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Twenty-eight: Helsinki Homicide
Twenty-eight: Helsinki Homicide
August 2009
The man opened the door and stepped outside. He was immediately faced with a wall of rain and cold wind that threw wet yellow leaves at his face. It was the last week of August, and it was very much like autumn already in the capital of the Finnish Republic.
The man took a few steps to reach the curb and looked down the empty street.
Where the hell is he?
He wasn't feeling all that well. He hadn't really slept the previous night, on account of his row with his ex-wife in the evening. What dreams he had had been violent.
Damn snakes.
The man hated snakes. Detested the things. It was something in the animals that made his skin crawl. He didn't know why. He had nothing against lizards, mind – lizards were fine, endearing in some way even, in their clumsy way. But snakes... Geez.
His dreams had been full of snakes. Big, nasty ones. They had infested what in the dream was his father's old, big farmhouse, and he had been tasked to get rid of them. He had worked on it for what seemed like hours if not a full day, armed with only a showel and, later on, a seriously underpowered flamethrower that was liable to malfunction every five minutes.
When he woke up, he was already tired, apart from being disgusted to his bone. The feeling of wading knee-deep in snake blood and intestines didn't leave him even in the shower.
His dad never owned a farmhouse.
The man wrapped his long, grey overcoat tighter around himself and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a dark blue car round the corner and stop at the curb.
”Well finally!”, he said to the driver with a tone of reproach in his voice, ”what the hell kept you?”
The young man at the wheel put the car in gear and turned the wheel.
”Good morning to you too, boss”, he said, ”a mix-up at Transport. Seems Pekkarinen took the car that was reserved for us today. Took a while to get this POS.”
To the man on the back seat, a car was a car. He had used a fair share of government vehicles in his day, and to him the only important thing was that they took him where he wanted to be. Constable Huttunen, though, was something of a car enthusiast, and he was not happy to drive a somewhat worn mid-range Renault sedan. Sometimes the man wondered what kind of cars Huttunen imagined he would be able to buy with a policeman's salary.
Maybe he comes from money, the older man thought. Apart from his car enthusiasm, though, there was no other indication for that the official from the Central Police Administration could see.
”OK, this morning's agenda”, he said to Huttunen, ”Jaakonmäki.”
The plain-clothed constable nodded.
”I got the address.”
The morning traffic was not as bad as the man had feared. It took only fifteen minutes from that moment until they had already made their way through the pandemonium that was the North Ring Road and stopped at the address they had received.
The man looked out to see two dark brown vehicles with flashing lights blocking the way. The lights were orange, and briefly it felt wrong – until he remembered where they were. Jaakonmäki was an Order Guard[1] district, not a City Contract or Civil Guard one. The golden half-gear on the door of the vehicles, instead of the blue ”S” logo confirmed this. The man rather liked the Order Guards. They used to be made of older, less cocky guys than the Civil Guards. More workman-like.
No nonsense.
He approached the leading guard in his simple brown uniform and flipped open his ID.
”Inspector Suloposki, Violent Crimes”, he said, nodding to the sturdy man in his forties, ”you called in a homicide?”
The guard nodded in turn.
”Liikala, Jaakonmäki Order Guard. That's right. This way”, he said leading Suloposki up a path towards the woods, past an ugly early 60s concrete high-rise.
”Some kids took a shortcut through here on their way to school. Found a dead guy in the bushes. Shook them up something fierce.”
”I can imagine.”
”We got the scene secured and my medic's with the body. Watch your step there.”
The police inspector just barely avoided tripping on a tree stump.
”Thanks.”
He looked around himself and scratched his head.
”I am not familiar with this area. What kind of a place is this?”
Liikala shrugged.
”It's a big vacant lot, basically. There were plans to build something here, long ago, but they were never realized. Some homeless people spend time here, some even sleep here at times. Some kids from the area play here. And in the summer, it's a bit of a lovers' lane, too. Our guys swing by now and then to keep an eye on things. Nothing much else to say.”
”I see. And the closest buildings?”
The guard pointed to the west.
”There's a public sauna, that's Jaakonsauna, a hundred meters that way, facing the street.”
”So the body was literally found behind a sauna?”
”Correct.”
The two men entered a small clearing. A few people were standing in a loose knot to the left, under umbrellas, and to the right Suloposki could see a blonde girl in a yellow raincoat standing next to something covered with a tarp.
Suloposki looked at the men standing to the side and made eye contact with a few of them.
”Morning, gentlemen. You're early today...”
An older man with a cheery green umbrella gave him a toothy smile.
”Needs must, inspector”, he said, shrugging, ”business is business.”
Suloposki walked up to the blonde girl and looked at the covered body.
”Where's the medic, darling?”, he asked the girl.
The girl looked at him slowly.
”I'm the medic”, she said, giving him a cold look, ”darling.”
She took out her license and almost shoved it into his face.
Suloposki glanced at Huttunen who was working hard to keep a straight face.
”I am sorry”, he said to the young woman who he had mistaken for a witness of some sort, not expected her to be guard personnel.
”I am Inspector... Akseli Suloposki from the Violent Crimes Division, Miss...Särki, was it? Didn't mean to offend you.”
The woman just looked at him quietly.
He nodded at the body, still obscured by the progressively wetter tarp.
”What have we got here, then, Miss Särki?”
The woman gave him a cold smile.
”Dead male, about forty years of age. Stabbed to death with a sharp object, it seems. Sometime during the night.”
She raised the tarp to let Suloposki see the body. It was a fortyish male all right. Pretty nondescript – no glasses, no facial hair, short dark hair. Thin as a rake. Dark, ordinary clothes.
The woman put the tarp back down.
”First I thought it might have been a drunken brawl among homeless people, drunks being known to roam freely in this area...”
”But?”
”He looks much too neat for a drunk or a homeless guy. Clean-shaven, clean clothes. He seems almost fit.”
The inspector nodded.
"Weapon about?"
The woman shook her head.
”Anything in his pockets?”
”Very little of anything, apart from lint. A keyring. A crumpled receipt from a grill joint from two days ago... A folded piece of paper with what appears to be a name in it in capital letters.”
”Really?”
The woman nodded, looking at her notes. She read the name aloud.
”I have no idea who that is or what it means.”
Then, the woman reached for her evidence bag and took out something in a transparent plastic bag.
”And, lastly, there was this.”
It was an old black and white photo.
”That's a bit odd”, Huttunen commented.
Suloposki had to agree with the constable's assessment.
”Right. Anything else?”
”In my opinion as a trained forensic medic, you mean?”, the fair-haired woman asked, smiling a smile that did not reach her eyes, ”that's pretty much it. I need to put him in ice, and then we'll wait for the hand-over.”
Suloposki thanked the woman and took a last look at the tarp-covered body. He then turned towards the small knot of waiting men and walked up to them.
”All right, gentlemen”, he said, raising his voice somewhat, feeling the rain starting to get to him.
”You know the drill, but by law I need to do this anyway. Ahem... I am Inspector Suloposki of the Central Police Administration, Violent Crimes Division Uusimaa, and I am announcing an open case for tendering.[2] Classified, provisionally, as a case of manslaughter. CPA is the Client, Jaakonmäki OG is Local Authority and your respective parties can bid on becoming the Service Provider. All usual stipulations are in effect.”
Suloposki looked around himself. The general attitude was non-responsive.
”The tendering on the Account will remain open for the standard time. That's all, gentlemen. The fine men and women of the local OG will give you any preliminary information they have about the case at hand.”
Slowly, the men representing different licensed security companies started filing out of the clearing, accompanied by guards minding the integrity of the crime scene. Only two of them stopped to ask something from Särki or Liikala.
”Inspector?”
Suloposki turned around to see a youngish, sort of military-looking man staring at him.
”I don't think we have met. I am Antti Jänö”, he said, offering his hand to the police official.
”I am with... Fennia.”
Reluctantly, Suloposki shook the man's hand.
”Ah, so that is why I did not see Komarov here today. You're his replacement, then?”
Jänö smiled.
”It was Komarov's time to... move on. I got his job, and now it'll be me you'll see in these things.”
Suloposki shrugged.
”I guess you're stuck with me, then... Welcome to our dysfunctional little group, Mr Jänö.”
After putting the last details in order with Liikala and Särki, Inspector Suloposki returned to the car with Huttunen in tow. The rain had subsided and the sun was coming out from behind the clouds.
”Let's get to the office”, he said, thinking about what he would post in the Account about the case.
”Grab some lunch on the way, boss? Pizza?”
”Sure, let's do that.”
As the Renault made its way towards central Helsinki, Suloposki wondered about who, if anyone, was the woman whose name was written on a piece of paper in the pocket of a dead man.
NORA FARRAH.
And why was there an old, off-focus black and white photo of a stuffed toy beaver on the man? It was perhaps the most random thing he had seen, professionally, for years.
”It was obviously a badger, boss.”
”What?”
”You were thinking out loud again, sorry. But it was definitely a badger.”
....
I was born where
Girls don't play the guitar
Where the thoughts you get
Must be connected to someone's agenda
Let's go visit behind the sauna for a while
Vesala: Tytöt ei soita kitaraa (2016)
...
Notes:
[1] Järjestyskaarti.
[2] Tarkastaja Akseli Suloposki keskuspoliisihallinnon Uudenmaan väkivaltarikosjaoksesta.
...
To Be Continued
Twenty-eight: Helsinki Homicide
August 2009
The man opened the door and stepped outside. He was immediately faced with a wall of rain and cold wind that threw wet yellow leaves at his face. It was the last week of August, and it was very much like autumn already in the capital of the Finnish Republic.
The man took a few steps to reach the curb and looked down the empty street.
Where the hell is he?
He wasn't feeling all that well. He hadn't really slept the previous night, on account of his row with his ex-wife in the evening. What dreams he had had been violent.
Damn snakes.
The man hated snakes. Detested the things. It was something in the animals that made his skin crawl. He didn't know why. He had nothing against lizards, mind – lizards were fine, endearing in some way even, in their clumsy way. But snakes... Geez.
His dreams had been full of snakes. Big, nasty ones. They had infested what in the dream was his father's old, big farmhouse, and he had been tasked to get rid of them. He had worked on it for what seemed like hours if not a full day, armed with only a showel and, later on, a seriously underpowered flamethrower that was liable to malfunction every five minutes.
When he woke up, he was already tired, apart from being disgusted to his bone. The feeling of wading knee-deep in snake blood and intestines didn't leave him even in the shower.
His dad never owned a farmhouse.
The man wrapped his long, grey overcoat tighter around himself and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a dark blue car round the corner and stop at the curb.
”Well finally!”, he said to the driver with a tone of reproach in his voice, ”what the hell kept you?”
The young man at the wheel put the car in gear and turned the wheel.
”Good morning to you too, boss”, he said, ”a mix-up at Transport. Seems Pekkarinen took the car that was reserved for us today. Took a while to get this POS.”
To the man on the back seat, a car was a car. He had used a fair share of government vehicles in his day, and to him the only important thing was that they took him where he wanted to be. Constable Huttunen, though, was something of a car enthusiast, and he was not happy to drive a somewhat worn mid-range Renault sedan. Sometimes the man wondered what kind of cars Huttunen imagined he would be able to buy with a policeman's salary.
Maybe he comes from money, the older man thought. Apart from his car enthusiasm, though, there was no other indication for that the official from the Central Police Administration could see.
”OK, this morning's agenda”, he said to Huttunen, ”Jaakonmäki.”
The plain-clothed constable nodded.
”I got the address.”
The morning traffic was not as bad as the man had feared. It took only fifteen minutes from that moment until they had already made their way through the pandemonium that was the North Ring Road and stopped at the address they had received.
The man looked out to see two dark brown vehicles with flashing lights blocking the way. The lights were orange, and briefly it felt wrong – until he remembered where they were. Jaakonmäki was an Order Guard[1] district, not a City Contract or Civil Guard one. The golden half-gear on the door of the vehicles, instead of the blue ”S” logo confirmed this. The man rather liked the Order Guards. They used to be made of older, less cocky guys than the Civil Guards. More workman-like.
No nonsense.
He approached the leading guard in his simple brown uniform and flipped open his ID.
”Inspector Suloposki, Violent Crimes”, he said, nodding to the sturdy man in his forties, ”you called in a homicide?”
The guard nodded in turn.
”Liikala, Jaakonmäki Order Guard. That's right. This way”, he said leading Suloposki up a path towards the woods, past an ugly early 60s concrete high-rise.
”Some kids took a shortcut through here on their way to school. Found a dead guy in the bushes. Shook them up something fierce.”
”I can imagine.”
”We got the scene secured and my medic's with the body. Watch your step there.”
The police inspector just barely avoided tripping on a tree stump.
”Thanks.”
He looked around himself and scratched his head.
”I am not familiar with this area. What kind of a place is this?”
Liikala shrugged.
”It's a big vacant lot, basically. There were plans to build something here, long ago, but they were never realized. Some homeless people spend time here, some even sleep here at times. Some kids from the area play here. And in the summer, it's a bit of a lovers' lane, too. Our guys swing by now and then to keep an eye on things. Nothing much else to say.”
”I see. And the closest buildings?”
The guard pointed to the west.
”There's a public sauna, that's Jaakonsauna, a hundred meters that way, facing the street.”
”So the body was literally found behind a sauna?”
”Correct.”
The two men entered a small clearing. A few people were standing in a loose knot to the left, under umbrellas, and to the right Suloposki could see a blonde girl in a yellow raincoat standing next to something covered with a tarp.
Suloposki looked at the men standing to the side and made eye contact with a few of them.
”Morning, gentlemen. You're early today...”
An older man with a cheery green umbrella gave him a toothy smile.
”Needs must, inspector”, he said, shrugging, ”business is business.”
Suloposki walked up to the blonde girl and looked at the covered body.
”Where's the medic, darling?”, he asked the girl.
The girl looked at him slowly.
”I'm the medic”, she said, giving him a cold look, ”darling.”
She took out her license and almost shoved it into his face.
Suloposki glanced at Huttunen who was working hard to keep a straight face.
”I am sorry”, he said to the young woman who he had mistaken for a witness of some sort, not expected her to be guard personnel.
”I am Inspector... Akseli Suloposki from the Violent Crimes Division, Miss...Särki, was it? Didn't mean to offend you.”
The woman just looked at him quietly.
He nodded at the body, still obscured by the progressively wetter tarp.
”What have we got here, then, Miss Särki?”
The woman gave him a cold smile.
”Dead male, about forty years of age. Stabbed to death with a sharp object, it seems. Sometime during the night.”
She raised the tarp to let Suloposki see the body. It was a fortyish male all right. Pretty nondescript – no glasses, no facial hair, short dark hair. Thin as a rake. Dark, ordinary clothes.
The woman put the tarp back down.
”First I thought it might have been a drunken brawl among homeless people, drunks being known to roam freely in this area...”
”But?”
”He looks much too neat for a drunk or a homeless guy. Clean-shaven, clean clothes. He seems almost fit.”
The inspector nodded.
"Weapon about?"
The woman shook her head.
”Anything in his pockets?”
”Very little of anything, apart from lint. A keyring. A crumpled receipt from a grill joint from two days ago... A folded piece of paper with what appears to be a name in it in capital letters.”
”Really?”
The woman nodded, looking at her notes. She read the name aloud.
”I have no idea who that is or what it means.”
Then, the woman reached for her evidence bag and took out something in a transparent plastic bag.
”And, lastly, there was this.”
It was an old black and white photo.
”That's a bit odd”, Huttunen commented.
Suloposki had to agree with the constable's assessment.
”Right. Anything else?”
”In my opinion as a trained forensic medic, you mean?”, the fair-haired woman asked, smiling a smile that did not reach her eyes, ”that's pretty much it. I need to put him in ice, and then we'll wait for the hand-over.”
Suloposki thanked the woman and took a last look at the tarp-covered body. He then turned towards the small knot of waiting men and walked up to them.
”All right, gentlemen”, he said, raising his voice somewhat, feeling the rain starting to get to him.
”You know the drill, but by law I need to do this anyway. Ahem... I am Inspector Suloposki of the Central Police Administration, Violent Crimes Division Uusimaa, and I am announcing an open case for tendering.[2] Classified, provisionally, as a case of manslaughter. CPA is the Client, Jaakonmäki OG is Local Authority and your respective parties can bid on becoming the Service Provider. All usual stipulations are in effect.”
Suloposki looked around himself. The general attitude was non-responsive.
”The tendering on the Account will remain open for the standard time. That's all, gentlemen. The fine men and women of the local OG will give you any preliminary information they have about the case at hand.”
Slowly, the men representing different licensed security companies started filing out of the clearing, accompanied by guards minding the integrity of the crime scene. Only two of them stopped to ask something from Särki or Liikala.
”Inspector?”
Suloposki turned around to see a youngish, sort of military-looking man staring at him.
”I don't think we have met. I am Antti Jänö”, he said, offering his hand to the police official.
”I am with... Fennia.”
Reluctantly, Suloposki shook the man's hand.
”Ah, so that is why I did not see Komarov here today. You're his replacement, then?”
Jänö smiled.
”It was Komarov's time to... move on. I got his job, and now it'll be me you'll see in these things.”
Suloposki shrugged.
”I guess you're stuck with me, then... Welcome to our dysfunctional little group, Mr Jänö.”
After putting the last details in order with Liikala and Särki, Inspector Suloposki returned to the car with Huttunen in tow. The rain had subsided and the sun was coming out from behind the clouds.
”Let's get to the office”, he said, thinking about what he would post in the Account about the case.
”Grab some lunch on the way, boss? Pizza?”
”Sure, let's do that.”
As the Renault made its way towards central Helsinki, Suloposki wondered about who, if anyone, was the woman whose name was written on a piece of paper in the pocket of a dead man.
NORA FARRAH.
And why was there an old, off-focus black and white photo of a stuffed toy beaver on the man? It was perhaps the most random thing he had seen, professionally, for years.
”It was obviously a badger, boss.”
”What?”
”You were thinking out loud again, sorry. But it was definitely a badger.”
....
I was born where
Girls don't play the guitar
Where the thoughts you get
Must be connected to someone's agenda
Let's go visit behind the sauna for a while
Vesala: Tytöt ei soita kitaraa (2016)
...
Notes:
[1] Järjestyskaarti.
[2] Tarkastaja Akseli Suloposki keskuspoliisihallinnon Uudenmaan väkivaltarikosjaoksesta.
...
To Be Continued
- DrakonFin
- Word Count: 1.9k