Jarkko Sipila - Nothing but the Truth

“Either this someone’s recruiting more guys or he just wants to extend his reach. You know. A little guerrilla marketing, right?” said Salmela, with emphasis on the word guerrilla .

“Right,” said Suhonen, and he hung up the phone.

* * *

Suhonen stepped back into the conference room and waited till all eyes were on him.

“Well?” said Takamäki.

“A horse named Champion’s gonna win at the races tonight,” he said with a smile.

Takamäki looked impatient.

“So my informant tells me there’s a lot of street talk about getting back at Lehtonen. Even more about her than the best places to steal Christmas presents for the kiddos.”

The others were not humored.

“But,” Suhonen continued, “of course there’s another angle. If someone really wanted to get back at her, why would they be advertising it? Might just be a cover.”

Kulta looked skeptical. “Right, a twelve-year-old girl is being stalked, but it’s just a cover.”

“My point exactly,” said Suhonen. “If someone actually wanted revenge, they wouldn’t fuck around. They’d just do it-girl in the trunk, a bullet in the brain, and the body in the drink. And mom goes too.

Right now, it’s all talk, threats and games. Intimidation.”

Takamäki nodded while the others just stared. “At any rate, the only charge we can work with right now is intimidating a witness. The maximum penalty is three years in prison, which means we can’t use phone taps.”

“And we have no suspects,” said Kulta.

“Really?” said Suhonen. “It’s obvious that this is connected to Korpi’s trial, and Jere Siikala is one of Korpi’s lieutenants. If Guerrilla’s not the perpetrator, he’s at least the instigator.”

“Based on what evidence?” said Kulta.

Takamäki cut in. “The threshold for reasonable suspicion isn’t terribly high. I won’t open an investigation in Siikala’s name yet, but obviously we’ll have to start looking into his activities. The prosecutor never charged him in the murder investigation, so we can’t use that as a pretense for surveillance.”

“What about the mom and the kid?” asked Kannas.

“We’ll have to consult with Joutsamo about that.”

“Just thinking that a round-the-clock operation like this takes four guys per day, at the least. That’s a lot of manpower…”

Kulta interjected. “Ever heard of that German prosecutor who lives in a fenced-in bunker with his family? The kids get carted off to school in an armored Mercedes?”

“There’re plenty of Finnish cops who’ve hung it up because of threats, too,” said Kannas. “Even if the cop can deal with it, the family’s another story.”

“Let’s think about that later,” said Takamäki. “For tonight, the situation is under control.”

* * *

Joutsamo was sitting in a recliner in the living room, while Mari and Laura were on the sofa. An episode of an American legal drama was playing on the television.

“I’m glad you were able to come,” said Mari.

“Yeah,” said Joutsamo. Lehtonen had called her in a panic after opening the letter. Initially, she’d had trouble understanding what had happened, but ultimately the extent of the threat had come to light. Takamäki had sent Joutsamo to their apartment and launched some kind of an operation. What exactly that was, Joutsamo didn’t know, and she didn’t want to talk details within earshot of Mari and Laura.

“Have you guys been following this series?” said Joutsamo, attempting to take their minds off the case. They had already gone over it once, and Joutsamo had assured her that, although it was unfortunate, it was rare and gave little cause for worry.

“Off and on,” said Lehtonen. “So what happens now?”

“Well, the Boston lawyer is probably…”

“No, I mean with our case.”

Joutsamo smiled. “Pretty soon you guys will go to bed. I’ll be here on the sofa, and we also have an officer posted at the entrance. That’s about it.”

“And tomorrow?”

“We’ll talk about that with Lieutenant Takamäki in the morning.”

“I have an English test tomorrow,” Laura

chimed in.

“We’ll have to see about that. It’s possible you’ll both get a day off.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Mari, her arms outspread in obvious frustration.

“That Laura’s not going to school and you’re not going to work.”

Mari stood up. “I’ll get your sheets.”

FRIDAY, 7:45 A.M.

PASILA POLICE HEADQUARTERS

Takamäki was sitting in the slightly more spacious, but equally joyless office of his direct supervisor Karila, chief of the VCU. Both men were nursing cups of coffee.

“Shitty deal,” said Karila.

“It is.”

“We just don’t have the numbers for an operation like that. It would tie up two officers during the day, one for the girl and one for the mom. Evenings and nights we might be able to make do with one. Once you figure in all the shifts, you get six, seven cops. Or eight if mom and daughter are out separately in the evening.”

Takamäki took a sip of coffee. He had come to the same calculation the previous evening. “A good ten percent of our entire unit.”

“Damn right. Of course we can’t just leave them to fend for themselves.”

“We don’t really have any official witness protection program, but maybe we could rig one,” said Takamäki. “We could get her an apartment in another city and help her get a job.”

“Wasn’t there some working group looking into witness protection?” Karila asked between sips of coffee.

“Yeah, but they didn’t come up with anything concrete. Just suggestions due to lack of funding. Nowadays that famous Kennedy quote might go more like: ‘Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what you can not do because of the economy.’”

“Right.”

“Besides, we have no idea how long this will last or how serious it’ll be. For now we’ll take it seriously, of course, but Lehtonen is just a random citizen that testified in court, not an informant or a biker trying to get out of a gang.”

“True,” nodded Karila.

“The easiest thing might be to send them to a safe house for a few days or a couple weeks. In the meantime, we’ll try to resolve the threats.”

Karila thought for a moment. “Do you think they can be resolved? If word’s out already, then…”

“I have a few ideas,” said Takamäki. “First thing we do is put Korpi in solitary, so at least he can’t be doling out orders. And then there’re a few other things…” he said, and listed the alternatives.

* * *

An hour later, Takamäki was ringing the doorbell of Lehtonen’s apartment. Joutsamo came to the door in track pants and a white T-shirt.

“Good morning,” said Takamäki with a smile.

Joutsamo looked at him dejectedly and raked her fingers through her dark hair. She invited him in and he hung his coat on the hook and went into the kitchen where Mari and Laura were eating breakfast. Takamäki greeted them both and sat down in an empty chair at the table.

“Let’s cut right to the chase,” he said. Initially, Takamäki had wondered whether he should talk to Mari without Laura present, but the situation affected them both, so Laura’s participation was helpful.

“Fine by me,” said Mari.

“The threats against you are being taken very seriously, and we’ve opened an investigation. Your safety is our number one priority. Number two is to stop the threats, and number three is to apprehend those responsible. We strongly suspect that this is related to your testifying against Risto Korpi.”