The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove by Minna Lindgren

in her hands and smiled so the
director would understand that there was no assassination attempt going on. She hoped it would help.
    ‘Should I take it to someone else? Perhaps to Pertti Sundström in Quality Control? Or is this Erkki Hiukkanen’s job?’
    A look of relief spread over Director Sundström’s face. She grabbed the phone and asked Virpi Hiukkanen to come to her office. A moment later the head nurse was standing in front of
the file shelf with gum in her mouth, not saying a word. Siiri suspected she was a former smoker. There was no other reason for a grown person to be constantly chewing gum the way she did.
    ‘Could you help our dear Siiri? She has a package that there’s some confusion about,’ Sundström said, shooing Siiri and Virpi out of the room and patting them both on the
shoulder to calm herself down.
    ‘Have a good day! Bye-bye now!’
    Virpi Hiukkanen didn’t even look at Siiri, she just strode swiftly to her own office. Siiri ran after her. When she’d got inside, Virpi slammed the door, put her gum in a cup on the
desk, and snatched the package from her.
    ‘Where did you get this? Why did you bring this to Director Sundström? Just what are you insinuating?’
    Then she took a breath, flipped her thin hair, and tried to begin again, more calmly. ‘One of the founding principles of Sunset Grove is safety, and respect for privacy,’ she said,
as if listing these principles was a mantra for tranquillity. But the mantra didn’t work. In a moment she was worked up again, unable even to sit down. She stalked back and forth, shouting so
loudly that the deafest and most demented residents couldn’t fail to hear her.
    ‘Who brought you this package? Who was it, and when? Did you open it? It’s no use trying to look like you don’t know anything. Don’t think I don’t know you.
You’re going to tell me everything you know about this package. Everything! Tell me who you got it from! Or did you put it there yourself? Where did you put it?’
    It would have been good to have Irma there. Only Irma could have stood up to Virpi Hiukkanen’s blind fury. Siiri started to ponder how Irma would have said that they provided more
privation than privacy, but then she felt weak and her eyes grew dim.
    ‘Can you help me?’ she said, leaning against the desk, but Virpi didn’t stop.
    ‘Don’t play invalid. Who gave you this package? Tell me the truth!’
    ‘I feel dizzy,’ Siiri managed to say, before falling to the floor. There was a loud thud. Siiri was a smallish woman, but on her way down she pulled a chair and part of a pile of
papers with her.
    When Siiri came to there was no one else in the head nurse’s office. She had no idea how long she’d been lying on the floor with her sweater up around her ears. She was embarrassed
and tried to get up, but she couldn’t manage it the way she usually could. She had to wait a moment. She moved her eyes around. They seemed to be working normally. It was completely silent
except that she could hear a hiss and hum in her head, but that was normal at her age. She wiggled her feet warily. They both moved, and felt like they were in one piece. She lifted her arms. Her
right arm hurt a little, and so did her side. She was just about to sit up when Virpi Hiukkanen’s phone rang. Virpi rushed in to answer it.
    ‘Are you still here?’ Virpi said, stepping over her. The phone call was brief. Virpi just said, ‘I have it. I’ll call you back.’
    Then she hung up and stepped over Siiri again, so that Siiri could see her black slip under her skirt. She marvelled that anyone still wore slips nowadays. They were so impractical.
    ‘Can someone come and help me?’ Siiri called to the hallway, and a young resident nurse came in and seemed not to wonder at all why Siiri Kettunen was lying on the floor in the head
nurse’s office. She helped Siiri up without a word, fumbling awkwardly, and took her by the elbow to the lift. Siiri couldn’t