Read Online My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen - Free Book Online

investigators in this case and felt lucky to have avoided it. I knew one of the officers who helped with the case, Detective Männikkö, relatively well, and his version of events made them sound like a soap opera. The victim was a middle-aged woman who, according to the tabloids, had several male friends. In the end someone had managed to sell the idea that the politician was the victim of a secret plot. The fledgling politician had played the part of the martyr, claiming that the woman had staged the whole thing to smear his reputation, and the tabloids wanted to believe him. Ever since, the captain’s phobia of fancy titles had grown even worse.
    “Karppanen just left on vacation too. So we’ve got a pretty big manpower shortage, but take Koivu as an assistant if you need him, and you can share Miettinen with Savukoski. Savukoski has that murder-robbery, but let’s try to get this off the board fast. Virrankoski will be coming off vacation soon too.”
    The captain’s phone rang just then, and I quickly slipped out of his office as he answered. I didn’t want to think about continuing my temporary commission. Of course it would be an easy way to solve my problem of choosing a career, since I’d be able to put off the need to make a decision for another six months, but I had more pressing things to worry about just then.
    My phone was ringing angrily when I got back to my office.
    “It’s Hiltunen, out in Vuosaari at the crime scene.” I remembered the eager young cop with the blond hair from the day before. He sounded excited. “Um, I think I found the murder weapon.”
    “What!” Even I was surprised by the volume of my voice. “What did you find?”
    “Well, it’s, um, an ax with blood on it. It was over by the sauna building in the bushes. Should I bring it in to the station?”
    “No, I’ll send a photographer out. Do you have a partner with you? OK, once the pictures are done, leave him there and bring the ax in to the station. Leave the area where you found it as undisturbed as you can, and I’ll try to come out there this afternoon.”
    An ax...That sounded simultaneously so revolting and so routine. Hiltunen seemed proud of himself. Hardly twenty years old, he was still just a baby. I hoped that he hadn’t ruined all the fingerprints. If the blood was Tommi’s, then we could start talking about murder. But what in heaven’s name had an ax been doing down by the shore?
    I tried to put in a quick call to Jaana in Kassel before Heikki Peltonen arrived, but the phone lines to Germany were jammed for some reason. I was lucky to find the number on the back of an old Christmas card, which I had saved only because the Santa Claus featured on it was extremely attractive and clad only in a beard and an elf hat. In years past I had assembled a rather comprehensive collection of pictures of handsome men on my wall, but in the end I grew tired of how formulaic they were. Most pictures of men that were meant to be erotic were quite boring once you’d looked at them for a while.
    Heikki Peltonen was punctual. Based on our phone conversation, I had pictured him as a graying retired gentleman with a large midsection who went out for only the occasional leisurely Sunday yacht outing. In reality, Peltonen looked young to be Tommi’s father. Though he had to be well past fifty, he still looked like he was in his forties, and his body looked graceful and flexible. His face shone with the tan common to those who spent their weekends sailing, and I saw that Tommi inherited his blondViking looks from his father. The fabric of his dark gray suit looked suspiciously like silk. Though I wasn’t the type to go for older men, his handshake and the look in his eyes that followed it might have made me blush under different circumstances. I didn’t have to worry about how to start the conversation because he took care of that for me.
    “Miss—or is it Mrs.—Kallio, I very much hope that we can clear up the