Holy Ceremony

by Harri Nykanen

  “Are you telling me Laurén killed Silén and Särkijärvi?”

  “It was like I was in the middle of a nightmare. When I came here yesterday, there was no one in the house, but I heard the feed mill running. They used to use it to grind up slaughterhouse scraps for mink and fox feed. When I opened the door, I saw Laurén standing next to the mill, and it was running. There were a bunch of plastic containers next to it full of human…”

  I saw Oksanen scowl in disbelief. “You’re saying he turned those guys into hamburger?”

  “When Laurén noticed me, he realized he’d been caught, grabbed the knife, and started coming at me. I knew he’d kill me if I didn’t… The old pistol Dad used to use to put down sick foxes was hanging there in the warehouse; I snatched it, and when Laurén rushed me I started shooting. The bullet hit him in the head and he died instantly.”

  Moisio fell silent. I saw his shoulders quivering. It was a convincing performance.

  “What did you do with the bodies?”

  “I knew right away that no one would believe me, least of all the police. I didn’t have a choice—”

  “So Laurén is also…”

  The reporter’s silence was the answer.

  “Where are they?”

  The answer was almost swallowed up in the din of a helicopter diving over the field. The photographer was hanging out the door, shooting rapid-fire at us.

  “I dug a hole in the woods and…”

  27

  Sitting in the car, I watched the landscape glide past, the dark flanks of the spruce woods, the dreary clay fields that went on for miles.

  I wouldn’t have been able to take bright spring sun at the moment anyway. I’d solved the case, but I had solved it too late. Thanks to my sluggish brain, three people were dead. I didn’t mourn Särkijärvi or Silén, but Laurén was a different story. In the end, he was the only one who had dared to take action. On top of that, I’d promised Mandi I would look after her father. Thinking about that chilled me, and guilt stabbed me in the back. I was afraid to even think about seeing Mandi.

  After getting too stuck on the theory of Laurén’s vengeance, I had dismissed the motivation that has generated the most violence and suffering throughout the centuries: greed. The killer hadn’t acted out of vengeance, but to get his hands on the foundation’s millions.

  This seed of greed had been sown back when the older Moisio brother had taken Silén on as a client during the foundation’s battle over Kajasto’s inheritance. He had discovered that the money was kept in several overseas accounts and the investments were all a sham. The seed had germinated when Moisio had taken on Silén’s fraud case ten years later. While handling the recused Silén’s financial affairs, Moisio had learned that the money was in a joint account held by Silén and Särkijärvi; Särkijärvi had one of the account numbers, and Silén had the other. Any withdrawals and transfers required both of them. The members of the foundation’s board had all been bought off or intimidated into silence. Kivalo was given an apartment in Spain; Sandberg got a seaside house in Kotka.

  Moisio told his reporter brother about the money, at which point they decided to heist it together.

  Their first bit of business was silencing anyone who knew about it. The younger brother traveled to Spain to do a story on Finns and crime on the Costa del Sol. During that trip he killed Kivalo. Soon after, they drowned Sandberg together.

  When he heard about the deaths, Särkijärvi realized they couldn’t be a coincidence. He initially suspected Silén, which was why he recruited Anteroinen to be his bodyguard. Anteroinen had been complicit in the incidents at Daybreak, and their shared pastime had forced the men into a relationship of mutual trust. But the Moisio brothers surprised Anteroinen and drowned him in the septic tank. The older brother thought he was being cute when he carved the symbol of the Brotherhood of the Sacred Vault into Anteroinen’s back.

  Now the only ones left were Särkijärvi and Silén.

  The operation had suffered a momentary setback when the older brother was stabbed to death over complications with drug dealers. The little brother decided to soldier on regardless, because the goal and the prize were within reach.

  Jyri Moisio had met Laurén at one of his brother’s parties and was aware of his past. He decided to take advantage of Laurén’s obsession with bringing Särkijärvi to justice. The job of crime reporter demanded contact with people like Laurén, so everything came together naturally.

  Moisio understood that Daybreak’s centennial would be the best moment to strike, because Särkijärvi would be coming to Finland. With that as a pretense, he’d also be able to steer Laurén at will, especially once he figured out how to use the old cassette recording.

  The only risk was Laurén’s increasing ungovernability. He came up with crazy ideas and wanted to lay the groundwork for his big reveal with acts that would guarantee media attention. Stealing his girlfriend’s body and the funeral pyre were Laurén’s ideas. Moisio was forced to help, but as a crime reporter, that was easy. He received praise from his superiors for his scoops and was ordered to follow the story more closely than ever. In the end, Laurén’s antics proved to be an advantage. After the theft and subsequent burning of the body, the police wouldn’t be surprised by anything Laurén did, even if he ended up killing Silén and Särkijärvi in a delusional state.

  But Laurén had started to suspect Moisio’s motives. His doubts were sparked when Moisio wasn’t interested in writing about the foundation money the Academy had misappropriated, even though the topic should have interested him. Laurén had considered Kivalo’s and Anteroinen’s deaths acts of divine vengeance, but Silén’s disappearance roused his suspicions. Halme’s death opened his eyes completely. Halme had called Moisio and berated him for exploiting a sick man. He’d threatened to talk to the editor-in-chief the next day, and said he’d meet Laurén that same night and force him to turn himself in. That would have thrown Moisio’s schemes into turmoil, because he needed Laurén as a scapegoat. In addition, if Laurén would have given himself up, the police might have squeezed information out of him that could lead the investigators onto his tracks. So Halme had to die.

  Laurén immediately guessed who the killer was, because only Sotamaa, Mandi, and Moisio knew where he was holed up. And so he prepared for the worst by writing a long, detailed letter. Nevertheless, he decided to continue with the plan, damn the consequences.

  Upon Särkijärvi’s arrival in Finland, Moisio lured him to a meeting under the guise of an interview and abducted him. Silén had already been a prisoner for two months. Once he got both account numbers – he wouldn’t kill Silén and Särkijärvi until he had them – he confirmed their authenticity by transferring a small sum. With both Silén and Särkijärvi locked in the cold store, he went off to pick up Laurén. It would be best if all three permanently disappeared.

  Moisio asked Laurén to go with him to his farm, saying it was a safe place where they could work out the final preparations for exposing Daybreak. But on the way there, Laurén mailed the letter outlining his suspicions to his daughter. He instructed her to open it only if she didn’t hear from him for two days. When the time was up, she came to me in tears: “You have to go there right away. They’re going to kill Dad… and it’s my fault, because I listened to him and waited.”

  She gave me the letter, from which I learned the rest, including the fact that Moisio would get life in prison. No one would believe his explanations.

  The vista outside the window looked bleaker and bleaker, as was only fitting. I deserved it.

  “I never would have believed Moisio would give up so easily,” Simolin reflected. “I guess he realized we’d find the bodies anyway. Freshly dug holes aren’t hard to find. He figured it was smarter to get there first and explain things away as best he could rather than wait for us to tell our own version of events.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding!” Stenman cried, staring at the laptop on her knees.

  “What?” Simolin as
ked.

  “Ilta-Sanomat already published a story on it: ‘Fur farm frenzy: victims ground up in feed mill and buried in the woods.’”

  Moisio got his scoop after all.