Darling (13 page)

“Yes
,” Lind replied, and the officer introduced herself as Anna Joutsamo from the Violent Crimes Unit. As was customary, the attorney introduced herself, though the officer already knew her name. Lind thought Joutsamo’s firm handshake fit her persona.

“Guess we haven’t met
?” Joutsamo asked.

“No.”

“Have you handled criminal cases before?”

Lind found the tone of the question
a little condescending, but figured it was part of the process; straight to business, no beating around the bush.

“Yes, for a
little over a year.”

“Is this your first homicide?”

“Yes,” Lind said.

“Welcome to our world. Contrary to common belief, it’s no glitz and glamour
—quite the opposite actually. It’s not for everyone, but some of us are fascinated by it. I hope you like it,” Joutsamo said, and Lind thought she detected a faint smile on the woman’s lips.

Joutsamo pointed to the front doors.

“Your client is being held in the other building. You can chat with him there.”

“Can you tell me about the case
?” Lind asked as they stepped outside. Cars lined the street, accentuating the curve in the road. It was snowing, but this year’s snow hadn’t measured up to the past several winters.

A few months ago
Lind had asked an experienced colleague for advice, in case she ever got a homicide case. The main rule was that if the police talked freely, it meant the case was clear-cut, and the client was guilty. If, however, the police were closed-mouthed, establishing guilt and innocence would be more complicated.

The women walked side by side briskly.

“A twenty-six-year-old woman named Laura Vatanen was found dead in her North Haaga apartment yesterday morning. The victim had a relationship with your client, and we have reason to believe he killed her. At the moment we’re investigating it as a murder.”

“
Murder?”

“Yes, at the mom
ent. If we find out it wasn’t premeditated, or if there were mitigating circumstances, the charge could be changed to voluntary manslaughter. In Finnish law, the punishment for murder is life in prison, with a possibility of pardon after 12-14 years, and for voluntary manslaughter it’s 4-10 years,” Joutsamo explained and grew quiet.

“I see,” Lind said, intrigued. The police were obviously holding back some details, so her job could prove to be quite
interesting.

“Your client’s fingerprints were in the apa
rtment and he has no alibi. He and the victim had a sexual relationship, and we have other evidence as well. And your client knew how she was killed.”

Now Lind thought the case
might not be as intriguing as she’d assumed just a bit earlier.

“Have you interrogated him?” she asked.

“Once. He says he can’t remember anything about it, but that it’s possible he killed her. And like I said, he was able to tell us how she was killed, even though that information hasn’t been released.”

“What was the method
?”

“The woman’s throat was slashed from ear to ear. The weapon hasn’t been found.”

They reached the steps of the other building that was still under remodeling. Joutsamo flashed her ID card at the reader and let Lind in first.

“Wh
at do you guys think the motive was?”

Joutsamo
shrugged and said, “No idea. Only the killer knows. Might’ve been an argument; it often is.”

The officer led the attorney farther ahead through
locked doors. The fluorescent lights cast a pale yellow hue on the wall, despite the bright paint.

“By the way, what’s my client’s name?”

“Jorma Korpivaara.”

Lind jumped. “
Korpivaara?”

“Yeah. Y
ou know him?” Joutsamo asked, studying the attorney.

Lind could tell the officer would see right through her and thought it best to be honest.

“I used to know someone named Korpivaara, but I haven’t heard from him in twenty years. I wonder if it’s the same guy.”

“You’ll soon find out,” Jout
samo said and paused. “I wondered why he picked you from the list of attorneys. Maybe because he knows you. Usually they’ll stop at a name they’ve heard on the news, or they don’t care and just ask for our recommendation.”

“Yeah,” Lind said.

“How did you know him?” Joutsamo asked as she opened the last door leading to the jail hallway.

Lind didn’t answer.

Joutsamo led the attorney into a small interrogation room and said the guard would bring Korpivaara in momentarily. Lind waited for two minutes before she heard a knock on the door.

“Your client is here,” the
hulky guard grunted as he let Korpivaara in. He asked if Lind wanted him to stay for safety reasons. Lind shook her head. The guard pointed at a button by the door and said, “Push the emergency button if you need help.”

Lind recognized
Korpivaara immediately, despite the twenty-one years since their last meeting. She had calculated the years while she waited in the room.

“H
i,” Korpivaara said from the door, with a hint of warmth in his voice.

“Hello,” Lin
d said, in a cool, surprised tone.

Korpivaara
walked around to the far side of the table, looking like he’d done it many times before. The attorney stayed near the door.

“You still remember me?”
Korpivaara asked.

“Of course I remember you,” Lind replied.

“You’re looking pretty classy. Life must’ve been good to you. Mine’s not been so great.”

Lind didn’t quite know what to say. She didn’t want to talk about the past. She was here as Jorma
Korpivaara’s attorney. But she had to ask, “Why did you pick me?”

“I dunno. I went through the list of nam
es and saw yours. I just kinda said it.”

“Yeah,” Lind
said in a neutral tone. Good enough. Korpivaara could’ve called her over the years, if he had something to say to her; he didn’t need to pick her as his attorney for that.

“Let’s get to the case. What’s your take on it?”

“Take? What do you mean?”

Lind was
confused, “Well, what happened there?”

Korpivaara
looked miserable.

“I can’t take these questions.”

“What questions?”

“T
he never-ending hashing and re-hashing of what happened.”

“So what happened? I have to know what you think or I can’t defend you.”

Korpivaara looked agonized.

“What do I think? I’ve thought and thought about w
hat might’ve happened, and there’s only one possible scenario. I think I went into the apartment, made some coffee, and talked with Laura about sex. Then she must’ve snapped somehow, and I must’ve grabbed a knife and for some odd reason slashed her throat.”

“Do you know it—or just think so?”

“I get a headache from just thinkin’ about it and other things as well. Hell, I do know it. That’s how it went. Get the woman cop in here, and we can be done with this shit. I don’t wanna think about it anymore.”

“Wait a minute,” Lind said. “
It’s in your best interest to get to the bottom of this. You might get a lesser sentence if you cooperate. Besides, if that’s how it happened, you’d be charged with manslaughter, not murder.”

“It’s all the same to me.”

“Five years is not the same as fifteen.”

Korpivaara
looked solemn and stern, his lips pressed together in a thin line.

“I wanna
confess right now. Get the broad in here.”

“But if…”

“Nothing’s gonna change. I’ve thought about this. It needs to be this way; there’s no other option,” Korpivaara said.

Li
nd was dumbfounded. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this, a man accused of a serious crime confessing as soon as his attorney shows up. The suspect was supposed to tell his version, plead innocent, and be given a chance to build a defense.

“I…”

“Now!” Korpivaara demanded. “I read in a pamphlet that the attorney has to obey the client’s wishes. And I want you to get the cop in here to interrogate me.”

Lind shrugged
and knocked on the door. She didn’t get it. Was Korpivaara trying to humiliate her? This wasn’t the best way to do it. After the confession, Lind would walk out of the front door and maybe head to the nearest bar for a cider, but Korpivaara would sit in prison for years.

The guard came quickly.

“Is Joutsamo still here?” Lind asked him.

“She’s having coffee with us.”

“Ask her to come in here.”

Joutsamo showed up a minute
later. “Well?” she asked.

“My client wants to be interrogated now.”

“Does he have something new to say?” Joutsamo asked.

“Yes,” Lind replied.

Joutsamo asked Lind and Korpivaara to follow her into the other interrogation room, where the microphones were set up. Joutsamo stated the date, the time of day, and the names of those present into the recorder.

Lind watched the calm officer, who began by saying,
“Jorma Korpivaara, you want to tell us something about the death of Laura Vatanen and your involvement in it?”

Korpivaara
looked calm.

“Yeah, I killed her. I was at my place and then went to Laura’s apartment that morning and got in with my key. I was there for sex
, and we were headed in that direction. I made some coffee and we talked about this and that. Then I suggested sex, and Laura lost it completely. She screamed and called me names and maybe tried to hit me. My mind went blank and I got a knife from the kitchen. Then I slashed her throat and left.”

“Where is the knife now?”

“I can’t remember. I had some sort of a blackout. I must’ve taken it somewhere.”

Joutsamo turned to Lind.

“Does the defense want to ask anything?”

“Why do you want to tell us this now and in this way?’

Korpivaara’s voice was quiet as he said, “I’ve been thinkin’… I can’t take it anymore. I just don’t have it. Can I go back to my cell now?”

“Yes,” Joutsamo said and stopped the recording.

The guard came in and took Korpivaara away.

“That was quick,” Joutsamo said to Lind.

The attorney didn’t reply.

CHAPTER 11

THURSDAY
, 4:10 P.M.

HELSINKI POLICE HEADQUARTERS, PASILA

Joutsamo sat at her desk. Kulta and Kohonen were out
, as was Suhonen. The four shared an office.

She had headphones on as she typed
up interrogations from the last few days.

Joutsamo felt a tap on her shoulder and noticed
Takamäki.

“You got
time to take a look at this?” the detective asked and handed her a sheet of paper.

Joutsamo took it and read:
“Police bulletin. In the late morning on Wednesday, a twenty-six-year-old woman was killed in an apartment located on Nӓyttelijӓ Street in North Haaga, Helsinki. Based on their investigation, the police detained several people. A forty-year-old man was arrested on Thursday as a suspect for manslaughter. He has confessed to the crime. The killing was preceded by an argument. Other suspects have been released.”

“There’s the work of five people for two days, condensed into six sentences,” Joutsamo said with a snicker.

“Sound okay to you?”

“Yu
p,” Joutsamo said and put the headphones back on. There’d still be a lot to do, but she was glad the case had been solved quickly. She and Takamäki had talked about the charge and, based on Korpivaara’s confession, they decided on voluntary manslaughter. In the current judicial system even the most brutal acts of killing were considered manslaughter as long as they were not premeditated. If the man who executed three people in the McDonald’s drive-through in Porvoo last year was only sentenced for manslaughter, then this was no murder either.

Niskala, Rautalampi, and Lahtela would be free to go b
y seven o’clock—before the twenty-four hour limit was up—since there were no grounds to arrest them. There was no reason to believe they were involved in the killing—on the contrary.

“I think I’ll go for a run tonight,”
Takamäki said.

Joutsamo said she was going to bed early.

* * *

Nea Lind lay on her taupe sofa with her feet on the coffee table. She
was comfortable in her gray sweatpants. Her forty-inch flat-screen TV was tuned to CNN news, but she wasn’t paying attention. In her hand she held a tall-stemmed glass filled with wine she had brought back from Rome.