Her Enemy (31 page)

Love was such a terrible risk. If you cared about someone, you could spend the rest of your life afraid of losing them. Turning away from Sanna’s grave, I realized that I was more afraid of that than I would be meeting up with ten armed murderers. That was why I didn’t dare commit to Antti, to promise to go with him to America or to wait for him in Finland. It wasn’t a healthy desire for independence—it was simple cowardice.

It was getting late as we set off walking along the shoreline path. The cemetery would be closing soon. The sun was still shining over the neoclassical outline of the Lapinlahti psychiatric hospital, but the shadows of the trees were lengthening. The wind had died down. A hedgehog rustled in the grass. Someone had left a plate of milk for it next to a fir tree.

The fountain was still working. We sat down on a bench next to it, watching the shafts of sunlight on the bay, the silhouette of the hospital, and a full moon rising to compete with the sun. Antti wrapped his arms around me.

I thought of Makke and Kimmo, the firm hugs they both gave me at Armi’s funeral. Apparently, they were holding a sort of two-man therapy group at the gym. I thought of the Laaksonens, who wanted to try again. No, they weren’t crazy. They were brave. I tried to gather my own courage.

“Antti, I’ve been thinking…Your trip to America isn’t the end of the world. I can wait.” I saw in Antti’s eyes that he understood what I wanted to say. “If I get too lonely, I’ll take a vacation and come see you.”

As we kissed, a nightingale alighted in a nearby maple tree and began trilling wildly.

Photo © Tomas Whitehouse, 2011

Leena Lehtolainen was born in Vesanto, Finland, to parents who taught language and literature. A keen reader, she made up stories in her head before she could even write. At the age of ten, she began her first book, a young adult novel, which was published two years later. Besides writing, Leena is fond of classical singing, her beloved cats, and—her greatest passion—figure skating. She attends many competitions as a skating journalist and writes for the Finnish figure-skating magazine
Taitoluistelu. Her Enemy
is the second installment in her bestselling Maria Kallio series, which debuted in English in 2012 with
My First Murder
. Leena currently lives in Finland with her husband and two sons.

Photo © Pekka Piri, 2012

Owen F. Witesman is a professional literary translator with a master’s in Finnish and Estonian area studies from Indiana University. He has translated over thirty Finnish books into English, including novels, children’s books, collections of poetry, plays, graphic novels, and nonfiction. His recent translations include the first novel in the Maria Kallio series,
My First Murder
(AmazonCrossing), the satire
The Human Part
by Kari Hotakainen (MacLehose Press), the thriller
Wolves and Angels
by Seppo Jokinen (Ice Cold Crime), and the 1884 classic
The Railroad
by Juhani Aho (Norvik Press). He currently resides in Springville, Utah, with his wife and three daughters, a dog, a cat, and twenty-nine fruit trees.