Jarkko Sipila - Darling

“Okay, so homicide will pay for the overtime.”

Suhonen couldn’t care less about who paid for what. “Tell them to observe for now. No rush and no need to react; just watch.”

Joutsamo found Kimmo Aarnio’s information. The rape happened in Pori, out of their jurisdiction, so they hadn’t handled the case.

“That’s him,” Kulta said, looking at the picture of the surly man.

* * *

The attorney’s phone rang, but Kimmo Aarnio didn’t want to answer it. He waited for it to stop and then removed the battery. That’s what he’d done before.

Aarnio glanced outside and saw the cameraman and the reporter in a dark coat. He couldn’t go out yet. He’d have to drive the car around to the front door, wrap the woman in a rug, and put her in the trunk. It wasn’t too smart to do it in front of television cameras. So he had time.

The unconscious woman lay on the couch in her jacket. Aarnio got turned on, thought for a moment, and got busy. He pulled off her pants and underwear. The rape took three minutes. He didn’t want to do it in his apartment, but he just couldn’t help himself.

Aarnio went to the bathroom and returned. The half-naked woman was conked out on the couch. Aarnio made some coffee and drank it. He thought of the young girl from Turku. It had been an easy case, just like this one. He dropped the drug into her glass and dragged her out of the restaurant. His van was parked nearby. He drove farther out and raped the girl repeatedly in the back of the van. The girl had woken up in the middle of the act, so he strangled her. He buried her body behind the Helsinki airport.

He thought he had handled it professionally. It didn’t always work out so well, and for a few of the cases-Aarnio always referred to the rapes as cases-he was sent to prison. While in prison he was given a strange drug that made him lose his memory. Part of his time in the slammer was a blur, until he started flushing the pills down the toilet. His memory was spotty.

Aarnio raped the woman again.

Then he looked out the window and didn’t see the reporter anymore. He still had time. The woman would stay unconscious for a few more hours. He could enjoy each of them. He turned the TV on and watched a reality show about cops. They were stupid.

The case of the attorney was going as planned-unlike the young woman downstairs. He had listened to the noises from downstairs many times and pleasured himself in bed. The one time he rang her doorbell, the girl was in a foul mood. She made coffee, but saw him slip something into the cup and refused to drink it. But Laura didn’t get it. Nobody told him no. Laura had been standing in the living room with her back to the door, when he came in from the kitchen carrying a knife. He had planned on forcing her to have sex with him, but it didn’t work. He realized it when he came into the living room and didn’t feel anything between his legs. It was her fault, he thought, and just slashed her throat from behind.

He had killed a woman before, but this was different. Kimmo Aarnio had panicked, returned quickly to his apartment, and tried to figure out how to get out of it. He thought of the building custodian. The guy ran his own little whorehouse and made his money by selling Aarnio’s drugs to teenagers.

The boozing grandma across the hall had called the cops before Aarnio had a chance to set the apartment up, but somehow the police hadn’t recognized him. The apartment was leased in his second cousin’s name. If you paid your rent on time, the city didn’t care who lived there.

The custodian had unlocked the door for the police and Aarnio had paid a visit to Korpivaara a few hours later. Korpivaara was shocked and pretty wasted. Aarnio demanded he pay his debts and threatened Sini.

Now he laughed. It was all going according to plan. The attorney’s crotch called to him again, and he raped her a third time. He was actually hoping the reporter would come knocking on the door.

The drug’s effect would last at least four more hours. By then it would be dark outside and he could move the woman somewhere. He couldn’t let her live, but couldn’t return to the apartment since the attorney had gone around to several apartments asking questions. Aarnio came to the conclusion he had to move on. He began packing his most important things.

Aarnio looked at the woman. He wondered if he even needed to bother getting rid of the body, if he was going to be linked to her anyway. But he decided he should do it to keep things from being too easy for the cops.

* * *

Römpötti was standing in front of the Haaga strip mall, when her phone rang. It was Takamäki.

“Whereabouts in Haaga are you now?” the detective asked.

“What’s it to the police?”

“Tell me,” the detective said in a tone that left Römpötti no choice.

“I’m taping in front of the Alamo Bar.”

“You’re not by the apartment building anymore?”

Römpötti thought for a moment. “If you know I’m in Haaga, how come you don’t know exactly where?”

“Don’t be a smartass. This is serious. When’s the last time you saw Lind?”

“I saw her by the Nӓyttelijӓ Street apartment building, from afar. I planned to wait outside for her, but thought maybe she’d already left a different way, and we headed over here.”

“Okay. Did you try to call her?”

“Yep, once. After that her phone’s been turned off… Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Takamäki said and thanked her for her cooperation. “This is important-don’t go over there. Please.”

“Serious?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Fine,” Römpötti said. “We won’t go there until we see flashing lights.”

“Okay,” Takamäki said.

Römpötti turned to the cameraman, who had a quizzical look on his face.

“Let’s get some coffee and see what happens here.”

She was glad she had the cameraman with her to capture any action, though she worried about Lind.

* * *

Takamäki turned to Nykänen and said, “Römpötti saw Lind by the apartment building.”

They stood behind the desk of the on-duty lieutenant at Helsinki police headquarters. The desks had screens, and on the back wall was a large screen showing all the patrol cars’ locations on the map, with a live feed from the police surveillance cameras.

Joutsamo came into the room. “I have location data from her phone. It was last spotted around the Nӓyttelijӓ Street apartment buildings.”

“That’s not good,” Nykänen said.

The Narcotics surveillance team was in the apartment building’s parking lot and the on-duty lieutenant, Helmikoski, had a police radio connection with them.

“Anything new?” Helmikoski asked.

“No. The lights in the apartment are still on and there’s no change in the situation. It’s too high up for us to see in. The man has been to the window a couple of times.”

“I’m sure you heard,” Helmikoski said. “Should we go in?”

Takamäki and Nykänen exchanged looks. Joutsamo stood next to them.

“Would we ruin anything by going in?” Takamäki wondered.

“The Rahkola case is still under investigation. If it was just about that, I’d say we wait. But it isn’t.”

“If we can prevent something, then let’s go in,” Joutsamo offered. “But what would we be preventing? We don’t know where Lind is. Maybe her phone battery died. On the other hand, she sent the text about Korpivaara’s innocence, so she must be up to something.”

“We don’t have many pieces to the puzzle, and they may give the wrong impression,” Takamäki said. “Look at them individually: Is Aarnio involved in Lind’s possible disappearance? No idea. Is he involved in Maiju Rahkola’s murder? No idea. Laura Vatanen’s murder? We don’t know. Is he connected to all of these somehow? It’s likely.”