Anna-Leena called her former husband, Veikko. He went against the kidnappers’ wishes and called the police immediately. He also made the requested initial contact by e-mail. The police considered whether the kidnapping was legitimate, and if so, whether the kidnappers’ use of English was a reasonable indication that Kaarina and Antti were truly now outside of Finland. Veikko Saukko made it clear that the police were to investigate, but should they fail to recover his children, the ransom would be paid according to the kidnappers’ instructions, whatever their demands might be.
Over the coming days, hundreds of police took part in the investigation, headed by the Helsinki Police Department, and the minister of the interior was kept informed of every action and development. The police had two significant clues.
1. Although the stolen paintings were valuable, artwork of far greater value was left untouched. Presumably, the kidnappings were perpetrated at the same time that the art thefts occurred. The stolen paintings were recently acquired and as yet uninsured. This displayed knowledge that insurance companies will continue investigations for years, long after police have thrown in the towel, thus demonstrating that the kidnappers and thieves were experienced and knowledgeable criminals. They devoted a great deal of attention to doing their homework, somehow accessing privileged information about which paintings were most prudent to steal.
2. The villa’s security system was disabled. Investigation of the company that installed the villa’s system revealed that the files detailing the Saukko security system were accessed on Sunday the ninth of May, almost three weeks prior to the crime. A great deal of time, thought and preparation went into the crime beforehand. The security company had noticed no signs of break-in, a slick job, and the files were user name and password protected, so the criminals were technologically savvy. These were people to be reckoned with.
No effort or expense was spared. The kidnapping sparked a major operation involving the police, the Defence Forces, the Border Guard, and Finnish Customs.
June fifth: The small airfield at Kiikala was shut down to aid in the investigation of the kidnapping. Under the pretense of an exercise, civil aviation assisted police authorities by restricting the use of the airspace between Helsinki and Turku for nearly the next two weeks. Radio-controlled pilotless planes from the Finnish Defence Forces’ base in Niinisalo were taken to Kiikala for use in discreet reconnaissance work. Equipped with powerful cameras, the diminutive unmanned aircraft were able to transmit high-resolution images from an altitude of two thousand meters or even higher. Police refrained from the use of traditional aircraft and helicopters in the search, for fear that they would alert the kidnappers and the result would have fatal consequences for the Saukko siblings.
On June ninth, authorities give up on the search from the sky. The Kiikala airfield was re-opened.
There was a gap in Saska’s notes here. Saska doesn’t make such mistakes. I took it that there was information he wished to hold back for reasons of his own, and he deemed that information irrelevant to my investigation. I trusted his judgment. I wouldn’t question it.