Derailed

by Leena Lehtolainen

  “Do you have a key to her office?”

  “No. I only have keys to the downstairs door, my office, and the conference room. But I’m sure the janitor can get it open. He’s unlocked other doors when people forgot their keys. Should I call him?”

  “Yes, thank you.” While he did that, I went into the conference room and tried Merja’s number with no luck. I called Koivu back and asked him to issue a travel ban on Merja Vainikainen, and to get the others to help him determine whether Merja had booked any tickets.

  “And get a trace on her cell phone location. We have probable cause. Why the hell did I think she’d just be waiting here for me? Tell me the second you hear anything!”

  My next call was to Detective Perävaara.

  “It’s Maria again. Do you have that search warrant yet? No? OK, send a patrol car over to the Vainikainen home anyway. I’m issuing an arrest warrant for Merja. If the girl is there, take her in too and bring them both to me. We already have the borders closed. We have to find her!”

  Possible scenarios raced through my head. Merja had already escaped—how could I have known where she’d been today when I spoke with her? She could have flown halfway across the world by now. And Mona? Was she lying unconscious or even dead in her mother’s house? Could Merja have killed her own daughter?

  “You’re in luck.” I jumped at Miikka Harju’s voice. I hadn’t seen him come into the conference room. “The janitor was fixing something downstairs, and he’s coming right up. He has a key for Merja’s door, so we don’t have to call a locksmith.” Harju tried to smile. “By the way, I got a call from the Lohja police today. They told me to come in on Friday for questioning. They don’t seem to be in a hurry.”

  “Do you know any of Merja Vainikainen’s friends? Who does she spend her free time with? Is there anyone in the building she goes to lunch with?”

  Harju hadn’t been interested in his boss’s private life and couldn’t help, other than to tell me to ask at the Athletics Federation since Merja had worked there before. The janitor came just then and, after a little fumbling, found the right key and opened Merja Vainikainen’s office.

  Harju followed behind me. I asked him to turn on Merja’s computer while I went through the drawers. In the top drawer, I found a powder compact, pens, a Fit & Fun diamond-level membership card, and two unopened packages of pantyhose. The second and third drawers were full of ordinary paperwork. The binders on the shelves seemed just as mundane. There were no pictures of Mona or Pentti in the office, just posters for the MobAbility/ASA campaign, one with Toni Väärä showing off his lumbar spine belt and another with two middle-aged women playing wheelchair basketball.

  “I don’t know Merja’s password, so I can’t get past the log-in screen,” Harju said. “What are you looking for?”

  I didn’t quite know what to tell him. Maybe flight reservations, or receipts for the transfer of half a million euros from Finland to Switzerland? How could a bank have allowed that much money to be transferred all at once? Had Merja killed Pentti for the money? In my mind’s eye, I saw the endless interviews ahead of us, all the time we’d have to spend with every person who knew the Vainikainens. We would have to contact Mona’s school.

  Helsinki patrol car 525 reported that the Vainikainen house looked empty. The officers had gone to ask the neighbors about a spare key, but no one had been home. I asked them to have a look through Mona’s window, but they didn’t have a ladder with them. I ordered them to break a downstairs window and go inside. Only after they’d searched the house from the dining room to the shed in the back yard would I be satisfied.

  I sat down for a moment in Merja’s desk chair and stared at the computer screen. I tried passwords. Pentti. Mona. Linnakangas. Ikonen, which was Merja’s maiden name. No luck. Skijump, speedski . . . nothing. Ursula would have been much better at this. Harju stalked the room like a dog searching for its own tail, opening binders as if he were a cop too.

  In the corner of the room was a steel wardrobe. I walked over to it and peeked inside. The familiar smell of sweaty workout clothes wafted from the top shelf, and there were gym shoes on the bottom. On a hanger was a delicate pink blazer with cherry-red flowers embroidered on the collar. I riffled through the pockets and found a car key.

  “Opel Astra Cosmo. Do you know if these are Merja’s car keys?”

  Harju glanced at it. “No, Merja has a Volkswagen. This must be for Pentti’s car. He left it here the day of the campaign. Merja and Hillevi drove to MobAbility in Merja’s car, and me, Jutta, and Pentti went in Jutta’s car. Pentti’s car is probably still in his spot in the parking lot. Should we go have a look? I drove Pentti home a couple of times after he’d had a few too many drinks during a negotiation.”

  I was ready to grasp at any potential clue, so I followed Harju to the employee parking lot on the north side of the building. Outside, it was drizzling. Pentti Vainikainen’s luxury-model Opel was parked near the stairs. Harju opened the car door for me. I hesitated for a second but then decided that any remaining fingerprints didn’t matter anymore. I opened the glove box. Inside I found the car’s registration, a flashlight, an ice scraper, and a couple of CDs. Vainikainen was a fan of the band Yö.

  “The cabin,” Harju suddenly said. “The Vainikainens rent a cabin on the Porkkala Peninsula. They were there the weekend before Pentti’s death.”

  “Porkkala? Where? Out on the tip?”

  “No, it’s on the bay, on the west side. The road turns off just before that little café. Merja threw a sauna night for us there in August, but it wasn’t a very fun party. I had to listen to her abusing Hillevi while Jutta was in the sauna. Maybe Merja is there?”

  I didn’t wait around wondering whether I could trust Miikka Harju, or whether it was legal to use a suspect as an assistant. When I inserted the modern folding key into the ignition, the engine sprang to life. The gas tank was nearly full, and I noticed the parking pass glittering on the dashboard. Vainikainen had had a reserved space. I scooted over to the passenger seat.

  “You drive, and don’t worry about the speed limit. This is an emergency. I’m going to have to make some calls on the way.”

  Harju got in and took off, tires squealing. At the gate he waved the parking pass in front of the sensor, then hit the gas before the boom was fully up. I tried to forget that I was sitting next to a reckless driver who had run a car off the road and nearly taken two people’s lives a year earlier, even as I wished I had a siren and light in my bag. On second thought, I added one more item to my wish list: a gun.

  Not that I wanted to use one.

  21

  Miikka Harju didn’t hold back, getting us up to eighty miles an hour on the West Highway, and when the speed limit went from eighty to one hundred, he redlined the engine. Harju didn’t know the exact address or the owner of the cabin, so I had to rely on his memory of the route. I was on the phone, trying to get at least one patrol car to meet us. I was reluctant to launch a large-scale assault when we didn’t even know whether Merja Vainikainen was at the place. I was more concerned about Mona than her mother.

  “Why is finding Merja so important?” Harju asked as we reached the edge of the city. “Are you afraid she might harm herself?”

  I thought for a second. Harju was a civilian, but every citizen was obligated to assist the police if asked. In his former employment, Harju must have worked with police officials frequently. But if I wanted his help, I had to tell him the truth.

  “It appears that Merja poisoned her husband and blew up Jutta Särkikoski’s car.” Harju’s hands trembled, and the car momentarily drifted toward the median, but Harju quickly corrected his path.

  “Is that so? So the poison wasn’t meant for Jutta Särkikoski?”

  “I don’t know yet. The Ristiluoma murder still doesn’t make sense. Unless Merja wanted to create a diversion by shifting attention from Pentti to Jutta.”

  If Merja had been the one making death threats to Jutta, that meant she’d been planning t
his crime for a long time. Did the idea come to her when she hired Jutta for the MobAbility campaign, or was it earlier than that?

  “Was Merja behind Jutta’s death threats?” Harju asked, rage in his voice.

  “Not all of them.” I didn’t bother telling him about Ilpo Koskelo, though the whole mess would eventually come out in the dozens or even hundreds of articles that would be written about the case. I couldn’t think about that now.

  “What if I had confessed a year ago that I was to blame for that accident? Would any of this have happened?” Harju’s face was colorless, and his knuckles clenched the steering wheel, making the veins on the backs of his hands stand out.

  “What-ifs aren’t going to help now. Merja was the one who decided to start killing people.”

  When the road narrowed to two lanes, Harju started passing the other cars so recklessly that I had to tell him to slow down. And besides, we were coming up on a caravan of Russian vehicle-transport trucks headed for the port, so we would just have to join the queue. Espoo car 56 was near the turnoff for the Porkkala Peninsula area and promised to come as soon as they wrapped up their traffic stop. The line of semitrucks stopped at a red light, and it seemed to take an eternity for it to start moving again. The smell of diesel filled the car, and Harju tried to adjust the ventilation.

  The main road down to the peninsula was empty, and Harju drifted between lanes to take the corners faster, completely ignoring the occasional twenty-five-miles-per-hour signs. I was feeling nauseated again and turned down the heat. Sweat began to run down my neck and between my breasts, so I put my hair up in a bun and wiped my forehead. I wasn’t usually prone to motion sickness.

  “Can you remember what the view of the road is like from the cabin?”

  “I don’t think it’s very good. The lot is forested. I’ve only been there once, so I hope I can even find the place. The turnoff should be coming soon.” Harju finally braked. We drove through a small settlement, and then I could see the sea glimmering beyond the bridge in front of us. Harju made a right-hand turn, sharp enough that we skidded, and he had to course-correct in order to keep us out of the ditch.

  “This car is pretty nimble compared to a fire truck,” he said. “I didn’t usually drive, but I was trained for it. One more skill that went to waste.” There was bitterness in his voice, but I didn’t have time to remind him he’d been the one who drank himself out of a job, because just then a cow moose appeared in front of the car. Harju slammed on the brakes, and my seat belt jerked me hard enough that I thought I might have broken some ribs. At least we didn’t hit the moose, and the airbags didn’t go off. She casually sauntered across the road, followed by her two calves.

  “How far is it from here?” I asked Harju once the moose family was gone.

  “A couple of kilometers. It’s a one-way lane for the last eight hundred meters.”

  “We’ll go slowly and park the car a few hundred meters away from the cabin.” I couldn’t think of anything in my handbag that could serve as a weapon. I asked Harju if he had something, and he said he always carried a Swiss Army knife.

  “But the blade is only seven centimeters, so it doesn’t look very threatening.”

  “It’s still enough to kill someone,” I replied, and Harju gave me a funny look. A Swiss Army knife wasn’t going to be enough if Merja had TATP.

  “Do the Vainikainens hunt? Do you know if there are weapons at the cabin?”

  Harju didn’t know. At the top of a small rise, we turned left onto a narrow road full of potholes. After a few hundred yards, there was a wide spot where the road forked.

  “Best to leave the car here. Should I turn it around?” Harju asked.

  “Yes. Leave enough space for the patrol car to get through. Is this the last turnaround?”

  “If I remember right, the yard has room for a couple of cars. Is there a flashlight in the glove box?”

  “Yes, but it won’t be dark for a couple of hours.”

  “It’s also a weapon,” Harju said dryly.

  Suddenly I was happy that Miikka Harju was with me. With his help we could play for time. I told him my plan: if Merja Vainikainen was in the cabin, Harju would be the one to approach. He would say that he was worried about her and had come to see if she was alright. I would stay in the background until the first patrol car arrived.

  “In that case, I should drive all the way up,” Harju said.

  “In Pentti Vainikainen’s car? Bad idea. Say you took a taxi. Also say that you’re afraid for Merja’s mental health now that Mona is in the hospital.”

  “Is she?”

  “I couldn’t find Mona at Lapinlahti or any of the other facilities. And yesterday she sent me an e-mail telling me she suspects that Merja killed Pentti.”

  “Holy fuck, what a mess!”

  We got out of the car, and Harju started walking down the dirt road, bordered on either side by dense pine forest. We were on some sort of narrow peninsula, heading in the direction of the sea. A two-story vacation home built of dark logs stood on the top of the small hill at the end of the road. Calling it a cabin would have been inaccurate, given its size and the attached observation tower on the shore side of the building.

  I began circling around the right side of the house. Harju walked down the path through the front yard, and I heard him ring the doorbell. After a while he rang again. I reached the end of the peninsula and looked back. A blue Volkswagen sat parked under the carport. Merja Vainikainen’s car.

  “Merja? It’s Miikka. Are you here? You weren’t answering your phone, so I came to see if you’re alright!” Harju yelled in a loud, commanding voice. He walked around the side of the house, peering into the downstairs windows and trying to find a way in. Then I saw him pull out his cell phone, presumably trying to call Merja. I strained to hear ringing inside or out, but I only heard the screeching of gulls out to sea. A spider had spun a web nearly half a yard across between two saplings, and on it, beads of precipitation shimmered in the narrow strip of light shining from the sea. I saw chanterelles growing in the moss, but they would have to stay where they were.

  Harju walked over to the carport and turned on the lights. He tried the car doors without success. Then he examined the wall, apparently looking for a key. When the door to the house opened, he jumped. There stood Merja Vainikainen. She was dressed in an oversize dark-brown bathrobe. She yawned.

  “Miikka! What are you doing here?” There was no wind, so I was able to hear Merja even though I was a few dozen yards away. Harju bent down to hug her. Oh hell, had I walked into a trap? Was Miikka Harju working with Merja? Had I been lured to a secluded cabin, where it would be easy to get rid of me?

  But then Merja refused to let Harju into the house.

  “I just need to rest. I haven’t slept much since Pentti died. Now that Mona is in treatment, I can focus on myself for a while. The police haven’t told me when they’ll be able to release Pentti’s body, so I can’t start arranging the funeral yet.”

  Merja’s claims sounded plausible, though she continued to stand on the threshold, blocking Harju’s way.

  “How did you get here? I didn’t hear a car.”

  “I took a taxi. It dropped me off up the road. I wanted to walk a little. What hospital is Mona in, by the way?”

  “Lapinlahti. How do you intend to get home? There are only a couple of buses a day.”

  Carefully I edged toward the house. I hoped that I wouldn’t be easy to see among the pine saplings. Now I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but whatever Harju had said managed to convince Merja to let him into the house.

  The west side of the house only had small, narrow windows, but the windows on the south end took up nearly the entire wall. When the door closed behind Merja, I circled back to the west side. The patrol car had been less than twenty miles away. Where was it?

  Above me I heard a bang and glanced up. The tower window was open, and Mona was trying to push her shoulders through the narrow space. A wave of relief
washed over me. She was alive! I tried to motion to her to keep quiet, but I was too late.

  “Detective Maria!” she screamed urgently. “Here I am! You have to help. The Groke is holding me captive!”

  A huge cracking sound came from inside. I rushed to the door. It was locked. I ran to the carport, searching for something I could use to smash a window. There was an iron digging bar, which I grabbed, then ran toward the large windows on the south side. Then I raised the bar.

  I stopped midmotion when I saw Merja and Miikka Harju standing in the large living room. Harju was facing me, but he didn’t seem to see me. I could see him well enough to see the terror in his expression. Merja had her back to me. Her left hand hung against her side, but I couldn’t see the right. Was she holding a knife or a pistol? Would I have time to break the window and take her down before she hurt Harju?

  “Maria!” Mona shouted again. Harju had seen me—he shook his head. That was the wrong move.

  Merja turned toward the window, and I saw what was in her hand. I was no explosives expert, but I could guess what the metal object that she held was: a TATP bomb ready to detonate. Merja took a step toward me, and I saw that one of the windows was a sliding glass door. She opened it.

  “It seems we have more visitors,” she said. Her voice was surprisingly calm. “What brings you here, Detective Kallio?”

  “You’re under arrest.”

  Merja laughed, but it sounded forced. At some point she’d taken off the bathrobe. She was dressed in a pink cotton track suit and running shoes.

  “Why would you arrest me?” she asked. Then Mona shouted again.

  “I’m up here, Maria! Please, unlock the door!”

  “Why are you holding your daughter prisoner?”

  “The doctors told me to. They can’t admit her until the day after tomorrow, but they promised us a bed for her. At Lapinlahti Hospital. I just have to keep her locked up for now, so she can’t binge before then. It’s part of the treatment program. Could you please put that digging bar away before you come inside?”