“The other letters are different. This is a short, violent outburst that seems personal. The others contain ramblings of a deeper ideological nature,” Stenman explained.
“Crazy people are crazy. Who can tell what’s going through their heads? In any event, this is a racist threat.”
“Do you have surveillance cameras?” Stenman asked.
“No. We do have an alarm system for the indoor premises, though.”
I launched a sneak attack. “How is the company doing financially?”
Hulkko appeared almost horrified by my blunt question. “I don’t understand what that has to do with Jacobson’s murder.”
“Jacobson’s wife told us that the company had taken out a loan from an Estonian finance company to fund the construction of this building. Have there been any problems with the loan?”
“Absolutely not… Some minor delays in payments perhaps, but they’ve already been settled.”
“And yet Jacobson planned on transferring the loan to a Finnish bank?”
“Yes, he did. Circumstances change. When we originally took out the loan, it was cheaper in Estonia. Now things aren’t going as well there, and interest rates at Finnish banks are more affordable. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
“Was it the father’s or the son’s idea?”
“Samuel’s, but Roni wasn’t opposed.”
I told Hulkko that Jacobson hadn’t been away because of the flu, but because he was afraid of something. Hulkko shook his head in disbelief. “Are you sure?”
“Can you think of anything that would have frightened him so much he didn’t dare to set foot outside his home?”
“Nothing except those fanatics. Maybe they’ve threatened him before. What else could it be?”
“His wife came up with several reasons,” I said. “Jacobson could have owed someone money, he could have had an affair and been afraid of the woman’s husband, he could have gotten mixed up in criminal activity…”
“Ethel has an active imagination. In matters like those, Samuel was as conventional as they come. There was no way he had anything to do with criminals or other men’s wives. He would have run in the other direction if a woman had approached him with those kinds of intentions. He was absolutely faithful.”
Absolutely faithful, I thought. I had no trouble at all imagining Samuel Jacobson succumbing if faced with irresistible temptation.
“Still, isn’t it understandable that his wife imagined all kinds of things because her husband refused to tell her what was going on?”
“Could be, but I still find it pretty incredible.”
“How long have you worked for Jacobson?”
“Almost twenty years.”
“Were you two on good terms?”
“There’s no other way I would have stayed here so long. This has been a good place to work, always has been. They look out for their employees.”
Stenman found this odd. “And yet he didn’t give you even the slightest hint as to the nature of his fears?”
“Samuel was private when it came to his personal affairs. And it’s not as if I were his best friend.”
“Who was, then?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing you’ll find whomever it is at the synagogue. Samuel was a very active member of the congregation in recent years. He belonged to the board of trustees. He was so proud when he was elected that he brought in cake for the entire staff. Once, when we were alone, he told me that it was only now that he was older that he felt any affinity for the Israeli cause… I heard that he wrote some harsh things in the congregation newsletter about the Palestinian situation and Arabs. He even showed me one of the pieces, and it was pretty provocative. Maybe that set someone off.”
“Maybe. How many people work here?”
“About twenty. We were almost half again as many in the ’80s, since the repair and maintenance department was so big, but computers changed that, too.”
Stenman stepped in. “Has there been any tension inside the company? Have you had to let employees go, for instance?”
“We’ve been hit by the recession just like everyone else, but luckily we haven’t had to resort to lay-offs yet. Samuel believes that a company should take care of its own, even when things aren’t going well. Roni and I suggested that four employees be offered an early retirement package, but he wouldn’t hear of it, because the employees wanted to stay on.”
“What about any lay-offs for reasons other than the recession?”
“There was one. An unfortunate case.”
“When did it happen?”
“A couple of months ago, give or take.”
Stenman wanted more. “What happened?”
“Drinking on the job. A shame. He was a good employee.”
A thought occurred to me. “Could you please ask all the employees that are here today to gather together? I’d like to say a few words to them.”
“Now?”
“Yes. Before that, I want to have a look inside the safe. Jacobson’s wife gave me the keys.”
Hulkko told the secretary to call the staff together. In the meantime, I examined the safe, which was in the CEO’s office. It contained cash reserves of five thousand euros, a cheque-book and a packet of lunch vouchers.
Ten minutes later, all of the employees were in the conference room except the driver, who was out on his rounds. There wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit. I stood at the head of the table and surveyed the crowd, which was eyeing me inquisitively.
“I’m Detective Kafka from the Helsinki Police, and this is my colleague, Detective Stenman. We’re investigating the murder of your employer, Samuel Jacobson. We’re trying to find a motive for the crime. Discovering it is critical to our investigation. I know from experience that motives can be surprising. It could be something that happened years ago; it could be hate, love, jealousy, money, racism, revenge. It might be related to work or free time. We know that Jacobson had stayed home from work for three days because he was afraid of something, but we don’t know what. I’m hoping you all can help me. He may have told someone something, or one of you may have heard or seen something that can help us make progress in the investigation. So if you know something, you can either tell us now or contact us later. We’ll leave our phone numbers on the bulletin board.”
The silence lasted at least twenty seconds.
“I’m curious about the letter that was found in the mail box this morning,” said a balding man in his fifties. From his mustard-coloured coat, I deduced he worked in maintenance.
“We’re looking into it and any possible connection to Jacobson’s murder, but for the moment we can’t tell you any more than that. So let’s agree that we ask the questions, you just tell us if you know something.”
Another twenty seconds of silence. Then a young guy standing in the doorway raised his hand, like a kid asking for permission to answer a teacher’s question.
“Yes?”
“I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but a couple of weeks ago the boss asked me to check the security and firewall on his home computer. He suspected that someone had hacked into it and installed spyware. I didn’t find anything, but I was pretty sure someone had got into it. They had just done a good job cleaning up after themselves, so I couldn’t tell who it was and if anything had happened. I updated the virus software and scanned the computer.”
The guy seemed out of breath after his high-speed monologue.
“Did Jacobson say why he suspected someone had got into his computer?”
“He just said that he had read somewhere how easy it was to break into computers and wanted to make sure that the competitors didn’t know anything about the company’s bids and stuff. It sounded a little strange coming out of the blue like that, but I still did what he asked me to.”