Before I Go

by Leena Lehtolainen

  As I spoke I slipped my shoes on, pulled on my shoulder holster, and put on my jacket. Why the hell had I told Suvi Rahnasto’s name?

  I called Dispatch and asked them to send the nearest patrol car to Suvi’s house, and to have the car contact me as soon as they got the call.

  Didn’t Rahnasto suspect a trap? Did Suvi think she could get Rahnasto to confess? That might work on TV, but reality was different. She didn’t have a gun, did she? She could have hid it before we searched her house. Would Suvi fire shots in a house where her children were sleeping? Could I trust her?

  As I passed through downtown Espoo, Liisa Rasilainen’s voice came over the radio:

  “Five-two-five calling Kallio. What’s your ten-twenty?” Liisa and her partner were already at the library near the Seppälä home.

  “Leave your car there and proceed by foot. It’s better if Rahnasto doesn’t see you.”

  “His car just drove by. Black Mercedes, license REI-100. Jukka checked with Dispatch.”

  “He’s early. See you in a minute.”

  Just then my cell phone rang. Suvi didn’t say anything but her name and then I heard a humming. I hadn’t remembered to put on my hands-free, and the road was winding, so driving with one hand on the wheel was difficult.

  “Hello,” I heard Reijo Rahnasto say faintly on the other end of the line. “I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you before. My condolences on your husband’s passing.”

  “We’ve spoken on the phone. I couldn’t forget your voice.”

  Suvi sounded close. Apparently she had left Rahnasto standing in the entryway near the hat shelf. That was unwise. Rahnasto was only five foot nine, so his gaze wouldn’t automatically land on the shelf, but he would probably notice the phone cord hanging down. Had Suvi had the sense to hide it behind the coats?

  “I don’t remember the call you’re referring to,” Rahnasto continued, his voice lower and hoarser than usual, as if he didn’t want to be heard.

  “You don’t? You called Marko’s cell phone, and I answered. Didn’t he get that phone from you?”

  “Is anyone else here?” Rahnasto asked, then his voice moved out of earshot. I accelerated past the train station and turned up the hill into the Seppäläs’ neighborhood. Rahnasto had taken a risk driving his own car. He was unlikely to try to hurt Suvi, since the neighbors could testify that he was there. I left my car on the side of the road, grabbed my recorder and a tape out of my investigation kit, and shoved them into my jacket pocket. I spotted Liisa Rasilainen’s slender silhouette near building H. The sun shining obliquely from the fields drew all color from the silhouette, so Liisa was only black. There was no sign of Jukka Airaksinen. I jogged over to Rasilainen with the cell phone still to my ear. The conversation was barely audible. While I couldn’t make out the words, Suvi’s voice sounded high pitched, and she was speaking rapidly.

  “Jukka is behind the house, trying to see what’s happening inside,” Rasilainen said. She also had a phone to her ear. A baton and handcuffs hung at her waist.

  “I’m going to ring the doorbell. We can’t risk Suvi and the children’s safety. You two stay outside, but be on your toes. We may end up needing witnesses. I don’t know if Rahnasto is armed.”

  Two boys about ten years old skateboarded past, watching us curiously.

  “Look, Tseba, two chick cops! Are you lookin’ for the Seppälä kids’ dad? You’re a little late. His funeral was today.” The boys laughed and skated around the corner.

  “Did you set this trap for Rahnasto?” Liisa hissed as she followed me across the yard.

  “Of course not. This is all Suvi. Wait here, and don’t show yourself until I say so.”

  Liisa slipped behind the door, and I rang the bell three times as I’d promised. No one came to answer. I rang again, and to my relief I heard Suvi’s shrill, agitated voice through the door.

  “It’s probably just the guy from next door. He always comes over when he’s drunk. He seems to think I need male companionship now that Marko is gone. I’ll tell him to beat it.”

  Suvi opened the door and whispered angrily, “Things are just getting going. He admitted he knew Marko.” Pushing past Suvi’s outstretched hands, I stepped into the entryway and motioned for Liisa to follow. Reijo Rahnasto sat in the living room, looking as if he owned not just the place but the whole block. When he saw us, his expression changed.

  He stood but couldn’t seem to speak.

  “Good evening, Mr. Rahnasto,” I said and extended my hand, which Rahnasto shook with an indifferent squeeze. “Officer Rasilainen and I were just dropping by to see how Suvi is holding up. I didn’t realize you knew the Seppälä family.”

  Rahnasto sat back down on the sofa but then changed his mind and stood again.

  “Shall I make coffee? We have pulla and sandwiches left over from the funeral,” Suvi said, her tone full of false friendliness.

  “I was just leaving,” Rahnasto said quickly.

  “Oh, don’t, Reijo. You just got here. You were just saying how you knew Marko. I hadn’t realized it before, but he talked about you several times.”

  A vein throbbed in Rahnasto’s neck, and there was dandruff on the collar of his dark-gray suit. Eyeglasses would have suited him. They would have added character to his smooth face. No wonder Jani Väinölä hadn’t been able to give a good description of the person who hired him to set the bomb in my yard. Rahnasto had no notable features.

  “I didn’t know him. We just met in passing. We ran in very different circles.”

  “Marko told a very different story. You arranged some work for him recently. And you gave him a phone,” Suvi continued. Her dark eyes glittered, and the end of her nose was white like someone who had been out in the cold too long.

  “Not true. I really do have to go now,” Rahnasto said. He had his back to the living room window, behind which Officer Airaksinen stood, looking in curiously. How much could he hear?

  “Why did you come to our house, then, if you didn’t know Marko?” Suvi asked.

  “I felt sorry for you when you said you were a widow with three small children. I came as a City Council member to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

  Rahnasto’s voice was at once oily and hoarse, the voice of a person who was used to being in control of a situation.

  “You promised we could make a deal—for this,” Suvi said, and pulled a perfectly ordinary cell phone case out of her jeans pocket. On the black faux leather, the word “Nokia” appeared in gold letters with a smaller logo below: the blue-and-white Rahnasto Industrial Security Service symbol.

  “Some of the stitching came undone. Marko asked me to fix it at my leatherworking class, but I forgot. It’s been in my basket all these weeks. Why would Marko have a cell phone cover with your company’s logo on it?”

  “He could have stolen it. He was good at that, wasn’t he?” Reijo Rahnasto snapped and moved toward the door. Suvi rushed after him, and I tried to hold her back. Suvi had already bungled enough, revealing almost everything to Rahnasto. He wouldn’t need O. J. Simpson’s lawyers to quash what little evidence we had.

  Suvi grabbed Rahnasto’s arm, causing his jacket to open and revealing the shoulder strap of a holster. Rahnasto broke her grip in a way that indicated regular self-defense training, but Suvi wasn’t going to let him get away so easily. She grabbed onto his neck as if hugging a lover, and Rahnasto lost his temper and slammed Suvi against the wall before Rasilainen and I could intervene. Suvi slumped to the floor and started to cry.

  “That was self-defense. You saw how she attacked me,” Rahnasto said and wiped his face, where Suvi’s ring had left a bloody scratch.

  “Yes, we saw. We should probably go down to the station to sort this out,” I said coldly.

  “I’m not leaving my children!” Suvi spat. “I didn’t do anything. Take him! He killed Marko!”

  The doorbell rang, and Rasilainen let Airaksinen in.

  “Jukka, you stay here for a while in case th
e kids wake up. The rest of us are going to the police station. We’ll take my car. We’ll bring you both back once you’re done answering a few questions.”

  “Why do we need to go to the police station?” Rahnasto asked. “Isn’t it clear what happened? I came to pay a courtesy call, and she attacked me.”

  “You appear to be armed. Let’s have a look.”

  Rahnasto glared at me but then opened his jacket.

  “This is completely legal. I always carry it with me.”

  “Especially since Petri Ilveskivi’s death, is that right?” I asked, instantly regretting it. I couldn’t make any more mistakes. “Let’s go. This won’t take long.”

  “I want to call my lawyer,” Rahnasto announced.

  “That’s fine if you think it’s necessary. Don’t worry, Suvi. Officer Airaksinen will be here with the children. He has three of his own. How’s your head? Are you hurt?”

  “I have a headache,” Suvi replied faintly. She grabbed some ibuprofen from the bathroom and took two tablets. Then she lit a cigarette.

  “Let’s take that cell phone case along too,” I suggested. I asked Jukka to reserve an interrogation room and call in backup. I wanted to deal with Rahnasto myself, although at this point it was technically a case for Patrol.

  Rahnasto demanded to drive to the station in his own car, but I refused, and he didn’t put up much of a fight. Once we were in the car, he called his lawyer, who promised to come immediately. After that he sat quietly in the backseat next to Rasilainen. Suvi leaned her head against the front seat. She looked very tired and barely old enough to be faced with such adult problems. Liisa would have to take her fingerprints and get a statement for the sake of formality. Maybe she had been more help than hindrance after all.

  I led Suvi and Rahnasto to the drab interrogation rooms downstairs in Holding. Rahnasto announced he wouldn’t say anything until his lawyer arrived. In the meantime we fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the lab with the RISS cell phone case. The lawyer would probably protest the fingerprinting, and I would receive a reprimand, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now.

  “Liisa, get Suvi’s information and then take her home. Make sure to ask her what Rahnasto said when she called him. Record everything. There’s no point in waiting for backup to get here. This is just a formality with Suvi,” I whispered in her ear. Liisa smiled and nodded, giving me a thumbs-up. I wasn’t ready to celebrate quite yet.

  “What’s up with Väinölä?” I asked the officer on duty in Holding.

  “The doc gave him some pills and he calmed down a bit. I doubt he’s sleeping, though. Do you want to have a look?”

  “I do.”

  At the door to the cell, I cracked the sliding window, which was so high I had to stand on my tiptoes in order to see inside. Väinölä lay on his bunk with his eyes open. I glanced appraisingly at the duty officer, a guy named Koskinen. I didn’t know him very well and hadn’t heard anything good or bad about him.

  “Has Väinölä been outside at all today? Maybe a little stroll would do him good. Maybe that would help him sleep. Hey, Väinölä, want to go for a walk?” I called through the window. Väinölä climbed out of his bunk but apparently didn’t realize I was the one who had spoken until I opened the door.

  “What now? Don’t you have to do interrogations before ten o’clock?”

  “This isn’t an interrogation. Are you going to behave yourself, or do we need to get the cuffs?”

  Väinölä shrugged and then followed after the duty officer. The holding cell block corridor was bleak, and Väinölä’s socks padded along slowly like a patient in a rest home. Hopefully he wasn’t too doped up for what I needed.

  I just happened to open Rahnasto’s interrogation room door as Väinölä was walking past. The effect was as I’d hoped. Both men froze when they saw each other. Then Rahnasto snapped out of it and tried to pull the door closed, but I shoved my foot in the way. Väinölä started to shout, “That’s him! That’s the man who paid me to put the bomb in your yard!”

  Rahnasto tried to jerk the door closed again, but I wouldn’t let him. Officer Koskinen stared in confusion at the three of us. Liisa Rasilainen had rushed into the hall when she heard the shouting, and Suvi peeked out behind her.

  “Jani, are you sure?” I asked.

  “Yes! Tell her, you bastard! You didn’t tell me the whole truth! Were you the one who ratted me out?” Väinölä screamed, and Koskinen had to restrain him from attacking Rahnasto. Eventually I had to step in and help.

  “I’ve never seen that man before in my life.” Rahnasto’s voice trembled with rage. “I demand to be released immediately! What kind of a game is this?”

  I sent Väinölä back to his cell with the promise that we would talk again soon. Despite it all, Suvi looked triumphant. Apparently she believed Rahnasto would never be getting out. She and Rasilainen left to take her back home.

  I knew that wasn’t how it would go, and that was confirmed once Rahnasto’s lawyer, Joel Sammalkorpi, arrived at the police station. It was two o’clock in the morning before we reached any compromise in our juridical debate. Rasilainen was called back to the station to report what had happened at the Seppälä house. We couldn’t deny the facts.

  Suvi had attacked Rahnasto, and Sammalkorpi knew which laws to appeal to.

  Rahnasto denied ever having seen Jani Väinölä before, and Sammalkorpi attempted to invalidate the identification, which he claimed was staged. We had to let Rahnasto go. Agent Muukkonen would interview him the next week, and I would return to the Marko Seppälä case if my superiors allowed it. Removing me from the case would be easy, since one of the suspects for Seppälä’s murder was also now suspected of a crime against me.

  I got home a little before three. My presentation at the Police Expo was at noon, so I would have to try to sleep before then. But I couldn’t. I watched the sunlight as it felt its way into the bedroom, illuminating the dressers and the print of Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows that hung on the wall. The yard was silent other than the calls of a blackbird and a robin. I missed Iida and Antti. Luckily Einstein hopped onto Antti’s pillow. His plastic collar banged against the edge of the nightstand as he tried to find a comfortable position behind my head. I scratched his back for a while, and finally I fell asleep to his steady purring.

  I woke up a little before eight. Even though I told myself to go back to sleep for another couple of hours, I couldn’t. Flashbacks of the events of the previous night wouldn’t leave me, not Suvi’s hysterical voice or Rahnasto’s defiant, self-satisfied smile as he left Holding. Today I would have to answer for everything I’d done.

  I got up, drank a glass of juice, and put on my jogging clothes. The neighborhood was still asleep, and during the first two miles I only met a tabby cat returning from its nocturnal adventures and one dog walker. I tried to concentrate on my upcoming presentation, but my mind kept going back, trying to scrape together some real evidence against Rahnasto. We still didn’t have enough for a trial, but there was plenty enough to ruin his reputation. I wished I had an option besides resorting to dirty tricks.

  I managed to collect myself for the presentation by reminding myself that its purpose was to prevent the development of more Jani Väinöläs. I felt daunted by the prospect of these day-care professionals listening to me as though I were some great authority, since I felt like such an inadequate caregiver myself. How could I lecture anyone about how to raise children so that they would never use violence to solve disagreements, when my own child had become the target of a bombing because of my job?

  After my presentation, I called Agent Muukkonen. He was fishing in the islands off Porvoo, but got excited when I told him about Väinölä identifying Rahnasto and promised to pick up the questioning first thing Monday morning. I didn’t bother to tell him all the details, since there was still a crowd around me, and Muukkonen deserved his days off. Then I returned to my previous day’s post at the children’s drawing station, which couldn
’t help but cheer me up. As I was hanging a picture one eight-year-old boy had drawn of me arresting Napoleon, I spotted Eila Honkavuori sashaying toward me.

  “Hi, Maria. I hoped I’d find you here! I have some good news!”

  I pulled her aside and told the other officer at the booth that I would be back in a minute.

  “Yes?” I asked, and my whisper echoed like a shout in the hallway we had retreated into.

  “I was having coffee with Jaana Tuhkamo-Karvonen on Friday. She’s a mutual friend of mine and City Council Chairwoman Aulikki Heinonen. Jaana said that Aulikki had been unusually tense lately. She couldn’t stand hearing any mention of Petri Ilveskivi’s death, as if she felt guilty about it. I went on talking about other things and then said that I had heard rumors about zoning changes for Laajalahti Bay. Jaana immediately got embarrassed and asked who had been saying that. So I just let it go. Then yesterday she called and asked again where I had heard the rumors. I’m sure Aulikki Heinonen made her do it.”

  “Thank you for the information,” I said. “Reijo Rahnasto was arrested last night for attempted assault, but we had to let him go. There isn’t enough evidence against him.”

  “What?” Eila shouted. “So he can just murder Petri without any consequences?” Eila’s face flushed, making her look like a ripe strawberry.

  “Who do you think knows about the Laajalahti Bay plan?”

  “The South Espoo General Plan is still wide open because no decision has been made about the Metro. The government owns the land around the EU Natura preserve, but once the changes in the Land Use and Building Act come into effect, zoning authority will go to the municipality, and approval from the Ministry of the Environment won’t be needed anymore. For the past few years the state has seemed eager to sell off its property. Why wouldn’t it sell its land to Espoo so they can rezone it for commercial use and luxury apartments and then sell it? Everyone gets a cut. Who cares if they’re building on the edge of a nature preserve? They just have to wait a few years and there won’t be any animals or plants left to protect. Then they can remove the protected designation and build more. That’s how they want it to go.”