“Because that’s not the . . .” He stopped, realizing Finn was toying with him. “Sorry, I’m a bit slow today—that early flight and—”
“Don’t worry about it, Robin.” Finn flipped the catches, opening the briefcase and looking inside. A gun in a shoulder holster, spare magazines, a map, and a few sheets of paper. The top sheet had the details of Ed Perry’s location. A separate printout showed how to get to it—the place was out in the sticks. “So, Perry’s here in Finland.” Forrester didn’t respond.
He wondered at Louisa’s change of heart, but then noticed a small envelope and opened it. There was a single sheet of notepaper inside on which Louisa had written, I’m so sorry about your friend. He nodded to himself, and put it back in the envelope.
He took the map out now, studied it, then checked his watch. Even allowing for the weather, it was probably a ninety-minute drive, which would leave him with an hour of daylight if he left soon.
He looked at Forrester and said, “Is there anything else, Robin?”
“Two things. Firstly, there’s a car for you in the hotel garage. If you ask the concierge, it’ll be brought round for you.”
“Good, although I won’t need it until tomorrow.” He looked at his watch again and added, “Looking at the map, I wouldn’t get there in time today.”
Once again, Forrester looked slightly uneasy, not wanting to hear anything more than he needed to. That unease probably prevented him from seeing that Finn was feeding him a line, just in case word got back to Perry.
“The other thing is a message from the person who sent you the case. She said, and I quote, ‘The foreign national should be left alone.’”
Finn nodded and said, “Any idea who the foreign national is?”
Forrester shook his head, lying reasonably well. “I presumed you would know who she was talking about.”
“I do, but unfortunately the foreign national in question jumped from the top of a fourteen-story building about half an hour ago.”
Rather than looking troubled or questioning whether he’d really jumped, Forrester frowned and said, “I didn’t think there were any fourteen-story buildings in Helsinki—it’s quite low-rise.”
“When a man’s determined to kill himself, he’ll find one.” Finn smiled, letting Forrester know they were done here. “Thanks for the case. Don’t miss your flight.”
“Of course. Thank you.” He leaned forward and shook Finn’s hand, then turned and walked to the door. Just before he closed it behind him, he raised his hand in a wave.
Finn emptied the contents of the briefcase onto the desk and studied the map in more detail, checking his watch to make sure he wasn’t wasting too much time. He was determined to keep the initiative, and that meant getting there this afternoon.
There were two printouts, not one; the second, which he hadn’t seen at first, was a satellite image of the property. It was a summerhouse set on a small lake, surrounded by forest. From both the photograph and the map, it looked like a private estate, with nothing resembling a village or settlement anywhere close.
Possibly it was Perry’s own place—from what little he could determine from a picture of the roof and a small wooden jetty protruding into the lake, it didn’t look grand enough for Karasek’s tastes. What Finn couldn’t understand was why Perry would go there now, with the country still in the grip of winter.
Was it the most simple explanation—that he’d gone there because he knew Finn was coming after him? In that regard he’d chosen well: a place that was remote, where Perry would have the advantage over anyone who didn’t know the terrain.
Finn put on the holster, gathered up everything else, and headed back down to the lobby. The same concierge smiled as Finn approached him.
“I understand I have a car in the hotel garage—could you have someone bring it around?”
“Of course, right away, sir.”
“Thanks.” He strolled away from the desk, thinking through this apparent change of heart from Louisa.
In some intangible way, it seemed too reminiscent of Sparrowhawk, an operation that had been hastily yet intricately planned, in which so many players had been unaware of the total truth, and yet from which Perry and Karasek had walked away unscathed. And now here she was using Finn a second time to try to bring Perry down.
For a moment, he even wondered if Louisa was setting him up—handing him the gun, the car, the directions, luring him into a trap in the middle of nowhere, the perfect place to dispose of a body, allowing them all to go on as they had been before.