Tsukuru hung up, put the phone back in his pocket, and took a deep breath. He didn’t have a good feeling about this. Kuro might not be in the apartment now. She had a husband and two small children. It was July, and maybe, as Sara had thought, the whole family had decamped on a summer vacation to Majorca.
It was six thirty. The travel agency Sara had told him about was no doubt closed, but it couldn’t hurt to try them. He took the cell phone out again and dialed the office number. Surprisingly, someone was still there.
A woman’s voice answered in Finnish.
“Excuse me, is Olga there?” Tsukuru asked in English.
“I’m Olga,” the woman replied in unaccented English.
Tsukuru introduced himself and explained that Sara had suggested that he call.
“Yes, Mr. Tazaki. Sara told me about you,” Olga said.
Tsukuru explained the situation. How he’d come to see a friend, but when he called her, all he got was a recording in Finnish.
“Are you at your hotel now?”
“I am,” Tsukuru said.
“I’m about to close the office for the day. I can be over there in a half hour. Can we meet in the lobby?”
? ? ?
Olga was blond and wore tight jeans and a long-sleeved white T-shirt. She looked to be in her late twenties. She stood about five foot seven and had a full face with a rosy complexion. She looked liked a girl born to a well-off farming family, raised with a gaggle of garrulous geese. Her hair was pulled back, and a black enamel bag dangled from her shoulder. She had good posture, like a courier with an important package to deliver, and took long strides as she walked into the hotel.
They shook hands and sat down next to each other on a sofa in the middle of the lobby.
Sara had been to Helsinki a number of times, and each time she visited, she had worked with Olga. So Olga was not only a business partner but also, it seemed, a friend.
“I haven’t seen Sara for a while. How is she?” Olga asked.
“She’s fine,” Tsukuru replied. “Work keeps her busy, and she’s always flying off somewhere.”
“When she called me she said you were a close, personal friend.”
Tsukuru smiled. A close, personal friend, he repeated to himself.
“I’ll be happy to help in any way I can. Don’t hesitate to ask.” Olga beamed and looked him right in the eye.
“Thank you.” He felt like she was sizing him up, deciding if he was good enough to be Sara’s boyfriend. He hoped that he passed the test.
“If you don’t mind, let me listen to the message,” Olga said.
Tsukuru took out his cell phone and dialed the number for Kuro’s apartment. Olga, meanwhile, took out a memo pad and a thin gold pen from her bag and placed them on her lap. As soon as he heard it ring he handed her the phone. Olga listened to the message, with a serious look on her face, and quickly noted down the requisite information. Then she hung up. She seemed like a smart, capable woman, and Tsukuru could imagine her and Sara getting along well.
“The voice is the woman’s husband, I think,” Olga said. “Last Friday they left their apartment and went to their summer cottage. They won’t be back until the middle of August. He gave the phone number for the cottage.”
“Is it far away?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t say where it is. What we know from the message is just the phone number, and that it’s in Finland. If you call the number, you should be able to find out where it is.”
“If you could do that for me, I’d really appreciate it. But I do have one request,” Tsukuru said. “I don’t want you to mention my name on the phone. If possible, I’d like to visit her without her knowing that I’m coming.”
Olga seemed curious.
Tsukuru explained. “She’s a really good friend of mine from high school, but I haven’t seen her for a long time. I don’t think she has any idea that I came to see her. I’m hoping to surprise her.”
“A surprise,” she said, opening her hands on her lap palms up. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”
“I hope she’ll agree.”
“Was she your girlfriend?” Olga asked.