“I want to know more about Ivan and Iisa Filippov’s relationship, and about Linda’s relationship to both of them.”
“That will cost you dear,” he says.
Rein Saar won’t enjoy seeing this in the newspapers, but it will help him in the long run, and like the rest of us, he also has to give to get. “Iisa Filippov had an affair going on with Rein Saar for about two years. It was based on voyeuristic sex games. He was supposed to arrive home that morning with another woman. Iisa intended to hide in the closet and watch them fuck.”
“Inspector, that’s exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for. You’re a man after my own heart.”
“Give.”
“Iisa’s father died in 1998 and she inherited a decent sum of money. She set about spending it dilettante-style. She went on a party trip to St. Petersburg and met Ivan there…”
I cut him off. “Year?”
“Two thousand two. They had a whirlwind romance and marriage soon followed. They moved to Helsinki, and she used much of the remainder of her daddy’s money to finance Filippov Construction. Ivan proved himself a good businessman and has done well.”
“How did Iisa go from happily married woman to trophy dick-collecting fuck monster?”
“Her boundless affection soon waned. Ivan was twenty-four years older than her. I guess she wanted a replacement for Daddy, then decided romance with the new daddy was dull.”
“And Daddy number one. Where did he get his money?”
“This is where it gets interesting. Her first daddy was one Jonne Kultti. He had his fingers in a lot of pies, but made the bulk of his money with an escort service.”
I take the ashtray out of my desk drawer, crack the window and light up. “Escort services come in a lot of flavors and varieties. What kind was his?”
“The soft kind, as such things go. Expensive. Gorgeous women mostly catering to foreign businessmen. Kultti’s escorts didn’t necessarily provide sex including orgasm, but some of his girls offered S amp;M, bondage and other fetishes.”
“And Iisa knew Linda how?”
“Linda, as you may have noticed, looks much like Bettie Page. She went to work for Kultti in 1997, in the midst of a worldwide Bettie Page revival. She turned tricks as a Bettie Page impersonator. I would assume that Iisa met Linda while she worked for her father.”
“And the Linda-Iisa-Bettie Page look-alike game?”
“I don’t know how that came about, or anything else about their early friendship.”
“Keep digging, I’ll keep giving. Anything else of interest?”
“Jonne Kultti didn’t insist that all his escorts actually engage in sex with customers, but he did make them all audition for the job by blowing him. Apparently, he took quite a shine to Linda. I think Linda was sucking Iisa’s daddy’s dick on a regular basis.”
“More?”
“Jonne Kultti committed suicide by putting a hunting rifle under his chin and pulling the trigger with his toe.”
Good stuff. I thank him and hang up. The phone rings with my hand still on the receiver.
A receptionist says Filippov is in the lobby. I request that he be escorted up to my office.
Milo walks in and sits, puts a sheet of printer paper down on my desk. “I went through some databases and made some followup phone calls,” he says, “and put this together.”
I read it:
LINDA POHJOLA:
SSN# 090980-3828
DOB September 9, 1980.
Mother: Marjut Pohjola.
Father: not listed on birth certificate.
Marjut Pohjola deceased November 13, 2000. Marjut died of a cerebral brain hemorrhage after spending ten years in Oulun Palvelukoti, a rest home for people with mental disabilities near Oulu.
IISA FILIPPOV:
SSN# 030280-7246
DOB February 3, 1980.
Mother: Noora Kultti.
Father: Jonne Kultti.