Jarkko Sipila - Darling

Lind thought the apartment looked nearly impeccable. The furniture was heavy and old and there was a lot of dark wood.

“Coffee?” the man asked.

“You don’t need to make any for me.”

“I have a coffeemaker that makes one cup at a time. It’s no bother.”

“In that case, a cup would be nice.”

The man went into the kitchen and returned quickly. Lind heard the hiss of the coffeemaker.

“It’ll just be a minute. You wanted to ask me about the death of the lady downstairs?”

“Yes,” Lind said.

“The police were here already.”

“As I said, I’m Korpivaara’s attorney, and I’m just doing some additional investigating about the course of events.”

“What do you mean by additional investigating?”

“Well,” Lind said. “I haven’t seen the police reports yet, but I think it’s important to ask about things while they’re still fresh in people’s minds.”

“Are you experienced?”

“Yes, I think I am,” Lind said.

“Are you married?” the man asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“I don’t think that’s relevant.”

“You’re right, it’s not,” the man said with a smile. “What would you like to know?”

Lind thought for a moment. “Do you know Jorma Korpivaara?”

“We’ve said hello and chatted occasionally. It’s important to be on the custodian’s good side, in case you need him someday.”

“What about the neighbor below, Laura Vatanen?”

“Nowadays people don’t know their neighbors, but I knew Laura.”

“Based on my information, they put on some wild parties down there. You must have heard them.”

“I went down there a few times and told them off,” the man said with a smirk.

“Who was there then?”

“Laura and her guy friends, and sometimes the young girl from the next building.”

“Sini?” Lind asked.

The man squinted. “I think that’s her name.”

“What do you think happened last Wednesday?”

“I couldn’t say,” Aarnio said. “I left for work that morning and the police came to ask questions that evening. That’s all I can tell you. Now you tell me what you think happened.”

“It’s hard to say,” Lind said. “But I don’t believe Jorma Korpivaara killed Laura Vatanen.”

“Based on what? The paper said he confessed.”

“I found someone who said Korpivaara spent the entire morning with them,” Lind said, wondering why she would tell a complete stranger about it. Apparently she had a need to talk to someone.

“But the police say the man confessed.”

“The police don’t know everything.”

“They don’t?”

“No.”

The coffeemaker stopped hissing and beeped.

“The coffee is done,” Aarnio said, standing up. Milk?”

“Black’s great,” Lind said.

Aarnio came back with a coffee mug and handed it to Lind. He had started a second cup dripping.

“So who killed Laura Vatanen, then?” he asked.

Lind shrugged and took a sip of the hot coffee. She liked it, and wondered what blend it was.

“I don’t know. Can you give me a hint?” she asked, taking another sip. It was relaxing.

She realized she was famished.

“I don’t think it was Jorma Korpivaara,” the man said, smiling.

“But who then?” Lind asked. She was feeling flushed and uncomfortable now. Suddenly it dawned on her. “What did you put in the coffee?”

The man just smiled. Lind tried to get up, but she had no energy in her legs and she collapsed in the chair.

“Don’t worry, you’ll fall asleep soon. But you should know you were right. Korpivaara didn’t kill Laura Vatanen, I did. Laura wouldn’t drink the coffee, but you did.”

Nea Lind tried to fight the paralyzing feeling. She threw her cup at the man, but missed.

You did…you did…you did… The words rang in her head until she blacked out.

* * *

Suhonen was playing Tetris on the computer when his phone rang. It was an unknown number. He answered and Toukola sounded irritated on the other end.

“Did you guys have any action on Nӓyttelijӓ Street?” the Narcotics officer asked.

“Why do you ask?”

“My guys are staking out in Kannelmӓki for any aftermath from yesterday, and there’s quite a ruckus going on.”

“Hold on and rewind so I can get onboard,” Suhonen said and stopped playing Tetris.

“Goddamn reporters and cameramen are swarming the place and a lawyer is there, too. Pretty hard for us to operate.”

“You lost me.”

Toukola drew a deep breath.

“First of all the junkie stakeout you told us about last night at the Kannelmӓki bar has been a complete waste of time. It didn’t lead to anything, and I’m shutting it down.”

“Yeah,” Suhonen said.

“We followed that third guy you talked about and he went home to his place in Haaga. Anyway, the name on the door was Aarnio.”

“The third guy was Aarnio?”

“Yep, and you didn’t need to be Sherlock to figure that out. Kimmo Aarnio: drug deals, a rape, and other such niceties. He got out of prison last summer.”

“Are you sure it’s Kimmo Aarnio, and not Mikael?”

“Who the hell is Mikael Aarnio? You gone off the deep end?”

Suhonen drew a breath. “How do you know it’s Kimmo? According to our info, it’s Mikael Aarnio who lives there.”

“Suhonen, have you had too much police station coffee?” Toukola said laughing. “Are you nuts? If I say it’s Kimmo Aarnio, it’s him. I have a picture that looks the same as Kimmo. I don’t know of any Mikael.”

Joutsamo heard the upset tone and came in the room.

“Toukola, give me ten seconds.”

Suhonen turned to Joutsamo and said, “It could be that the Aarnio above Vatanen’s apartment is not the guy we thought. Did Aarnio’s fingerprints on Vatanen’s door get run through the system?”

Joutsamo nodded and quickly got the papers.

“What the hell,” Joutsamo spurted after ten seconds. “Aarnio’s prints were not recognizable on the computer and couldn’t be found in the database. Kulta matched them after he collected information from neighbors and compared the fingerprints. Shit, Kulta!” Joutsamo yelled.

Kulta was having coffee in the next room and heard Joutsamo. He could tell from her tone he wouldn’t be finishing his coffee.

“What’s going on?” Kulta asked at the door.

Joutsamo looked mad. “You obtained Mikael Aarnio’s prints from his apartment. How’d you know it was him?”

Kulta was confused.

Suhonen heard Toukola on the phone. “Hello, are you there?’

“Hold on a minute,” Suhonen replied.

“Aarnio told me his name,” Kulta said.

“Did you ask him to show you ID?” Joutsamo asked.

“No, should I have?”

Joutsamo turned to Suhonen and said, “We’re not sure of Aarnio’s identity.”

“Did you hear that?” Suhonen asked into the phone.

“Yep. You guys don’t know whose fingerprints you have, which is a pretty good accomplishment.”

“It happens,” Suhonen said. “But tell me what’s going on over there.”

“I’m at the station, but my guys say the lawyer that Römpötti interviewed on TV the other day has been buzzing around the apartment building for the past few hours, and now Römpötti is there, too, filming. It’s pretty hard for us to conduct a secret police investigation in the middle of all that.”

“That shouldn’t be so hard,” Suhonen said and let out a small laugh. “Nobody’s going to pay any attention to your guys.”

Toukola laughed too, and said, “You may be right. But our targets won’t dare do anything either, so we’re pulling the team.”

“Don’t do that,” Suhonen said and told him quickly about Aarnio’s potential involvement in a woman’s death he’d found out about that afternoon.