Elisa had lowered her coffee cup to her desk. She started picking at her cuticles. Her bright pink nail polish was worn off at the tips. Her hands still trembled slightly. Lumikki didn’t say anything. Better to let Elisa tell her story without any leading questions. Memories were more reliable without someone else prompting them.
“By two, everyone had left except Tuukka and Kasper. We were mostly up here in my room hanging out. We didn’t have to pretend anymore that we were just drinking. Then . . . it was around three o’clock.”
Elisa suddenly fell silent. She swallowed, then frowned.
“I think I went out on the balcony to smoke,” she continued. “Yeah, that’s right. And then I saw this weird plastic trash bag down in the garden. It had been there, like, max half an hour, because I kept going out to smoke and that’s the first time I saw it. I don’t usually smoke, but at parties, I always just, like, really want a couple cigarettes.”
Again, the same virtuous tone and role-playing mask. Lumikki would have admired the performance if it hadn’t irritated her so much.
“What did you do then?” she asked, unable to restrain herself.
Elisa started fiddling with the gold heart dangling from the zipper of her pink tracksuit. She pulled it down a couple of inches and then jerked it up again. Open and shut. Open and shut. Lumikki took a sip of coffee. It was painfully weak.
“For some reason, I guess I started laughing hysterically because the bag just looked so weird sitting there in the snow. I can’t explain it. I guess I was really messed up. I left the boys upstairs and went to get the bag. When I came inside, I opened it down in the hall.”
Elisa swallowed again.
“At first, I didn’t understand what it was. I thought it was just trash. Then I pulled out one of the pieces of paper and realized it was money. Covered in blood. The whole bag was full of bloody five-hundred-euro bills. I dug around to check, and my hands got all covered in the blood. Thinking about it makes me sick. But when it was happening, I just kept laughing. Somehow it was just so ridiculously funny.”
Elisa stared at the pink rug on the black floor. The emotions on her face ran from nausea to disgust and from shame to fear.
“I didn’t think at all about why the money was . . . like that. I yelled for the boys to come and look. They started laughing too and saying over and over, ‘We’re all fucking rich now.’ We didn’t count it then, but the bag had thirty thousand euros in it. We weren’t actually thinking at all. Yeah, you know, except that we had to clean the money somehow.”
They had reasoned that they couldn’t wash it at anyone’s house since they wouldn’t be able to let it dry without someone noticing. Then Tuukka came up with the darkroom idea because he took photography. And he had a copy of his dad’s key to the school he had made a long time ago. And he knew the code to the building alarm.
“It felt like the smartest idea in the world at the time,” Elisa explained, looking at Lumikki with pleading eyes. “Can you understand?”
No, Lumikki thought, but she didn’t say so out loud.
“And in the morning, Tuukka had to hurry to get the money out of there,” she said instead.
“As far as I’m concerned, we should have left it there. I never wanted to touch it again. I can’t stop thinking about where all that blood came from. Was it from a person? And why was the bag in my yard? Who put it there? I’m never taking any fucking pills ever again. If I would have been sober, I might have seen who brought the bag.”
Elisa stood up and started pacing back and forth nervously.
Lumikki stood up as well, going to the balcony door and opening it. Cold air immediately assaulted her, but she didn’t care. She went out on the balcony and looked down into the yard.
“Was the gate down there locked that night?” she asked.
“Yes,” Elisa replied. “I checked it around two, I think.”
Lumikki estimated the distance from the road to the yard. With a nice strong throw, it would be easy enough to toss a trash bag over the stone fence.
“Is there a security camera on the street?”
Elisa shook her head.
“There’s one at the gate and at the door, but not on the street.”
Lumikki thought. She let the sharp air nibble at her fingers. It kept her mind alert.
Someone had thrown a bag full of blood-soaked money over Elisa’s garden wall in the middle of the night. The money pointed to a payment. The blood pointed to a warning. So was the money a threat or a thank-you? And who was it for? Had they thrown the bag into the right yard?
Viewed from the street, the house to the right looked very different, and the yard extended farther out. The road made a small turn at Elisa’s house, which was set farther back, in a corner where the street split into two.
“Who lives there?” Lumikki asked, indicating the house to the right.
“Two families with little kids. I think both moms are lawyers or something. One of the dads is some kind of artist, and the other one works for the city. Their kids aren’t in school yet.”
Lumikki sized up the duplex and yard. Confusing it with Elisa’s house seemed unlikely. However, the house to the left, although clearly newer, was similar in size, shape, and color. Even the wall was an identical continuation of the one in front of Elisa’s family’s. Someone could easily have mixed them up in the middle of the night.
“What about that one?”
Elisa was standing next to her on the balcony now, shivering.
“Oh, him? He’s a total weirdo. He’s like forty or something, but he tries to look younger. It’s like he’s trying to live some personal version of Twilight because he dresses in these long leather coats. He must think he looks like some kind of prince of the vampires or something. Really, he just looks pathetic. I don’t have a clue what he does. He must work somewhere though, because every morning he goes out and then comes back at night. He lives alone in that big house, and I’ve never seen anyone visiting. He doesn’t even say hi on the street.”
Lumikki looked at Elisa, whose eyes went wide.
“The money must have been meant for him! It just ended up in the wrong yard! He’s totally the type to be mixed up in some shady deals or animal sacrifices or something.”
Elisa almost sounded pleased.
“That’s one possibility,” Lumikki said, “but not the only one.”
If the money had been thrown into the right yard, then the intended recipient was Elisa, her father, or her mother.
Lumikki glanced at Elisa, whose teeth were beginning to chatter. She was like a stuffed animal that had lost most of its stuffing, shivering in the cold. Hard to believe she could be involved in anything that would result in a thirty-thousand-euro payoff. Of course, you never knew. Lumikki considered herself better than average at spotting liars. Elisa didn’t seem like a liar. At least, not a good enough one to be able to fool her. Lumikki had been lied to so many times in her life that she could pick out the changes in tone and expression that exposed most mediocre liars.
“Still, I have a bad feeling someone out there wants that money back. Right now,” Elisa whispered.
Lumikki had nothing comforting to say.
She agreed completely.
Viivo Tamm shivered. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so cold. He tried to bounce in place to keep warm, but his stiff leg muscles wouldn’t cooperate.
He’d only been standing at his post along the Pyynikki Hill running path for an hour, but he already felt like he was running up against the limits of what he could tolerate. He had on a thick parka with a tightly woven sweater underneath and a Thinsulate cap pulled down over his ears, but the cold was still finding a way though the layers. It attacked through the smallest needle holes, mercilessly gnawing at his body, which was struggling desperately to maintain a safe core temperature. Viivo Tamm gave in and made the call.
Stiff fingers poked clumsily at the equally stiff buttons of the cell phone. Removing his lined leather gl
oves wasn’t an option. Extracting the correct name from the contact list and pressing the green “call” icon took five minutes.
“Well?” came the expectant reply.
“No sign. And I can’t stay out here much longer. I’m freezing to death.”
“Suck it up,” Boris Sokolov snapped and hung up.
Viivo stared at the phone for a second, clenching his teeth. Sokolov and Linnart Kask were sitting in a plumbing company van at the far end of the street. It was all well and good for them to be issuing orders while sitting there all nice and toasty warm.
What if the girl didn’t come out at all today? Or even just not very soon. All three of them knew they couldn’t keep up the stakeout for hours on end. Someone would notice the van and get suspicious. They’d realize that no one around here needed a plumber right now. Switching out the vehicle’s license plate and logos would cost time and money, and none of them wanted to do that any more than they had to.
Fucking hell. They had been sure that seeing the blood would be enough. But this guy had steadier nerves than they’d thought. Now he was trying to play for higher stakes than he could afford, though. Really, he couldn’t afford anything. None of them could. Not even Sokolov, even though he was happy to play the role of big boss man. But really, he was on just as tight a leash as the rest of them. A noose around the neck was still a noose even if it was encrusted with diamonds.
Maybe the Finn hadn’t cared as much about the woman as they had thought after all. Maybe it had all been an act. Regardless, kidnapping his daughter was sure to snap him out of his delusions of grandeur.
Lumikki stared at the noodles in her bowl, which were a shade somewhere between gray and beige. Elisa had been telling the truth when she said she couldn’t cook. Apparently, the freezer held a supply of meals her mother had premade for her, but warming them up was “such a hassle” that Elisa preferred to eat instant ramen. Lumikki sampled the limp strands floating in salty broth and decided to power through. Or actually, the low, steady growling of her stomach decided for her.
She was insanely hungry. Morning had turned to afternoon, and Lumikki’s only thought was starting to be when she was going to get home. Whenever she tried to start leaving, Elisa came up with some excuse why she had to stay. She really was afraid of being alone.
Their conversation was going nowhere. They had gone over everything related to the money. They had debated whether it was meant for the man in the leather coat next door. Elisa was convinced it must be.
“My mom and dad couldn’t be mixed up in anything this weird. They’re good people.”
Nonetheless, Lumikki knew they couldn’t rule out the possibility that the money was meant for one of Elisa’s parents. So she’d asked what Elisa’s mother did for work. Apparently, she worked for a cosmetics company as part of a team that handled their international business. Not a top executive or anything, but Elisa said she earned a fair amount.
“She spends almost half the time traveling,” Elisa said, gazing out the window.
Lumikki saw a mixture of irritation and wistfulness in her face.
“Luckily, Dad is almost always home,” Elisa continued, smiling. “Except, of course, this last weekend.”
Elisa’s dad, the police officer.
“What kind of policeman is your father?” Lumikki asked.
Elisa hung her head, mortified.
“Narcotics,” she replied.
The old saying about the shoemaker’s children going barefoot and all that. Lumikki would have been amused if she hadn’t been so irritated by Elisa’s stupidity. A narcotics officer’s daughter playing around with illegal drugs. You’d think Elisa wouldn’t have any reason to take risks like that. Lumikki didn’t say anything, but Elisa interpreted her silence correctly.
“Come on, it’s just occasional recreational use!” she said defensively. “I’m not a junkie or anything. I know my limits. And I already said that I’m never going to use again. I’m straight edge from now on.”
“You could probably ask your dad sometime how many ‘occasional recreational users’ in this city have completely messed up their lives. But I didn’t come here to lecture you about your drug habit. I’m just here to talk about the money.”
“I can’t talk to Daddy about this, though, in case he does have something shady going on,” Elisa said, sighing for the tenth time. “Which, of course, I don’t believe anyway. But if he did. Then I couldn’t trust him. He could lie to me just as easily as anyone else. And I can’t go to any other police officers because he’s my dad. Even if he is mixed up in something, I can’t betray him. And what if he’s doing some undercover operation? Ahhh, my head hurts!”
“What time does he come home today?” Lumikki asked.
“In a couple of hours.”
“Was he acting normal yesterday?”
“I think so. But I was so focused on hiding the fact that I had that party here—and the elephant-sized secret in the back of my closet—I probably wouldn’t have noticed if he was dancing the polka wearing Mickey Mouse ears.”
“Pay attention. Talk to him. Don’t ask anything directly, but see if you can tell what his expressions and gestures reveal. People say an awful lot without ever opening their mouths,” Lumikki said. “And keep an eye on that neighbor. If the money was meant for him, he’s sure to start acting even weirder since he didn’t get it.”
Elisa looked at her, stood up from the table, and walked over.
“Thanks,” Elisa said, hugging her quickly.
To Lumikki’s astonishment, it didn’t feel so unpleasant this time. Elisa returned to her chair and continued eating her noodles, sucking in her cheeks as she slurped them up and then drinking the broth from the bowl. Suddenly, she looked like a little girl.
“I’ll talk to Daddy. And spy on that neighbor. Maybe I’ll find some perfectly logical explanation for all of this. And then I can think about what to do with the money. Tuukka and Kasper aren’t going to like giving theirs up, but I can get them to fall in line if I want to,” Elisa said and smiled.
Something about her sudden self-confidence was touching.
“Are you still afraid?” Lumikki asked.
“Not nearly so much.”
“Okay. Then I’m going home.”
Elisa tried a disappointed puppy dog expression, but Lumikki stood firm. That was enough playing girlfriend for today. She had already gone above and beyond.
Lumikki pulled on her coat, laced her combat boots up tight, and wrapped her scarf around her neck. She reached for her mittens on the hat shelf and then groped for her knit cap, which had slid farther back. She had to stand up on her tiptoes to get a grip on the edge of it. Yanking, she heard an ominous sound.
“Oh no!” Elisa exclaimed as Lumikki pulled down her half-unraveled hat. “There’s still that set of hooks up there we haven’t ever hung right. I’ve ripped a couple of things on it too.”
“Well, I guess I can wrap my scarf around my ears somehow,” Lumikki said.
“No, borrow one of my hats. I have plenty of them,” Elisa said, already pulling a red wool hat down over Lumikki’s head. “I’ll fix yours or just knit you a new one.”
“Great. Okay. Thanks.”
Lumikki stood in the hall for a few more seconds. She felt like there was something else encouraging she was supposed to say.
“Take care,” she finally said when she couldn’t come up with anything else.
She didn’t have much practice in the role of empathetic friend.
“You too,” Elisa said. “If you want, you can go out through the back. Those front steps can get really slippery.”
She was biting her lip, looking like she wanted to say something more, but didn’t. Lumikki didn’t ask what the threesome was going to do next. She had a bad feeling this wouldn’t be her last visit to Elisa’s house.
Coming had been a mistake.
Boris Sokolov answered his cell phone before it could make it through the first bar of “You Only Live T
wice.”
“Well?”
“She just left through the back. Coming up the hill now,” Viivo Tamm said.
Sokolov nodded quickly to the Estonian sitting beside him, who started the van.
“Are you sure it’s the right girl?” Boris asked.
“Yes. Same red hat as before,” Viivo replied.
“When you see us get close enough, run at her. Don’t say anything. We have to get her on the first try,” Boris said and hung up.
He rubbed his frozen hands together to warm them up. They had to grab the girl and get her into the back of the van instantly. No one could see. And the less the girl saw, the better. And they shouldn’t be too rough. She had to remain unharmed. A couple of bruises wouldn’t hurt, of course. She had to think they were serious.
Because they were. In a slightly different way than she would think, though.
Once they had her, they would send a video to her dear daddy’s cell phone. That would have to bring him to his senses. He would regret trying to play with the big boys. Boris hoped so anyway. That he would promise to play nice from now on. Agree to forgo his next payment as a gesture of goodwill. Swear to do everything they asked.
That would be enough.
Then they would let the girl out of the van and drive off to get the decals and license plate switched. That was a big investment for one intimidation job, but in this case, it would be worth the cost. Boris Sokolov had instructions from higher up, and they had promised to cover all the expenses with a little extra thrown in. They couldn’t afford to lose their inside man. But even more than that, he couldn’t afford to lose them.
Of course, the girl would run home to tell Daddy that big bad men had kidnapped her. Her father would act surprised and shocked, asking for details and descriptions, promising to file a police report and catch the bastards.
As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) Page 5
