In the cold, Heikki turned around and said, ‘What’s got into you?’
‘C’mon, I want you to come with me.’
Pia started walking down Kasarminkatu and up Tehtaankatu, past the Soviet Embassy. She walked briskly, hoping Heikki was following her. She glanced around; there was no one else on the street.
Heikki caught up with her and asked, ‘Where are we going? To get to your place shouldn’t we have gone the other direction?’
Pia didn’t reply, but looked up at the second floor windows. There were no lights on, just as she suspected. She took hold of Heikki’s hand and crossed the street to Anni’s block. When they reached Anni’s door, Pia pressed a button on top of the intercom.
‘That’s not Anni’s,’ Heikki said.
A buzzer sounded and the door opened. She ran through the door, and pulled Heikki inside. ‘Shh,’ Pia said, walking gingerly up the stone steps. Heikki followed. His boots made such a racket, Pia had to turn around to tell him to stop and listen for any noises in the stairwell.
‘Hello, who’s there?’ a woman’s voice came from the top of the stairwell. Pia and Heikki hid behind the stone steps. ‘Bloody kids,’ the woman said and banged her door shut. Heikki sniggered and Pia had to tell him again to be quiet.
When they reached the second floor Pia put her ear against Anni’s door. Then she gestured for Heikki to hide behind the pillar supporting the spiral staircase. She stood flush against the wall, hiding from the spy hole and rang the bell.
No answer.
Pia tried again. Again there was no reply, or movement behind the door. The echoes of the bell rang up and down the three-storey building. Gingerly, Pia lifted the flap of the letterbox and peered inside. She could see the legs of the hall table, but not the mat. She could definitely remember Anni’s parents having a beautiful old red rug running the length of the hall. Though she couldn’t see very far through the narrow opening, she knew there was no one inside. She could feel its emptiness.
‘I wonder where they all are,’ she whispered to Heikki.
‘What are we doing here?’ Heikki whispered back.
Pia said nothing. She was thinking. They heard a door opening at the other end of the floor. An elderly man in a dark green wool coat and felt hat came out of the door.
‘Good evening,’ he said.
‘Evening,’ Pia and Heikki said.
‘You won’t find anyone there,’ the man said, nodding his head towards Anni’s door.
‘Oh?’
‘Left for Moscow yesterday. An urgent assignment, they said.’
‘Who said that? Mr Linnonmaa?’ Pia asked.
‘No, they had two foreign chaps doing the moving for them. Didn’t see the Linnonmaas at all, actually. Must have travelled ahead.’
The man stood looking at Pia and Heikki. Suddenly Pia realised he was expecting them to leave the apartment block. She nudged Heikki and smiled to the man. They went down the spiral staircase and out into the cold street.
‘Hello!’
Pia heard someone shout from the other side of the street. She watched as Sasha ran towards them.
‘Did you tell her to follow us?’ she said to Heikki.
Heikki was looking at his feet, ‘Of course not.’
Pia could have hit him. Instead she put on a false smile. Sasha stood in front of them, panting.
‘What are you doing here?’
Sasha looked from Heikki to Pia. ‘It’s a free country, isn’t it?’
‘Hi,’ Heikki said feebly.
Pia didn’t speak.
‘My aunt lives on Tehtaankatu, if you must know. She’s just had a baby.’
Pia considered this lie. She knew Sasha lived in a big house in Meilahti, the other side of town. She’d never seen her around Ullanlinna.
‘The point is: what are you two doing here, hanging around Anni’s apartment?’ Sasha looked triumphant.
Heikki gave Pia a sideways glance, and said, ‘Oh, you know, we were just having a ciggie, thinking we’d ask Anni to come out.’ He put his arm proprietarily around Pia’s waist. She smiled, but could not help wondering how Sasha knew where Anni lived. She was glad Heikki hadn’t spilled the beans, though.
Sasha looked at them and said, ‘Oh.’ On tiptoe, she moved closer to Heikki and whispered into his ear, ‘Give me a call later.’
Pia was furious. She watched Sasha’s pink down jacket turn the corner of Tehtaankatu.
‘What was that all about?’
‘Dunno.’
‘Did she really think I wouldn’t hear what she said when I was standing right next to you?’
Heikki didn’t reply. Pia wanted to ask if he often spoke to Sasha on the telephone in the evenings, but they had to hurry. Pia knew the Russian would not be far away, and now they’d shown themselves twice outside Anni’s house. Pia told Heikki to run to the door and hide by the entrance. She looked around. The street was quiet, only a drunk in the distance talking to himself and holding a bottle. She followed Heikki to the door of the block of flats.
‘Quickly, you know what to do.’
Heikki looked at Pia, his eyes wide. They were both tense.
‘We can’t trick a second person. C’mon before anybody sees us,’ she said, and added, ‘Don’t tell me you don’t know how to do this?’
‘You’re incredible,’ Heikki said. He removed something that looked like a thin silver knife from his school bag. He pushed the implement into the lock, and wiggled it about for a while. Pia looked down the stairwell through the glass door. No one.
‘There you are, Madam!’ Heikki said triumphantly. He opened the door for Pia and they went inside. The door locked behind them.
This time the stairwell was quiet, and even Heikki managed to walk noiselessly up the stone steps. Outside Anni’s door they stood for a moment and listened.
‘I suppose you want me to undo this lock too?’ Heikki whispered.
Pia gave him a look. It took him a lot longer this time, there seemed to be something slipping inside the lock. Eventually on the third try, the mechanism caught and the door opened.
The flat was cold. Some furniture had been removed, like the rug, and a lamp, but it looked as it always did when Pia came to visit. The lights were on in the hall. Why hadn’t she seen their reflection from the street? All the curtains must be drawn, she thought. She went into the kitchen. Heikki followed. She put the light on. This window overlooked the inner courtyard, and she hoped, if the Russian was watching them, he wouldn’t see the light from the outside. The kitchen was neat and tidy, just as it had been after the KGB left on Wednesday night. Pia looked inside cupboards, nothing seemed out of place. She walked slowly into the room where she’d been held together with Anni and her father. The small table was there, and the bed, covered with a lace bedspread. Just as she remembered it. The dusty smell of the room made her shiver.
Pia went back into the kitchen. Heikki wasn’t there. She heard a door shut and followed the sound into Mr Linnonmaa’s study. It was the third door on the left in the hall. She’d seen him come out of the room many times carrying a bundle of papers, but had never been inside. Pia saw Heikki bent over something. He was looking into one of the drawers of Mr Linnonmaa’s large desk. A lamp on top of it was lit. Pia saw the heavy curtains were indeed drawn.
‘What are you doing?’ she said.
Heikki jumped up. Pia realised he hadn’t heard her come in. She saw the silver thing he’d used to open the door to the apartment lying on the desk. Heikki grabbed it quickly and shut the drawer. He looked fleetingly at Pia. ‘Oh, nothing, just wondered if we’d find out where they’ve gone.’
Pia looked at Heikki’s face. He was lying. Why?
‘What do you have to do with all this?’
‘Nothing, I’m just helping you, remember?’ Heikki put his arm around Pia. He turned off the lamp on the desk. The room descended into darkness and Heikki started kissing Pia. ‘Not now, we have to make sure no one’s here!’ Pia said. She turned towards the thin strip of light showing under the door.