Five

“Mr. Aho, there’s a visitor for you.”

“A visitor?”

“Yes, a woman who asked to see you.”

“Did she tell her name ... or forget it, I’ll come down myself. Thank you.”

On my way down from my office, I wondered what this was about, since I was sure that I hadn’t agreed on any meeting and practically nobody came here to meet me unless we had agreed on a meeting. The only woman I had seen lately besides Minna was Sergeant Koskinen and I wondered why she would come here to see me without prior notice. I could not figure out any positive reason for that - but in that kind of situation she probably would not have come alone.

Once the elevator doors to the lobby opened I walked towards the reception, but I couldn’t see anyone I knew there, just a woman in her thirties in a nice dress and a matching jacket, with an overcoat resting on her arm. I wondered if I should know her as I smiled at the receptionist.

“Hi, Ella. There’s someone here who’d like to see me?”

“Yes, Mr. Aho. Ms. Kotala came here to see you.”

“Thank you, Ella!”

Kotala. That name didn’t ring any bell inside my head. So, I put on my business face and turned towards the woman. You could never know who is who in this business.

“Ms. Kotala, I’m Mr. Aho. Would you like to talk down here at the cafe or up in my office?”

“I’d prefer the office, thank you.”

“Okay, the office it is. Would you like to have some coffee or tea with you before we go up there?”

“Neither, thank you.”

Distant and not overly friendly. If she wanted to hire me, she probably was in trouble already. We went up to the seventh floor in silence. Once there and seated, I turned towards her after I had first taken her overcoat from her, put it on a coat hanger and on a stand I had in the corner.

“So, Ms. Kotala - how can I help you?”

“Actually, I’m not Ms. Kotala, but Mrs. Vihavuori. Kotala was my maiden name.”

That name I knew, but I was quite sure that it didn’t show.

“I see. Was there some special reason to hide your real name?”

“Please, Mr. Aho. I’m certain that you know my husband, Mr. Vihavuori. You used to work for him some years back.”

I made sure to keep my face neutral. “Yes, I do know him. If you have come to ask me to work for him again, then you have wasted your time. There are a few companies or persons I’ll never work for and the company your husband represents is one of them.”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

I raised my eyebrows. Suddenly I was happy for the automated recording surveillance I had there.

“Why are you here, then?”

“I’m asking ... no, I’m begging you not to go after my husband.”

“Why would I go after your husband?”

“He confessed to me that, back then, he seduced your wife and that you hate him and you’d go after him because of that.”

I looked at the woman sitting opposite me. She seemed genuine and truly worried. I shook my head and showed her my left hand.

“I don’t really understand. Look, I’m still married to the same woman I was back then and despite the fact that your husband didn’t seduce my wife but blackmailed her to have sex with him I still cannot see that as a reason to go after him.”

“He’s sure that you’ll do that any day now. That you’ll frame him for being guilty of something he didn’t do!”

After her outburst she seemed to think about what I had just said her.

“What do you mean? Blackmailed? Henrik is a nice person, he’d never do something like that... - we even have two little children...”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Mrs. Vihavuori, nice people cannot keep on running big companies and make millions while doing it. Good for you if your husband is nice to you - and to your small children. However, I can promise that I’m not going after your husband because he seduced my wife and not even because he blackmailed her to have sex with him. That I can honestly promise you.”

After I had escorted Mrs. Vihavuori out of the building, I got back to my office and looked out of the big window. The ice on the bay had broken, but there were still pieces of it floating around. Not really a time to go out in your boat yet. I considered the promise I had made to Mrs. Vihavuori. It was true, I wouldn’t be going after him because he had blackmailed Elisa to have sex with him. I closed my eyes for a moment remembering those old events; money had been tight for us and at a rare company event that bastard had seen Elisa with me. Somehow he had managed to separate us for a moment - for enough time to tell Elisa that there was a huge risk that I’d get sacked because of the declining economy. All bullshit, of course, but Elisa had no way of knowing it and that got her really worried. The bastard was very sympathetic and ... Once I figured out from a crying Elisa what had happened I had immediately left my notice of resignation.

I opened my eyes. That was history and there was no need to wallow in those thoughts anymore. I had work to do and my own business to run.

Back at home I had a nice, early dinner waiting - thanks to Minna. I made sure to thank her for that and once again there was that ‘almost smile’ that I got in return. I wanted us to eat together and talk about what had happened during the day. By the time Oona went to school, she’d be able to have civilized table talk - if you agreed that the topics she wanted to talk about were civilized. I wouldn’t have known most of those things without Minna.

Once it was time to clear the table, Oona was allowed to turn on the TV and start following some of the children’s programs there. She had a few favorites that she wanted to see and that both Minna and I had approved. Yes, I counted on Minna also in that - she was the professional with children. Sometimes we gave Oona some minor housework to do, but today it was Minna and me who cleaned the table.

“We looked at some old photo folders today. Oona was a bit surprised that there were no pictures of her mother while she was expecting Oona.”

That stopped me for a moment. Only for a moment. “I see.”

“I said to her that maybe your camera was broken or something. She accepted that for now.”

Her message was clear. Someday Oona would like to know more - and I’d better be prepared. Soon. I nodded to Minna, but she wasn’t done yet.

“Mikael, you know that I had a day off last week.”

Now she got my attention. For quite a while I had asked Minna to call me Mikael instead of Mr. Aho. I had been doing that without any success for so long that I had almost stopped asking it - and now she had done that.

“Yes, I remember that. Why?”

“I went to the University library because I wanted to check some old newspapers.”

“Oh, did you want to check what happened when you were born?”

“No, something much newer. But it was almost impossible to find out anything there. It took me ages to find anything about the things I was looking for.”

“What were you looking for, then?”

Minna was silent for a moment. “Are you be going to see her again next month? When it’s her birthday?”

“You know that I will.”

“You have never really talked about it. In the papers, it was only briefly mentioned that someone was found badly hurt - and that was a few months before Oona was born.”