“The police don’t bargain…”
“Too bad for you.”
“…but I’ll listen to anything you want to tell me.”
“That’s starting to sound better already. I didn’t kill Jacobson, although I know it looks like I did. And that’s because that was the intent. Someone wants to frame me as the culprit. As soon as I realized that, my eyes were opened. I was led like a lamb to the slaughter, but not any more. The first thing I want is for you to take my story into consideration, and not believe everything they’re trying to get you to believe. The people behind this know what they’re doing.”
“That’s an easy promise to make.”
“Maybe, but I have no intention of coming down to headquarters and telling you this on tape. I had my fill of prison in my past life.”
“I can’t promise that you won’t be arrested. You admitted to shooting Semeyev. Even if it was in self-defence, something like that can’t be overlooked.”
“What if I can prove that Semeyev tried to kill me? OK, he’s a killer and he had a gun, but I’m no Boy Scout either. That means jail time, at least with my background, even though I’m actually a pretty nice guy.”
Nurmio glanced at me. A smile flickered across his face, but vanished just as quickly.
“If you can prove the threat, it will be interpreted as justifiable self-defence.”
Nurmio didn’t appear to be listening. “I have a nice home in a place where oranges grow. The climate in Finland is horrible and the food disagrees with me. I find all of that depressing. I’ll help you however I can, and then I’ll clear out of here and spend the rest of my days keeping my nose clean and browsing the Catechism. How does that sound?”
“I can’t promise —”
“That’s what I thought. You Finnish cops are such choirboys. In Israel, we know how to cut deals. The Jews are a trading people. You must be the exception who makes the rule.”
“It would help you if we knew who Semeyev was working for and we were able to get proof that he killed Jacobson. The neighbours saw you at the scene of the crime.”
“I know. I was wondering why they wanted to know so damn precisely what time I would be going to see Jacobson. Because I was being framed as the murderer.”
“Why did you go there?”
“Like I said, I was trying to put his mind at ease so we could discuss things like civilized people. He thought I was a killer, and didn’t dare to meet me. I couldn’t come up with anything else. Now I see that the other side scared him into locking himself up at home.”
“Who wanted to know about your visit?”
Nurmio laughed. “We’ll talk about that later.”
“What about Max Oxbaum? We have surveillance camera footage of your meeting.”
“Was it from a service station in Vantaa?”
I didn’t answer. “Why did you two meet?”
“I needed Oxbaum’s help. At the same time, I was trying to get him to understand that he’d better leave Baltic Invest alone, or at least not go around blabbing about its affairs. It wasn’t an easy balance to strike. Kind of the same thing as with Jacobson.”
“You needed help? With what?”
“OK. I think it’s high time I let you in on something that might take some pressure off you.”
Nurmio reached into his pocket and handed me a plastic card. I turned on the light in the sun visor and inspected it.
“Are you telling me that you’re still working for the Mossad?”
“Isn’t that what that says?”
That’s what it said. There was also a photo on the card.
“I’m here on a job that seems to have gone totally fucking haywire. Now you can stop worrying and listen to what I have in mind.”
I opened the window and inhaled the brisk sea air to clear my head.
“Shoot.”
24
I had to admit that Nurmio’s revelation took me completely by surprise. Even though the card looked genuine, I couldn’t shake off my disbelief.
“If you want, you can call my boss in Tel Aviv and check it out. Contact is only allowed in emergencies, but I’m pretty sure this counts as one.”
“Let’s forget that for now. You’d better just tell me what this is about and what you want.”
“All right. Why don’t we agree that you don’t take notes after all? I’m here because the Mossad and the Israeli police are jointly investigating Jakov’s connections to organized crime and the related bribing of officials. I was asked to infiltrate Jakov’s organization, and two years ago I managed to get back on his payroll because I’d known him in the past. I told him that I’d got the boot from the Mossad a long time ago and had been conducting some business of my own in Syria and Lebanon. Which I had, but that had been part of the cover.”
“It’s a long way from Tel Aviv to Helsinki.”
“Which is why they needed me, and why I was ordered to help the Israeli police. It’s a small world. You see, it so happens that there’s a man on Jakov’s payroll named Joel Kazan. Kazan is married to Jacobson’s daughter. Through his brother-in-law Roni, Kazan met Max Oxbaum, who was eventually given Finnish representation of Baltic Invest.”
“Why specifically to Max?”
“He was greedy enough and had good contacts. And initially Max handled the business pretty well, but little by little things started getting out of hand. Max started using quite a bit of coke, and the business suffered. He brokered a large loan for Roni when Roni divorced his wife and built a new house by the sea. Roni simply didn’t pay it back. A few other loans also generated large losses. Israel finally had enough and sent Kazan in, because in a way he was responsible for Oxbaum. Jacobson didn’t care for his son-in-law, and when he told him about Roni’s loan, Jacobson said it wasn’t his problem; why had they been so insane as to go and give Roni a personal loan?”
A police car drove past slowly. Nurmio watched it. Once it had turned at the next intersection, he continued: “Kazan had prayed that Jacobson would take care of it, because Jakov had said that Kazan could kiss his life goodbye if he didn’t fix things. I guess Jacobson didn’t want his daughter to be a widow. In his panic, Kazan got drunk and said more than he should have. He told Jacobson that Jakov was a criminal and that Baltic Invest was laundering money. He imagined that Jacobson would get scared, or at least take pity on him. Bullshit. Luckily for us, things just got worse. Jacobson responded curtly and said he knew the Israeli police were investigating Hararin’s and Jakov’s affairs. He threatened to report Baltic Invest to the authorities. Another factor played a role in this, which proves how small the world truly is…”
I digested Nurmio’s story. It seemed incredible, but true. And I couldn’t think of any reason why Nurmio would lie.
Nurmio sized me up, as if trying to assess whether what he had told me had made the desired impression.
“How does the story continue?”
“Israel got a new Minister of Justice four months ago. The new Minister of Justice, Haim Levi, had made a lot of noise about exposing official corruption and gutting criminal organizations, especially Russian ones. Levi had spent a year as an exchange student in Helsinki in the 1980s. And lived where else but…”
“…at the Jacobsons’.”
“Exactly. And Minister of Justice Levi was coming to Finland for a visit and intended to meet up with his former host family. When Jacobson heard about that, he got what he thought was a brilliant idea. He informed Israel that he intended to tell the whole story to his old friend, Minister of Justice Levi.”
“And you were ordered to kill Levi?”
Nurmio laughed.
“That’s what the Finnish Security Police thinks,” I said in my defence.
“I know. They were watching me from that building across the street 24/7 for an entire month.”