White Night

by J J Marsh

  She answered on the second ring. “What do you want? More made-up stories to sell to journalists?”

  “Tuula, they didn’t get it from me. That’s why I’m calling. I couldn’t bear…” He looked over his shoulder to check Beatrice was not standing with her ear to the balcony door. “I couldn’t bear to leave Finland with you thinking I was some kind of grubby hack. I really am a private detective. I really am trying to find Valpuri and Samu. I swear to you, I didn’t give that story to the journalist.”

  There was a long silence before she replied. “You’re leaving?”

  He closed his eyes, aware of the wistful note in her voice. “Yeah, today. Whoever gave the press that story has trampled all over my investigation. There’s nothing else I can do here, just leave it to the police. Anyway, I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you for all you did.”

  The pause didn’t last as long this time. “Right. You know, I couldn’t believe you would do that to us. I mean ... well, anyway. Thanks for calling. It was nice to meet you.”

  Theo bit his lip. “You too, Tuula. I want you to know that I really respect what you’re doing and admire your commitment to your beliefs. When I get home, there’s something I’d like to send you, if you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  “Thank you. I hope you’ll like it. It reminds me of you.” He kicked at the balcony wall in self-disgust. “In fact, I have something I’d like to send each of the Gaia Warriors. The Peura family gave me everyone’s addresses except Aleksis. Do you know where I can send him a little something? I think it might make him laugh.”

  Tuula snorted. “That would be a first. I’ve never seen that kid laugh in my life. You can send it in the same package as Risto’s and Ursula’s. He’s staying in their student house over the summer. They wanted me to move in too, but I’ve got a life, you know what I mean?”

  “I know what you mean. Tuula, I’m really grateful, for everything. Take good care.”

  “You too. Bye, Theo, and if you ever come back, look me up.”

  He ended the call and chewed his croissant as if it had personally insulted him. This forked-tongue fakery did not sit well. It was different when catching out scammy fraudsters, but he hated lying to innocent teenage girls. Raindrops spattered onto his face and a fierce wind made him shiver.

  The door opened and Beatrice brought him another coffee. “Don’t go all hair-shirt and self-flagellation. All’s fair when it comes to getting what we need to know. Unless you’ve declared undying love, which I presume you have not, she’ll have a couple of moony weeks and forget all about you. Now, do you have a phone number for Aleksis or not?”

  He accepted the coffee. “An address. Turns out he’s living with Risto and Ursula, a fact that makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m the one who should go round there, because they know me but at the same time, I’m the last one they’ll allow to speak to Aleksis. What about getting out to that Malmen place?” His napkin blew off the table and stuck against the balcony door.

  “The weather’s on the turn and you need to put some clothes on. Come indoors and let’s make a plan.”

  Once he was fully dressed, he came out of the bathroom to find his boss waiting, arms folded and mind made up.

  “I’ll give you three reasons why you should not go dashing off to some unspecified place in Malmen. One, the message you received was exactly the same format as all the other death threats. OK, it wasn’t a threat but how do we know we can trust the sender? Two, we need police support. To go searching for people by the seaside, one needs specialist equipment, dogs, wet weather gear, heat-seeking sensors.” Beatrice waved a hand airily. “Three, if that letter came from one of the Gaia Warriors, they are the best possible people to lead us and the police directly to the location.”

  “They said not to contact the police,” Theo reminded her.

  Beatrice gave him a look over her specs. “They always do. I suggest a dual plan of action. Firstly, we need the police on our side or failing that, listening to us would suffice. To that end, I intend to prove it was Heikki Mäkinen who spilt the peas to the newshounds. All I need to do is feed him a juicy little titbit which not even you know about because I haven’t even made it up yet. Then I warn Detective Sahlberg and we sit back and watch when it surfaces. Once he runs his mouth off again, you and I are sitting pretty and the police have no choice but to support us.”

  Theo shifted in his seat, wanting to believe her. “There are a whole lot of ifs in that plan. If you meet Heikki Mäkinen, if he swallows your fake news, if he sells it to his girlfriend, if he does it in time for us to take action and if Detective Sahlberg will even listen to you. I don’t want to rub it in, but he’s given you the cold shoulder this morning.”

  “Who can blame him? He doesn’t trust me, or should I say, us. What I intend to do is prove to him the leak came from a different direction. The only issue is how quickly I can pull this off. That, I grant you, is a worry. Which leads me to our second string.”

  Wind rattled the French windows and the drops of rain pelted the glass. The bright room grew gloomy and Beatrice got up to switch on the lights.

  “As I was saying, second string. You seek out Aleksis. Think like a sheepdog, you will need to separate him from the others. Presuming it was him who sent this note, he has enough of a conscience to respond to a guilt trip. He was there to listen to Samu’s mother so he must understand the dangers of this situation. We need to get a precise location before we go haring off into the wilds of Finland on a wild coots’ chase. There is one other thing.”

  Theo waited and when she did not speak, he noticed an awkwardness in her demeanour. She seemed to be casting around for the right words. Theo understood.

  “You want me to call Matthew and lie to him that we’ve been delayed for a day by this storm.”

  She looked up at him, her eyes beseeching. “It’s above and beyond the call of duty, I know that. But teenage environmental activists are not the only ones who respond to guilt trips. They’ll blame me, Theo, and I need all my faculties to focus on this case.”

  “For such a hard-headed woman, you can be a right coward,” he said, with a grin to soften the impact of his words.

  She grinned back and he realised his words would have no impact whatsoever, as long as he did what she wanted. “OK, you’d better go. I’ll make your excuses and then I’m heading over to the student house. Do you want the car?”

  Beatrice wrinkled her nose. “No, you can have it. I’ll take a taxi to the police station. Keep in touch and update me whenever you can.” She hefted her handbag onto her shoulder and picked a strawberry from the breakfast trolley. “Theo?”

  He lifted his face.

  “Thank you. You really shouldn’t let me use you as a human shield, but I’m awfully glad you do. Good luck and I’ll see you later.” She popped the strawberry into her mouth and was gone.

  Chapter 27

  Last night, no one came. No puffer, no food, no water, nothing. That was not great for her and really bad for Samu. The water she collected every couple of hours had not made her sick. She judged it as a risk but decided to give it to Samu. The alternative was a whole lot worse.

  Since yesterday evening, he had been in and out of consciousness and his breathing ragged. Valpuri was unable to keep him awake and upright, no matter how hard she tried. She couldn’t keep him clean any longer as he kept soiling his sleeping bag. Figuring the sun would hit a patch of the cave for a few hours in the morning, Valpuri removed the stinking fabric from around his body and washed it in the sea. She stretched it out across the rocks beneath the aperture, using ties from their hoodies to string it from two stalagmites and prayed for sunshine. For the first time in her life, she actually prayed.

  Meanwhile, she covered Samu with everything warm and dry they had and dug a channel so that every time he relieved himself, it flowed away towards the sea. The stench was probably nauseating, she thought, but she had long since ceased to notice. There was nothing
left to eat and even the emergency apricots she’d saved for Samu had gone.

  She tried to conserve energy, wrapping herself into a ball, hands between her thighs, hood pulled up around her head and her feet in the cold box. The insulated vessel kept heat in as well as out. She concentrated for hours on her breath, reassuring herself that she had the strength to get through this. The sun would shine on Samu’s bag, drying it, warming it and making it clean again. They would come tonight, bringing food, water, dry clothes and most important thing of all, Samu’s inhaler. If not …

  She closed her eyes and dozed, dreaming of light, of motion. While her body lay shivering and tense on the damp sand, another Valpuri stood up and stretched, glowing with energy and warmth. She shimmered like an animated heroine and bent to brush sparkling hands over Valpuri’s fake fur hood. Her arms arced backwards as if she were a seagull about to take flight. Her head rose to the glimpses of the sun reflecting from the waves and she took off at a run. Across the sand without making a footprint, taking huge strides to leap over the rocks and flying out from the cave, diving into the sea, her glowing silhouette undulating beneath the waves. A dolphin. A mermaid.

  Her stomach cramped and her eyes flew open. I’m not sick. Just hungry. I’m not sick. I’m strong, I’m healthy, I will survive this. We will survive this. Her stomach cramped again. The wind blew in from the sea with unusual force, knocking the soggy sleeping bag to the ground. Valpuri uncurled and crabbed her way across the cave with the intention of fixing her makeshift washing line. As she stood beneath the aperture she realised there was no sunshine, and a storm was heading in their direction. The waves grew bolder, not just tiptoeing in but swelling, thrusting and crashing into their pathetic little refuge.

  In a moment of brutal clarity, Valpuri could see what would happen if they remained where they were. One glance at the raging sea told her the fantasy of a glowing mermaid was nothing more than the onset of delirium. A storm, if not a hurricane, was about to hit the coast and their cave would flood, battering her and Samu against the rocks as if they were blueberries in a blender. She fell onto her knees and covered her face with her hands. She would not give in to tears or despair. She had a fine mind and now was the time to use it.

  Someone at some time had climbed down here. Maybe they had ropes, torches and back-up but somebody had to be the first one down into this cave. If someone climbed down, someone could climb up. She had none of the right gear, simply trainers, jeans and a sweatshirt. The only thing she could count on was an instinct for survival. She took a long breath in through her nose, willing herself to identify ozone rather than faeces, and tilted her head back, peering up at the aperture. The cliff walls seemed unassailable, smooth and wet as marble. If she climbed, she might get stuck, injure herself or fall. What was the alternative? To sit listening to her friend’s struggles to breathe until the waves came to claim them? If there was any way to save Samu, she would have to get help.

  Valpuri unzipped her jacket and tied it tightly around her waist. She stood beneath the aperture, avoiding the rain and studying her limited view of the ascending walls. Illumination was poor and she would be feeling her way. She assessed the metre or so she could see clearly and chose her route.

  A voice whispered in her ears. ‘Don’t leave me, Vappu. Please don’t go.’

  Her head snapped around to stare at the comatose lump on the sand. She crept around to look at his face. Eyes closed, breathing painful. She patted his cheek.

  “Samu? Can you hear me? Just open your eyes if you can, OK?”

  His eyes didn’t flicker and his breathing continued, a dragging thready snore that sounded painful. She cast a fearful glance behind her at the encroaching waves, halfway up the cave. Whether she made it out or not, the sea would not wait. Her only hope was to drag him as far as she could up the sand, beneath the aperture. Away from the roiling sea but directly beneath the pounding rain.

  Sweating and tearful, she hauled the deadweight of her best friend as high as she could. She covered him with a groundsheet, tucked it around his body and kissed his forehead. Maybe there would be more oxygen here?

  “I’m popping out for a coffee. Can I get you anything?”

  She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and began to climb.

  The only way to get through this was to look at the next step and no further. Valpuri had ascended around three metres in what seemed like hours. Every time she found a hold for a hand or a foot, she had to be sure there was another within reach. Otherwise, she would have to descend and find a different path. Her muscles in her forearm screamed as she clenched onto the crevice, fumbling to find the tiny ledge she sought with her foot. Water slipped down the walls of the cave, numbing her fingers and clouding her sight.

  She repeated her mantra. I’m strong. I’m healthy. I will survive this. We will survive this. Hold on, Samu, I’m coming back. As she ascended, the curve of the wall sloped over her head. If she climbed any further, she would be crawling like a beetle across the roof. Her body weight would pluck her like a rotten fruit and she would fall, onto the sand, possibly onto Samu, and would inevitably damage some part of her weakened frame.

  In the gloom of the afternoon, she tried to see another way of getting closer to the rim. All around the aperture, the walls ballooned outwards and then down. Nothing but an insect could ascend these walls and in this weather not even a cockroach would survive. Tears of frustration added to the water in her eyes and with infinite care, she started the terrifying journey down.

  Chapter 28

  Beatrice could evade scrutiny from most people by keeping busy and focusing on the task in hand. Except her counsellor. James had repeatedly asked her to check in via phone or video call and she had ducked each slot. Today, she resolved to tackle that responsibility, regardless of how much she had to do.

  In light of the deteriorating weather, she took a cab to the police station, with the anonymous message in its bag. At reception, she emphasised the importance of speaking personally to Detective Sahlberg. Once again, he was unavailable. Beatrice had no choice but to leave the note at reception, stating three more times how vital this information would prove to the investigation. Then she waited out of the buffeting wind and whiplash rain until she could get another taxi back to the hotel. The sky was the blackest she’d seen it since arriving. Even when she’d been awake at one am on Theo’s night of excess, the night retained a hint of light. Beatrice would not describe it as white, but one could have jogged along a remote beach with no need of a torch. If that was the sort of thing one did after midnight. A taxi came to a halt and Beatrice began rehearsing her excuses to James.

  In her hotel room, she decided to do a face-to-face meeting for a change. Her usual habit was to hide from the camera, a factor James always accepted as her choice, but never failed to note. Today, she would be open and on camera and look into his eyes.

  “James Parker?”

  “Hello, James, it’s Beatrice. Thank you for finding time for me. Are you well?”

  “Beatrice.” The way he said her name felt like a hug. The screen flickered and she saw her face come up in the corner. She cringed at the sight of her windswept hair, but did not switch off the camera.

  “Oh, you’re doing visuals today? In that case, I can say in all honesty, it’s lovely to see you. I am well, thank you. How are you?”

  “Busy. I have to solve this Finnish case by tomorrow or I’ll be in hot water when I get home. Tanya’s wedding is this weekend.”

  On the screen, James rested his fingers on his temples. “Yes, I thought as much. How realistic are the chances of you making sufficient progress in the next few hours?”

  “We have a long shot and we’re taking it. My new assistant is working out well, you’ll be pleased to hear. His skill set differs to mine but it’s complementary. There’s another person I think I can rely on, so to answer your question, the chances are slim, but I have a great team behind me.”

  His blond hair shone in the lam
plight. “That sounds optimistic. How about you? No regrets about leaving Devon at such a vital time for the family?”

  She had regrets, mostly about putting herself on camera now, because she dearly wanted to wrinkle her nose. “All fine there. Plenty of hands on deck and I’ll be home tomorrow, come hell or high horses. They can manage.”

  James cupped his chin in his hand. “That wasn’t my question. The wedding situation is not my primary concern. You are. So I ask again. No regrets?”

  She looked at his image and caved in. He’d get there in the end. He always did. The only question was how long it would take.

  “I postponed our return because some new information has come to light. I don’t regret that per se, but I was cowardly enough to ask Theo to make the call and blame it on the weather. Matthew will see right through such a ruse.”

  James waited for her to continue. She knew what he was going to ask, and answered the question without him needing to open his mouth.

  “I don’t really know why, to be honest.”

  “You don’t know why you chose to lie about the weather or you don’t know why you asked Theo to tell the lie?”

  There was really no need to keep referring to it as a lie. It was possibly even true, although it wouldn’t be difficult for someone to check Arrivals at Heathrow Airport. “The weather is dreadful, James. But that’s not why I wanted to stay, you’re right. As for Theo ...” She tailed off, unable to avoid the obvious.

  “Two questions, if I may. Why did you decide to tell me your choice of action when I asked if you had any regrets? Secondly, how would you describe your behaviour?”

  She sighed. “Because that’s the thing I feel guilty about. Staying on another day, telling lies about why and getting Theo to do my dirty work. My behaviour is bloody typical. Evasive and irresponsible. At my age, it really is time I grew up.”