The Hummingbird (5 page)

Just as she was taking her tray and dirty dishes to the kitchen trolley, a group of people appeared in animated conversation. Esko, Sari, Rauno and Chief Inspector Virkkunen. Blood rushed to Anna’s cheeks.

‘Anna, there you are! Have you already eaten?’ exclaimed Sari in disappointment.

‘We have to talk about the case,’ said Anna, pointedly delivering her words to Esko.

‘We just did, shame you couldn’t join us. Everything’s in order. You just take care of your own duties, okay,’ he replied, noisily placing cutlery on his tray.

‘How should I know what my duties are if nobody tells me?’ Anna replied, struggling to control the tone of her voice.

‘Anna, we were expecting you at the meeting just now,’ Virkkunen explained.

‘I don’t have telepathic skills, and I don’t remember ever claiming such a thing on my CV either.’

Virkkunen gave Esko a puzzled look.

‘Esko said he’d told you that there would be a meeting in my office as soon as you got back to the station,’ he said.

‘He said nothing of the kind.’

‘I told you when we got back from Saloinen,’ said Esko.

‘We didn’t exchange a single word. And I do have a phone – why didn’t anyone call me?’

The group was silent. Virkkunen seemed at a loss. Rauno and Sari took a few polite steps to one side. Esko was scrutinising the lunch menu on the board with a look of nonchalant satisfaction. He looks like a drunk, thought Anna.

‘I’m sure this is just an unfortunate misunderstanding,’ said Virkkunen. ‘I’m very sorry things seem to have got off to a bad start.’

‘So am I,’ was Anna’s clipped response.

She wasn’t far from tears.

‘I’ll have the spaghetti – it’s the only grub with meat today,’ said Esko.

That afternoon was almost as warm as summer. The thermometer outside Anna’s office window said 22°c. Moisture shimmered from the streets and slate roofs. The weather had taken a U-turn, its brakes wailing; suddenly it was summer again. Such rapid, dramatic shifts had increased in recent years.

Anna opened the window. A faint breeze carried in the stench of exhaust fumes. Anna let the sunshine warm her face. She closed her eyes for a moment and listened to the noise of the traffic from below.

The police station was located next to the train and bus stations, nestled between restaurants, department stores, office blocks and housing complexes in one of the busiest areas of the city. It was an ugly, high-rise building erected in the late sixties.

Anna tried to pluck something familiar from amid the cacophony, a sound that might have awoken a forgotten memory or reminded her of an event from her childhood or her teenage years, of her former life in this city. But the sounds could have been from any city, and the events of the past remained hidden.

My first day on the job isn’t even over yet and I’m dealing with a case of suspected honour violence, a brutal homicide and a real arsehole of a partner, thought Anna, opening her eyes. It doesn’t look good. Nothing here will be easy. But is that really what I was expecting? Her thoughts drifted to the subject of Ákos.

Before long she would have to confront him. She pressed herself tight against the bay windows and squinted into the bright sunshine. She was nervous. She felt a powerful urge to go out for a cigarette.

So much evil took place last night, she pondered. My job is to find out who committed it and why, to find the guilty parties and the evidence to convict them. That’s what I’m paid for. It doesn’t matter whether it’s my first or my 500th day at work; my job is still my job. I’m good at this job. Well, back in the Guides I was. I don’t
know about this one yet, but surely it can’t be all that different. And I’ve never yet let bullies get the better of me.

Reluctantly she let her craving for nicotine waft out of the window and into the exhaust fumes in the alley below. There was no point getting into a bad habit like that; one a day was all she permitted herself, and never while she was on duty. She sighed and closed the window. The city bustle was muted behind the panes of glass. In the quiet of the room she could hear the dull ticking of a wall clock.

She turned away from the window.

A tall, ominous figure was standing behind her.

‘
Úr Isten!
’ Anna screamed. The shock coursed through her veins like poison.

‘We’ve tracked down Juhani Rautio. Pack your tampons and lipstick, we’re heading back to the same village we visited this morning,’ said Esko.

‘What the hell are you thinking? Don’t ever creep up on me again…’

But Esko had already disappeared into the corridor.

‘Get a move on!’ he shouted from the lift.

5

JUHANI
RAUTIO
was just finishing an extended lunch break, during which he had brokered a lucrative deal, when his telephone rang. Juhani cursed his own absent-mindedness. Ten years ago, answering your telephone anywhere and everywhere had been the hallmark of a successful businessman, but nowadays it was considered downright uncouth. Juhani wasn’t uncouth, at least he didn’t think he was. In dealing with clients, he took pains to focus only on them, to make them feel that he was there for them and them alone. Children didn’t like it either, if Mum and Dad were on the phone or reading the newspaper while they were trying to explain something important. You had to be there for them.

Juhani was about to press the reject button and present an embarrassed apology to his client when something made him answer after all. With hindsight, he saw this as a portentous sign of a father’s instinct.

The phone call was from the police. He was asked to return home as soon as possible. His wife Irmeli had also been summoned.

This time Esko took Anna in his car; Virkkunen must have been watching them from the window. Still, they didn’t exchange a word throughout the journey. Maybe I can get used to working like this, thought Anna bitterly: we sulk, don’t talk to one another, and if we do talk, it’s only to take the piss.

The first impression of her new workplace had already begun to crack like an old oil painting. Have I just made the biggest mistake of my life, she pondered.

The red-brick house belonging to Juhani and Irmeli Rautio was
located in the centre of Saloinen in an area of old detached houses with spacious yards and gardens, each better pruned than the next. The tall trees, fulgent hedgerows and abundant flower beds made this a pleasant area. Almost every garden featured bushes of berries and vegetable patches, heavy with the late-summer harvest. Anna thought of the panorama opening up from her own balcony. She tried to remember whether she could see even a single balcony with hanging baskets. Her mother had always filled the balcony with troughs of flowers. She recalled the buzz of activity on the balcony each spring, her mother’s hands caked with mud, fragile plant cuttings standing in long, slender boxes, the cool of the balcony’s concrete floor, the bamboo mats rolled up waiting for shoots to be replanted. Above all, she remembered the pride with which her mother looked at her balcony on her way back from town. It really was beautiful, particularly in late summer when a sea of flowers spilled over the railings. After moving away from home, Anna had never planted a single flower. She found herself wondering why.

Juhani arrived home at the same time as Anna and Esko. They shook hands in the driveway, introduced themselves and stepped inside. The house was calm and tidy. The family’s affluence wasn’t obvious, but was perceptible in the tastefully designed interior. Either the couple had employed a professional interior designer or Mrs Rautio was exceptionally gifted, thought Anna as Juhani gestured them through to the stylish living room where every detail seemed to be just right.

‘You are the owner of a yellow Fiat Punto, is that correct?’ Esko didn’t beat around the bush.

‘That’s right,’ Juhani replied, a note of concern in his voice.

‘With the registration number AKR-643?’

‘Yes, yes.’

‘Do you know where your car is right now?’

‘What’s going on? Has it been stolen?’

‘Just answer the question, please, and we’ll see whether this is a matter for your concern,’ said Esko calmly.

‘Has Riikka been in a crash? Is she okay? Tell me this minute she’s okay,’ Juhani shouted.

Anna and Esko glanced at one another. Just then there came a click as the front door opened and Mrs Rautio stepped inside, her face red and sweaty as she took off her cycling helmet.

‘Juhani, what’s going on? Why do we have to come home?’ Her voice was taut with worry.

‘Please take a seat, both of you,’ said Esko gently but firmly.

So he does know how to behave appropriately, thought Anna.

‘We found this car parked by a running track some distance from here. There are a few questions we’d like to ask.’

‘Our daughter Riikka uses that car, has done for about a year now, ever since she turned eighteen. We originally got it as a second car for my wife, but we realised we didn’t really need it.’

‘I prefer to cycle,’ said Irmeli. ‘Means I don’t need to work out separately. Where is Riikka? Let me call her right now,’ she continued and made to stand up.

‘Please, just sit down,’ Esko ordered. Irmeli remained seated.

‘Where should your daughter be right now?’ asked Anna.

‘In town, I should think,’ said Irmeli, glanced questioningly at her husband.

‘Is that where she lives?’

‘Well, she lives here actually. Officially, this is her address, but she spends most of her time at her boyfriend’s place downtown.’

‘She’s nineteen years old, is that right?’

‘Yes,’ replied Juhani.

‘Did she come home yesterday?’

‘No. We haven’t seen her for a few days. When was it she was here, Irmeli?’

‘She popped round to do some washing – was it Wednesday? Jere – her boyfriend, that is – doesn’t have a washing machine. There’s a laundry in the basement, but Riikka doesn’t like using it,’ Irmeli gave a forced giggle.

‘When did you last speak on the telephone?’

‘Riikka called us yesterday. Nothing in particular, just asked if she could take an antique chest of drawers with her to Jyväskylä. She was moving there to study. Psychology. The move’s pretty soon.’

‘Does your daughter jog a lot?’ asked Anna and felt a slight tensing of her shoulders.

Irmeli and Juhani sat for a moment in silence. What had so far remained unsaid flickered through the couple’s consciousness.

‘Yes,’ replied Irmeli. ‘She got into it in June. I bought her a decent pair of running shoes to get her started. They’re quite expensive, proper running shoes, especially on a student budget. She … she seems to think she’s overweight. But it’s nothing obsessive; it’s not as if she’s anorexic or anything like that, just a young woman’s normal concern for her own body. She wanted to look good.’

Irmeli’s restless fingers began plaiting the tassels of a woollen shawl on the sofa. She peered up alternately at Anna and Esko, her eyes now alert with fear, a deep furrow of concern pressed into her brow.

‘What make of shoes were they?’ asked Anna.

When Irmeli gave the name of the brand, Esko turned towards the window and clenched his fist so that his knuckles gleamed white. Anna tried to swallow the dried saliva in her throat.

‘What about her tracksuit? What kind of running clothes did she wear?’

‘I think she had several. At least one dark-blue Adidas tracksuit and a bright green one – that one was brand new. Why are you asking these things? Just tell us what’s happened!’ Irmeli begged, now unable to conceal her anguish.

Anna looked at Esko. We should have talked about this beforehand, she thought. Who should say what? Is it now up to me to tell these people the worst possible news? What should I do?

Esko cleared his throat.

‘We’ve found the body of a young woman on the running track near where your car was parked,’ he said in his gravelly voice.

6

RAUNO
FORSMAN
was driving to Saloinen through the landscape of a reborn summer. He had always been charmed by how quickly the city gave way to the countryside, by how thin and imperceptible the boundary between these two worlds really was. In his parents’ childhood the boundary had been clearly defined, and crossing that boundary was an event people planned with great care. Back then city dwellers were still considered better than everyone else. Country folk were curiously envious of them. That being said, they were also considered slightly stupid, because they knew nothing of hard graft and didn’t know how to get about in the woods. In Rauno’s childhood, this cultural clash had diminished to an extent, though its remnants could still be observed. Nowadays everyone was an equal part of the online community and living in the countryside was viewed as a trendy form of downshifting. The boundary between town and countryside had been erased by years of daily commutes in and out of the city. Traditional fields were replaced with identical, soulless blocks of flats. A romantic soul might have been lucky enough to find a rustic idyll in the form of an old log house.