Helena Halme: The Red King of Helsinki: Lies, Spies and Gymnastics

Iain sighed and walked slowly back. He stopped and stood with his back to the bulkhead, in the shadow between the two doors running on either side of the ship. This was his last resort, a mere chance. He would soon be discovered, once the Colonel realised he was missing. But there was a possibility that the debriefed man would come for a break here, for a swig from his flask of vodka, or a cigarette. Iain settled against the bulkhead and waited.

Iain’s knowledge of the ship and of Kovtun’s habits paid off.

The Russian, in his long black coat and boots, walked loudly and confidently along the starboard side. Iain watched his back. He went to stand by the guardrail, almost exactly where Iain had stood a moment before. He coughed and dug something out of his pocket. Iain stopped breathing. Kovtun took his right hand glove off and lit a cigarette with a match. He inhaled deeply and without turning around said, ‘How long are you going to stand there hiding, British agent?’

It took a moment for Iain to recompose himself. The bastard still had to show off and make Iain feel small and incompetent as a spy.

Kovtun turned around with a short, sharp laugh. ‘You not going to speak with me? We on same side, comrade.’

Iain walked closer to Kovtun. He needed to see the man’s eyes. ‘We saved Pia, you know,’ he said.

Kovtun was quiet for a moment. ‘What she to you? You not worried about the gymnast teacher!’

Iain couldn’t bring himself to speak. His mind was racing, ‘Why?’ he said in spite of himself.

‘She was a very good, how do you say it, at fucking, very nice body, but…’

Now Iain understood what the man was telling him. ‘What have you done to Miss Joutila?’

‘Aah, you English, you are so polite, Miss this, Mrs that. I knew her only as Leena. The Finnish women, as I am sure you yourself know, are very easy. They are like little peasants, simple and very grateful. But she got difficult. She had to be…’ again the Russian hesitated, ‘taken care of.’ Kovtun flicked his cigarette over the side. He regarded Iain, and continued, ‘But, you, you are English, you must soon leave this cold place in hell, eh, and go back to London, and we can have drinks, yes? No woman fucking good enough to stay here, eh?’

‘You disgusting Russian pig!’

Iain turned around and saw Pia walk slowly towards Kovtun. She was holding Iain’s gun and pointing it at the Russian. ‘No, Pia, don’t!’ Iain shouted. Pia squeezed the gun.

Nothing happened.

Kovtun leaned back against the guardrail and took hold of it. ‘Crazy, you are all crazy.’ Then he started laughing, knocking his head back.

Pia was crying. Iain was now by Pia’s side and had taken the gun out of her hand. He saw the safety catch was still on.

‘Throw it overboard,’ Kovtun said.

The Russian was fumbling in his pocket. Bloody hell, didn’t they take away his gun, Iain thought. He threw his own gun away and pulled Pia down to the deck. He covered the girl’s head and his own underneath his arms and waited for the shot.

Instead Iain heard a strange moan. He looked up. Kovtun was struggling with his left hand. It had stuck to the frozen guardrail. He was swearing in Russian, pulling at his left wrist and waving the gun in his right hand. His eyes darted from the frozen hand to Iain and Pia. He raised the gun again to aim at them. Iain saw Kovtun’s foot was inside the loop of a rope that reached up to Iain. He leapt up and pulled at it. The Russian lost his balance. He toppled slowly and the gun flew out of his hand into the air. The heavy bulk of Kovtun’s body started to lean over the side of the ship and his frame disappeared unto the dark. There was a loud splash.

Suddenly the quarterdeck was quiet and empty.

‘Did you kill him?’ Pia whispered.

Iain looked around him. Faint voices came from around the ship but no one had come down to the quarterdeck. He picked up his own gun and walked slowly up to the missing section of the guardrail. A frozen piece of flesh stuck to the rail. The dark water below looked deep and undisturbed.

‘They’re going to find him.’ Iain said, almost to himself.

Pia put her hand in his and said, ‘Not until the ice melts in the spring, and by then he might have drifted back to Russia.’

Next morning the weather turned. The temperature was just below freezing and Pia left her hat and scarf at home. She’d decided to go to school even though her mother tried to convince her to stay away for a day. ‘After everything you’ve been through, you need a day’s rest!’ But Pia wanted to get back to normal and her mother didn’t insist. Unusually, she didn’t mention the absence of the hat and scarf either.

The world looked different when Pia stepped out of the flat. The snow had started to melt, and there were dark brown puddles of slosh and sand on the pavements as she walked up to the tram stop alone. Maija took another day off work. Iain had stayed the night with them. He was still in bed when Pia and Maija were drinking coffee in the kitchen. That was another reason Pia wanted to go to school. She didn’t need to be there when Maija and Iain ‘discussed things’. Pia realised she’d stopped worrying about what he meant to her mother. If her mother wanted to marry, that was her affair. Soon Pia would be going to university and moving away from home anyway. She’d talk to Anni about that today. Of course, Pia wanted to see Heikki too. Though what she’d say to him she didn’t know.

The classroom was quiet when Pia walked in. Everybody watched her. She looked past the staring eyes of her classmates to the back of the room. When she saw Anni’s smiling face, she ran up to her and hugged her.

‘I’ve got so much to tell you,’ she whispered.

‘Later,’ Anni replied.

Pia sat down at her desk and turned around. Heikki was sitting with his legs up on the desk in front of him, balancing the chair against the back wall. He grinned stupidly at Pia. She nodded and turned back to face the front of the classroom. She was leaning over to Anni to ask her where they’d go after the class, when the Old Crow walked in.

The teacher looked deadly serious. Pia glanced behind her and saw how Heikki brought his chair back to the ground with a loud bang.

‘I have some sad news to tell you this morning. Miss Joutila, one of our most respected physical education teachers has been severely injured and is in hospital. I would like you each to write to Miss Joutila, to cheer her up.’

As Pia and Anni walked out of the classroom, Heikki ran after them. ‘Can I come with you?’

Pia looked at Anni. She nodded. Their next class would have been with Miss Joutila, so they had a free period followed by lunch.

‘Sure,’ Pia said.

The hospital was a few tram stops further up into Töölö. Heikki and Anni were reading the names of the wards on a huge sign. But Pia went straight up to a desk and said, ‘My aunt is here, a Leena Joutila, can I see her?’ A nurse in a white uniform took them to the lifts and showed them down a long corridor.

Miss Joutila was sitting up in bed in a large room on her own. A window overlooked the hospital car park and a row of flats. She had bandages on her arms and a funny-looking neck brace. Her face looked red and sore. Pia shivered. What had the Russian done to her?

At first Pia didn’t think Miss Joutila recognized them. She looked at the nurse blankly when she said her niece had come to visit her. But as Pia, Anni and Heikki moved closer, Miss Joutila waved her free arm at the nurse and pulled her face into a faint smile. The gesture seemed to hurt and she grimaced instead.

Pia sat on a chair close to Miss Joutila’s bed, ‘Can you talk?’