“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what I said-if you lie, I’ll see it.”
Juha forced a laugh. “I figured you guys already had those phone-based lie detectors.”
“Those are still in testing at the insurance companies.”
“Listen, always nice to chat, but if you have something to ask me, ask it. I gotta run some errands.”
“I thought you were laying some parquet.”
Juha answered quickly, “Yeah, but I gotta get the wood first.”
“Right,” said Suhonen. He made an expression that showed he had caught the man in a lie.
“Karjalainen didn’t have any money in his pockets. Did you empty them?”
Juha waited a moment too long to respond.
“Don’t bother lying. If your hand was in his pocket, we’ll get the DNA.”
He wasn’t sure if that was true, but the important thing was that Juha believed him.
“Yeah, I cleaned ’em out.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t need it anymore.”
“How much did he have?”
“Maybe twenty, thirty euros. Not much.”
“Where’s his cell phone?”
Juha looked at Suhonen. “That’s what you want?”
“What I want is to know what game you’re playing.”
“Huh?”
Suhonen’s expression was hard. “I suspect that Karjalainen was involved in amphetamine smuggling and had contacted you. You say he owed you some money, and suddenly, an experienced doper dies of an overdose in the train station’s bathroom. Doesn’t that make you wonder?”
“Well, I guess…” said Juha, wondering how Suhonen had found out about Karjalainen’s involvement in the smuggling job. “…I sure ain’t mixed up in that… So what…” he trailed off. He had seen Suhonen with Salmela, who was also involved in the job. So was Salmela the rat?
But, Salmela shouldn’t have known anything about his involvement in the drug shipment, Juha thought. Was the guy just faking his head injury? Maybe he wasn’t as dumb as he pretended to be. How much did Salmela actually know? Juha wouldn’t have believed that Salmela could have discovered his role in the job-the man had even sought financing from him. But apparently, Salmela knew much more.
“What do you mean ‘so what?’” Suhonen demanded.
“Nothing… Just that there’s a constant stream of drugs coming over from Estonia.”
“How do you know this has anything to do with Estonia?”
Saarnikangas snorted. “What do you mean? Almost all the speed in Finland is cooked in the Baltics and comes over by ship. Besides, Karjalainen told me he’d been over there.”
“When did he say that?”
“When we set up the train station meeting. We were supposed to meet earlier, but he’d been in Tallinn. I think he had some woman over there.”
Saarnikangas tried to remember when he had talked to Karjalainen, and what phone he had used. Suhonen would doubtless find Karjalainen’s number, which would allow him to trace the calls.
The full smuggling scheme wasn’t entirely clear to Saarnikangas. Karjalainen, deep in debt, had told him that a woman had given him the packets on the ship in order to spread the risk. Apparently, someone in Tallinn had ratted out the woman as payback for her flings, or so he had heard.
His own role was minor. He had picked up Karjalainen from the harbor, taken the dope, and cut it to street purity. Then, under orders from Mike Gonzales, he had delivered it to the Skulls’ compound.
“I see,” said Suhonen. “A woman, huh?”
“I believe so.”
“I don’t.”
Saarnikangas had no intention of taking the fall for this gig. There was no point in talking to Suhonen anymore. The cop was just fishing for bits of info and connecting them until, one day, Juha would end up in jail for a stupid drug deal. Then, inevitably, he would be the fall guy, since he couldn’t talk about his employers, at least not if he valued his life.
Saarnikangas grew impatient. “Fuck, I don’t know. He lived by the fire station and had a common-law wife. They rolled junkies together. Wouldn’t surprise me if he pimped her to pay debts. He even offered her to me once.”
“You take him up on it?”
“No. Pretty sure that broad’s got HIV. I’ve been lucky and dodged it so far, so I don’t want to take the risk. I’m just trying to stay clean and get my life back in order… I’ve got no part in this except Karjalainen owed me some money, went to the bathroom and died. And I was stupid enough to call you in a panic.”
Suhonen didn’t respond.
“You need anything else?”
“Not now, but if you want to stay out of jail, don’t lie to me anymore.”
As Suhonen climbed out of the van, Saarnikangas cursed Salmela under his breath. They had meant to take advantage of the simpleton, but the fool had gone and talked to the cops, and most likely, Salmela had mentioned him by name.
* * *
Joonas was sitting in the kitchen eating the spaghetti his dad had just prepared.
“This is great,” he said between gulps of milk from a plastic mug. “What is it?”
“A secret recipe,” said Takamäki.
“So… Barelli spaghetti and Ragu sauce.”
Takamäki sat down at the table with his own plate. Six chairs circled the table, but two were buried under piles of mail. “Not sure about the brands, but you got the recipe right.”
As hungry as the boy was, Takamäki suspected he wouldn’t have noticed if the hamburger were raw and the pasta uncooked.
“Can I ask you about something?” said Joonas.
“Of course.”
“We went through the principles of business today in econ and learned that the primary purpose of every business is to maximize profits for its owners.”
Takamäki wasn’t entirely sure that he agreed, but apparently that’s how it was explained. “Yeah.”
“So, with that same logic, what would you say is the purpose of an ordinary citizen?”
Takamäki wasn’t prepared for this kind of conversation, but at this point, he couldn’t wiggle out without an answer. “What did they tell you in class?”
“Nothing. That’s why I’m interested.”
“Well, under that model, I’d say it would be to maximize your own welfare as well as that of your family and friends,” said Takamäki. “And the best way to maximize your welfare is to…”
“Don’t get into that yet,” said Joonas. “Let’s stick to the principles. So, let’s take a look at you, Dad. What’s the objective of a civil servant?”
Takamäki thought for a moment. “To maximize the welfare of society, certainly. A civil servant can’t think about himself.”
Joonas nodded. “Let’s keep going. So, what about a criminal?”
Takamäki wondered if he was walking into a trap.
“Criminals only think of themselves.”
“So,” the boy paused. “You said the goal of an ordinary citizen is to maximize his own welfare, but isn’t that the same objective as the criminal’s who only thinks of himself?”
Takamäki bobbed his head vaguely. “As an end, maybe, but the means…”
“Let’s not get into the means, let’s just stick with the principles.”
“These principles…”
Joonas cut him off. “And with the civil servant thinking of the entire society’s welfare, which is actually pretty far removed from the interests of its individual citizens. Aren’t citizens just tools of the society?”
Takamäki took a deep breath. “As I recall, the conversation started with economics, and how the goal of a corporation is to make a profit. That right there is a banker’s philosophy, but in my view, profit can’t be the sole objective for business owners. A healthy society benefits business owners, too. What good is a wheelbarrow full of money if you can’t buy anything with it?”
“What do the police want, then?” asked Joonas.
Takamäki paused to think. “The police want to eliminate crime, of course.”
“So they’d put themselves out of a job.”
“Honestly, I’d rather be a florist than a cop. But because this banker’s philosophy of self-interest is so deep-rooted in society, somebody has to do the dirty work. The police are society’s scrub brush.”