Elisa was afraid. So was Lumikki.
Elisa was ready to do her part. So was Lumikki.
Asking Elisa whether she was really sure she wanted to dig any deeper into her father’s business was pointless now. The time for questioning and hesitation had passed. Elisa might be a spoiled teenager who’d thought she was living the dream of a high school debutante. Maybe she used to think she could skip through life buying designer clothes and purses with her daddy’s money, throwing out-of-control parties that someone else would clean up after, and throwing back drinks with a couple pills on the side, toying with boys and men alike at will. By burying her frailty behind a makeup mask. By pretending to be dumber than she was.
But Lumikki saw that Elisa knew this night was going to change everything. That it would shatter her rose-tinted fantasies once and for all. The first cracks had formed last Sunday night when Elisa removed her hands from that plastic bag and wondered why they were so sticky. But what would be revealed on this night could never be washed away by water and soap.
A moment of determination flashed in Elisa’s eyes, making Lumikki wonder whether they were really so different after all. Their worlds were never going to match up entirely, but in fleeting moments like these, they shared the same sliver of reality, the same feelings and thoughts.
Elisa filled her lungs and then exhaled calmly.
“Now I’m going to go hug my daddy good-bye,” she said.
Lumikki nodded. The clock said 7:52.
Terho Väisänen’s fingers slipped on the smooth satin as he tried to adjust his bow tie. His hands wouldn’t stop sweating, and he had to keep drying them with toilet paper.
It was already so late. He should have been outside, waiting for the car to pick him up. Under no circumstances did he want to be late. The car wouldn’t wait. The opportunity would pass, slipping through his fingers like this satin tie.
A black-tie occasion. When was the last time he’d worn a tux? Sometime years ago at a party his wife’s boss threw. He would never forget the five hours of uninterrupted pretentiousness, from the welcoming toast to the moment their taxi picked them up at the end of the night. He didn’t like this kind of upper-crust soirée. Although in many regards, he was part of the “upper crust” these days too.
Finally, the bow tie cooperated. Fidgeting, he combed his hair one more time, even though the barber had just arranged it perfectly. Terho realized he was more nervous than he had been in ages. He reminded himself he was only going to the party for two reasons.
To speak directly to Polar Bear and, hopefully, to see Natalia.
She still hadn’t replied to any of his e-mails. Terho knew that she had been to Polar Bear’s parties before, but she was never willing to tell him anything about them.
Top secret, my love.
Polar Bear’s grip on people could be uncanny. Terho doubted he would have any kind of bargaining position in the big boss’s eyes. After all, he was just a pathetic narcotics cop, a bit player. Over the past ten years, he may have done his own small part in helping Polar Bear’s businesses, but they probably would have gotten along just fine without Terho. Still, he had to try.
In the early hours of the previous morning, he had made a decision. He didn’t want to go on. He wanted out of his double agent role. But in order for that to work, he needed some sort of compensation from Polar Bear to help patch the gaping hole that would leave in his future income. He had to be able to pay off his gambling debts and arrange things for Natalia and himself. Then he could focus on living an ordinary, peaceful life without anything to raise his heart rate. No crime, no gambling, no Natalia, no money.
He’d realized that he just couldn’t handle the stress and fear anymore. The secrecy that as a younger man had kept him high on an adrenaline buzz now just made him tired. He might be able to go on for a few more years, but then his health would give out. Maybe it would be his heart or maybe it would be his nerves, but either way, he was headed for a crash. He had been deluding himself for far too long already.
Terho stared at the man in the mirror, who looked older than his years. The bags hanging under his eyes, the loose skin hanging under his jaw, the belly hanging over his belt. Everything about him hung slack or overflowed. Years of stress and guilt ate at him, making him consume whatever passed in front of his mouth, neglect his health and well-being, neglect even his family. He had to admit that. If not to anyone else, at least to himself.
It had to end. Seeing Natalia also had to end. Given their shared past, they would never be able to appear in public together. He had to start a new, honest life. Which was why he was about to try something so reckless and unlikely to succeed. He intended to blackmail Polar Bear.
Terho glanced at his watch. Time to leave. He was just striding into the entryway when Elisa came tumbling down the stairs, grabbed his arm, and started dragging him toward the basement.
“What now? I should have left already,” Terho said irritably.
“I need to show you something really important. It’ll only take a minute.”
“Not now. I can’t be late. I have a really, really important event to attend.”
“How can some party be more important than me?”
Elisa kept a firm grip on her father’s arm, and she looked at him with large, accusatory eyes. Now instead of his seventeen-year-old daughter, what Terho saw was the little, seven-year-old Elisa he could never stand to disappoint.
“Okay. One minute.”
Lumikki slipped quietly down the stairs, which was surprisingly difficult in high heels and the constricting sleeping bag coat. Tuukka was waiting for her outside, hidden near the gate.
“Not here yet,” he whispered.
“Hopefully they aren’t late,” Lumikki said. The temperature was a just few degrees below freezing, a high for this winter.
A thin, white layer of frost covered every surface. Houses, trees, rocks, cars. Clothing, hair, cheeks, thoughts.
“Elisa promised to keep her dad busy until I call,” Tuukka said.
Then they fell silent and waited. Lumikki wondered why Tuukka didn’t make some lewd wisecrack about her black snowman costume or the propositions she was sure to get during the course of the evening. Then she noticed the tension in his jaw. Tuukka was nervous. Maybe even afraid. Probably for the first time in his life, really.
Once upon a time, there was a boy who learned to fear.
Lumikki herself felt surprisingly calm. Now she was just following a set program. All she had to do was concentrate on her next move.
At 7:58, a black Audi turned onto the street and stopped in front of the house. Tuukka looked at Lumikki, one eyebrow raised. She nodded. Tuukka started walking. He walked casually past the black car and then, once he was outside of the driver’s field of vision, hid behind another vehicle parked farther down the street and began creeping back toward the Audi. When he got behind the car, he stopped and waited.
Enter Kasper.
Starting at the corner, the boy walked toward the black car and then turned to walk in front of it. The driver did not react in any way. Removing a key from his pocket, Kasper showed it to the driver with an exaggerated flourish, pressed it with relish against the hood, and continued walking. The screech of metal on metal cleaved through the otherwise quiet winter evening. At first, the driver stared at Kasper as if not comprehending what was happening.
Kasper lifted his middle finger gleefully.
Then the driver came to life. Bellowing something incomprehensible, he sprang from the car. With the driver distracted, Tuukka acted with lightning speed and opened the trunk of the car a crack. Kasper was already running away, laughing maddeningly as the driver charged after him, turning only momentarily to lock the car with his key remote and then continuing to chase Kasper, who was running just slow enough to remain temptingly close.
Lumikki was immediately at the car. Tuukka helped her into the trunk. Luckily, it wasn’t one of the smaller ones, but Lumikki still had to arrange her a
rms and feet carefully in order to fit. Finally, she put a strip of silk fabric over the locking mechanism and gave Tuukka a thumbs-up to signal that everything was ready.
Tuukka replied with the same gesture and then closed the trunk as silently as possible.
When the darkness engulfed Lumikki, she had to fight against a moment of panic. She was in an uncomfortable, tight space that smelled like gasoline. She hoped the trip wouldn’t take long.
Lumikki heard the driver return, cursing to himself. Chirp chirp, and the locks opened. The driver climbed in and slammed the door shut.
Lumikki squirmed to see whether she could get her cell phone out of the little handbag. Just barely. She looked at the clock on the phone, which said 8:05. The brief blue glow from the display momentarily dispelling the darkness did her good.
Then she heard steps approaching from the direction of Elisa’s house. A car door opened.
“What took you so long?” the driver asked irritably in English.
“Sorry. Family business,” Lumikki heard Terho Väisänen reply.
“Polar Bear hates it when people are late.”
“Let’s not waste any more time then.”
Amen. Lumikki agreed completely with Elisa’s father. She had no desire to spend any more time in this place and position than absolutely necessary.
The Audi growled to life.
“You have criminals on this street.”
Lumikki could just barely make out the driver’s words. They made her smile. But when the car accelerated and cold currents of air began whistling through the gaps in the trunk, she got serious.
There was no turning back.
The darkness was impenetrable. There was no way through it. It gave no ground.
She would never get out. She would never get air. She would die.
Gravel pressed a pattern of tiny depressions into her back. She squeezed gravel in her hands, feeling the sharp edges of the tiny rocks, letting them dribble between her fingers.
“Let me go!” she screamed.
She had already screamed it ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times. She had hammered on the lid with her fists, kicked it with her feet, turned over and tried to lever it open with her back. Nothing.
They were sitting on it. Probably dangling their feet and taking turns sucking a lollipop, savoring its strawberry flavor. They were in no rush. They had all the power.
The tears had already dried in Lumikki’s eyes. She was starting to panic. She felt like if she didn’t get out right that instant, she would suffocate.
She started to shriek. As loud as she could. She thought of the calls of seagulls and the way they opened their beaks so wide. She was a gull. She screamed.
The louder the sound, the more alive. She became the sound. She was one with the sound. The same red, raging, shrill note.
At some point, she realized it wasn’t dark anymore. The lid of the gravel box was open. She sat up and wiped her tears. Grit stuck to her cheeks, finely ground gravel.
There was no sign of them.
They were waiting for their next opportunity. They knew just as well as Lumikki did that one would come.
Lumikki slowly counted to ten.
She couldn’t panic now. She wasn’t the same girl now as back then. She had changed. She had learned. She could stay in any small space for any length of time.
Everything had gone the way it was supposed to so far. Almost everything.
Yes, she had bruises from banging against the sides of the trunk on some sharp turns. Yes, her nose burned like it’d be filled with the stench of gasoline for the rest of time. Yes, she was shivering with cold and numb from head to toe. But those were minor details.
The Audi had driven for thirty-five minutes, then slowed and finally stopped. Terho Väisänen exited the car first. Then the driver followed a moment later, locking the vehicle and leaving.
Lumikki had listened and then, when everything was quiet, she grabbed the silk strip with her stiff fingers and pulled evenly, pushing up on the trunk at the same time with her legs. The fabric she’d stuck in the lock mechanism was supposed to shift the latch out of place so she could get out.
The sound of ripping silk was the worst thing Lumikki had heard in a very long time.
Don’t panic. Stay calm.
Lumikki felt with her fingers for where the fabric had ripped. She couldn’t find it. Her fingers had lost almost all sensation, and the long gloves she was wearing made feeling even more difficult. Lumikki grabbed her left glove with her teeth and pulled it off. Then she shoved her fingers into her mouth to warm them until the blood started flowing again.
Another attempt.
Her fingers fumbled at the area around the lock and felt fabric. Lumikki knew that her wet fingertips would freeze again in seconds.
Yes. Oh yes. Just enough silk remained that she could still get a grip on it. Clinging to the fabric, she pushed up powerfully with her legs and pulled the cloth slowly, slowly, slowly and steadily toward herself.
The lock didn’t open.
Lumikki clenched her teeth, pushing and pulling. She strained with all her might.
Click.
The lock gave way. The trunk opened. Holding it open just a crack, Lumikki steadied her breathing. She listened. Just then, another car pulled in next to hers and stopped. The people inside got out.
“You might think about vacuuming your car sometime,” a woman’s voice said. “Look at my shoes. They were supposed to be pink.”
“You’re the one who wanted to be Sleeping Beauty. I think the evil stepmother would have worked just as well. You could have worn black shoes then,” a man replied.
The couple’s quarreling voices receded. Silence returned.
Lumikki lifted the trunk a little more and peered out. She was in some sort of small parking lot. Fortunately, the black Audi was right at the edge, in the shadows and a little behind some trees. No one was around just now.
With no time to spare, Lumikki peeled off her sleeping bag coat, pulled her glove back on, climbed out of the trunk, and quietly closed it again. She had to leave the parka. The driver would wonder about it the next day or whenever he next opened the trunk. Lumikki checked her hair with her hands. It felt like it was in miraculously good shape. Elisa hadn’t exaggerated when she said the hairspray she used could work magic.
Powder compact out of handbag, mirror up. Quick check of makeup. Remove a little stray lipstick from one corner. Then she was ready.
Lumikki turned to look at the party venue.
Boris Sokolov inspected his creation and nodded to himself. The Snow Queen looked just like she should. If seeing this didn’t make Terho Väisänen stop making trouble, Boris was willing to eat a gallon of ice cubes. In one sitting.
Boris felt an undefinable sorrow and simultaneous satisfaction. The reason for the satisfaction was clear. He was relieved. He had worked things out with Polar Bear, and he wasn’t holding a grudge over Viivo Tamm’s shooting.
It seemed that some of Polar Bear’s men had spotted Viivo running amok with a gun in broad daylight in the cemetery. That just wasn’t how things were done. It showed that the man had lost his touch, that he had started to slip. There was nothing to be done with a man who was slipping—on that Polar Bear and Boris agreed.
So Viivo had to be eliminated. It wasn’t personal.
Boris looked at Natalia, whose brown eyes were open. Her face wore a confused, surprised expression.
Poor little Natalia, did you really think Big Bad Boris wouldn’t find out about your escape plan? And then the money. That would have been stealing. And stealing, as we all know, is wrong. If you had just done what was right, everything would be different now.
Natalia, Natalia.
Snow Queen, frost on her lips.
The party could start.
Kasper’s reports had been accurate. A tall stone wall surrounded the building, which itself was a large, three-story house from the early 1900s that appeared to be located ou
t in the middle of the woods. Only a narrow road led through the forest to the house.
Lumikki wondered whether the house was even on any maps. There were places that certain people wanted kept secret, and there were ways to make that happen.
Lumikki started making her way toward the gate, where guards appeared to be stopping people and asking them something. Lumikki tried to look as much as possible like the role she was playing. A high-class paid escort.
When Lumikki’s turn came, she stepped past the guards, confidently yet slowly, in keeping with her station.
“Hetkinen. Stop,” one of the refrigerator-sized men said, repeating himself in Finnish and English.
Lumikki’s heart jumped. Was this where it would end?
“Kännykkä. Cell phone,” the guard demanded, extending his hand.
Lumikki pursed her lips and then dug her phone out of her handbag, shoving it into the man’s enormous, outstretched palm with a pout. You would have thought this was a much more important object than Elisa’s old, cast-off phone. The guard slipped the phone into his bag, which, judging from the clatter, contained more than a few already. Then without asking her permission, he grabbed Lumikki’s purse, inspecting its contents and then giving it back with a grunt.
A barely noticeable movement of his head signaled to Lumikki that she could go through. She ordered her legs not to shake from the cold and relief. She kept her head up. Walking along the icy path in high heels was pure masochism, despite the gravel that had been carefully spread around.
One step at a time. Calmly.
Around her, it was dark. Lumikki walked along a lane of light. The driveway was lined with luminaries whose flames flickered restlessly. At the end of the path was a door and, standing at the door, the epitome of an old-fashioned butler. Slicked-back hair and short white gloves. A language of gestures that simultaneously conveyed superiority and subservient civility. The man opened the door for Lumikki, bowing slightly. Lumikki stepped in.
She had succeeded.
She had really gotten into Polar Bear’s party. Now she just had to find out what Elisa’s dad was mixed up in.
As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) Page 12
