Fatal Headwind by Leena Lehtolainen Read Free Book Online Page B

charges were filed against Officer Akkila. Jiri Merivaara received a fine of seven hundred marks for resisting arrest, and the girl who threw the rock through the McDonald’s window was sentenced to fines totaling ten thousand marks plus damages, which she refused to pay.
     

     
    Autumn appeared in Espoo suddenly, and it was like a crisp-smelling blackout curtain had been drawn. I settled into my work routines and got to know my new colleagues in the unit, Anu Wang and Petri Puustjärvi. Puustjärvi had transferred from Kirkkonummi, the next police district west. He was a solidly built blond of about forty who played Go and tied flies. Gradually I got used to organizing investigations and making assignments, and I found that I could shorten management meetings by a third if I stepped in and interrupted the other unit commanders’ hunting stories and asked them to get to business.
    I missing working with my old boss, Jyrki Taskinen. We made a habit of having lunch together on Mondays and Fridays, and by the end of September, there were already rumors floating around whose sources weren’t difficult to guess. Ström claimed that I had made it into this new job by way of our boss’s loins. And it was true there was a certain electricity between Taskinen and me, but it was almost entirely unexpressed: only the occasional straightening of a tie or the brushing of a dried leaf from the hair. Although there could be plenty of energy in that too.
    Antti had also developed a regular daily routine. Iida was now taking only one three-hour nap, during which time Antti threw himself into his research or reading his favorite poetry. Apparently playing the piano was a favorite activity when Iida was awake, and once a week they went to the library for music hour. Antti seemed content.
    “Iida never puts on an act, unlike everyone at the university. It’s refreshing to be with someone who is always so direct.”
     

     
    October 4 was a Saturday. In the morning I wondered why the date sounded so familiar, and then I realized. A year had passed since Harri’s death.
    The whole day I was on edge because I was the on-call lieutenant for the Criminal Division, which meant approving arrest warrants and going to the station if necessary to handle any problems. In the evening the telephone started ringing with the usual wino fights and barroom brawls, so I slept downstairs with my cell so I wouldn’t wake up Antti and Iida. I had stopped breast-feeding in the mornings a couple of weeks earlier, because I had known that on any of these on-call nights, I might have to leave without knowing when I’d be back. Ending nursing made me sad, but Iida wasn’t an infant anymore. She was walking and even speaking a few words now, the usual “mamas” and “dadas.”
     

     
    The morning of October 5 was gray and drizzly, and the phone woke me up at seven thirty. I could hear from Puustjärvi’s voice that he had been up all night.
    “A body just turned up on Rödskär Island.”
    Was I still asleep and dreaming of Harri death a year ago? No, this was real. The sleep disappeared from my eyes like willow pollen in the wind.
    “Do we know the identity of the victim yet?”
    “Yes. Juha Merivaara, born 1951.”
    It took a moment for this to register.
    “Has anyone been out there yet?”
    “I’m waiting with Koivu and a photographer for the helicopter pilot. The rest of the forensic team is going by boat.”
    “Don’t let that helicopter leave without me! I’ll be there in fifteen.” I hung up and rushed to put the coffee on. Fourteen minutes and thirty seconds later I was at the station, and in that time I had managed to wash up, dress, drink two cups of coffee, speed three miles, park, and climb up to the helicopter pad.
    I had only ever flown in a helicopter during drills at the academy. Even though I wasn’t afraid of flying, my stomach lurched when the chopper lifted off the roof and turned south toward the Baltic Sea. I couldn’t