As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) (8 page)

“My mom and dad couldn’t be mixed up in anything this weird. They’re good people.”

Nonetheless, Lumikki knew they couldn’t rule out the possibility that the money was meant for one of Elisa’s parents. So she’d asked what Elisa’s mother did for work. Apparently, she worked for a cosmetics company as part of a team that handled their international business. Not a top executive or anything, but Elisa said she earned a fair amount.

“She spends almost half the time traveling,” Elisa said, gazing out the window.

Lumikki saw a mixture of irritation and wistfulness in her face.

“Luckily, Dad is almost always home,” Elisa continued, smiling. “Except, of course, this last weekend.”

Elisa’s dad, the police officer.

“What kind of policeman is your father?” Lumikki asked.

Elisa hung her head, mortified.

“Narcotics,” she replied.

The old saying about the shoemaker’s children going barefoot and all that. Lumikki would have been amused if she hadn’t been so irritated by Elisa’s stupidity. A narcotics officer’s daughter playing around with illegal drugs. You’d think Elisa wouldn’t have any reason to take risks like that. Lumikki didn’t say anything, but Elisa interpreted her silence correctly.

“Come on, it’s just occasional recreational use!” she said defensively. “I’m not a junkie or anything. I know my limits. And I already said that I’m never going to use again. I’m straight edge from now on.”

“You could probably ask your dad sometime how many ‘occasional recreational users’ in this city have completely messed up their lives. But I didn’t come here to lecture you about your drug habit. I’m just here to talk about the money.”

“I can’t talk to Daddy about this, though, in case he does have something shady going on,” Elisa said, sighing for the tenth time. “Which, of course, I don’t believe anyway. But if he did. Then I couldn’t trust him. He could lie to me just as
easily as anyone else. And I can’t go to any other police officers because he’s my dad. Even if he is mixed up in something, I can’t betray him. And what if he’s doing some undercover operation? Ahhh, my head hurts!”

“What time does he come home today?” Lumikki asked.

“In a couple of hours.”

“Was he acting normal yesterday?”

“I think so. But I was so focused on hiding the fact that I had that party here—and the elephant-sized secret in the back of my closet—I probably wouldn’t have noticed if he was dancing the polka wearing Mickey Mouse ears.”

“Pay attention. Talk to him. Don’t ask anything directly, but see if you can tell what his expressions and gestures reveal. People say an awful lot without ever opening their mouths,” Lumikki said. “And keep an eye on that neighbor. If the money was meant for him, he’s sure to start acting even weirder since he didn’t get it.”

Elisa looked at her, stood up from the table, and walked over.

“Thanks,” Elisa said, hugging her quickly.

To Lumikki’s astonishment, it didn’t feel so unpleasant this time. Elisa returned to her chair and continued eating her noodles, sucking in her cheeks as she slurped them up and then drinking the broth from the bowl. Suddenly, she looked like a little girl.

“I’ll talk to Daddy. And spy on that neighbor. Maybe I’ll find some perfectly logical explanation for all of this. And then I can think about what to do with the money. Tuukka
and Kasper aren’t going to like giving theirs up, but I can get them to fall in line if I want to,” Elisa said and smiled.

Something about her sudden self-confidence was touching.

“Are you still afraid?” Lumikki asked.

“Not nearly so much.”

“Okay. Then I’m going home.”

Elisa tried a disappointed puppy dog expression, but Lumikki stood firm. That was enough playing girlfriend for today. She had already gone above and beyond.

Lumikki pulled on her coat, laced her combat boots up tight, and wrapped her scarf around her neck. She reached for her mittens on the hat shelf and then groped for her knit cap, which had slid farther back. She had to stand up on her tiptoes to get a grip on the edge of it. Yanking, she heard an ominous sound.

“Oh no!” Elisa exclaimed as Lumikki pulled down her half-unraveled hat. “There’s still that set of hooks up there we haven’t ever hung right. I’ve ripped a couple of things on it too.”

“Well, I guess I can wrap my scarf around my ears somehow,” Lumikki said.

“No, borrow one of my hats. I have plenty of them,” Elisa said, already pulling a red wool hat down over Lumikki’s head. “I’ll fix yours or just knit you a new one.”

“Great. Okay. Thanks.”

Lumikki stood in the hall for a few more seconds. She felt like there was something else encouraging she was supposed to say.

“Take care,”
she finally said when she couldn’t come up with anything else.

She didn’t have much practice in the role of empathetic friend.

“You too,” Elisa said. “If you want, you can go out through the back. Those front steps can get really slippery.”

She was biting her lip, looking like she wanted to say something more, but didn’t. Lumikki didn’t ask what the threesome was going to do next. She had a bad feeling this wouldn’t be her last visit to Elisa’s house.

Coming had been a mistake.

Boris Sokolov answered his cell phone before it could make it through the first bar of “You Only Live Twice.”

“Well?”

“She just left through the back. Coming up the hill now,” Viivo Tamm said.

Sokolov nodded quickly to the Estonian sitting beside him, who started the van.

“Are you sure it’s the right girl?” Boris asked.

“Yes. Same red hat as before,” Viivo replied.

“When you see us get close enough, run at her. Don’t say anything. We have to get her on the first try,” Boris said and hung up.

He rubbed his frozen hands together to warm them up. They had to grab the girl and get her into the back of the van instantly. No one could see. And the less the girl saw, the
better. And they shouldn’t be too rough. She had to remain unharmed. A couple of bruises wouldn’t hurt, of course. She had to think they were serious.

Because they were. In a slightly different way than she would think, though.

Once they had her, they would send a video to her dear daddy’s cell phone. That would have to bring him to his senses. He would regret trying to play with the big boys. Boris hoped so anyway. That he would promise to play nice from now on. Agree to forgo his next payment as a gesture of goodwill. Swear to do everything they asked.

That would be enough.

Then they would let the girl out of the van and drive off to get the decals and license plate switched. That was a big investment for one intimidation job, but in this case, it would be worth the cost. Boris Sokolov had instructions from higher up, and they had promised to cover all the expenses with a little extra thrown in. They couldn’t afford to lose their inside man. But even more than that, he couldn’t afford to lose them.

Of course, the girl would run home to tell Daddy that big bad men had kidnapped her. Her father would act surprised and shocked, asking for details and descriptions, promising to file a police report and catch the bastards.

No, he’d say, she wouldn’t have to give any statement at the police station. Telling Daddy was enough. Daddy knew how traumatic an experience like that could be, and he didn’t want to torment his daughter with an interrogation at the hands of strangers.

Boris almost laughed, imagining the man struggling to suppress his rage. How he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone.

But he had made his bed, and now he had to lie in it.

In spite of the cold, Lumikki decided to take the long way home over the hill. She had to shake off the headache that Elisa’s perfume and asking so many questions had left her with. That the red hat seemed to be marinated in the same cloying perfume didn’t help the situation. However, walking all that way without a hat would have been a guaranteed way to end up with frostbitten ears.

She remembered how, a year and a half earlier, just after moving to Tampere, she’d come to run on Pyynikki Hill for the first time. High on her newfound freedom, she’d sprinted up the whole long, exhausting incline to the observation tower as fast as her legs would carry her. At the top, her legs were shaking, and the smell of the fresh doughnuts they sold at the tower had screamed that she should just relax and call it a day. Why not sit down for some coffee and a sugar-coated treat? Lumikki resisted, though, continuing her run down past the tower, letting her sneakers fall lightly on the path. The shaking subsided, and the joy of running returned.

The road took her back up a little and then, suddenly, an unbelievable view of Lake Pyhäjärvi opened up to the left. Far off behind the old red brick Pyynikki Tricot factory buildings, the low August sun caressed the water to the south. As she veered off the jogging path to the cliffs to take in the view, the green smells of late summer surrounded her. Gazing at the lake, Jalkasaari Island, and the wooded suburbs of
Tampere visible on the far shore, she felt completely happy for the first time in a long time. Her own life started now. Freedom started now.

Today, freedom and happiness were a distant memory. Lumikki tried not to think. Her thoughts just went in circles. No solution, no way out.

Or actually, there was one solution. The obvious, simple one. Go tell the police everything. Regardless of the trouble it might cause for Elisa. Or her family. That wasn’t her problem. But now Elisa trusted her. And Lumikki knew she couldn’t betray that trust. Dead end.

Lumikki started walking up the road leading to the observation tower. Clouds obscured the sun. The light dimmed. The frosted white limbs of the trees crisscrossed in every direction. This forested hillside was straight out of the pages of a charming fairy tale, but the shadows seemed like they might harbor the scariest creatures from those stories too. Freakish beings that fed on fear who snuck up behind you and pulled you into the snow, down to a cold, silent death. Or worse, turned you into a living statue of ice, unable to move or speak. Eternally living. Eternally dead.

Lumikki’s breath steamed as she tried to exhale her thoughts, to empty her mind so new ideas could form. And she was finally getting there when she realized someone was following her. Again. She didn’t need to glance back to know that she was right.

But she looked anyway. The man walking behind her had pulled his knit hat down low and hiked up his scarf to cover
his mouth and nose. Behind the man was a van, which was just pulling level with him.

Lumikki didn’t think. She just ran. Behind her, she heard the driver downshift, and the van sped up.

The frigid air tore at her lungs, and the soles of her combat boots slipped on the icy road. Lumikki managed to glance back and get a glimpse of two men sitting in the van. They had also covered their faces, revealing only the eyes. Same gang.

No one was ahead of her. No one was to the sides. If she screamed, no one would hear.

Lumikki ran faster than she ever had in her life. The man on foot fell behind, but the van caught up to her in seconds. The door opened, and someone inside reached for Lumikki, managing to grab hold of something. Lumikki heard a ripping sound as the safety pin attaching her reflector to her coat sleeve tore a piece of fabric as it was pulled away. Lumikki threw herself to the side, made a quick turn, and plunged off the road into the forest.

Jumping over rocks and mounds of snow, she wove between the trees, ignoring the branches that scratched her face. She heard the van’s brakes squeal. She heard the men charge after her. She heard the shouts, which she guessed were Russian. She knew that the confusion her abrupt turn had caused would only last so long. Lumikki knew that if they managed to surround her, she wouldn’t stand a chance. She only had a few seconds’ head start.

She had to use it right.

She wasn’t going to get another chance.

Viivo Tamm swore as his leg once again sank into the snow. The girl seemed to know how to avoid the deepest drifts. Luckily, her tracks showed where she had gone, even though he lost sight of her occasionally.

“Get her!” Boris yelled from farther behind.

Get her yourself, fatso,
Viivo would have liked to say. He sped up. The warmth was gradually beginning to return to his muscles, and their ability to accept instructions was improving with every step. He was going to catch the little bitch.
You can run, but you can’t hide. Running in the snow is going to start wearing you down too.
Viivo might not have been the fastest, but he had endurance.

Just now, he couldn’t see the girl. The tracks led out of the thicket onto a lighted walking path. She probably hoped that some random jogger would happen along and save her. Not a chance. No one in their right mind went out for a jog in temperatures like this. Viivo glanced left and right.

The girl was gone. Fucking hell.

Then he saw something red farther down the path. The girl’s hat.

It had fallen off, left behind like a signpost. Poor Little Red Riding Hood. Leaving such clear signs for the Big Bad Wolf wasn’t a good idea. Boris and Linnart came stumbling out of the forest. Viivo was already running in the direction indicated by the hat, and he yelled for them to follow. The girl couldn’t be far off.