Within a minute, Mari was at the front of the line handing her jacket and shoulder bag to the coat check attendant, but she kept her blue handbag with her. Laura handed over her parka and took the ticket.
“Where to?” said Joutsamo.
“Let’s go in a little further,” said Takamäki. “We can’t talk to them here in the middle of the crowd.”
The atrium was beginning to fill up already. People were drinking coffee, wine and beer, and eating overpriced pastries. The whole situation seemed rather absurd to Takamäki. At the heart of it all was a woman and a girl, the targets of a hardened criminal, and the police were trying to figure out how to approach them.
“Let’s take them back into the corner,” said Takamäki, and he let Joutsamo go ahead.
Joutsamo weaved swiftly through the crowd and approached the Lehtonens from behind. “Hi,” she said in a soft voice. “Everything alright?”
Mari turned around first, then Laura. Takamäki came up alongside Joutsamo.
“Yeah, fine,” said Mari as she pushed onward.
“Listen,” said Joutsamo, still gently, but a bit firmer this time. “Can we talk?”
“What about?”
Takamäki cut in. “Why don’t you take a guess…you think this is some kind of game?”
Mari was about to say something feisty, but she bit her tongue. Not with so many ears around. She thought for a moment before responding, “Sure, let’s talk. We’ve got a few minutes.”
Joutsamo and Takamäki led Mari to a quieter section of the atrium. Laura hung back by the coat racks, about thirty feet away.
“What’s going on?” said Joutsamo. “Why aren’t your phones on?”
“The batteries are dead,” she snapped.
They were all quiet for a while. “Let me get this straight,” said Takamäki. “We work our asses off on your behalf and you scrap it all just like that?”
“And just what exactly have you done, if I might ask?”
“Really,” he groaned. “Are you out of your mind? While we’re trying to find out who’s behind the threats, it’s vital that we know you’re safe. It allows us to concentrate on the investigation.”
“Oh, so this is about your investigation.”
“No,” said Takamäki. “It’s about…”
Joutsamo interrupted her boss. His tack was clearly headed in the wrong direction, and she didn’t want Mari to be at odds with them. “Mari, tell me what’s going on…”
“Why should I ruin my life because of some criminal?”
Takamäki was stunned. Ruin her life? Soon she’d lose it. But he bit his tongue.
Mari went on. “Seems to me this ‘safe house’ is just a place where you can tuck us away. Sweep us under the rug. We can’t cause any problems there. While the criminal gets to do whatever he wants.”
“Mari,” said Joutsamo. “The criminal is in prison. You were sent there for your own good. So you’d be safe.”
“For weeks or for months? I mean, the place was like a prison. Stuck in a room all day. I have a life. My daughter has a life. We have work, school, family, friends, interests. And tickets to the theater. What right do you have to lock us up?”
Takamäki was about to say something, but Joutsamo shut him up. “We’re looking out for your safety. You’ve been threatened. This is a perfectly normal course of action.”
“It might to be normal to you, but not to us. And what if the threats keep coming? What do you recommend then? That we move to Lapland or Sweden? Cut all ties to our old lives? Geez, if you can’t come up with something better, then I’ll take the risk.”
“For Laura, too?”
“Yeah, we’ve talked it through. We want our lives back. If I start being afraid all the time, I’ll never get my life back. I can’t give up. I can’t be afraid.”
Joutsamo paused for a while. Takamäki had decided to keep quiet. “Let me ask you a question: Do you remember how you felt when Laura got that envelope?”
Mari swallowed hard. “Yes, I’ll never forget. But I was weak then. I thought the experts could help us. But once we were at the safe house, it dawned on me. You don’t care about our lives. You just don’t want problems. That’s why you had to get us out of the picture.”
“Well, what do you want us to do?” said Takamäki, struggling to conceal his disgust.
“Do what you want, but we’ll be going on with our lives.”
The first chime sounded, signifying that the show would begin soon. “Right now, we’re going to watch the play. Afterwards, maybe we’ll have some tea and then head home. I don’t really give a rip what you cops do.”
“Fair enough,” said Takamäki in resignation. “Enjoy the show. Good night. Afternoon, that is.”
He gestured to Joutsamo, and they took their leave.
“We can’t just leave them to Korpi you know,” said Joutsamo as she pulled on her coat. “The wolf will get his sheep in short order.”
“She said herself she doesn’t care what the police do,” he snorted.
“But…”
“Stop and think, Anna,” he said as he held the entry door for her. The temperature had dipped well below freezing. “We’re not gonna abandon the case, we’ll just have to do without their cooperation. Basically, that means you get to stay here and wait till the show is over. Then you just politely ask if they’d like a ride in an unmarked squad. If they turn it down, follow them and make sure nothing happens.”
“Isn’t that…”
“She said herself she doesn’t give a rip what the cops do. At least for now, that’s the way we’ll have to do it. Like you said, we can’t just leave them to Korpi. To hell with the cost,” he said. “I’ll leave you the squad and catch a bus back to the station.”
“I can drop you off,” said Joutsamo. “The show will probably take a couple hours, and I didn’t see any suspicious characters around.”
“Except for Römpötti. Alright, let’s do that.”
* * *
It was nearing six o’clock and already dark outside. Suhonen was sitting in a car in the Haukilahti district of Espoo, staking out a house that belonged to Attorney Mats Martin. Suhonen had parked the car with a clear view of the façade. There was no doubt that there were people inside-the place was actually hopping. Presumably the lawyer was hosting some kind of party.
Only a few hours before, Suhonen had been spending his day off with the intention of going for pizza and a few beers with his wife candidate Raija when Takamäki called. Of course, he could have said no, but that wasn’t his style.
Besides, the situation seemed pretty juicy. Based on information gleaned from phone taps, they had reason to believe that Martin had called Jere Siikala three times on a prepaid card in recent days. The lawyer was the only one whose own phone had been within range of the same cell towers as the prepaid phone that was used to call Guerrilla. It couldn’t be a coincidence. And if it was, it called for a formal explanation in a police interrogation room. Martin had also gone to visit Korpi in Helsinki Prison on the Thursday prior to Korpi’s transfer to solitary.
Takamäki, Suhonen, Joutsamo and Karila had held a meeting at the VCU conference room to discuss the situation brought about by the Lehtonens’ desertion. Once Martin’s and Siikala’s phone records were added to the equation, it became clear that there was no reason to wait. Particularly with Siikala continuing to call anonymous numbers. The police had to be proactive. Anybody who could be linked to the case would be taken in and held for as long as legally possible, and potentially remanded into custody if the interviews and searches produced any evidence.
As for Guerrilla, his arrest was left up to Narcotics agents, who were overjoyed to be done with their mind-numbing surveillance detail. Suhonen, for his part, had tracked down Martin. Because the two men were connected, there was good reason to make their arrests at more or less the same time. A tentative time of six o’clock was agreed upon, just before the conclusion of the play at the Helsinki City Theater.