I go back to the patio. “What happened?”
“Mirjami and Jenna wanted some more pontikka,” Anni said, “and Kate took some, too. I gave them all doubles, and Kate didn’t drink any more after that. It just hit her bad.”
Drinking is like anything else, it takes practice. Kate doesn’t practice. Mirjami and Jenna do. They have small glasses of pontikka on the brick floor of the patio beside their chairs, alongside bottles of pear cider. They’re hammered.
It’s chilly out. The girls have their jackets on and blankets wrapped around them, but this is early Finnish summer, and the attitude is Goddamn it, we will enjoy ourselves outside, no matter how much it sucks.
I take Moreau aside. “I want to talk to Veikko Saukko tomorrow.”
He doesn’t answer, just starts typing a message into his cell phone.
It’s almost eleven p.m. “Isn’t it a little late for that?” I ask.
“He never sleeps. It interferes with his drinking.”
The answer is immediate. “Ten tomorrow morning.”
Boozing, puking people preparing to drink rotgut all night. It’s going to be an ugly morning.
Milo, Sweetness and Timo plow into the pontikka, chase it with beer. I get a plate of grilled sausages and vegetables and sit next to Timo. He says, “You know what we discussed, about talking things out, about why we haven’t seen each other.”
“Yeah.”
“I got an idea. In general, it’s because we come from a fucked-up family. Why don’t we just leave it at that, not talk about it, and enjoy the evening.”
“Deal.”
And we do. I go back in a little while to check on Kate. She’s done puking and near to passing out. I carry her to a spare bedroom. Moreau and I don’t drink. He because he doesn’t, and me because I have to care for Anu. I’m not in the mood anyway. Moreau, Timo and I had a good sauna and dip in the freezing lake. Anu had her first sauna and seemed to enjoy it.
We come out of our second round in the sauna to find Milo and Sweetness in a drunken fistfight. Moreau moves to stop them, but I say no, it’s been a long time coming. I think Sweetness will stomp a mud puddle in Milo’s chest, but he holds his own. Sweetness is fast, but Milo is small and even faster. He gets in close and works inside Sweetness’s reach, slips his punches. Sober, Sweetness would have killed him, but the pontikka evened the odds. Milo lands some good ones, but they don’t pack enough power to put Sweetness down, and in the end, they’re rolling around in the grass, drunk and laughing. They go to the sauna bleeding together.
Afterward, Sweetness and Jenna disappear, and I hear love grunts come from the Muumin house. Anni wakes Timo up from a lounge chair and takes him to bed. Milo and Mirjami must have passed out in the sauna. I set an alarm for seven, and join Kate in the spare bed.
35
The alarm goes off. Kate doesn’t stir and I shake her awake. “I can’t move,” she says, “I’m sick.”
“I’m sorry, but you have to. I have an appointment that has to do with the S?derlund murder and we have to leave.”
She has trouble sitting up but manages it. “I’m woozy. I can’t drive.”
“That’s OK, someone else will drive. Can you eat?”
She shakes her head no.
I’m a little tired myself. We stayed up late, and I was up twice in the night with Anu. “You weren’t the only one drunk. I doubt the others are in much better shape. Can you pull yourself together while I get them up and moving?”
She nods yes. “Kari,” she says, “I’m sorry. I fucked up. I’ve fucked up a lot lately. I—”
She has a king hell case of morkkis. I cut her off. “Everything is fine. Anu is fine. You didn’t do anything embarrassing. You just got sick, passed out, and I put you to bed. You didn’t even drink half as much as the others. It just hit you wrong because you’re not used to it. We can talk about it later if you want.”