Before I Go – Leena Lehtolainen

The first message was from Kirsti Jensen: Tommi Laitinen isn’t coming to our May Day party. He can’t stand the idea of being around drunk people, so you can go ahead and come. I tried to call Antti but couldn’t reach him. Anyway, see you tomorrow! After a beep came the next message. Hello, this is Reijo Rahnasto.

I was appalled to hear that you’re wasting taxpayer money questioning innocent people like my daughter. Were your assurances that the Ilveskivi investigation is proceeding just a lie? I’d like an explanation for this double-dealing. Call me. The he rattled off his work number. After another beep I heard Rahnasto’s voice again: This is Reijo Rahnasto again. I expect to hear from you as soon as possible. I sneered at the answering machine. Luckily the final message was calmer: Hi, it’s Jyrki.

I know you’re in an interview. What’s the deal with questioning Rahnasto’s daughter? I just got an angry call from Rahnasto complaining that you weren’t returning his calls. Call me before you call him. There was a knock at my door, and for a second I was sure it was Rahnasto, come to skin me alive. I must have looked relieved when Eija Hirvonen walked in.

She was bringing the new DNA results that had just been faxed over. “I think you were waiting for these,” Eija said, misinterpreting my expression. “Yes. Would you please get in touch with the switchboard and ask them not to connect any calls to me for the next hour? I’m going to have a meeting with myself.” Eija laughed and disappeared into the hallway. The DNA report was the usual indecipherable laboratory jargon, but at least one thing was clear: the cells under Ilveskivi’s fingernails had both X and Y chromosomes.

So the attacker had been a man. We would have wait for Monday to get Seppälä’s DNA results. Taskinen’s office was on the top floor. I didn’t bother to check that he was in before jogging up the stairs and ringing his buzzer. The green light illuminated immediately, and I was glad to find him alone in his office. “Thanks for coming,” he said tiredly. “The chairman of the City Planning Commission called me half an hour ago to complain about you.

He was totally pissed off. Why did you question his daughter?” “Rahnasto definitely doesn’t want to hear the real reason.” Then I sat down and told Taskinen about Kim Kajanus and his affair with Ilveskivi. Taskinen seemed to become more and more uneasy as I spoke, and he ran his slender fingers through his graying blond hair.

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 © 2000 by Leena Lehtolainen Translation copyright © 2017 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 by Ennen lähtöä by Tammi in Finland in 2000. Translated from Finnish by Owen 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.

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: 0db41d21cf0cc746
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,012,663 bytes (1.919 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781477822999, 1477822992
• Pages: 290
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 536.69 minutes
• Total Words: 107,338
• Total Characters: 593,523
• Average Words per Page: 370.13
• Average Characters per Page: 2046.63

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