at the murder site. For both types, a series of five or more murders with a cooling-off period between each is common. As like as not, a serial killer has been wrapped up in a sex-murder fantasy since his teens or even earlier. The reality committed as an adult may disappoint the killer, causing him to act it out again and again, trying to find a way to make the murders more satisfying.”
“You know a lot about it,” Jussi says.
“I did a lot of reading about serial killers while I was working on my master’s thesis. This murder is atypical. Abduction, three separate weapons, including a bottle broken beforehand in preparation, and writing on the body all meet the criteria for a methodical, organized killer. But killing her on site and leaving her there instead of dumping her in a separate location point to a disorganized killer. I’ll check out the crime database and look for similar crimes.”
“What about the ‘nigger whore’ thing?” Jussi asks.
“That’s our problem in determining motive. We can’t say yet if the crime is the product of a deranged mind, or maybe a race crime dressed up to look like one. We need to figure out which one it is to focus our investigation. Maybe the autopsy will help. For now, we’ll stick to the basics and work with what we’ve got until we can narrow down the field of potential suspects. We’ve got the tire tracks and the Lapin Kulta bottle he used on her eyes and vagina. I have a lead on the car. Eero Karjalainen claims he saw a BMW 3 Series sedan pull out of Aslak’s driveway around the time of the murder.”
Antti raises his eyebrows. “Eero?”
“Not a reliable witness, I know, but sometimes he can surprise you.”
“If he testified, the court would laugh.”
“True, but the tire tracks aren’t too sharp. If they point to six different makes of vehicle, including a BMW, we can focus on the BMW. Everything helps.”
“Have you got assignments for us?” Valtteri asks.
“Let’s pray it isn’t a local,” I say. “Antti, get a list of tourists currently in Levi. Focus on Americans first, because they have far and away the world’s highest rate of serial murderers.”
“There are thousands of tourists,” he says, “in six hotels and dozens of rental cottages.”
“That’s right. Call every place of lodging, have them e-mail or fax their guest lists. Call every vehicle rental agency. Match their rentals against the list of tourists. Divide the list into Finns and foreigners. Run the Finnish citizens through the computer and get their crime sheets and vehicle registrations. Call the border police and get the foreigners’ identity numbers. Divide foreigners by home country, then call each of their embassies and request a crime sheet on every person that rented a car. It won’t take as long as you think. The Finnish ones can be done in a day.”
“This is a needle in a haystack.”
“For the moment.”
“You’re going to ruin my vacation over a dead nigger refugee?”
I can’t believe he said it. I try to check my anger and don’t react. Valtteri solves the problem for me. He stands up, strides across the room and slaps Antti’s face.
Antti is speechless. His face turns red from embarrassment and redder from the slap.
“Take your vacation,” Valtteri says. “It might be longer than you think.”
Antti looks at me. I shrug and back up Valtteri. “He’s your sergeant.”
I’ve never seen Valtteri lose his temper before, let alone hit anybody. I don’t know if he did it because Antti was disrespectful to me or to Sufia. Either way, it’s a bad way to start the investigation.
A few tense seconds tick by. “Inspector,” Antti says. He always calls me Kari. He must be trying to say he’s sincere. “I was disappointed about my vacation and said something I didn’t mean.” He looks at Valtteri like he’s afraid he’ll hit him again. “I understand how important this case is, and I’m happy to cancel my vacation to work on it.”
I might dismiss him if I could do without him, but I can’t, and I don’t want him to file a complaint against Valtteri. “And in return for my ignoring a racist comment, in which you suggested that the victim in this investigation doesn’t deserve justice because of the color of her skin, you’ll forget about Valtteri slapping you for being a jackass?”
He nods.
“Okay with you Valtteri?”
He sits down, looks distressed. “Yeah.”
I try to get us past a bad moment by acting like it never happened. “Jussi, work on the wax casts from the tire treads. They’re our best lead. Use the database, find out what makes and models are possibilities. Shouldn’t take too long. Do the best you can with the shoe prints too. When you get done, help Antti. In a day or two, we’ll know who in Kittila and Levi had vehicles that make them possible suspects.”
Jussi nods.
“Get it now Antti?” I ask. “It’s not that fucking hard.”
He nods. “I got it.”
“Valtteri,” I say, “you work the local angle. Make a list of known racists and sex offenders. Find out where they all were. That shouldn’t take too long either. I’ll get the lot number off the beer bottle, and you can try to figure out where it was sold.”
“Okay.”
“Sufia’s place of lodging is a potential secondary crime scene. I’ll find out where she was staying, collect evidence and lift prints, then go to the autopsy. After that, I’ll try to figure out where she was when she was abducted. Any questions?”
No one has any. Sufia’s image hovers on the wall. She stares at us with empty eye sockets. I flip on the lights.
6
I GO TO MY OFFICE. Valtteri trails in behind me and sits on the edge of my desk.
“Did you kiss and make up with Antti?” I ask.
“No.”
“Going to?”
“No.”
I don’t blame him. “Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
They can’t even laugh it off over a beer. Valtteri doesn’t drink. His religion precludes it. It precludes a lot of things which for most of us are basic entertainment, like watching TV and dancing. Laestadians tend to live passive, rather ascetic lives. They keep to their own and don’t associate much with people outside their church.
We have a large Laestadian community here in Kittila. Valtteri is thirty-eight years old, two years younger than me, and has eight children. His wife is his age and looks fifty. They had their youngest child four years ago. Their religion also forbids contraception, so either one of them is sterile or Valtteri’s sex life has come to a close.
As far as I know, Valtteri doesn’t want to be anything besides a small-town police sergeant. Laestadians don’t take part in any form of competition. He seems content to be part of his religious community and raise his family. We’ve been working together for a few years now, and he’s the most tranquil person I know. Aside from hitting Antti today.
“Why do you want me to investigate your father?” he asks.
“Dad didn’t kill anybody, it’s just something we have to do. We look at everyone.”
“Like you said, he didn’t kill anybody. I don’t see any need to look into your family.”
I don’t get why he’s making a big deal about it. Maybe it’s a Laestadian thing. Laestadians do a lot of things I don’t get. My ex-wife was raised Laestadian, but it didn’t take with her and she hated it. I’m starting to think Valtteri knows something about Dad. “Everyone.”
Valtteri still looks bothered.
