The Hummingbird by Kati Hiekkapelto Page B

wouldn’t let on?’
Virve was silent for a moment, concentrated on sucking a strand of hair she’d rolled into a ball.
‘I kept thinking, what if it’s not a man?’
Anna thought she saw something flash through Virve’s mind, but the girl continued her account almost immediately. It was as though she couldn’t pin down the thought and it escaped.
‘Though, I mean, I can’t think why she’d be worried about something like that, especially with me. She knows I don’t care about gender – it’s love that counts. On the other hand, Riikka’s about as straight as they come. We’re actually quite different. I mean, we were. Talking in the past tense feels just awful.’
Virve began to cry. She pressed her face into her hands and sobbed gently. Anna handed her another tissue and waited for the girl to calm down before she continued.
‘Let’s go back to what happened before Riikka went out for her run. So, she came home from town at around five o’clock. Try to tell me as carefully as you can what she said, what she did and how she appeared.’
‘Now that I think of it, she didn’t eat anything. I’d just roasted some aubergines, they were really good, and when I asked if she wanted to join me she said she’d eaten in town.’
‘Did you ask where she’d eaten?’
‘No. I gave up talking to her because she just lay down on the sofa and said she was tired.’
Anna noted this down on her computer. In addition she had a notepad that she used to make unofficial observations. She took a pen and wrote: Where did Riikka eat 21.8?
‘What happened next?’
‘Then I ate by myself, washed up and went to my room to watch TV. You asked how she appeared. She seemed really down – just lay there on the sofa. Then I heard her going into the shower, and when I came out of my room she was pulling on that green tracksuit and … Fucking hell, I should have tried to stop her going out.’
Virve’s final words were lost amid a volley of whimpers.
‘What did you do after she’d left?’
Virve glanced up at Anna, a look of fright in her teary eyes.
‘I stayed home. I was at home all evening.’
‘Can anyone corroborate that?’
‘Why should they? I don’t suppose they can. I was by myself,’ Virve was beginning to panic.
‘There’s no need to be nervous. It’s a routine question. Did Riikka receive any telephone calls that day? Any text messages? Did she make any calls?’
‘I didn’t hear anything. I spent most of the day in my room. Damn it, I should have pressed her more, forced her to tell me what was going on. Maybe none of this would ever have happened,’ Virve spluttered through her tears.
‘Let’s have a short break. I can bring you something if you’d like. Coffee?’
‘Tea, thanks. Who could have done it? And why?’
‘That’s what we’re trying to establish.’
‘It wasn’t Jere, that’s for sure.’
‘Why not?’
‘He’s not a killer.’
‘Do you know where he is now?’
‘No.’ Virve seemed startled.
‘Jere has disappeared into thin air.’
Virve said nothing and sat fidgeting with her bracelet.
Anna fetched a cup of tea for Virve and coffee for herself. They drank in silence. There was something odd about Virve. It wasn’t so much her studied, new-age hippy look, which was actually a fairly everyday sight around the city. She was clearly nervous, but that too was perfectly normal. Almost everyone is nervous when they have to deal with the police, even if they’ve got nothing on their conscience. But Anna had a niggling feeling that the girl was hiding something. Then again, aren’t we all, she thought.
Esko was right about one thing: in this line of work it was best to put your emotions aside. They could easily lead you astray. The‘intuition’ of which we heard so much was generally nothing but luck or the skills gleaned from years of experience.
Anna drank the remains of the coffee, which had stood in the pot for goodness knows how long, and felt a wave of heartburn spread across