The Nightmare

101

Joona is jogging through the arrival hall of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, located just outside of Helsinki, when his phone rings.

“Saga, what’s up?”

“Pontus Salman is dead. He was found in his car outside his house. It appears he shot himself.”

Joona exits the airport building and hails a taxi. He directs the driver to the harbor as he sprawls in the backseat.

“What did you say?” Saga asks.

“Nothing,” Joona says.

“We have no witness now,” Saga says anxiously. “What the hell do we do next?”

“I don’t know yet,” Joona says. He shuts his eyes for a moment.

He feels the rocking motion of the car surround him, gentle and soothing. The taxi leaves the airport behind and speeds up to merge with traffic on the highway.

“You cannot go out to Raphael’s boat without backup,” Saga states firmly.

“The girl,” Joona says abruptly.

“What?”

“There’s a girl. Axel Riessen was teaching her the violin,” Joona says, and he opens his gray eyes. “Maybe she’s seen something.”

“Why do you think that?”

“There was a dandelion ball in the whiskey glass.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Try to find her,” Joona says, and snaps off the phone.

He leans back against the seat and pictures how Axel was standing and holding a violin as the girl came with a bouquet of dandelion puffs. Then he thinks of the dandelion ball with its wilted stem drooping over the edge of the whiskey glass in Axel’s bedroom. She’d been in such an intimate part of the house… maybe she’d seen something.

Joona goes on board the gray Finnish Coast Guard vessel Kirku, which the Finnish navy had acquired from the Swedish Coast Guard six years before. As he shakes hands with the vessel’s captain, Pasi Rannikko, he is reminded of Lennart Johansson at Dalarö, the one who loved to surf and called himself Lance.

Like Lance, Pasi Rannikko is a young, tanned man with clear blue eyes. Unlike Lance, however, Pasi takes his duties extremely seriously. It’s obvious that this unexpected run beyond Finnish waters is troubling him.

“Nothing about this makes me happy,” Pasi Rannikko says with a frown. “But my boss is friends with your boss… and it appears that’s all that was needed.”

“I hope to have something from the prosecutor before we get there,” Joona says soothingly as he feels the vibration of the ship pulling away from the dock and smoothly heading out across the water.

“The second you get your arrest warrant, I’ll contact FNS Hanko. It’s a patrol boat with twenty officers and six soldiers.” He points at a blip on the radar. “She can reach thirty-five knots and it won’t take her more than twenty minutes to get to us.”

“That’s good.”

“Raphael Guidi’s yacht has passed Dagö and is now just outside Estonia’s territorial waters. I hope you are aware that we can’t board a vessel in Estonian waters unless it’s an emergency or open criminal activity is observed.”

“I realize that,” Joona says.

The boat leaves the harbor with thudding engines.

“Here comes the entire crew,” Pasi Rannikko says with an ironic grin.

A broadly built man with a blond beard is climbing up to the captain’s bridge. He introduces himself as the first-and only-mate. “Niko Kapanen, like the hockey player.” He eyes Joona speculatively while scratching at his beard. Then he asks slowly, “So what’s this guy Guidi done?”

“Kidnapping, murder, murder of policemen, weapon smuggling,” Joona says.

“And Sweden sends a single policeman?”

“Right.” Joona smiles.

“While we contribute this old baby carriage of a boat.”

“As soon as we have the arrest warrant, we’ll almost be a platoon,” Pasi Rannikko says in a monotone. “Urho Saarinen on the Hanko can get here in twenty minutes if I just say the word.”

“An inspection,” Niko says abruptly. “I’m sure as hell that we can demand a surprise inspection-”

“Not in Estonian waters,” Pasi Rannikko protests.

“What the fuck…” mutters Niko.

“It will all work out,” Joona says mildly.