Nothing but the Truth (23 page)

“So what happens next,” she asked. “And I’ll have a beer, too.”

He grabbed a second beer and handed it to his wife along with a glass. He preferred it straight from the bottle. “Well, the situation is under control for now, so we’ll just wait and see if the bad guys come out of the woodwork.”

Kaarina was quiet for a while. “Sad story.”

“Uh-huh,” Takamäki nodded.

“I mean for the lady.”

“Right.”

“In a way, you’ve ruined her chance at a normal life.”

“What do you mean ruined?
We
didn’t do anything.”

“You made her testify.”

“That’s the law. Witnesses have to testify. Besides, she’s the one who called us.”

“Well, the law ought to be changed if this is what happens. Society can’t expect people to sacrifice their everyday lives for the sake of some criminal case.”

Takamäki sipped his beer. “Well, there’s no telling what’ll happen, if anything. It might already be over.”

“For you, maybe. But this poor woman will be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.”

“Hey, we’ll protect her.”

“How? By locking her up like the murderer?”

Takamäki studied his wife. “So it would be better if this Korpi were on the streets dealing drugs and having people killed?”

“Of course not. But why should this woman serve the same sentence?”

“Uh-uh. It’s not the same thing. Right now, this safe house is the most sensible and secure solution. Maybe it’ll be weeks, but certainly not months.”

Kaarina looked him in the eyes. “That kind of an experience can really scar a person. Especially the little girl.”

“So we should just forget about witnesses, right?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“
Im
possibility is more like it. It’s out of the question! Witnesses are far too important. The police need the support of the community that we protect.”

“But you have to consider the witness and their family
before
you make them testify,” she went on. “You’ve got phone taps, surveillance, hidden cameras, undercover agents, GPS tracking and who knows what else. Certainly with all that you should be able to build a case well enough to leave innocent citizens alone.”

“Better yet if the criminals would leave us all alone,” said Takamäki, his annoyance beginning to show.

“That’s not much of an argument.”

“What I’m saying is that testifying is a civic duty. The police can’t go it alone—we aren’t some kind of island apart from the rest of society.”

Kaarina was about to say something when Takamäki’s phone rang. He dug it out of his jacket pocket in the entryway and looked at the screen: Joutsamo.

“Yeah,” he said, lingering in the entryway.

“Hi. Sorry to bother you,” said Joutsamo. “The night shift guys called to say that Siikala’s phone records are in. We can get the real-time data on the computer. You want me to go in and check it out?”

“You at home?”

“Yeah.”

Takamäki considered it briefly. “Uhh…probably alright if we wait till morning. But check with Narcotics to make sure the guy is still at the house.”

“Well, they promised to let me know if he goes anywhere. I haven’t heard anything.”

“Alright. Let’s talk tomorrow.”

“Bye,” said Joutsamo, and she hung up the phone.

Takamäki came back to the table. His wife looked at him inquiringly.

“We’ve got the suspect under surveillance and now we have the call data. We’ll look at it tomorrow.”

“So you’re going to work tomorrow?”

“Looks that way. Someone’s gotta look after these witnesses.”

SATURDAY,

DECEMBER 16

CHAPTER 23

SATURDAY, 1:40 P.M.

PASILA POLICE HEADQUARTERS

Joutsamo set the handset back on the base. No answer. Nothing. The call had gone directly to voicemail. She was sitting at her desk when Takamäki came in.

“Anything?” he asked.

Hope rarely had a place in the VCU’s line of work, but Takamäki was hoping for a yes. Joutsamo shook her head gravely.

“Damnit.”

Mari and Laura Lehtonen had disappeared. Joutsamo had found out about an hour earlier after she tried to call Mari’s cell phone and it went straight to voicemail. Apparently, the phone was off. Joutsamo had Laura’s number too, but the result was the same.

Joutsamo had then tried the front desk at the Kirkkonummi safe house, and what she heard from the guard nearly made her drop the phone. According to the log, Mari and Laura had left the safe house at 10:45 A.M. No reason was indicated. The guards had changed at noon, so the current one couldn’t tell her anything about what had happened.

Joutsamo had wondered why the police hadn’t been notified. According to the guard, they had no such protocol. The safe house was not a prison, so the guards couldn’t stop them from leaving. Joutsamo had acquired the morning watchman’s cellphone number, and after calling him, she had learned that Laura and Mari had simply walked out. Just the two of them. The guard hadn’t seen a car, taxi or any other vehicle on the cameras. Mari had been carrying a bag.

The watchman had noted that they appeared to be heading for downtown Kirkkonummi, just over two miles away. And the weather was good for a walk: sunny and just a few degrees below freezing. That’s where the trail ended, at least for now. If yesterday the case had seemed to have cooled down, now it was blazing hot again.

Tracking down Mari and Laura was now their first priority, but as such, the situation could certainly be worse. By all appearances, their departure had been voluntary, so they hadn’t been abducted. Takamäki and Joutsamo were most worried about the fact that neither of the Lehtonens had their cell phone on. Of course, it was possible that both batteries were dead, but that was unlikely.

Kulta had been sent to Kirkkonummi to try to determine their route and track down any leads. Where were they headed? To the store? The train station or further? Back to Helsinki?

Takamäki had analyzed the situation, and issuing a nationwide APB didn’t seem prudent. Instead, he had notified the Espoo PD, since Kirkkonummi was their jurisdiction. If the pair was spotted, the Helsinki VCU was to be notified.

Mari and Laura’s disappearance was not the only active front in the case. Joutsamo had already called Takamäki at around ten to fill him in on Jere Siikala’s call data. Two days prior, the phone number that the police had on file for him had been in contact with an unidentified prepaid phone. Takamäki had already obtained a warrant from the district court for the new number.

He had also obtained warrants for the cell towers in the vicinity of the Kaarela house, which had turned up three other prepaid SIM cards. There were also other active cell phones in the area that might belong to Guerrilla. Joutsamo had already looked into these other phone owners’ backgrounds, suspecting that Guerrilla, aware of police interest in prepaid numbers, might have registered a phone with a false name. According to Suhonen, mobiles registered to phony names were a hot commodity in many bars. The phone companies had promised fresh data by late afternoon.

“Anything new on Guerrilla?” asked Takamäki.

“Apparently still in the house. He was observed in the kitchen. Making toast,” said Joutsamo.

Takamäki laughed. “Suhonen must’ve found a pretty good spot if they can see into the kitchen. At least we’re getting regular updates.”

“Narcotics was asking how long they should keep it up if the guy’s not doing anything.”

“Hell. I’d say indefinitely…at least with the current situation.”

* * *

Mikko Kulta was driving along a dirt road leading away from the safe house. The road was familiar to him because he had just driven it in the other direction five minutes earlier. At the building, he had checked Mari and Laura’s room. Empty: the deserters had taken all of their belongings. He had also interviewed a Kurdish woman, who hadn’t known anything about the pair’s whereabouts.

Kulta had updated Joutsamo on his findings. The empty room changed his search tactics: no need to check ice cream parlors or coffee shops. The pair had jumped ship entirely, opting to tread water on their own. Joutsamo had sent a patrol to their home address and started hunting for close relatives. As the police didn’t know much about Lehtonens’ friends, they began searching for them, starting with Mari’s co-workers.

Kulta came upon a couple of houses on the side of the road, but decided to skip them. It was possible that neighbors had seen a woman and a girl, but more than likely the pair had continued on. Maybe somebody had given them a ride to Kirkkonummi. His first stops would be the Kirkkonummi train station and bus depot, and if the pair wasn’t there, then he’d search the cab stands. Of course, it was also possible that someone had been waiting to pick them up somewhere in town, but if that were the case, how in the hell would he ever know.

The drive to the train station took about five minutes. Kulta was playing a CD he been burned with some favorite hits. Blue Oyster Cult was playing now: “…
don’t fear the reaper
.” Advice Kulta wasn’t inclined to take. The case had already had its share of ominous overtones, and this latest stunt was not a positive development.

Kulta pulled his little Nissan into an angled spot at the Kirkkonummi train station.

He stepped out of the car, lit a cigarette and headed straight for the train schedule next to the main wooden building. Someone had spit on the glass in front of the departures display, but Kulta could still make out the text. He knew from his car’s odometer that the trip from the safe house to the station had been 2.1 miles. The Lehtonens had left the safe house at 10:45, and it would have taken them at least half an hour to walk there, more likely forty-five minutes. Thirty minutes seemed like a good number to Kulta.

All trains to Helsinki left on the hour and half hour, so the first possible train had left at 11:30 and the next at noon. Another train had left at 11:00, but the pair would have never made that without a ride. Even Kulta had spent almost ten minutes getting from the safe house to the platform.

For westbound trains, there had been an express to Turku at 10:35—impossible timewise—and next in line was a local at 12:03, followed by another express at 12:35.

Kulta was almost certain that if the Lehtonens had come to the station, they would have boarded a train to Helsinki. It seemed logical, especially since Kulta didn’t think they were going into hiding. They would have been safer at the safe house. Something else was behind this.

Kulta jotted down the departures, since Joutsamo would ask for them anyway. He walked through the crisp, clear air toward the main building, scanning for surveillance cameras. He found three, all appearing to be trained on the station frontage and the platform.

He reached the entrance to the station and pulled the handle. It didn’t budge. He pulled again before noticing a small sign that read,
Closed Sat
.

Can’t give up now, he thought. Especially since he’d have to explain everything to Joutsamo. She wouldn’t tolerate disappointments stemming from

lack of effort. There was no hiding it—she could smell indolence from a mile away.

Kulta considered his options. It’d be worth a call to ask about surveillance footage—maybe mentioning “Helsinki Homicide” would carry some weight. But who to call? The Espoo PD? They had jurisdiction here. Or the state railways? The whole case was beginning to irritate him. The surveillance videos were unquestionably the most promising idea. He dialed directory assistance, which connected him with the state-owned railway company. A recording informed him that offices were closed until Monday. For train schedules, he could call the premium-rate number. A call to the security company responsible for the train station ended in a voicemail box.

Just as Kulta hung up, his phone rang. “Yeah,” he answered.

“It’s Joutsamo,” said an irate voice on the other end. “What’s the status?”

“Uhh…” Kulta cleared his throat, knowing he’d already lost. Everything from this point forward would just end up sounding like an excuse, but he explained the events at the safe house and the problems at the station.

“Well, shit,” Joutsamo barked. “Get the footage, then.”

“And how do you suggest I do that?” he barked back. “I don’t even know who the station manager is.”

Joutsamo was quiet for a moment. “Come on Kulta… I’m in Helsinki, for god’s sake. You’re in Kirkkonummi. Gee, I wonder where the station manager might be? Quit fucking around and do

your job.”