Below The Surface – Leena Lehtolainen (1)

I remembered how I’d disapproved of Moomin videos before I had my own children, but now they felt like lifesavers. Antti read something in Swedish, and I continued with Sasha Smeds’s biography, but it didn’t say a word about Andreas and Heli. I tried to reach Atro Jääskeläinen to ask whether the police had actually received the final version of the manuscript, but he didn’t answer his phone.

Sini’s cell phone was turned off too. The funeral wouldn’t be until next weekend, and by Sunday afternoon I was sick of waiting. I asked a patrol car to visit the Jääskeläinen residence and deliver Atro a request to be at the police station at ten on Monday morning for an interview. Liisa Rasilainen was on duty and called an hour later to tell me no one answered the door but that the patrol had left an official request in the mailbox.

I understood Jääskeläinen wanting to keep his phone off—I’m sure he was as fed up with the constant pressure from reporters as I was. Over the weekend the newspapers had found space for something besides Sasha Smeds’s accident: for a change, Carcass Kervinen had both tabloids hounding him. Somehow their reporters had found out that one of the forensic pathologists the police used had dated Annukka Hackman and that we’d interrogated him. Kervinen refused to give any interviews, but Atro Jääskeläinen had told the papers about the relationship, wondering aloud why Kervinen was still walking around free.

Updates on Sasha’s condition appeared in every newscast. In addition to second-degree burns, he’d suffered injuries to his lumbar spine. It was probable he’d live, but for the time being it was impossible to say whether he’d get behind the wheel or even walk again.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Text copyright @ 2003 by Leena Lehtolainen Translation copyright © 2017 by Owen F. Witesman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Previously published as Veren vimma by Tammi in Finland in 2003. Translated from Finnish by Owen F. Witesman. First published in English by AmazonCrossing in 2017. Published by AmazonCrossing, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and AmazonCrossing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781542048743 ISBN-10: 1542048745 Cover design by Cyanotype Book Architects 1kitap1.com/en CONTENTS CAST OF CHARACTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR 1kitap1.com/en C A S T O F C H A R A C T E R S THE LAW Maria Kallio: Commander, Espoo Violent Crime Unit Kaartamo: Assistant chief of police Jyrki Taskinen: Director, Espoo Criminal Division Heikki Autio: VCU detective Ursula Honkanen: VCU detective Pekka Koivu: VCU detective, Wang’s husband Lähde: VCU detective Lehtovuori: VCU detective Ville Puupponen: VCU detective Petri Puustjärvi: VCU detective Anu Wang: VCU detective, Koivu’s wife Jukka Airaksinen: Patrol officer Haikala: Patrol officer Makkonen: Patrol officer Liisa Rasilainen: Patrol officer Mira Saastamoinen: Patrol officer Jarmo Alavirta: Traffic division, workplace safety officer Hakulinen: Forensic technician Hirvonen: Forensic technician Hannu “Carcass” Kervinen: Medical examiner Haimakainen: District attorney THE SMEDS FAMILY Heli Haapala: Sasha’s wife Ronja: Smeds family dog Albert Smeds: Rauha’s father Alma Smeds: Rauha’s mother Andreas Smeds: Sasha’s older brother Rauha Smeds: Sasha’s mother Sasha Smeds: Champion rally driver Viktor Smeds: Sasha’s father SUPPORTING CAST Einstein: Maria and Antti’s cat (deceased) Jaakko Halonen: Hunter Annukka Hackman: Journalist, Atro Jääskeläinen’s wife Jouni Jalonen: Graphic designer Kirsti Jensen: Antti’s academic colleague Atro Jääskeläinen: Publisher, Annukka Hackman’s husband Sini Jääskeläinen: Atro’s daughter Antti Sarkela: Maria’s husband Iida Sarkela: Maria’s daughter Taneli Sarkela: Maria’s son Jouko Suuronen: Sasha Smeds’s manager Terttu Taskinen: Jyrki Taskinen’s wife Jani Väinölä: Skinhead drug dealer 1kitap1.com/en 1 I’d never killed a person before, but now I had to.

As I walked toward the shore, I heard Annukka splash into the water. She’d piled her things next to a stump just back from the lake. I knew there was a pistol in her purse, and I intended to use it. Stealing toward the stump, I opened the purse. My hands were gloved, I was wearing a disposable raincoat, and I had plastic bags over my shoes.

A hat covered my hair. I would leave no trace.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 3ba91c5b85a11b6b
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,915,189 bytes (1.826 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781542048743, 1542048745
• Pages: 267
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 493.56 minutes
• Total Words: 98,711
• Total Characters: 547,236
• Average Words per Page: 369.7
• Average Characters per Page: 2049.57

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