‘Here we go, sorry about that.’ Iain must be gentle. Obviously it had distressed Miss Joutila to see Kovtun with another woman. Iain wondered if she had started to suspect Kovtun. Goodness knows what he had promised her in addition to a win at the Friendship Tournament. A promise Iain guessed Kovtun had done absolutely nothing about. Iain hoped that Leena’s involvement had been accidental. He couldn’t believe that Kovtun would have been able to make her do his dirty work for him.
‘Look,’ Iain said, ‘I’d like to talk to you, but not here.’
‘No, not here,’ the woman agreed, ‘I live fairly near. Do you want to come over to my place?’
This took Iain by surprise. He watched as she unzipped her fur-lined boots and placed her shoes in the nylon bag. Her tone was matter-of-fact, but still…
Miss Joutila caught Iain’s expression and said, ‘I mean to talk, and just that,’ she said firmly.
‘Of course, that’s very kind of you.’
The gym teacher’s flat was smaller than Maija’s, about the same type and size as the one Iain was renting. When she showed Iain into the living room, he noticed a low coffee table laid out for dinner: two plates, two tall wine glasses. No guesses who Miss Joutila had been expecting for dinner. She walked into the room and saw Iain looking at the table.
‘Yes, he was supposed to come over tonight!’ Leena gathered the crockery and glasses together and took them to the kitchen. ‘What would you like to drink? I have coffee.’ Before Iain was able to reply, Leena popped her head out of the doorway and added, ‘Or if you prefer, Koskenkorva.’
‘Hm, vodka I think, please.’ Iain said and sat down. He wondered how much he would be forced to tell Leena about himself to get her to talk. The less she knew the better. Things were going well so far, she didn’t seem hostile. He just had to be careful not to push too hard.
As soon as Leena sat down opposite Iain, she started to talk. Even if he’d wanted, Iain couldn’t have stopped her.
‘I want what’s best for my students,’ she began. She paused for a moment, taking a sip of her drink. ‘So when I met this lovely man in Moscow and he started, well, courting me, and then said he could arrange that we would win the trophy, well, I could not say no, could I? How was I to know he was, well, that he had someone already?’ The gym teacher’s face was turned towards Iain, her eyes open wide.
‘No, of course you couldn’t know.’ Kovtun’s philandering is the least of his crimes, Iain thought but said nothing.
‘I feel so stupid. The woman seemed innocent. She looked so nice, smiled at me even when I saw them again…’
‘What do you mean you saw them again, where?’
‘They came out of one of the rooms when I was waiting at the top of the stairs.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Iain said
‘Of course, I knew about the daughter, Vadi talked about her often. That’s why I…’ Leena put her head in her hands.
‘The daughter?’
‘Yes, Leena said, looking up at Iain, ‘he said Pia reminded him of her.’
‘And where is this daughter now? Moscow?’
‘No, she lives in Minsk. But she’s coming over for the Tournament.’
Iain stared at Leena.
The gym teacher got up and poured herself another large glass of vodka. She paced up and down the small flat, then sat on the chair and started sobbing.
Iain put his arms around the woman. She was slightly built, but her body felt muscular under the flimsy fabric of her blouse. She was wearing a strong perfume. Iain waited. Gradually Leena’s sobs lessened. Iain got up and sat down opposite her. She looked at Iain with red, smudged eyes and said, ‘I’ve been a fool.’
19
Pia woke up in the middle of the night to a bad dream. She’d been on the ship again. This time the Gestapo man had been Heikki. She’d seen a glimpse of his face and then confronted him. She woke up before she heard Heikki’s reply. She couldn’t get to sleep again. All she could see in front of her was the image of his laughing face beneath a shiny black cap and his buttoned-up dark uniform.
Pia crept into the kitchen to find her mother sitting and drinking tea in the dark.
‘I’ve decided you are not to take part in the Friendship Tournament today,’ she said.
‘But I want to win! You know how much this means to me. And I can’t let everyone down! Anni said…’
‘Anni said a lot of things.’
‘Have you spoken with Mr Linnonmaa?’ Pia asked.
‘No,’ her mother said. She looked tired. Pia wondered if she’d slept at all.
‘What about Iain?’ Pia said. You said you’d do nothing until you’d spoken with him.’
Maija sighed and walked to the hall.
‘It’s four o’clock in the morning, you can’t call him now!’ Pia said.
Her mother had already lifted the receiver. She’d done that at least a dozen times during the night, every ten minutes it seemed she was trying Iain’s number. By midnight she’d given up and told Pia to go to bed. They hadn’t discussed Anni’s father. Pia had a feeling her mother didn’t trust either Anni or Mr Linnonmaa.
Pia’s mother now turned around and said, ‘Why not?’ and started to dial the number.
Pia put her head into her hands. She was so incredibly tired. All she wanted to do was go to sleep. She felt her mother’s arms around her. ‘No answer,’ she said. She kissed Pia on the forehead and said, ‘I don’t use these very often but I think you should take one.’ She handed Pia a small white pill and got her a glass of water. ‘Sleeping pill,’ she said.
Pia woke to voices coming from somewhere in the flat. She felt groggy. When she was a child Pia spent all her summers at her grandmother’s place. Sometimes she’d wake up with her eyes glued together. Grandmother would fetch a bowlful of warm water and slowly remove the ‘sleep’ from her eyes, as she used to call it. The woozy feeling she now had was exactly the same but her eyes were clear when she opened them. Pia listened to the voices. It was a man and a woman arguing. She pulled on her jeans quickly and found a jumper on the floor of her bedroom.
The lights in the kitchen were bright. It was still dark outside. When Pia stepped into the room both Iain and Maija stopped talking. Pia looked at them. They’d been arguing. Her mother was wearing her pale blue dressing gown and her hair was a mess around her shoulders. Iain looked dishevelled too. He was unshaven, his trousers looked creased and there was no tie. He looked old.
‘What time is it?’ Pia said and slumped into a chair.
‘Half past six. You should go back to bed.’ Pia’s mother said. Giving Iain a quick glance, she came over and put her hand under Pia’s arm and started leading her out of the kitchen. As if she was a sickly child, Pia thought.
Pia pulled her arm away and said, ‘No, I want to hear what’s going on. Did you get to talk to Miss Joutila?’ Pia was looking directly at Iain, who sat down opposite her.
‘Yes.’
‘He spent the night with her,’ Maija said. She was measuring coffee into the machine, with her back to them. Iain lifted his eyes up to Pia, but said nothing.
‘What did she say?’ Pia said.
‘She’s been very badly treated.’
‘She has? And what about us?’ Pia’s mother turned around to face Iain.
Iain looked from Pia to Maija.
No one said anything for a while.
‘Did you tell him about Anni?’ Pia asked.
Pia’s mother stood with her arms crossed over her chest. ‘No, why should I tell him anything after the way he has treated us.’
Iain sighed heavily. ‘Look, I know it wasn’t right and I feel awful about the whole business. But, it’s my job, at least for now…’
‘What do you mean for now?’ Pia asked. She looked at her mother and saw her features soften.