My First Murder (23 page)

“Theories are all well and good, but we need results!” Another cloud of smoke wafted into my eyes. “You have until
Friday. Make an arrest by then. I’ve had my hands full keeping the tabloids quiet about this case.”

“So am I still the lead? What about Sergeant Kinnunen?”

The captain got an uneasy look.

“Well, Kalevi...” he started to mumble but then rallied. “Yes, well. All the work that happens in your section is Kinnunen’s responsibility, of course. However, we spoke this morning about trying to delegate more authority to junior officers. Of course you should also be reporting to Kinnunen, but you’ve already gotten pretty far with this case, so go ahead and wrap it up on your own.”

So Kinnunen was back from sick leave, but it seemed that the situation was tense. I decided it might be best for me to talk to him myself.

We spoke briefly about the other cases I was working on. When I asked the captain for permission to use Koivu as my main assistant, he agreed.

Then, seemingly in passing, he said, “The end of September isn’t that far off anymore. Saarinen called last week to say that his back is so bad that his sick leave might turn into permanent disability retirement. At the very least, he’ll be out until the end of the year. Have you thought about staying on?”

“No, I haven’t had time,” I said evasively.

“It would be good for the unit to have at least one woman on staff, even if it’s just for our image. And you seem to be able to keep up with the boys,” the captain said, oblivious to the fact that he had just said precisely the wrong thing. Fortunately, his secretary put an urgent call through from some higher-up right then, and I was able to slip out.

In the meantime, a round package from the lab had appeared on my desk.

Before I even had a chance to open it, my phone rang. It was Anu, the second soprano from the choir, returning my call.

I got straight to the point. “You told me that when you overheard Tommi on the phone, he said something to the effect of, ‘Listen, Emma, I can’t talk now.’ Could it have just been, ‘Listen, M’ instead of “Listen, Emma?”

Anu thought for a moment.

“Yeah, I think you might be right.”

“Good. And this M wanted more of something than Tommi had?”

“That was the impression I got.”

I told Anu I might need an official statement from her later. She sounded relieved that was all.

Then I turned my attention to the package from the lab. It contained one of the bottles of moonshine from Tommi’s apartment, along with another bottle, the lab results, and some photographs. I looked at them and whistled. This was starting to get interesting. I stuck the moonshine in my desk drawer so that it wouldn’t create any temptation for the boys in the department, especially Kinnunen. Now I had the office bottle I had been wanting.

I reserved a department car for myself and Koivu, who was refreshed and in good spirits. I praised his accomplishments from Saturday night, and he laughed with satisfaction.

“Yeah, that place was full of fresh meat for sale. Girls or boys if you had the money,” Koivu said. “Do you remember that Estonian woman who got arrested for robbing a client? It was a couple of days before Peltonen’s murder. She might know something.”

“Good boy, Koivu! Will you find out if she’s still in custody and get permission to talk to her? But before that let’s tackle
these other interviews,” I said as Koivu started monkeying with the car phone to get the scoop on the Estonian. It turned out she was still remanded in Pasila.

First we made our way to Koskela to look up Tomi Rissanen—otherwise known as “Tomppa.” A beautiful boy with hair like an angel opened the door after several rings of the bell. He was rubbing his eyes as though he had just woken up. He wore only a skimpy white G-string, which emphasized the tan of his muscular body.

“Koivu and Kallio, Helsinki PD,” I said and showed Tomppa my badge. “We have some questions about one of your...friends.”

Tomppa looked more confused than afraid. Had Mäki warned him? On closer inspection, he looked more like a schoolboy. I wasn’t the least bit surprised that he found takers, but this kid didn’t have any business hanging around the Kaivohuone Club. I could see that a face like that would be lovely to look at and touch though. The Mäkis, both Tommi’s boss and her husband, seemed to have the same taste in men, since Tomppa looked like he could have been Tommi’s little brother.

Tomppa confirmed that he had spent the whole night with Mäki at the Vaakuna Hotel. Since the guest register at the hotel had also confirmed this, it looked like Mäki could be crossed off the list of suspects.

“You were nice to that kid,” Koivu said with a grin as we walked back to the car.

“How could I be hard on a cutie-pie like that?” I snorted. “But seriously, I saw enough of those guys in Vice. They never believe your friendly advice or threats until it’s too late.”

We drove north to Ring 3, making our way to the farm equipment store where Timo worked, which I found without Koivu’s help. Tractors and threshers stood gleaming on the lot,
bringing back distant memories of piling hay with my Uncle Pena when I was a child. I had bragged that I was able to lift a bigger pile of hay on my pitchfork than my cousin, who was a couple of years older than I was and a boy. While my little sisters had been content to help our mother work in the kitchen, I had ridden the horse and driven the tractor. Mother had never enjoyed our summers in the country because she was always shut up in the kitchen. Since Uncle Pena wasn’t married, she had been responsible for preparing all the meals for everyone working on the harvest. No doubt she would have preferred to lie on the grass reading Agatha Christie all day. At the time, I thought she had chosen her place in the kitchen; in those days, I still believed that adults did only what they wanted.

When we pulled up, Timo was moving a load of fertilizer sacks into the sales yard with a tractor. He was clearly confused when I ordered him to come with us. I explained to Timo’s boss that I urgently needed Timo’s help with an investigation. I didn’t want to needlessly sully his reputation, but at the same time I wondered why I was bothering to be so nice.

“I would have interviewed you and Sirkku last night, but you weren’t in town,” I said to Timo in the backseat. “Didn’t we talk about you informing me if you went anywhere?”

“We were just in Muuriala, at my parents’ house, I mean...” Timo explained, bewildered. “We didn’t think you would need us over the weekend anyway.”

We drove downtown. I parked the car illegally on a sidewalk and left Koivu with Timo while I headed in to the cosmetics counter of the large department store where Sirkku worked. Her makeup was showy, as I would have expected given her place of work, but it was not especially flattering. She wore too much of it, for one thing, and I didn’t think pink lipstick suited her. The
artificial lighting of the store made her look like an overgrown doll. Then I saw myself in a magnifying mirror and quickly averted my eyes.

“Hi, Sirkku. It looks like I need you to come up to Pasila for another interview. Who is your boss? I’ll tell her.”

Sirkku braced herself against the sales counter in such a way that a perfume bottle display that was set up on it collapsed to the floor with a clatter. She glanced around with such a frightened look that the department manager, who looked like she should be on a soap opera, came to ask what was the matter.

“I need a little help from Ms. Halonen on an investigation. I’ll bring her back within the hour.”

Sirkku went to hang up her work coat and punch her time card. I wondered whether they would dock her pay for the time she was gone, then realized it was stupid to think about something that petty. I escorted Sirkku to the car. When she saw Timo, she turned so pale she looked ill. I ordered Koivu into the backseat with Timo and made Sirkku sit next to me. Her pink nails were trembling at the tips of her fingers. Actually, I didn’t even need to ask my questions anymore. Sirkku had already confessed everything through her demeanor.

She calmed down a bit when we got into my office and she could hold Timo’s hand. Koivu brought them coffee, and a cup of tea for me. He sipped a Coke. I pulled the bottle of moonshine out of my desk cabinet, and Koivu made a hopeful gesture. I gave him a grin that indicated he should behave himself, though the thought of fortified tea sounded pretty good to me too all of a sudden.

“Is this bottle familiar to you two? Or do you need to sample the contents first?”

Timo and Sirkku glanced at each other. Finally Timo said weakly, “Yes, I recognize it.” Now Timo’s face was surprisingly pale too.

“Well, why do you recognize it? I imagine you know what’s in it.”

“Moonshine,” Timo said, forcing the words out.

“And might I ask who made it? We found this bottle and dozens more like it in Tommi’s apartment, but we didn’t find a still there or in the villa in Vuosaari. If I need to, I can get a warrant for both of your apartments.”

“But it isn’t...” Sirkku began quickly, then squeaked when Timo squeezed her hand.

“But what isn’t what? The still isn’t put together anymore? We found both your fingerprints on the bottle samples,” I lied. I figured we would probably find Sirkku’s fingerprints on the ones in Tommi’s attic storage locker. But my simple ruse worked on Sirkku in her frightened state.

“They can’t have my fingerprints on them! Timo’s the one who bottled it!”

“Idiot,” Timo sighed, shaking his hand free of Sirkku. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Sirkku’s loud makeup looked grotesque in the light of day, and Timo’s expression was defeated.

“Where did you make it, then?” I directed my words at Sirkku, but Timo had clearly decided he should take over from here. He spoke slowly and deliberately, as though carefully weighing each and every word.

“We’ve been cooking our own moonshine out at Muuriala for decades. My granddad’s dad probably started making it during Prohibition, and then we just kept up the tradition. Every once in a while, I brought in bottles for choir or student association parties. Then last summer, Tommi asked if I could get
him a little more if he paid me. I asked my father about it, since he’s the one I’ve been making it with the last few years, but he was totally against it. We’ve never sold liquor at Muuriala; we just made it for our own use. I was annoyed of course, because Tommi thought that we could make upward of two hundred percent profit, since the grain was basically free from Muuriala. He said he wanted to sell it to friends at work.

“I considered building my own still in the city, but it seemed too complicated. Then, after I started dating Sirkku, Tommi brought it up again at a party one night.”

“Tommi was always luring people into all sorts of things,” Sirkku said angrily. Timo took her hand again.

“Yeah, Tommi was always propositioning Sirkku too. In any case, Sirkku promised to help me put the materials together—Sirkku is a chemist after all—and we made our first fifty liters of moonshine. We gave half of it to Tommi and kept half for ourselves. It’s actually amazing mixed with Coke,” Timo said to Koivu. I detected a note of professional pride in his voice.

“And then?” I asked, angry that I was being shut out of “men’s business” once again.

“Then we made another batch for the choir’s spring party, and we just finished the third a couple of weeks ago. That last batch was twice as big because we had a new pot.”

“Where did you get the bottles? It looked like they were all the same.”

“Some of them are old Muuriala bottles, and Tommi got the rest somewhere else.”

“Who came up with the idea of using fennel to flavor it?”

“Tommi. I told him once that one of the things we grow at Muuriala is fennel, and Tommi said it would give the liquor a more refreshing flavor...like anise.”

“And you sold some of the moonshine to Tommi?”

“Yeah, even though...” Timo looked bewildered. “It was a bit strange because he kept demanding that we make more all the time. I didn’t want to spread it around too much. I don’t think it’s a crime if you just make liquor for yourself. Everybody does it where we’re from,” Timo said defensively. “Tommi just wanted so much of it. And he wouldn’t tell me where he was selling it.”

“Did he pay you up front?”

“Yeah. Except this last time...” Timo suddenly clammed up, and Sirkku stared at him, looking frightened.

“Go on,” I said, trying to inject my voice with authority. I was surprised that Timo was from Eastern Finland because his slow, clumsy manner of speaking more closely resembled the stereotype of someone from Central Häme.

“Tommi called Thursday night,” Sirkku said, suddenly annoyed. “He said he needed all the liquor we had in storage right away. He didn’t have the money to pay just yet, but he promised to pay us on Saturday in Vuosaari once he’d sold it. He came by that night to pick up the bottles and told us that he was heading out to sell them right then.”

“But the liquor was still at his house after Tommi died, and he didn’t pay you on Saturday,” I said. “Did you have a fight about the money?” Timo and Sirkku looked at each other, as though they couldn’t decide who should answer. Timo began.

“Well, yeah. We thought about what to do that night when we were in the sauna. We didn’t have any way to get the money out of him, but it would have been a loss of a couple of grand, which isn’t small change for us. Tommi was acting strange all evening, and it was obvious he was avoiding us.”

“And when we tried to go in his room to talk to him after the others had gone to bed, the door was locked!” Sirkku interjected indignantly.

“We decided to try again the next day,” Timo continued. “But then Sirkku woke up in the night and went to the bathroom and...It’s best that you tell what happened next yourself,” Timo said to Sirkku, who was looking frightened again.

“Yes...well, I went to use the upstairs bathroom, and it smelled just awful. Riku had probably just been in there puking. When I went to open the window, I saw that Tommi was out on the dock. I decided not to wake up Timo but just to run down to the water and demand the money right then.” Sirkku paused to catch her breath and downed the rest of her coffee, which had already grown cold and tasted horrible, judging from the look on her face. Or maybe Sirkku was grimacing at her own memories.