Helsinki White iv-3

by James Thompson

  Milo came over with two gym bags stuffed inside a third. I helped him pack it all up except for a hundred thousand, which I kept for emergencies. It was a heavy load, and I asked him if he wanted me to help him carry it home. He understood that I needed to talk to Kate, and staggered out the door, weighted down with guns, dope and nearly half a million euros.

  Kate had gone to our bedroom to be alone. She wasn’t angry anymore. She just looked wretchedly sad. I said I had some things to tell her about my meeting with Jyri and asked if we could talk. I suppose because of the way she had spoken to me, because she’d tried so hard to be kind to me and finally lost control of her emotions, she looked contrite. She needn’t have. Almost anybody would have done the same under so much pressure. She nodded and patted the bed. I propped up a couple pillows and lay down in a semi-recline.

  “I’m leaving Helsinki Homicide, and so is Milo. This little black-ops unit of ours is moving to the National Bureau of Investigation.”

  “Which is?” she asked.

  “The NBI is a national police unit that fights the most serious organized and professional crime. It provides a lot of specialized technical services-forensics, technical intelligence, operational analyses. Assists local police forces in their more difficult cases. It offers more expert services. Financial and money laundering crime. IT crime. More difficult homicide cases and more complicated cases in general. It also takes care of international police co-operation and exchange of information, a big help to me, since I want to focus on cross-border transportation of girls forced into slavery and prostitution. You can think of it as being like your American FBI.”

  “So it’s a step up for you? A promotion?”

  “In a manner of speaking. It’s less public. I’m well-known, and it keeps me out of the public eye. And I’m fighting high-level organized crime, so our project fits in with the NBI mandate. Plus, they don’t have educational requirements, only areas of expertise, so Sulo can get an official job there, too.” This was before Kate hung Sulo with his nickname, Sweetness.

  Kate laughed. “And his area of expertise is what?”

  “Whatever we invent. The minister will rubber-stamp it.”

  I didn’t say that my role was to be similar to Hoover’s uglier machinations. It appeared to me that, although during our meeting it went unsaid, the subtext was that I was to be used for heists and shakedowns, extortion and instilling fear, probably collecting dirt on perceived enemies of the establishment. I was now Jyri’s enforcer, and before I had even begun, I had to find a way to extricate myself from this situation. It occurred to me that Jyri didn’t even wish me luck with my surgery. If I died, he wouldn’t mourn my loss, just find someone else to do the job.

  “Congratulations,” Kate said. “I shouldn’t have complained about the things in the closet. You were up front about what you were going to do and asked my permission. I had a chance to say no.”

  Guilt renewed itself. She wanted to say no, but acquiesced because I might be dead soon, and she would deny me nothing. I squeezed her hand. “It doesn’t matter. And all this isn’t as good as it sounds. Jyri presented this operation as if we would steal from criminals out of need for funding. For the good of the public. It was a lie. We’ve been moved to the NBI in part because it’s headed by the minister of the interior, and he and Jyri have some kind of illicit partnership. Not all of the money we’ve stolen goes to funding the unit. Jyri gets a cut, the minister gets a cut, and they insist that I take a percentage as well.”

  Kate’s jaw dropped. “That makes you a dirty cop.”

  I nod. “Yep, it does. I said I didn’t want it. He said I had to take it because if I didn’t, I wasn’t complicit, and if I wasn’t complicit, I couldn’t be trusted.”

  “You can’t do it,” Kate said.

  I sighed. “You can’t imagine how disillusioned I am. I’m so fucking stupid and naive. Maybe I should just resign.”

  “No,” she said, “not yet. Remember, you have evidence on the national chief of police that would end his career. He’s at your mercy and he knows it. He can’t force you to do anything.”

  I was at a complete loss. “What do I do then?”

  “You have surgery. You come home. You let me take care of you and heal. Then we figure it out together.”

  It made me smile. I rolled over and gave her a hug.

  “Ma rakastan sinua,” she said.

  Her Finnish was getting better all the time. “I love you, too. I’m sorry about your job.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  She took Anu from her crib, brought her into the bed with us, and we all took a nap together.

  6

  That evening, Milo and Sweetness came over for a planning session. I wouldn’t see them again until after my surgery. I asked them here to issue edicts, to make everything clear. When I was back in action, working under the assumption that I would be, I wanted everything running smoothly.

  They sat at the dining room table. Katt perched on my shoulder. Kate sat on the couch breast-feeding Anu, her back to us. I didn’t ask her for privacy during the meeting, in the spirit of my new policy of honesty.

  Milo and Sweetness showed up wearing thousand-euro suits. “Plans for the evening?” I asked.

  “Yep,” Milo said. “We’re going out for a night on the town, beginning with the casino. I have a feeling Lady Fortune is with us.”

  “Nice suits,” I said.

  Sweetness said, “I’ve never had one before. Milo helped me pick it out. It’s a Hugo Boss. They don’t make them in my size and they had a hard time altering it. Do you think they did a good job?”

  “You look great,” I said and meant it, “but you can’t go to the casino.”

  Automatic, Milo went angry and defensive. The dark circles under his eyes narrowed to black pits. I wondered if he ever sleeps. “You can’t tell us what to do with our money.”

  I shouldn’t have given them the money. It was bound to result in them showing it off.

  Helsinki has a major casino downtown. First-class. Big money. “Have you ever been to the casino?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “They’re going to take your pictures so they can register you and give you membership cards. Then video cameras will record every move you make, such as plunking down a grand on a roll of the dice. Swanky entertainment on a cop’s salary. If you’re ever charged with being a dirty cop, which you now are, you can rest assured your trip to the casino will be found out and used as evidence against you. That SUPO agent you beat half to death needs his face rebuilt. You think that will be forgotten, that you won’t be watched? We can all count on being spot tailed now. Assume everything you do is known to the secret police.” I pointed at Sweetness. “And technically, you’re unemployed. You don’t even have a source of income, which in large part is why I gave you some money, not to fritter it away. How do you intend to explain your sudden rise to the high life?”

  He didn’t answer, stuck some nuuska in his lip instead.

  “Then what the hell is the good of having the money?” Milo asked.

  “Money is always good. Just keep it invisible.”

  He scratched his head, puzzled. “If we’re watched, how are we supposed to pull off these dope dealer robberies?”

  “It’s taken care of. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. And handsome though you are in them, don’t make it a habit of wearing expensive suits. Just don’t do things that call attention to yourselves.”

  Milo and Sweetness looked at each other and traded grins.

  “What?” I asked.

  Sweetness laughed out loud.

  Milo said, “Where should I begin? Let’s see. You and I were in the headlines just weeks ago for stopping that school shooting and killing a man. Your limp makes you noticeable from a mile away, and that bullet wound scar on your face is fucking scary. You’re a walking billboard that screams ‘Look at me!’ And our giant colleague makes quite an impression on people as well. You’re j
ust being silly.”

  The crew had taken up the habit of speaking English in Kate’s presence, out of politeness.

  “They’re right, you know,” Kate said, and I saw it dawn on them that she must be privy to everything. She looked at Sulo. “Sweetness,” she said, “would you be a dear and bring me a cup of coffee, with a little milk in it?” Sulo translates to “sweet,” and so it seemed natural to her to call him that. She had no idea what she’d done.

  Milo hee-hawed. “Sweetness, that’s great! Sweetness, could I have a cup, too?” And thus, Sulo became Sweetness forevermore. He maintained his dignity and pretended as if nothing had happened. He asked me if I would care for a cup. He served us all, even Milo.

  “Thank you, Sweetness,” Milo said.

  Sweetness stood up, walked over to peruse my CD collection, kept his back to us so we couldn’t see his face turn red. “Pomo, do you mind if I put on some music?”

  I told him to go ahead, and we all sat without speaking and listened to Charlie Parker blow saxophone. The group had a strange dynamic. Milo and Sweetness both emulated me, vied for my attention, and I got the feeling I had taken on some kind of father figure role for them. They spent far more time in our home than necessary, stopped by under any pretense. They were just in the neighborhood and popped in. Did we need anything from the grocery?

  Their demeanor toward Kate carried something with it that suggested motherhood, and her quiet dignity and bearing, especially when she held Anu, reinforced it. Despite Kate lacking the lush figure commonly portrayed during the period, she and Anu together often called to my mind Renaissance images of Madonna and Child. Milo and Sweetness bickered and insulted each other constantly, but then Milo took Sweetness out and helped him shop for clothes, reminiscent of the behavior of brothers. And finally, Arvid Lahtinen called me every couple days, and the tone of our conversations were much like grandfather and grandson.

  I’d only known Arvid a few weeks, and our relationship was forged by criminal activity and murder. Among other things, his wife had cancer, he helped her to die, and I covered it up for him. Plus, he knew my grandpa during the Second World War. They were friends and killed many men together.

  And now we were phone friends. I’d never had a phone friend before, but I enjoyed his calls.

  My relationship with Sweetness also began with an act of violence. Two bouncers accidentally killed his brother. He repaid them by stabbing them with a box cutter and hitting them repeatedly in the face with a key ring, the keys protruding from between his fingers, causing awful puncture wounds and disfiguring them. I gave him a chance and offered him a job on a drunken whim, because he had a shitty upbringing and I felt sorry for him, and because I thought his capacity for violence would be of use to me.

  I picked up my phone and called my neurologist brother, Jari. He picked up. “Hello, big brother,” I said to him, even though he’s half my size, because he’s four years older than me.

  It was two days until brain surgery, his voice radiated concern. “You OK?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, but I made a decision. I’m going to be out of action anyway. I want to take care of all my problems at once.”

  “Such as?”

  “I want to check into the hospital early. Tomorrow. I want the scar on my face removed, and surgery on my knee to repair it as best as they’re able.”

  He laughed at me. “Hospitals and surgeons don’t offer one-day service, and you need tests on your knee to find out how to best repair the damage, how much of the damage can be repaired, or even if it can be repaired at all.”

  “My appearance interferes with my work as a detective. If I can get them all done at once, I won’t have so much downtime from work, and I have a baby to take care of. I know you can get it done if you call in favors. I’m asking you for a favor.”

  Kate still had trouble believing that medical care is essentially free here. Brain surgery, all the attendant tests and the hospital stay would cost me nothing. The police have private insurance, so I get preferential care. I forget, maybe I pay a fifty-euro-a-year deductible. Nothing more. For an uninsured citizen using the public health-care system, a hospital stay costs fifteen euros a day. A doctor’s visit about the same. Specialists cost nothing extra. Tests are cheap or free. Medicine can be expensive, but most people can easily afford to be sick here.

  “Well, the scar removal could be called a procedure as much as a surgery. We can have your knee assessed, and if your tumor removal goes well, it’s possible to do them both in a short time frame. “I’ll make some calls and get back to you,” he said.

  I rang off. Everyone gawked at me, too shocked to question my decision, even Kate.

  Sweetness changed Charlie Parker for Charlie Christian and sat down again. I issued my edicts. Milo was in charge. There would be no robberies, heists, B amp;Es, or any such activity while I was away. Robberies made enemies, they might cause problems. Milo would commit no acts of violence, because he enjoys them. If violence was necessary, it would fall under Sweetness’s domain, because he doesn’t enjoy it. Also, Milo was famous, Sweetness was unknown. He would be our front man, the face of the team, if we needed one. I suspect Sweetness has sociopath tendencies, doesn’t care if he hurts people or not. Milo got a carrot on a stick. He was to teach Sweetness computer skills. In return, he would slowly get to take more part in the exciting, meaning violent, aspects of the job if they were required. I sensed resentment between Milo and Sweetness. Neither liked the arrangement, but they nodded agreement.

  “That includes your hobby,” I said to Milo. “No B amp;Es for voyeurism. I don’t want you to get in any kind of trouble.”

  Milo’s hobby is breaking into people’s houses for fun. He doesn’t steal. Just looks around, prowls, goes through their things. He told me he just enjoys seeing how people live, what kinds of secrets they’re hiding. It’s some kind of fetish. His face went red and he glanced over his shoulder to check Kate’s reaction. She pretended as though she heard nothing.

  “You’re not to skim or steal,” I said. “You don’t have to. Both of you get five percent of the take. You’ll continue to get it as long as you don’t flash it around.”

  I told them that while I was out of action and recovering, Milo was to get us outfitted with everything we needed to cut the legs out from under the criminals of Helsinki.

  “Go heavy on surveillance gear,” I said. “We’re not going to war with the criminals of Helsinki, we’re going to steal them broke and put them out of business.”

  “I know what we need,” Milo said. “It’s going to cost a fuckload of money.”

  “Then spend the fuckload of money. We have plenty.” I continued, “I don’t trust the people we work for. Sweetness, I want you to surveil Jyri, the national chief of police, the interior minister, and also the leadership of Kokoomus”-the conservative party to which they belong-“and whatever other politicos you find they associate with. Just spot tail them at random. See what turns up.”

  I had an idea of who was crooked from my conversations with Jyri and bits and pieces of info I picked up during the Filippov investigation. Sweetness isn’t built for surveillance. He stands out from a mile away. “Get a camera with a long telescopic lens,” I said, “and don’t let them see you under any circumstances.”

  Milo said, “I’ll get you a shotgun mike and rig so you can record their conversations.”

  “And, Milo,” I said, “get us about ten safe-deposit boxes in different cities and banks. Kate,” I asked, “would you go with him and co-sign so we have access?”

  She registered surprise, but nodded.

  My phone rang. Jari said, “My office, seven a.m. I’ll escort you to the appropriate places and spend the day with you.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because I want to.”

  Milo and Sweetness shook my hand and wished me luck before they left. Sweetness couldn’t help himself and gave me a bear hug, almost choked the life out of me.

 
I sat down on the couch next to Kate. “Should I have discussed tomorrow with you before planning the other surgeries?” I asked.

  She put an arm around me. “No. I was thrilled. You wouldn’t have done it unless you believe you’re going to live.”

  Maybe I was addled because of the migraine. We had a newborn in the house. It didn’t occur to me how incredibly unfair to her it was for me to choose to have knee surgery and cripple myself, on top of whatever damage brain surgery might cause. I placed a terrible burden upon her.

  7

  The next days remain blurred wisps of images. It was Monday morning, the eighth of February. Not too cold, just below freezing but windy. I took the tram to Jari’s office downtown, not far from the railway station. Tomorrow’s brain surgery deleted most of the coming days’ memories.

  The gunshot scar on my face was removed with laser resurfacing. There were tests, X-rays. Surgeries. Nights in the hospital, waking and not understanding where I was. I have a blurry image of Kate’s face as they put me on a gurney and wheeled me off to an operating theater.

  The thought of surgery made me think of all the autopsies I’d witnessed. The whine and smell of an electric bone saw at work. The hushed murmur of a scalpel carving flesh. I was dizzy, woozy, confused.

  Eventually, I came back to myself. A surgeon came in and informed me that the knee surgery was a success. After several weeks of physical therapy, I would have full range of motion to the limits of the prosthesis, meaning only a slight limp. I should have full weight bearing with a cane within six weeks.

  Another surgeon came in and told me they got the whole tumor. No complications. I remember seeing Kate, Anu, Jari. I remember asking Kate to let me look at myself in her makeup mirror. With the scar gone, and a small bald spot with a stitched-up incision on the front of my head, I barely recognized myself. Mostly, I slept.

  When I awoke the next morning, the symptoms of the previous day had mostly passed. My headache was gone. It had tortured me for a year, and now it was as if it had never existed at all. And great changes had occurred within me. I felt like a different person. Despite the medication I had been given-painkillers and tranquilizers-it was as if my thoughts had been muddled for my whole life, and now, suddenly and miraculously, I was clear in the mind, sharp as a razor.