As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) (17 page)

“Don’t lose that. It’s crazy expensive,” Elisa said.

From downstairs, they heard banging around as Elisa’s dad prepared for the party as well. Tuukka and Kasper had gone downstairs too, preparing to go out. Lumikki snapped the purse open. Inside was face powder, blood-red lipstick in a gold tube, one hundred euros, and something fluffy and pink. Grabbing the fluffy surface, Lumikki felt her fingers sink in and then meet something hard. She lifted the object out of the purse. Pink handcuffs.

Elisa shook her head, blushing.

“Don’t ask. I don’t want to remember that party.”

Lumikki raised her eyebrows ever so slightly and then put the handcuffs back in the bag. What Elisa did at her parties and with whom was none of Lumikki’s business.

“And then this.”

Elisa handed Lumikki a long, black, hooded parka that reached almost to her ankles.

“I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought this. I look like I’m wearing a sleeping bag when I put it on. But now we have a use for it.”

Lumikki put the parka on. It was a little tight in the sleeves with the fur coat underneath, but otherwise perfect. Fastening the snaps, she carefully pulled the hood over her hair and looked at herself one last time in the mirror.

The Abominable Snowman’s black cousin, I presume.

Elisa and Lumikki stood facing one another for a few seconds. Neither had any words. Lumikki wanted to hug Elisa and tell her everything was going to work out fine. Even though she wasn’t at all sure of that. And she had never wanted to hug anyone voluntarily, except maybe her mom and dad when she was little.

Elisa was afraid. So was Lumikki.

Elisa was ready to do her part. So was Lumikki.

Asking Elisa whether she was really sure she wanted to dig any deeper into her father’s business was pointless now. The time for questioning and hesitation had passed. Elisa might be a spoiled teenager who’d thought she was living the dream of a high school debutante. Maybe she used to think she could skip through life buying designer clothes and purses with her daddy’s money, throwing out-of-control parties that someone else would clean up after, and throwing back drinks with a couple pills on the side, toying with boys and men alike at will. By burying her frailty behind a makeup mask. By pretending to be dumber than she was.

But Lumikki saw that Elisa knew this night was going to change everything. That it would shatter her rose-tinted fantasies once and for all. The first cracks had formed last Sunday night when Elisa removed her hands from that plastic bag and wondered why they were so sticky. But what would be revealed on this night could never be washed away by water and soap.

A moment of determination flashed in Elisa’s eyes, making Lumikki wonder whether they were really so different
after all. Their worlds were never going to match up entirely, but in fleeting moments like these, they shared the same sliver of reality, the same feelings and thoughts.

Elisa filled her lungs and then exhaled calmly.

“Now I’m going to go hug my daddy good-bye,” she said.

Lumikki nodded. The clock said 7:52.

Terho Väisänen’s fingers slipped on the smooth satin as he tried to adjust his bow tie. His hands wouldn’t stop sweating, and he had to keep drying them with toilet paper.

It was already so late. He should have been outside, waiting for the car to pick him up. Under no circumstances did he want to be late. The car wouldn’t wait. The opportunity would pass, slipping through his fingers like this satin tie.

A black-tie occasion. When was the last time he’d worn a tux? Sometime years ago at a party his wife’s boss threw. He would never forget the five hours of uninterrupted pretentiousness, from the welcoming toast to the moment their taxi picked them up at the end of the night. He didn’t like this kind of upper-crust soirée. Although in many regards, he was part of the “upper crust” these days too.

Finally, the bow tie cooperated. Fidgeting, he combed his hair one more time, even though the barber had just arranged it perfectly. Terho realized he was more nervous than he had been in ages. He reminded himself he was only going to the party for two reasons.

To speak directly to Polar Bear and, hopefully, to see Natalia.

She still hadn’t replied to any of his e-mails. Terho knew that she had been to Polar Bear’s parties before, but she was never willing to tell him anything about them.

Top secret, my love.

Polar Bear’s grip on people could be uncanny. Terho doubted he would have any kind of bargaining position in the big boss’s eyes. After all, he was just a pathetic narcotics cop, a bit player. Over the past ten years, he may have done his own small part in helping Polar Bear’s businesses, but they probably would have gotten along just fine without Terho. Still, he had to try.

In the early hours of the previous morning, he had made a decision. He didn’t want to go on. He wanted out of his double agent role. But in order for that to work, he needed some sort of compensation from Polar Bear to help patch the gaping hole that would leave in his future income. He had to be able to pay off his gambling debts and arrange things for Natalia and himself. Then he could focus on living an ordinary, peaceful life without anything to raise his heart rate. No crime, no gambling, no Natalia, no money.

He’d realized that he just couldn’t handle the stress and fear anymore. The secrecy that as a younger man had kept
him high on an adrenaline buzz now just made him tired. He might be able to go on for a few more years, but then his health would give out. Maybe it would be his heart or maybe it would be his nerves, but either way, he was headed for a crash. He had been deluding himself for far too long already.

Terho stared at the man in the mirror, who looked older than his years. The bags hanging under his eyes, the loose skin hanging under his jaw, the belly hanging over his belt. Everything about him hung slack or overflowed. Years of stress and guilt ate at him, making him consume whatever passed in front of his mouth, neglect his health and well-being, neglect even his family. He had to admit that. If not to anyone else, at least to himself.

It had to end. Seeing Natalia also had to end. Given their shared past, they would never be able to appear in public together. He had to start a new, honest life. Which was why he was about to try something so reckless and unlikely to succeed. He intended to blackmail Polar Bear.

Terho glanced at his watch. Time to leave. He was just striding into the entryway when Elisa came tumbling down the stairs, grabbed his arm, and started dragging him toward the basement.

“What now? I should have left already,” Terho said irritably.

“I need to show you something really important. It’ll only take a minute.”

“Not now. I can’t be late. I have a really, really important event to attend.”

“How can some party be more important than me?”

Elisa kept a firm grip on her father’s arm, and she looked at him with large, accusatory eyes. Now instead of his seventeen-year-old daughter, what Terho saw was the little, seven-year-old Elisa he could never stand to disappoint.

“Okay. One minute.”

Lumikki slipped quietly down the stairs, which was surprisingly difficult in high heels and the constricting sleeping bag coat. Tuukka was waiting for her outside, hidden near the gate.

“Not here yet,” he whispered.

“Hopefully they aren’t late,” Lumikki said. The temperature was a just few degrees below freezing, a high for this winter.

A thin, white layer of frost covered every surface. Houses, trees, rocks, cars. Clothing, hair, cheeks, thoughts.

“Elisa promised to keep her dad busy until I call,” Tuukka said.

Then they fell silent and waited. Lumikki wondered why Tuukka didn’t make some lewd wisecrack about her black snowman costume or the propositions she was sure to get during the course of the evening. Then she noticed the tension in his jaw. Tuukka was nervous. Maybe even afraid. Probably for the first time in his life, really.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who learned to fear.

Lumikki herself felt surprisingly calm. Now she was just following a set program. All she had to do was concentrate on her next move.

At 7:58, a black Audi turned onto the street and stopped in front of the house. Tuukka looked at Lumikki, one eyebrow raised. She nodded. Tuukka started walking. He walked casually past the black car and then, once he was outside of the driver’s field of vision, hid behind another vehicle parked farther down the street and began creeping back toward the Audi. When he got behind the car, he stopped and waited.

Enter Kasper.

Starting at the corner, the boy walked toward the black car and then turned to walk in front of it. The driver did not react in any way. Removing a key from his pocket, Kasper showed it to the driver with an exaggerated flourish, pressed it with relish against the hood, and continued walking. The screech of metal on metal cleaved through the otherwise quiet winter evening. At first, the driver stared at Kasper as if not comprehending what was happening.

Kasper lifted his middle finger gleefully.

Then the driver came to life. Bellowing something incomprehensible, he sprang from the car. With the driver distracted, Tuukka acted with lightning speed and opened the trunk of the car a crack. Kasper was already running away, laughing maddeningly as the driver charged after him, turning only momentarily to lock the car with his key remote and then continuing to chase Kasper, who was running just slow enough to remain temptingly close.

Lumikki was immediately at the car. Tuukka helped her into the trunk. Luckily, it wasn’t one of the smaller ones, but Lumikki still had to arrange her arms and feet carefully in
order to fit. Finally, she put a strip of silk fabric over the locking mechanism and gave Tuukka a thumbs-up to signal that everything was ready.

Tuukka replied with the same gesture and then closed the trunk as silently as possible.

When the darkness engulfed Lumikki, she had to fight against a moment of panic. She was in an uncomfortable, tight space that smelled like gasoline. She hoped the trip wouldn’t take long.

Lumikki heard the driver return, cursing to himself. Chirp chirp, and the locks opened. The driver climbed in and slammed the door shut.

Lumikki squirmed to see whether she could get her cell phone out of the little handbag. Just barely. She looked at the clock on the phone, which said 8:05. The brief blue glow from the display momentarily dispelling the darkness did her good.

Then she heard steps approaching from the direction of Elisa’s house. A car door opened.

“What took you so long?” the driver asked irritably in English.

“Sorry. Family business,” Lumikki heard Terho Väisänen reply.

“Polar Bear hates it when people are late.”

“Let’s not waste any more time then.”

Amen. Lumikki agreed completely with Elisa’s father. She had no desire to spend any more time in this place and position than absolutely necessary.

The Audi growled to life.

“You have criminals on this street.”

Lumikki could just barely make out the driver’s words. They made her smile. But when the car accelerated and cold currents of air began whistling through the gaps in the trunk, she got serious.

There was no turning back.

The darkness was impenetrable. There was no way through it. It gave no ground.

She would never get out. She would never get air. She would die.

Gravel pressed a pattern of tiny depressions into her back. She squeezed gravel in her hands, feeling the sharp edges of the tiny rocks, letting them dribble between her fingers.

“Let me go!” she screamed.

She had already screamed it ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times. She had hammered on the lid with her fists, kicked it with her feet, turned over and tried to lever it open with her back. Nothing.

They were sitting on it. Probably dangling their feet and taking turns sucking a lollipop, savoring its strawberry flavor. They were in no rush. They had all the power.

The tears had already dried in Lumikki’s eyes. She was starting to panic. She felt like if she didn’t get out right that instant, she would suffocate.