As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) (22 page)

Boris could have stopped Natalia simply by not leaving the money at his house. But he’d wanted to test her, to measure her loyalty. The gauge had swung to the minus side, even though he held out hope until the very end that she would come to her senses. Natalia hadn’t left him any alternative to elimination. It was a shame. Boris had so hoped that of all the people in the world, Natalia would’ve been the one not to disappoint him.

The Jack Daniel’s slid down his throat, smooth and warm. Still, Boris had to swallow a couple of extra times.

He would get rid of the body the next day.

Tonight was no time for dirty work.

Midnight was fast approaching. The party had turned louder and more restless. Music thundered. The drinks had morphed from wine to spirits. Women’s makeup was beginning to smudge. Men were loosening their ties.

It wasn’t quite time to cut loose completely, though, to throw out all sense of propriety and just drink as much free booze as possible, start picking fights, and disappear upstairs to “rest.” The climax of the evening was yet to come.

The arrival of Polar Bear.

That was why Lumikki had stayed too. After escaping from the freezer, she had slipped into the ladies’ room, removed her evening gown, and, standing over the toilet, drenched her arms and legs with warm water from the handheld bidet sprayer. Gradually, the feeling returned to her hands and feet. Then she dried herself off with hand towels, pulled her
dress back on, and fixed her makeup, which had remained in remarkably good shape. Maybe Elisa really should consider a career in cosmetology. She’d succeeded in conjuring war paint for Lumikki that not only withstood eating and drinking, but also freezing.

To the angry women lined up outside the bathroom door, she simply raised her eyebrows without saying a word.

Really, Lumikki could have left. She had accomplished her mission. She knew that Elisa’s father was working with a drug dealer named Boris Sokolov. That he’d been giving Sokolov information and hiding information from the police in exchange for money. She also knew that the body of a woman named Natalia lay in a freezer in the basement and that Boris Sokolov had killed her. The information would most likely be enough to land Sokolov in jail. And Elisa’s father too, of course, but that couldn’t be helped.

But still, Lumikki stayed. Her curiosity would never be satisfied until she saw this mythical, legendary figure everyone spoke of in hushed tones. So she continued her tour of the fantasy rooms, which seemed to go on and on without end.

One room was completely pink. It probably would have been Elisa’s favorite. Or maybe not, Lumikki realized after a few seconds. She felt a slight nausea when she noticed that, hidden among all the marshmallows, unicorns, rosebuds, and frilly pillows, there were various pink sex toys ranging from delicate whips to enormous dildos. Adult fairy tales for every taste indeed. Lumikki removed herself quickly as an intertwined couple staggered into the room, looking like they might start using the goodies on offer at any moment.

The closer it got to midnight, the more electric the atmosphere became. Everyone was waiting. Everyone was keyed up. With ten seconds left, the countdown began. All the guests had gathered in the large ballroom on the second floor. People jostled and shoved.

Ten.

Glancing around, Lumikki saw Terho Väisänen nervously fidgeting with an empty glass.

Nine.

The music was turned down and then off.

Eight.

The lights dimmed. Only the stars projected on the ceiling remained.

Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three.

Suddenly, Lumikki almost burst out laughing, thinking of the absurdity of the situation. Here she was, a sensible teenage girl who just happened to walk into the school darkroom at the wrong moment.

Two.

People weren’t yelling the numbers out anymore. They said them calmly, respectfully.

One.

Darkness swept over the room. Everyone fell silent. A muffled jingling like the sound of distant sleigh bells became audible. From the ceiling, flakes that looked like real snow began falling. When Lumikki touched one of them, it fell to dust.

Suddenly, powerful spotlights illuminated the center of the room.

Two women. Both in Snow Queen costumes. That name fit them a thousand times better than poor frozen Natalia. Identical twins. They had somehow appeared out of thin air. Lumikki couldn’t guess their age. They could just as easily have been twenty as fifty.

The ballroom erupted in ringing applause. The women waved majestically. Then Lumikki noticed that one of them was wearing a silver pendant in the shape of an ice crystal. The other woman’s pendant was a silver bear.

Ice and a bear. Ice bear. Polar Bear. Not one person, two. Who were still just one, singular.

The women waited for the crowd to calm down. Then they began to speak, switching back and forth so fluidly that Lumikki couldn’t be sure which one was talking at any given moment.

“Winter is a time of enchantment. That’s why I wanted the theme of this celebration to be fairy tales. Dreams, fantasies, and nightmares. These are the ingredients of fairy tales. You are all here because I wish to thank you. You have participated in creating a dream. A dream of a society more elegant, more efficient, more purposeful. For us, limits are made to be exceeded, rules to be changed, norms to be challenged. Celebrate! For one moment, forget the narrow boxes and expectations of the world outside. This is all for you. Life is for you.”

There was nothing concrete, nothing to grab hold of in what the women said. They spoke perfect English without an accent. Even if Lumikki had been carrying a recorder, she wouldn’t have gotten anything incriminating. What were
these women involved in? What dirt did they have on all these party guests? How many of their businesses were criminal?

Looking over the adoring crowd, Lumikki understood that she’d probably never know. Polar Bear’s real activities were like the fake snow falling from the ceiling. If you tried to grab hold of them, they disintegrated and disappeared.

She would never have a chance against these people. And the twins themselves might simply be a facade. No one would catch them. No one could do anything to them.

What Lumikki could do, though, was put Boris Sokolov behind bars. The events that began with the bloody cash in the darkroom could come full circle. That would be enough.

Now she wanted to go home.

“I don’t need a looking glass to tell me you’re the fairest woman at this party.”

Hot breath wafted against Lumikki’s ear, and firm hands grappled at her waist. Lumikki swore to herself. Her tormenter had found her again and succeeded in capturing her in a surprisingly tight grip just as she was intending to leave. She could smell from his breath that he had imbibed more than a few rounds of cognac. Lumikki could tell from the heavy-handedness of his grip that she had no hope of wriggling free. It would only attract unwanted attention if she tried.

“I was starting to worry that you’d disappeared. That would be unacceptable. We were interrupted so regrettably,” the man whispered, pressing his broad carcass against Lumikki’s back.

At least two hundred pounds, Lumikki guessed. Might be surprisingly strong when provoked. Time for a different tactic now.

“You haven’t gone cold on me already, have you?”

Fortunately not,
Lumikki thought.

Turning around, Lumikki looked the man in the face. His eyes were bloodshot. He had left his tuxedo coat somewhere. Large, dark patches ran outward from his armpits across his powder-blue shirt. His tie was a little loose. With a gesture full of false self-assurance, she took hold of the man’s tie, drew her mouth to his ear, and whispered, “Let’s go upstairs and see if this story has a happily ever after.”

Then she nibbled at the man’s earlobe, forcing down her disgust. She could play this role too.

A satisfied blush spread across the man’s face, and he licked his lips.

“What are we waiting for?” he asked.

As she climbed the stairs, Lumikki could feel the man’s constant gaze on her back. Trying to escape would be pointless. Her legs were trembling a bit, but she forced herself to swing her hips invitingly as she walked. What would it be like to ascend these stairs ahead of someone she really wanted to be with, to pull a door shut behind them and lock the rest of the world outside? The smell of sunscreen and warm skin. Laughing as she ran up the wooden steps of the boat dock at the cabin. Footsteps following steadily. Tingling in anticipation as she listened to them come.

Reminiscing was pointless. Last summer was an eternity ago.

Now was now, and she should do this.

Lumikki led the man to a free room, in the middle of which was a large wrought iron bed. She shoved the man down on the mattress. It was important to be as self-assured and bold as possible.

“I knew you were a wildcat! But that’s okay, I’ll tame you,” the man said, beginning to pull his trousers off while still lying on the bed. Lumikki shut the door and turned the key in the lock with a click. Then she sashayed toward the man, who tried to grope her with his sweaty hands.

“Tsk-tsk, kitty wants to toy with you first, remember,” Lumikki said, pushing the man down.

To Lumikki’s relief, his drunken eyes lit up. He was at her mercy, at least for the moment. Lumikki climbed onto the bed and straddled her victim, who immediately began stroking her thighs hungrily.

“What’s this . . . ?” the man asked, his forehead wrinkling in confusion as he found the GPS tracker.

Oh shit.
Swiftly, Lumikki grabbed the man’s hands and forcefully pulled them up toward the headboard.

“Now be a good boy,” she whispered, holding the man’s wrists with her left hand while she dug something fluffy and pink out of her purse with her right.

“Oh, so you’re into bondage?” the man said with a grin. Lumikki snapped the handcuffs shut around his wrists and fastened them to the iron bed frame.

“Not really,” she replied and stood up. “But I hope you are.”

It took the man a few seconds to realize that Lumikki had no intention of returning to the bed. When it finally dawned on his cognac-clouded brain and an enraged roar erupted from his lips, it was already too late. Lumikki locked the door from the outside.

Then she walked to the window at the end of the hall. Opening it, she tossed the room key and the key to the handcuffs out into the snow, where they disappeared instantly. One less obstacle to her getting home.

Terho Väisänen stared out a large window into the darkness.

He’d given up, realizing that there was no way he was going to be able to convince Polar Bear that she should pay him off and let him go. Or they. How was he supposed to address them? He had tried to talk to one of the women’s bodyguards and request a meeting. His request was denied. When he explained that he had received a special invitation to meet Polar Bear, the bodyguard coldly informed him that his invitation meant nothing. He shouldn’t waste his time imagining that Polar Bear would be interested in a nobody like him.

And when he looked around at the other guests, he understood that the bodyguard was right. He was little more than a gnat to Polar Bear. Even Boris Sokolov was only a gnat or at most a fly. They were ludicrously small players in some larger game.

All Terho could do was retreat with his tail between his legs. Go home, hug his daughter, and write his wife an e-mail
telling her that he missed her. Think about how to make ends meet without his most important source of income. The situation wasn’t hopeless. Yes, he had debt, but he also had a job. And so did his wife. They could cut back on their daily expenditures. He would have to stop gambling, of course, but that had been part of his plan for a while now. He wouldn’t need money to help Natalia anymore since there was no Natalia. Terho’s hands began to shake, and he felt sick to his stomach just thinking about that. He had to put it out of his head. He couldn’t let that pain take over now. He had to stay rational. He had to think practically. His daughter didn’t always need to have the most expensive everything. Slowing down, simplifying their life, and spending more time together would do the whole family good. Live a normal life like everybody else.