by J J Marsh
He passed the address Tuula had given him three times; once on the other side of the street, once close enough to cast a glance at the ground-floor windows and the final time in a diagonal line, as if he were simply crossing the road. It was an unremarkable building, around four storeys high and in need of some care and attention. The door was scuffed and dirty, litter lay in the porch and the walls were streaked with grey where something had leaked. Lights shone on the first and second floors, but Theo could see no signs of movement. He walked as far as the tram stop, intending to wait and watch before making his move.
A few people waited in the shelter, each with the withdrawn attitude of a miserable traveller. When Theo joined them, no one even gave him a glance. He settled on the bench, far enough from the other passengers to be inconspicuous, and turned his attention to his breath. Long slow inhalation, steady calming exhalation, both part of the same mindful cycle. His intention was to breathe and watch for thirty minutes, repeating his intention as a mantra in his mind. Then, when he was calm and focused, he would cross the street and knock on the door.
Except he didn’t get the chance. The tram arrived, masking his view of the house, and every other traveller boarded. Once the vehicle hummed away, his view looked quite different. Two vehicles had pulled up outside the student house; the first a plain sedan, the other a police patrol car. A man in a raincoat got out of the unmarked vehicle and waited for two uniformed officers to join him. In formation, detective first, uniform second, they approached the door.
Theo needed to get closer. He pulled his hood tighter and crossed to the other side of the street, dodging puddles until he found himself almost directly opposite the building that interested him. There, he stood in a shop doorway, sheltering from the rain. The police had gone inside and the façade of the building was bland and innocuous. Moments ticked past and Theo stayed absolutely still, his attention on the other side of the street.
The lights on the third floor went out, shortly followed by those on the second floor. The front door opened and Risto and Ursula emerged, each guided by a police officer. The detective opened the back door and ushered Ursula inside. The police officers, with the minimum of fuss, put Risto in the back seat of the patrol car. Doors slammed and both vehicles splashed away down the street. Maintaining complete stillness, Theo watched the building they had just left, now in darkness. He withdrew further into the shadow of the shop doorway, took out his phone and informed Beatrice of the latest developments.
Then he switched his phone to silent, zipped his jacket right up to his chin and loped over the road. Without hesitation, he strode up to the door and eased his box of tricks from his inside pocket. He put his finger on the bell, but did not press it, looking up to check his assumption this place had no security camera. He pressed once. No voice came through the intercom. He pressed again. Silence. In his head, he heard Beatrice’s voice during his training sessions. Push the door away to maximise any kind of space between lock and jamb. Press the card between the door and where the lock lies. Pull the door closer, turn handle and open. On a bog standard Yale lock, that will get you in.
She wasn’t wrong. Theo was not the kind of person to learn a skill and hope he would never need it. After every session in which Beatrice introduced him to the equipment he would need, he had spent several days practising. He broke into his own flat, and with permission, his neighbour’s flat, Catinca’s house and Dionysus, the wine bar where he used to work. He knew both theoretically and in muscle memory, how to open a locked door.
The door opened with a whine. To Theo’s ears, it seemed a negligible creak, but he knew regular residents would be attuned to such a sound. He closed it behind him and pressed himself against the wall to listen, steam rising from his wet clothes. A student house, with three rooms on each floor, could house up to twenty-four people. Yet they were on their summer break, the vast majority returning to parents, holidaying with friends or working summer jobs outside the city. In most cases, the fact that two residents had just been arrested would be a cause for much discussion, gossip and consternation. Theo could hear nothing. While he waited, he slipped on a pair of plastic gloves.
He paced on tiptoes along the corridor and found the kitchen. Nothing like the student house he remembered, with cornflakes on the floor, spilt milk on the work surfaces and mugs so stained and chipped, they should have been growing culture in a scientific laboratory. This was clean, almost military in its organisation. Some washing-up still in the sink and a few open packages beside the hob. Theo touched nothing apart from the handle of the back door. It was locked and spattered with raindrops, as was every window in the room.
He checked the living room, crept cautiously up the stairs and tried each door on the first floor. All locked. He could break in, of course, but he chose to explore the rest of the house before intruding. His instincts told him the place was empty. There was a deadness and absence of energy, but relying on instinct was the attitude of an idiot. He checked the bathroom and silently made his way to the second floor. Same story, although the humidity and scent in this shower room told him it had been recently used. None of the bedroom doors gave any indication as to which belonged to whom. The last flight of steps was an iron spiral, more like the ascent to an attic than a regularly used stairwell. Each step announced his presence with a light metallic clink. He paused after the first, waited thirty seconds and stretched to take two steps in one stride.
The house creaked and groaned under the onslaught of the weather, the drumming on the roof like a frantic samba band. Theo took three cycles of breath and eased himself up four more steps until he could see the landing. There was only one door and the bare minimum of light from the floor below. He allowed his eyes to adjust and could see a heap of cardboard boxes stuffed into the corner where the roof sloped downwards. In front of him, there was enough space to stand upright for whoever wanted to enter the top room.
He reached out to check if the door was locked but some internal warning system stayed his hand. Breathing regularly and calmly, Theo crouched and with a crablike scuttle, retreated into the shadows between the cardboard boxes. Minutes passed. The howls and clatters of the storm grew to a crescendo and kept on going. Then another sound, closer, joined the unholy symphony.
Above Theo’s head, a trap door opened. The flap swung backwards, blocking Theo’s view of the space above. For several seconds, nothing happened and then a metal ladder slid to the ground in stages. After a long pause, someone began climbing down. Even if Theo’s suspicions had not already taken that direction, he would have guessed who it was by the awkward, one-handed descent. He waited until Aleksis had reached the ground and was peering down the stairwell before he made his move.
“Hello, Aleksis.”
The kid gasped and stumbled backwards, then launched himself at the stairs. Theo was faster, grabbing Aleksis’s uninjured arm.
“Be realistic. You’re going nowhere. Is there anyone else apart from you in this building?”
Aleksis shook his head but said nothing.
“What say you and I go downstairs, have a cup of tea and a nice little chat? Why don’t you lead the way?”
Aleksis turned to him, face stricken. “There’s no time,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. “We have to help them.”
“Help who? Do you mean Risto and Ursula?”
Aleksis shook his head again, this time more vigorously. “No, not them. I mean Samu and Valpuri. They’re in danger.”
Theo narrowed his eyes. “Where are they, Aleksis? Tell me. I know you sent that note.”
The words came tumbling out in a rush. “They’re in the caves, the caves at Malmen. We take them food and water every day, but yesterday we couldn’t go. And today the storm…. it’s dangerous. The cave is safe in the summer but in this weather, I don’t know, they don’t know. Samu needs his inhalers. Ursula says Valpuri is exaggerating but I think he could be sick and we didn’t go yesterday. We couldn’t go because Risto said the po
lice were watching us after the news report. It was too dangerous and we couldn’t go. I’m worried about both of them and really worried about Samu. We have to help them.”
“How far away are these caves?”
“Half an hour, maybe forty minutes. I can’t drive. But I have his inhalers and we have supplies, up there.”
Theo gave the kid a ‘do you think I’m stupid?’ look, but Aleksis’s face showed nothing but concern. “Right, and I go up there leaving you to do a runner? I don’t think so. You are going back up this ladder to pass supplies down to me, then we need to call the police…”
“No!” Aleksis shouted. “No police! If you call the police, I can’t take you, I won’t. We have to help them, but not police.”
The kid seemed panicked, like a bird caught in the net. Theo listened to his gut feeling and decided the welfare of the missing kids came first.
“I’ll make you a deal. You take me to where they are so we can help them. But, Aleksis, if Samu needs medical help, I must call emergency services. Do you understand?”
Aleksis’s eyes darted from left to right and in a murmur, he said, “Yes, I understand. I’ll get the stuff.” One-handed, he dragged himself back up the metal ladder and into the attic. Theo heard him dragging boxes and moving heavy objects about over his head, so he took the opportunity to send Beatrice a rapid text message.
Think I know where V and S might be. Aleksis (Gaia Warrior) says they’re in some caves in the Malmen area, thirty mins from Helsinki. Going there now, don’t call me in case this kid panics. I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.
He put the phone in his pocket and climbed the ladder to give Aleksis a hand.
Chapter 31
The entire journey to Helsinki police station, Beatrice was preoccupied with how she might entreat Detective Sahlberg to listen to what she had to say. In the past, she had used some extreme measures to come to the notice of European law enforcement officers, including crashing a BMW into the wall of a Spanish police station. She looked at the back of the taxi driver’s head and allowed herself a smile as she imagined trying to persuade him to do the same.
Her attention was distracted by an incoming message from Theo. Her instinct on reading it was to call him back instantly but he had expressly asked her not to do that. She took a deep breath and told herself to keep faith. Her priority right now was to gain a sympathetic audience with Detective Sahlberg. After all, hers was the first concrete lead in finding Valpuri Peura and Samu Pekkanen. If he wouldn’t listen to her, she would go over his head and throw herself on the mercy of his superior. She steeled herself for a fight.
As events turned out, she needn’t have worried. On requesting a meeting, the receptionist told Beatrice that Detective Sahlberg would join her in around ten minutes. Her pent-up sense of injustice had nowhere to go, so she sat quietly in the interview room, using her phone to research the area of Malmen. In a few days, she had seen very little of the countryside and found it hard to believe there was an area sufficiently remote within half an hour’s drive where you could hide two teenagers for almost a week.
When Detective Sahlberg opened the door, Beatrice was taken aback. The man looked five years older than the last time she had seen him, his eyes weary and his shirt in need of an iron.
“Hello, Ms Stubbs. You’re still here, I see. I’m sorry I did not reply to your message. I’m afraid things have been rather stressful since we last met. Let me tell you that I did read it and the note you shared with us. As a result, I took appropriate action.”
Beatrice dispensed with niceties. “By appropriate action, what do you mean?”
“We have taken two of the Gaia Warriors in for questioning, but they’re not talking. You mentioned the area of Malmen. I sent a patrol car to search any abandoned buildings in the area. They found nothing, so far. The receptionist tells me you have new information?”
“Yes, on two counts. I just received a message from my assistant. He is with one of the Gaia Warriors, who says the missing young people are hidden in a cave in the Malmen area. He is going there now. You should point your officers in that direction.”
Sahlberg raised his eyebrows. “Which Gaia Warrior? Aleksis Timonen?”
“That’s correct.”
A light entered Sahlberg’s eyes. “And he’s talking? That is good news. Sorry, you said a cave? Can you be more specific?”
“That’s all I know. Theo sent me a message and asked me not to call back in case I throw the kid into a tailspin.” She read out the text from her phone and Sahlberg reached for his own handset. Beatrice waited while he spoke.
After ending the call, Sahlberg looked directly into her eyes. “Thank you. We will take the information into account. Was there anything else?” He placed his hands on the desk as if he were about to push himself to his feet.
“Yes, there is!” Beatrice was prepared to wrap her arms around his ankles before she would let him leave. “Before I say anything else, I want you to know that you can trust me. I did not sell our findings to the press and neither did my assistant. Your next question will be how I can prove something didn’t happen. The answer is, I can’t. But I can prove that someone else is feeding information to Päivi Aho and Channel 6. Someone who knew exactly what I had found. Obviously this is deeply unethical and against police best practice, but please remember I’m not a police officer. Today, I went to see the person I believe released those details to the media and fed him a great steaming pile of bullshit. Then a colleague of mine hid near a hotel room and recorded what he did next. Listen to this.”
Sahlberg sat back in his seat and folded his arms, his expression wary. When the recording began, a frown crossed his forehead but he leaned forward. Resting on his elbows and listening intently, he heard the whole thing without speaking. When it ended he met Beatrice’s gaze.
“This guy is Karoliina Nurmi’s husband?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Yes. His name is Heikki Mäkinen. He is the only other person who knew what Theo and I had uncovered. Apart from you and Karoliina Nurmi. I can’t see any reason why she would leak the story to the press and you certainly wouldn’t. In your shoes, the obvious people to suspect would be me and my assistant. This is why I had to prove to you it was someone else. I don’t know why he’s doing this and obviously I can only guess at a motive. That said, you can see he is the leak. Not me, not Theo, but Karoliina’s own husband.”
Sahlberg rested his chin between thumb and forefinger. “I need to hear this again, but the sound quality is poor. Can I give this to one of my engineers? I miss a lot of detail.”
“You can do what you like with it. I know it’s not legally admissible evidence, but prosecuting Heikki Mäkinen is not in my remit. The only reason we recorded this is to convince you to trust me. My options were limited.”
The detective made another phone call, his gaze resting on Beatrice. He ended the call and leaned forward.
“You lied to Heikki Mäkinen about the missing teenagers being abducted by an organised crime network in Estonia, planted a bug on him and recorded his conversation with the TV producer in a hotel room. That is hard to believe. Please be honest with me. You didn’t hack his phone?”
Beatrice was outraged. Phone hacking in her opinion was the practice of unscrupulous tabloid journalists, and she condemned the practice wholeheartedly.
“Absolutely not! That would be a despicable thing to do. Underhand, sneaky and invasion of a person’s privacy. I may bend the rules occasionally, detective, but I would never resort to such filthy tricks.”
Sahlberg interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on his hands. “In that case, may I ask how you managed to come by this recording?” A smile was playing at the corner of his lips.
A knock came at the door and a young woman came into the room to collect Beatrice’s recording device. Judging by the brief conversation and Sahlberg’s glance at his watch, he was asking how long it would take.
He returned his ga
ze to her. “The engineer estimates it will take her an hour or possibly two. She’ll clean up the original material. I suggest you return to your hotel, wait and watch the news. If Aho swallowed that story, it will be one of the top three items on this afternoon’s news. I will keep you informed if anything turns up in Malmen and please make contact with your assistant. We need to know his precise location in order to offer support. Ask the receptionist to call you a taxi and I will speak to you later this afternoon.”
“Is that it? I hand over all my findings over to you and have to sit fiddling my thumbs in my hotel room?”
“No, that is not everything. You didn’t answer my question. May I ask how and with whom you recorded Heikki Mäkinen having that conversation?”
Beatrice got to her feet and yanked her handbag onto her shoulder. “I bugged the file of fake information because I knew where he would take it and to whom. As for my colleague, a good PI always protects her sources. Good evening to you.”
Detective Sahlberg watched her leave, shaking his head.
Chapter 32
This whole situation set off alarms in every area of Theo’s brain. Aleksis insisted they take the minibus out to Malmen. It was an unfamiliar vehicle, the weather was chronic and Theo had no experience with driving this route. He capitulated mainly because the minibus contained all the equipment they needed, including a tail hitch for lowering and raising items from the cave. Despite the young man’s agitation, Theo refused to be hurried and made sure they had everything they could possibly need. He knew little about asthma but Aleksis retrieved Valpuri’s messages and explained what she had demanded. They stopped at a pharmacy for some first-aid materials, just in case. Eventually, provisions packed, emergency gear procured and a hot flask of tea stashed between the front seats, Theo programmed the Satnav as best he could and they drove off into the summer storm. Its biting winds and lashing rain seemed almost like a punishment after the clear Nordic skies of the previous days.