Darling (11 page)

“Good morning,” Joutsamo said matter-of-factly as she settled in the chair. She went through the
regular routine and informed Niskala that she was recording the interrogation. She asked Niskala if he needed an attorney.

“No,” the man said curtly, his expression hard.

“What can you tell me about the death of Laura Vatanen?”

“No comment.”

Joutsamo was confused. She wondered what Niskala had to hide. Joutsamo strongly suspected that Korpivaara was the killer, and that the others weren’t involved.

“Really?”

“Still no comment.”

Joutsamo sighed and kept her gaze on the man. She couldn’t tell if his eyes were focusing on her or the wall.

“Is that going to be your answer to all my questions?”

“No comment.”

Joutsamo stopped the recording.

“As I said, this is a murder investigation. We’re not talking about a theft or an assault, where
you may be released once the interrogations are over. You can play tough, if you want. But the fact that you refuse to answer questions is grounds to have you placed under arrest, and the next thing you know you’re in custody, and we’ll keep you here while we very thoroughly and deliberately investigate the case,” Joutsamo said as she got up.

Joutsamo opened the door and called for the guard.

“Hey, listen,” Niskala pleaded. “Please, don’t go.”

“Yeah, I know the TANK
song. And now I’m goin’,” Joutsamo remarked coldly and turned to the guard. “This guy goes back in the cell. We’ll try again in a couple of days.”

“No, let’s do i
t now,” Niskala said. “I wanna talk.”

“Y
ou mean it or are you giving me a load of shit? I’m busy as hell.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Joutsamo shrugged at the guard, who knew the routine and shut the door. Joutsamo returned to the table.

She had a sour look on her face, though in her mind she wondered why Niskala broke so easily and was ready to talk. She figured the guys from the
Narcotics Unit were right; the man was a dime-a-dozen crook.

Joutsamo restarted the recording.

“We are resuming the interrogation after a two-minute recess. What can you tell me about the death of Laura Vatanen?”

“I know nothin’
about it.”

Joutsamo shot the guy a reproach
ful look, aiming to pressure him.

“For real. I had nothin’
to do with it.”

“Did you know
Vatanen?”

“Yeah, she was sort of
everyone’s honey
in the bar. Not all there, but that didn’t bother us. No one forced her into anything; the men and her all did it voluntarily. But she was weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Her mood would change just like that. It was hard as hell to predict what she’d do next.”

“How w
ould that show?”

“She’d invite you to her place, but when you got there, she’d suddenly kick you out. Not every time, of course. Otherwise we wouldn’t have let her
hang with us.”

“So sex was the only reason you let her
hang with you?”

“Well,
we weren’t interested in her stories.”

Joutsamo forced herself to stay calm, even though she wanted to beat the
shit out of him. But the only feelings she could acknowledge right now were the suspect’s possible feelings of guilt.

“You think that was a good thing
?”

“I dunno if it was good or bad, it’s just the way it was. And she did enjoy the sex.”

“With all of you?”

“One at a time. We’re gentlemen, after all.”

Gentlemen my ass, Joutsamo thought. “What was the relationship between Korpivaara and Vatanen?”

“The same as it was between me and Darling.”

“Do you have any idea who killed her?” Joutsamo asked, keeping a cool face.

“I dunno. I do know it wasn’t me.”

“Oh really? Your fingerprints were found at the crime scene. What do you say to that?”

“What?” Niskala wondered. “They must be old…
that’s all I can think of.”

“When
was the last time you were in her apartment?”

Niskala thought for a minute. “Maybe a week ago, I’m not sure. All my days blur together.”

“Where were you yesterday morning?”

Niskala smiled. “I’m glad you asked. I have an alibi.”

“What alibi?” Joutsamo wondered why it had taken him so long to mention it.

“
I was painting this guy’s apartment in Hertsikka.”

“By yourself?”

“No, with Mika.”

“Who is Mika?”

Niskala told her the guy’s last name and said the number was in his cell phone.

“He called me the night before and asked me
to give him a hand. I said I’d do it, and Mika picked me up from Haaga around ten. We were there painting the apartment until about three.”

Joutsamo felt stupid. Was Niskala playing her the whole time,
not bringing up his alibi right away? It seemed the guy pretended to be tougher than he was, and got scared when he realized the officer meant business.

CHAPTER 8

THURSDAY, 12:00 NOON

HELSINKI
POLICE HEADQUARTERS, PASILA

The whiteboard showed a timeline beginning the day before the murder. Below it were several lines, the top one listing Laura Vatanen’s comings and goings and then the names of Korpivaara, Niskala, two other suspects, and the mother. Everyone’s photos were attached to one side.

Takamäki
, in a gray cardigan over a white dress shirt, glanced at his watch. The meeting was scheduled for noon.

“Let’s get started,” the detective lieutenant suggested.

“Suhonen isn’t here,” Kulta remarked. Kirsi Kohonen sat beside Kulta, yawning. They’d had a long night and she’d slept lousy. The stench from the garbage lingered in her nose.

“He won’t be here,”
Takamäki said.

“Why not?”

“He went to the hospital,” Takamäki said with a somber face.

“What for?” Joutsamo asked.

“No idea, to be honest. He just told me he was going to Meilahti Hospital.”

“Oh. Hope he’s okay,” Joutsamo thought out loud. It wasn’t uncommon for the police to stop by the hospital to question assault victims
, but then they usually knew why their colleagues were there.

“Back to the case,”
Takamäki said. “Anna, give us an update.”

The sergeant nodded. It was just the four of them since Nyberg was
n’t there either. A while back Leif had reserved a spa weekend in Turku for his wife and him. The case was in relatively good shape so Nyberg got to have his weekend off. That meant at least one well-rested investigator on Monday.

Everyone present
knew the basic facts, so, instead of starting from square one, Joutsamo began with the crime scene.

“The
Forensics team is done. The door had the fingerprints of seven individuals. One set was Vatanen’s and two belonged to the patrol officers. The fourth set is the mother’s and the other two are from Korpivaara and Niskala. The last set of prints is from Mikael Aarnio, a man who lives in the complex.”

“
Aarnio, the 3 A.M. garbage bag guy?” Kulta pondered out loud.

“Yeah
, but we’ll get back to him in a minute,” Joutsamo said. “The prints inside the apartment belong to Vatanen, Niskala, Korpivaara, and the mother.”

“
Course it’s possible that the killer wore gloves and their prints are neither on the door nor in the apartment,” Takamäki pitched in.

“Of course
,” Joutsamo agreed. “In any case, the prints on the coffeemaker are the strongest evidence we have. Korpivaara’s prints were also found on the coffee pot. Forensics will see if we can determine based on the consistency of coffee how long the machine had been on.”

“The smell
of coffee in the apartment should tell us something, anyway,” Kulta said.

“We’ll find out later. We have numerous DNA samples from the apartment, but we won’t get the results for a couple of days. Ot
herwise the apartment was nearly spotless, since the mother had cleaned it that morning.”

“Can we rule out the mother?”
Takamäki asked.

Joutsamo shook her head.

“Yes and no. She told us about the arguments she and her daughter had, and that presents a motive. According to the medical examiner the time of death falls between nine and eleven, and the mother was in the apartment during that time frame. So she had the opportunity. On the other hand, she was cleaning and would probably have switched off the coffeemaker had it been on from the night before. She did the dishes there, too,” Joutsamo recounted.

“Unless she’s the one who forgot to turn it off,” Kulta inserted.

“Marjaana Vatanen didn’t drink coffee,” Joutsamo said.

“How do you know that?”

“She said so. And I checked her kitchen—she doesn’t have a coffeemaker.”

“Maybe she drinks instant,” Kulta tried. “Oh well…”

Joutsamo went over other details. The blood on the rug in the entryway matched Laura Vatanen’s blood type. The victim had not been moved, which means that the killer had transported the blood onto the rug. Vatanen was not raped, and no drugs or alcohol were detected. The information from the phone company confirmed that Laura Vatanen had called Korpivaara the night before and the next call was from her mother. The call after that was from Iina Ridanpӓӓ, around 11 A.M. During all those calls Laura Vatanen’s phone had been connected to a cell tower near Nӓyttelijӓ Street, so Vatanen probably stayed at home the night before her murder.

The
y’d ask Korpivaara about Laura’s call and about his calls to the Alamo gang that morning. The stains found in Korpivaara’s bathroom sink turned out to be semen, and as soon as the DNA results were in they’d know whose it was.

Joutsamo went on
. “The main suspect is definitely Jorma Korpivaara, the apartment complex custodian, who unlocked the door for the police yesterday morning. His fingerprints on the door and the coffeemaker prove that he was in the apartment. Right off the bat, the man lied about his whereabouts that morning, and he has no alibi. He has some sort of a sick infatuation for Laura. But the most incriminating factors are his partial confession during the interrogation and the fact that he knew how Laura was killed. Also, we found a bloody towel at his place—the same brand as the ones in Vatanen’s apartment.”

“Whose blood was on it?”
Takamäki asked.

“We don’t
know yet for sure. The man could’ve cut his finger during the killing. As you know, Korpivaara had a sexual relationship with Vatanen and we found photos of her in his apartment.”

“Along with a bunch of other porn
,” Kulta added.

“The m
otive could have to do with sex—or more likely the lack of it—because the men said she was unpredictable.”

Takamäki
nodded. “It definitely looks like we have the killer in custody.”

Ignoring
Takamäki’s comment, Joutsamo said, “A plastic bag containing blood-stained scraps of fabric was found in the nearby woods last night. We also found another plastic bag with bloody paper towels in one of the trash containers. We’re still investigating those. They might not have anything to do with the case; we’re still waiting on the results.”

“Yup,” Kohonen said. “I went t
o the thicket this morning. Forensics is over there now. They found some footprints, but most of them are from Aarnio, the guy who found the bag. The snow is making a mess out there, and it’s supposed to snow more this afternoon.”

“Who’s this
Aarnio?” Takamäki asked.

Joutsamo looked
at her papers and said, “He lives in the building. His prints were on Vatanen’s door.”

“He said he was
a construction worker,” Kohonen added. “He’s got an angry Rottweiler. We got his prints when we did the rounds in the apartments.”

“The man’s record only shows a couple of traffic violations,” Kulta said.

“Okay,” Takamäki said. “Tell us more about Korpivaara’s interrogation. What do you mean by a partial confession?”

“
In the interview last night, Korpivaara denied everything. But now he claimed he suffered from memory lapses, and suddenly admitted that it was possible he could have been in the apartment. The most notable part is that he knew how Vatanen was killed.”

“Did
Korpivaara go inside the apartment when he unlocked the door for the police?” Takamäki asked.