Behind God's Back

26

Autumn put her best foot forward as we wound our way through the southern Finnish forest. Now and again, a vista of rolling pastures and idyllic farmhouses would emerge behind the trees. This was a prosperous region, one whose residents hadn’t had to resort to eating pine-bark bread during the shortages. In the rays of the autumn sun, the world was awash in vivid green and yellow, like a Van Gogh painting.

The Jacobsons’ cottage was an old log-framed villa on the seashore. The property included a woodshed, a tool shed and a sauna painted traditional farmhouse red. The latter almost hung out over the water, and the sea lapped at the stone foundations of its porch.

Sillanpää was about a hundred yards away, his binoculars trained on the sauna. Nurmio was examining his cell phone. A rifle equipped with silencer and telescopic sight balanced on a bipod on a nearby rock.

“I never would have imagined in a million years that I’d be involved in anything like this,” Sillanpää said. “I should be protecting Levi, and instead I’m giving a Mossad killer a shot at him — and to top it all off, on purpose.”

“I’m the one taking the risks, and you guys will win out,” Nurmio promised generously, as he had before.

Sillanpää’s superior had been in touch with Nurmio’s boss at the Mossad, who had confirmed that Nurmio was on a very important clandestine mission and requested he be given any support possible. The assignment demanded exceptional measures, even according to Mossad standards, but in this case they were up against exceptional forces as well.

Sillanpää had been given almost free rein, as well as freedom to take responsibility if something went awry and the affair resulted in a diplomatic incident. I had spared Huovinen’s civil servant morality from being stretched beyond its limits and given him the light version of my involvement.

Even though Semeyev had been confirmed as the murderer, the crime wouldn’t be solved until the person who had ordered the hit had been taken into custody. I told myself that I was still working towards that. And I was.

“Now,” Sillanpää said softly.

Three men stepped out of the sauna with towels around their waists and beer bottles in their hands. They sat down on the sauna terrace.

“I think it’s time to make the call,” Nurmio said, more to himself than us, and started tapping at his phone. A moment later, I saw my brother Eli come out of the sauna with his phone. He handed it to one of the men sitting on the terrace. The man looked at the phone, perplexed, but then lifted it to his ear. The 15x zoom on my video camera served me the cottage as if on a platter.

“Hello, Minister Levi. It’s me, Leo Meir. Do you remember me?”

Nurmio was standing right next to me, and I could hear every word.

“Hi, Meir. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m in a pretty tight spot here, so if you don’t mind, let’s talk later —”

“You have no idea what a tight spot you’re in, Mr Minister.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“You’re in Finland, on the terrace of a sauna. The sea looks gorgeous today.”

“How do you —”

“Because I can see you and I’m aiming a rifle at you. Do you mind stepping off a little to the side, so we can talk privately? A few feet is enough…”

Levi looked around, stood slowly, and walked to the end of the terrace. He gestured at the other two men, indicating that he wanted to talk privately. They rose and went inside.

Nurmio’s polite tone instantly turned into brusque orders.

“Good. Now listen to me. I’m caught in a nasty bind. The Finnish police are hunting for me for the murders of Samuel Jacobson and Max Oxbaum. In addition, a Russian killer tried to shoot me. I’m seriously irate —”

“I don’t understand what I can do. If you get back to me later, then —”

“No, I’m in a hurry. I want to clear this up right now. If we can’t, not a single person in that sauna will walk out of here alive. I have a rifle and a bazooka. I can blast that entire cottage to smithereens. If you don’t believe me, keep an eye on the post next to you.”

Nurmio steadied the rifle, aimed, and pressed the trigger. Through my binoculars, I saw splinters fly from the white wooden pillar. Nurmio’s marksmanship left no room for complaint.

“Do you believe me now?”

“Yes. What do you want?”

“First of all, I want to know why someone wanted me dead. Secondly, I want to know why Jacobson and Oxbaum were killed. I was just supposed to scare them into keeping their mouths shut. Why wasn’t that enough?”

Pensive silence.

“Speed it up. My trigger finger’s getting itchy,” Nurmio said.

“And I’m supposed to know?”

“The only ones who do know are you and Jakov. Jakov is way off in Israel, and you’re here and in my sights. So you get to tell.”

“You wouldn’t dare shoot —”

Nurmio pressed the trigger and this time the bullet struck somewhere I didn’t see. Levi evidently did, though, because he was examining the towel between his legs.

“You’re insane! That almost hit me!”

“The next one is going to be aimed three inches higher. Your family jewels will become fish food.”

“I had to… Jacobson would have talked anyway. I found out that he and Oxbaum had agreed that they would tell the police everything. Scare tactics wouldn’t have worked. The mess had to be cleaned up, and for good. You know that Jakov and I have a lot of enemies in Israel. One tiny slip and they’ll be after me —”

“And now everyone’s after me instead. I was framed for two murders. That was a nasty trick.”

“If you get out of Finland, I can guarantee you that —”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be making any promises. Why does Jakov want to get rid of me?”

“I don’t know, believe me. I don’t know.”

“You’d better know. I’m in a nasty bind, but so are you. I was forced to kill that Belarussian hoodlum that Jakov sent after me. His body is in my office. Things like that are hard to explain to the Finnish police. I know what hard-asses they can be. Believe it or not, they won’t even take money, no matter how much you try to push it on them.” Nurmio looked my way and smiled.

“I can get you out of the country on an El Al flight,” I heard Levi say. “I can make it happen tomorrow. I’ll talk to Jakov and clear things up with him. This must be a misunderstanding. He’ll listen to me. I promise —”

“You’re a little too eager to make promises. Promises have a way of being forgotten in proportion to the number of feet from where they were made.”

“The only thing I can think of is that Jakov doesn’t trust you any more for some reason. You know that… know him…”

“I thought I did; I must not, after all. But evidently Jakov doesn’t know me either, even though he should. I’ve done him some big favours and he betrayed me. He’s going to pay for this, and so are you. You probably heard what I had to do for my citizenship. One crook and one politician won’t weigh much in that equation. There’s not a place on this earth Jakov could hide from me.”

“Don’t get worked up. We need to negotiate calmly.”

“There’s no time. The local police are on my ass. I want you to call Jakov as soon as you’re done in the sauna and ask him about this, then you’ll call me back right away. Tell him I want a good explanation, otherwise unpleasant things are going to happen, very unpleasant. I wouldn’t want to cause a diplomatic incident between Finland and Israel, but if nothing else works, you’d better believe I will. We Finns don’t make promises we can’t keep.”

“I’ll try to call him. But you have to understand, he might not answer. He’s so careful these days because —”

“I’m sure he’ll take your call.” Nurmio hung up.

I saw Levi glance in our direction. Then he disappeared into the sauna.

“Seemed to work like a charm,” Nurmio said, looking satisfied with himself. “If we got all that on tape, that should already get us pretty far.”

“We did,” Sillanpää assured him.

“What do we do now?” I saw two security guards step out onto the porch. They were scanning the terrain with binoculars. Nurmio and Sillanpää also noticed them.

“We’d better get out of here,” Sillanpää said.

“Why didn’t you call Jakov directly?” I asked Nurmio once we were sitting in the car.

“There’s always an intermediary. He doesn’t answer calls himself — at least, not mine. If anyone can get through to him, it’s Levi. I’m curious to hear the recording of that conversation. The tape will be the final nail in Jakov and Levi’s coffins.”

“Do you really believe that something like that will work in Israel?” Sillanpää asked doubtfully.

“I wouldn’t be here without high-level support.”

“The prime minister?”

“Something like that. Unfortunately I can’t say any more about that.”

“Then tell us about yourself. You left Finland a criminal and you came back practically a police officer. How did that happen?”

“My reputation as a criminal was hugely exaggerated,” Nurmio said. “And there aren’t any big secrets involved in my Israeli citizenship. This is for your ears only. During my stint in the UN, I did some big favours for them. When I headed to Israel, I looked up my old acquaintances. One of them had become a big boss in the Mossad. He thought I was a useful man, and hired me to work for his company. It’s easier for a blue-eyed guy like me to travel around Arab countries where they don’t look kindly on Jews. I did what I was supposed to do and was granted citizenship.”

“If you manage to hook Jakov, how do you think you’ll survive in Israel? If he’s as powerful as they say, you’re a marked man,” Sillanpää said.

“I’m coming up to retirement age. Maybe I’ll quit this business and come back to Finland. It’s safe up here behind God’s back. Or then I’ll go somewhere else. I own a house in a place where oranges grow.”

Nurmio’s phone rang. “It’s Levi.”

Sillanpää pulled over at the side of the road.

“Did you get hold of Jakov?”

“Yes. He says he didn’t send anyone after you. The sole targets were Jacobson and Oxbaum. It must have been a misunderstanding, or else there’s something personal. Maybe you’ve stepped on someone’s toes. He’s sorry for the trouble he’s caused you, and promised to compensate you generously. We agreed that I’d get you on an El Al flight to Israel. The Finnish authorities will have no way of getting at you there.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you, but my photo is in every paper and on television, and they know my name. How do you propose I’ll get to the airport?”

“I made arrangements with the embassy to handle it. You’ll get a new passport and diplomatic status. You can even spend the night there. You’ll leave on the morning flight tomorrow. Rest assured: we brought Adolf Eichmann to Israel from Argentina, we’ll get you from Helsinki to Tel Aviv. Are we set?”

“It doesn’t feel like it. I don’t trust Jacobson’s son. Kazan is married to his sister.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s in this up to his neck, even though he doesn’t know it.”

“But he never paid back his loan to you.”

“That gave us a good excuse to tell Oxbaum we no longer required his services. I don’t have any more time to discuss this. Go straight to the embassy, and they’ll take care of the rest.”

“I guess I don’t really have any choice. Thanks for the help.”

“Remember, straight to the embassy. Do you understand?”

Nurmio hung up and smiled broadly. “The crooks are hooked.”

Sillanpää started up the car and sped off.

“That’s fantastic,” I said. “Now for something a bit more unpleasant: we’re going to have to arrest you on suspicion of the murder of Igor Semeyev.”