My wounds have taken a great toll on me. I’m in much pain. I use a lot of narcotics. I mostly sit with Kate and Anu or in my massive chair, read, watch TV. I sleep a lot. I don’t read newspapers. I don’t watch news. I don’t answer calls unless I recognize a friendly name on my cell phone.
The next morning, Jyri comes to my home uninvited. He sees me and my condition, sees Kate and her condition. I tell him the story minus the ten million. It was never found. Antti Saukko is dead. Moreau is dead. Three children murdered. All over Helsinki, junkies are dying of strychnine poisoning. Twenty-nine at current count. Twenty-two are black.
He doesn’t believe me, or thinks the money is there but I just couldn’t find it. I tell him to let it be. This is over. Jyri threatens me, tries to intimidate me. I counter, “Watch and see what happens if you don’t fuck off. Go home, take a look around your attic, on the rafters, and in the second snow tire from the bottom of the pile of four in your garage. Check your bank account.” He storms out.
He calls a couple hours later. His voice is controlled. I think he’s both shocked and awed, and finally developed respect for me. “A MAC-10 and an assortment of drugs,” he says. “And I’m broke.”
Jyri asks if I think I’m in charge now. I answer no, but I took this job and started this illegal operation after being promised that it was for the purpose of helping people. At the time, Jyri specified young women being forced into the slave trade and prostitution. That was a lie. This has been nothing but a corrupt scam to make the rich richer. A travesty that cost lives. No longer.
He hems, haws, agrees. I tell him he’ll have his money returned today. But next time, if I’m ever duped again, more contraband and unaccounted-for money will come to light. After I fly a video on YouTube of him with a big green dildo stuck up his ass by a murder victim, I’m going to kill him in the process of arresting him. I ask him if he understands and force him to say yes.
I call Saska Lindgren and give him a tip, with the promise that it didn’t come from me. The rifle used to kill Kaarina Saukko is in the back of a closet in Roope Malinen’s summer cottage. The murder is solved, he just has to concoct a story to go with it. Also, I’ve solved the Lisbet S?derlund murder and will announce it today. Evidence I find should also prove that her killers murdered the black people who were gassed and napalmed, and committed the bank robbery. He starts to ask me how I know. Thinks better of it. Thanks me and hangs up.
The strychnine-laced heroin that has killed so many is traced back to the neo-Nazis. They claim innocence, try to pin it on the two ex-Legionnaires. Unfortunately, they’re dead, unable to provide evidence or testimony. Forty-seven neo-Nazis in total are arrested.
I go to Turku with Milo. For some reason I want to appear strong, not crippled. I use my cane instead of crutches, despite additional pain. We find the meat saw that was used to decapitate Lisbet S?derlund. A forensics team goes over the room. They find her DNA on the saw, and in nearly invisible blood spatter surrounding it. A tough job, separating her DNA from the hundreds of animals the saw has dismembered.
I suppose we’re once again heroes. I continue my media blackout and tell Milo and Sweetness I need a few days alone. I go home to rest, to take a sick leave and let my wounds heal.
I still have no emotions. Each night, after I’m asleep, Mirjami clambers into bed with me. I never realize it until I feel her hand stroking my hair or brushing my arm. I once told her to go away and she did, but I think she came back. I’m not sure. She never comes too close or attempts seduction. For myself, in terms of meaning, it could be a dog in the bed with me, so I let it be.
We never speak of it, it’s not happening. Until one day, while eating lunch, while Kate sleeps.
“You know I’m in love with you,” she says.
“You don’t even know me. You told Milo that about five seconds after you met me.”
“You never heard of the lightning bolt?” she asks.