a holder connected to the side of the gurney and lifted it to his lips. His movements were slow, and as he drank, he made the same glugging sound as a child who’s just learned to drink on his own but still can’t control the angle of the cup or the amount of liquid coming out of it.

  Suuronen lost his cool. “Damn it, Sasha, do you have to act so noble? Andreas deserves a punch in the teeth, not you defending him.”

  Sasha lowered the cup and responded quietly. “It isn’t his fault my wife stopped loving me.”

  “I’ve never stopped loving you!” Heli exclaimed.

  Dr. James turned his head from person to person, looking concerned.

  “Mr. Suuronen and Ms. Haapala, could you please leave?” I said as I stepped to the door and opened it. Suuronen walked so close to me that I could smell the cognac on his breath. Heli had tears running down her cheeks.

  “Sasha, if Andreas doesn’t retract his confession, we’re going to need you to testify in court. Is it possible that Andreas left the farm by foot or bicycle, then changed over to a car later? Were all of your vehicles in the yard or garage, or could he have used . . .” I tried to think desperately what other machines they might have besides the tractor, but all I could think of was a combine harvester.

  “We store one tractor in a barn on the other side of the pasture, but I would have heard that too. And Andreas doesn’t ride a bike. He was in a hurry to get the John Deere in shape before the snow started sticking. Andreas handles the plowing for our road maintenance association, and the plow only fits that tractor. I’m ready to swear on anything that Andreas could not have left Smedsbo Farm without me noticing.”

  “Did you notice him leaving?” Koivu suddenly asked.

  Sasha flinched. “What?” he asked, his voice cracking.

  “You said he couldn’t have left without you noticing. Did you notice him leaving?”

  “No, I didn’t!”

  “And did you leave the farm that night?”

  “No.” There were beads of sweat on the bare side of Sasha’s face now, and the doctor glanced at us in concern.

  “That’s enough,” he said. “The flight was taxing, and my patient needs to rest now. Has a police escort been arranged for our ambulance during the transfer?”

  That I didn’t know, since it was the airport staff’s responsibility. I stepped outside to ask the airport’s assistant security manager, who was standing guard outside the door. Soon, two sets of patrol officers from Vantaa appeared.

  “Do we have to go through the crowd, or can we take a back way to the ambulance?” Suuronen asked the security manager.

  “You and Ms. Haapala have to go through customs, but Mr. Smeds and his medical attendants can go straight to the ambulance.” I doubted they would have been so flexible with a no-name passenger who broke his leg on a package vacation. Suuronen grimaced.

  “Could one patrol come with us?”

  The Vantaa cops nodded. The nurse and Dr. James set off guiding Sasha in the other direction with a pair of police officers marching after them.

  “I don’t give a shit about you,” Suuronen said to Heli. “But for Sasha’s sake I’m ordering you to keep your trap shut with the media out there. You could have at least tried to gussy up the truth and shift the blame to Andreas. Then at least you’d still have a chance. Stupid bitch!”

  Heli didn’t answer; she just slowed down so she didn’t have to walk next to Suuronen. I matched Heli’s pace, and Koivu automatically moved to her other side. There was no line at passport control. The party’s luggage had come, and Suuronen loaded his own and Sasha’s on two carts, one of which he pushed at one of the Vantaa cops. Heli only had the same roller bag she’d had packed in her closet the night of Sasha’s accident.

  Customs didn’t stop us, but outside the glass doors the concourse erupted in a hell of blinding flashes, and a wall of humanity instantly surrounded us.

  “Heli, is it true you’re having an affair with Sasha’s brother?”

  “How have these rumors affected Sasha’s recovery?”

  “What is Sasha’s condition? Didn’t he come back on the same flight?”

  Suuronen muttered “no comment” at every microphone pointed at him, and Heli didn’t even say that. I took her bag and started to blaze a path through the scrum, even though I didn’t know where we were going. Koivu shoved the overly enthusiastic ones away. We all followed Suuronen, who walked directly to the VIP parking lot. The Citroën I’d seen in his driveway was waiting there. I remembered the cognac on his breath and wondered if he was OK to drive.

  Just then, he turned and yelled at Heli. “What are you doing here? Take a taxi, you whore!” Heli cringed as if she’d been struck, and I’d had enough.

 
; “I assume you guys have a breathalyzer,” I said to the Vantaa officers. “Mr. Suuronen isn’t going anywhere until he’s been tested. If you tip the scale, you’re taking a taxi too, Suuronen.”

  “Goddamn it,” Suuronen yelled, but he didn’t have a choice.

  The result was 0.04.

  “Listen Ms. Detective, I know my limits. Now go rake Andreas over the coals. Tell him he’s better off behind bars because if he gets out he’s going to answer to me,” Suuronen said. “And, Heli, you should have seen all the women Sasha had to choose from. God, they were beautiful. Any other man would have cheated, but not Sasha. Think about that, you fucking floozy!”

  Suuronen slammed the door of the Citroën and sped off. Heli looked at the ground, her face empty.

  “Heli, you can start out in our car. We’ll take you to Kaunianen where you can get a taxi. There won’t be any reporters there,” I said.

  Our car was only a few spaces away from Suuronen’s. I nodded to Koivu to take the driver’s seat and got in the back with Heli. She’d pulled the brim of her hat down again and clutched a grubby white handkerchief.

  “I didn’t want this publicity,” she said and sniffed. “Things are already messed up enough, then to have all of those reporters coming at us too. They turn Sasha into this idol I don’t even recognize anymore. I know it’s pointless trying to blame anyone else. I’m responsible for my own feelings. I didn’t want this, though. I just wanted a normal life. Tending the house and taking care of the cows. But why am I trusting you! How do I know there aren’t microphones hidden in this car? Tomorrow I’ll be reading in the tabloids all about what ‘anonymous sources’ say about Heli’s motives.”

  “The car isn’t bugged,” I said firmly. Koivu shook his head. As Heli wept quietly, I wrapped my arm around her. It felt right. Heli had done some stupid things, but who was I to judge? I knew from experience how painful it was to feel too much for the wrong person.

  “Can Andreas be convicted for something he didn’t do?” Heli asked after calming down a bit. Christmas lights shone in the shopping centers along Ring III as people drove through the slush to make their holiday purchases. They were all living their small, normal lives, the lives so many others thought were so useless. People thought you had to be in the newspapers or on TV for your life to have meaning. But how many of those people lugging their shopping bags through the sleet really would have traded places with Heli and Sasha if they’d known the truth?