Maija decided to meet Pia at the school and re-entered the slippery street outside the block of flats. The sun was high up in the sky, but covered by a thin blanket of clouds. The tram was empty and it gave Maija an eerie feeling that something was amiss. When the tram stopped at Erottaja, Maija was leaning against the back window of the carriage. She saw a man in a grey coat running through the Esplanade Park towards the vehicle. Suddenly, he turned and crossed the street without looking at the traffic lights. Maija looked closer and saw it was Iain. He entered an office building on the other side of Erottaja. When the tram started to move, Maija thought how different Pia had been since Iain had falsely accused her of using drugs. More grown-up somehow. She’d also talked less to Maija about her problems. But perhaps it was Heikki’s influence. Maija saw how fond Pia was of the boy when he came over the other night. Maija sighed. Perhaps there was something in what Mr Linnonmaa had told her. Perhaps he’d been trying to protect Pia after all? Where could the girl be now? With Heikki? Maija decided to go after Iain. Perhaps he could make sense of it all.
Maija got off the tram outside Stockmann’s. The store was shut up and there was no one else on the street. She walked back up to Erottaja and made her way to the building Iain had disappeared into. Inside the gleaming entrance hall, she looked at a blackboard of office names. There was a dentist, a solicitor’s office, debt collectors. Then she saw it, ‘British Council 4th Floor’.
Iain was panting when he walked through the door, ‘Thank God you’re alright!’ He came over and put his hand on Pia’s shoulder. ‘Good girl,’ he said in English. ‘You did exactly the right thing coming here.’ He was standing between Pia and Heikki, surveying the two from a height. He took his coat off and pulled up a chair and sat down. ‘Heikki, are you alright?’ he asked. His breath was still quick and as he spoke to Heikki, he placed his hand on Heikki’s arm.
Pia looked at Iain with astonishment. She didn’t think he liked Heikki.
The receptionist came in with a teapot and a cup. ‘Thought you’d like a cup of tea, Sir,’ she said to Iain in English. ‘Ah, you’re a dear, Mrs Cooper,’ Iain said and smiled at the woman. He got up and took the tray from Mrs Cooper. ‘Thank you so very much. It’s good of you to come in on a Sunday.’
‘Oh, you’re welcome,’ Mrs Cooper cooed. She started clearing up the table, removing Heikki’s and Pia’s empty cups.
‘It’s alright, you can leave those,’ Iain said in English, glancing at Pia. He leant back in his chair and said to Heikki, ‘Now young man, isn’t it about time you told me what you’re up to?’
Heikki looked sideways at Pia and started talking to Iain.
‘I was just telling Pia about the Pioneers. It’s a youth group. We meet every Thursday at The Workers’ Hall in Töölö.’ Heikki was fiddling with his hair. ‘A few times we’d get a Comrade from the East to come in to talk about life in the Soviet Union.’ Heikki’s eyes now met Pia’s. ‘They’ve got such a good education system, you know, and jobs for everyone after school. Not like here where you’re unemployed however many qualifications you’ve got!’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Pia said.
Iain gave Pia a stern look. ‘What?’ Pia said, ‘you’re on their side now are you?’
‘It’s alright, we just want to hear what Heikki has to say,’ Iain said, then turned to Heikki. ‘Go on’.
‘This one guy came in a few months ago, his talk was brilliant. He had slides and everything. Both Sash and I wanted to go and visit his town, Minsk. Anyway, we got talking to him afterwards and he said he could arrange a scholarship for us to go and study there. We were so excited! The week after, when we were playing pool, he came in again. By that stage we’d both thought he’d just been all talk, we’d not heard from him though he said he was going to write to our parents. He’d taken our addresses and everything. My Mum was so excited when I told her!’
‘Did this man tell you his name?’
‘Yeah, Vladsislas Kovtun.’
Pia gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Iain looked at Pia and shook his head. Heikki was watching both of them intently. ‘I know, that’s why I’ve been trying to find out what’s he up to, haven’t I?’ he said.
‘And when was this?’
‘Oh, just after Christmas.’
‘Go on, Heikki,’ Iain said.
‘Anyway, he came back and started talking to me and Sash. We were playing pool and she was beating me so I was glad of an interruption,’ Heikki grinned at both Iain and Pia. She glared at him.
‘He said he could arrange a scholarship at a university in Minsk for both of us.’ Heikki looked pleadingly at Pia, ‘You know how difficult it is to get into a university here, especially with the results I’m going to get.’ Heikki paused for a moment. Pia didn’t feel at all sorry for him, if he was so worried about his studies, why didn’t he work a bit harder? Heikki continued, ‘Anyway then the guy started talking about Anni.’
‘What did he say?’
Heikki looked down at his hands. ‘He wanted us to find out about Anni and her dad. Just ordinary stuff, you know.’ Heikki’s head was hanging and he was looking at Pia and Iain from under his eyebrows. ‘Next time the Comrade came to the meeting we told him all we knew. He told us our scholarships were a certainty. Sash and I started talking about going to the USSR when we’d finished the Baccalaureate, but then weeks went by and we heard nothing. Then at last week’s meeting we had another Comrade in, and after his talk about the Moscow children’s homes, he came straight up to us as if he knew Sash and me and started asking questions.’
‘What was his name?’ Pia noticed that Iain was leaning closer to Heikki as if afraid he might miss a word he said, just like he and the Colonel had done when Pia came into the Council before. Where was the Colonel, Pia wondered. Shouldn’t he be here listening to Heikki too?
‘He didn’t tell us his name.’
‘Shame, but go on,’ Iain said.
‘This guy seemed to be very interested in what Vladsislas had promised us and he knew all about the scholarships, though he still wanted us to tell him exactly what the first Comrade had said. And he asked a lot of questions about Anni.’
‘Who was he? Did he tell you who he worked for?’
‘No.
‘The next Monday when I saw Vladsislas at school and Anni was behaving so oddly…both Sash and I were shit scared that it had something to do with this scholarship and the other bloke.’
‘Apart from spying for the Russians, what else have you been up to?’ Pia’s throat was dry. She could hardly bring out the words.
Iain coughed, ‘I don’t think that’s quite fair.’
Pia shot an angry look at him.
‘Nothing, really,’ Heikki said. ‘I thought you knew something about it, so I followed you around for a bit.’ Heikki was looking at Pia.
Pia’s heart was pounding. She looked down and fought the tears filling her eyes. She wasn’t going to show Heikki how much he meant to her.
But Heikki just carried on looking at Pia with that sheepish look. ‘Pia, I’ve always really liked you and…’
‘If you say so,’ Pia said. Her voice was high, too high.
Heikki was quiet.
Pia straightened up and trying to steady her voice said, ‘And what were you really looking for in Mr Linnonmaa’s study?’
Heikki looked up at Pia. Leaning closer to her, he said earnestly, ‘I was desperate to find out what was going on, if Mr Linnonmaa knew about Kovtun’s visits to the Pioneers, and me…’