Harri Nykanen - Behind God's Back

“Why did you go there?”

“Like I said, I was trying to put his mind at ease so we could discuss things like civilized people. He thought I was a killer, and didn’t dare to meet me. I couldn’t come up with anything else. Now I see that the other side scared him into locking himself up at home.”

“Who wanted to know about your visit?”

Nurmio laughed. “We’ll talk about that later.”

“What about Max Oxbaum? We have surveillance camera footage of your meeting.”

“Was it from a service station in Vantaa?”

I didn’t answer. “Why did you two meet?”

“I needed Oxbaum’s help. At the same time, I was trying to get him to understand that he’d better leave Baltic Invest alone, or at least not go around blabbing about its affairs. It wasn’t an easy balance to strike. Kind of the same thing as with Jacobson.”

“You needed help? With what?”

“OK. I think it’s high time I let you in on something that might take some pressure off you.”

Nurmio reached into his pocket and handed me a plastic card. I turned on the light in the sun visor and inspected it.

“Are you telling me that you’re still working for the Mossad?”

“Isn’t that what that says?”

That’s what it said. There was also a photo on the card.

“I’m here on a job that seems to have gone totally fucking haywire. Now you can stop worrying and listen to what I have in mind.”

I opened the window and inhaled the brisk sea air to clear my head.

“Shoot.”

I had to admit that Nurmio’s revelation took me completely by surprise. Even though the card looked genuine, I couldn’t shake off my disbelief.

“If you want, you can call my boss in Tel Aviv and check it out. Contact is only allowed in emergencies, but I’m pretty sure this counts as one.”

“Let’s forget that for now. You’d better just tell me what this is about and what you want.”

“All right. Why don’t we agree that you don’t take notes after all? I’m here because the Mossad and the Israeli police are jointly investigating Jakov’s connections to organized crime and the related bribing of officials. I was asked to infiltrate Jakov’s organization, and two years ago I managed to get back on his payroll because I’d known him in the past. I told him that I’d got the boot from the Mossad a long time ago and had been conducting some business of my own in Syria and Lebanon. Which I had, but that had been part of the cover.”

“It’s a long way from Tel Aviv to Helsinki.”

“Which is why they needed me, and why I was ordered to help the Israeli police. It’s a small world. You see, it so happens that there’s a man on Jakov’s payroll named Joel Kazan. Kazan is married to Jacobson’s daughter. Through his brother-in-law Roni, Kazan met Max Oxbaum, who was eventually given Finnish representation of Baltic Invest.”

“Why specifically to Max?”

“He was greedy enough and had good contacts. And initially Max handled the business pretty well, but little by little things started getting out of hand. Max started using quite a bit of coke, and the business suffered. He brokered a large loan for Roni when Roni divorced his wife and built a new house by the sea. Roni simply didn’t pay it back. A few other loans also generated large losses. Israel finally had enough and sent Kazan in, because in a way he was responsible for Oxbaum. Jacobson didn’t care for his son-in-law, and when he told him about Roni’s loan, Jacobson said it wasn’t his problem; why had they been so insane as to go and give Roni a personal loan?”

A police car drove past slowly. Nurmio watched it. Once it had turned at the next intersection, he continued: “Kazan had prayed that Jacobson would take care of it, because Jakov had said that Kazan could kiss his life goodbye if he didn’t fix things. I guess Jacobson didn’t want his daughter to be a widow. In his panic, Kazan got drunk and said more than he should have. He told Jacobson that Jakov was a criminal and that Baltic Invest was laundering money. He imagined that Jacobson would get scared, or at least take pity on him. Bullshit. Luckily for us, things just got worse. Jacobson responded curtly and said he knew the Israeli police were investigating Hararin’s and Jakov’s affairs. He threatened to report Baltic Invest to the authorities. Another factor played a role in this, which proves how small the world truly is…”

I digested Nurmio’s story. It seemed incredible, but true. And I couldn’t think of any reason why Nurmio would lie.

Nurmio sized me up, as if trying to assess whether what he had told me had made the desired impression.

“How does the story continue?”

“Israel got a new Minister of Justice four months ago. The new Minister of Justice, Haim Levi, had made a lot of noise about exposing official corruption and gutting criminal organizations, especially Russian ones. Levi had spent a year as an exchange student in Helsinki in the 1980s. And lived where else but…”

“…at the Jacobsons’.”

“Exactly. And Minister of Justice Levi was coming to Finland for a visit and intended to meet up with his former host family. When Jacobson heard about that, he got what he thought was a brilliant idea. He informed Israel that he intended to tell the whole story to his old friend, Minister of Justice Levi.”

“And you were ordered to kill Levi?”

Nurmio laughed.

“That’s what the Finnish Security Police thinks,” I said in my defence.

“I know. They were watching me from that building across the street 24/7 for an entire month.”

SUPO’s operation was starting to look like a total farce. A month of completely pointless work.

“Someone has supplied them with false information, and not by accident.”

I was intrigued. “Who?”

Nurmio looked sincerely amused. “It feels like a stunt we would pull. They couldn’t set one of their own on him in a friendly country, so they put SUPO on the case and let them pay for the stakeout and handle the reporting. I’d bet that they’ve asked for regular reports on my doings either directly or through the CIA. If I get a warning for fucking on the job, at least I know where the information came from.”

“Are you saying that none of these events have anything to do with Levi’s visit?”

“I never said that.”

“Both SUPO and I have a stake in Levi’s visit. It would be pretty bad advertising if the Minister of Justice were killed while he was in Finland.”

“Whoever said that he’s going to be killed? Let me finish. Jacobson was in contact with Levi and announced that he could help him investigate Jakov’s business affairs, because he possessed incendiary information about Baltic Invest. Furthermore, he went and said that Max Oxbaum could provide inside details on the company’s operations and deliver documents if the Israeli police would protect him from Jakov. This is the point when I enter the picture. I wanted them on my side. It just so happened that Jakov sent me — who else? — to Helsinki to clear up the mess because I’m a former Finn. I was supposed to put the screws into Jacobson and frighten him into silence; or at least that’s what Jakov said. Of course I was in contact with Jacobson, because I wanted to hear everything he knew. Like I said, he got scared because he thought I had been sent to kill him, and barricaded himself in his house. I met Oxbaum, who was also suspicious because he knew I worked for Jakov. I couldn’t reveal my mission to them right off; I had to proceed cautiously. I was already making inroads with Oxbaum, and everything was going pretty smoothly until Semeyev showed up. He went and killed Jacobson and Oxbaum, and pinned both murders on me. It’s hard to do your job when the cops are breathing down your neck and your face is plastered all over the television and the papers.”