Pia was crying. Iain was now by Pia’s side and had taken the gun out of her hand. He saw the safety catch was still on.
‘Throw it overboard,’ Kovtun said.
The Russian was fumbling in his pocket. Bloody hell, didn’t they take away his gun, Iain thought. He threw his own gun away and pulled Pia down to the deck. He covered the girl’s head and his own underneath his arms and waited for the shot.
Instead Iain heard a strange moan. He looked up. Kovtun was struggling with his left hand. It had stuck to the frozen guardrail. He was swearing in Russian, pulling at his left wrist and waving the gun in his right hand. His eyes darted from the frozen hand to Iain and Pia. He raised the gun again to aim at them. Iain saw Kovtun’s foot was inside the loop of a rope that reached up to Iain. He leapt up and pulled at it. The Russian lost his balance. He toppled slowly and the gun flew out of his hand into the air. The heavy bulk of Kovtun’s body started to lean over the side of the ship and his frame disappeared unto the dark. There was a loud splash.
Suddenly the quarterdeck was quiet and empty.
‘Did you kill him?’ Pia whispered.
Iain looked around him. Faint voices came from around the ship but no one had come down to the quarterdeck. He picked up his own gun and walked slowly up to the missing section of the guardrail. A frozen piece of flesh stuck to the rail. The dark water below looked deep and undisturbed.
‘They’re going to find him.’ Iain said, almost to himself.
Pia put her hand in his and said, ‘Not until the ice melts in the spring, and by then he might have drifted back to Russia.’
24
Next morning the weather turned. The temperature was just below freezing and Pia left her hat and scarf at home. She’d decided to go to school even though her mother tried to convince her to stay away for a day. ‘After everything you’ve been through, you need a day’s rest!’ But Pia wanted to get back to normal and her mother didn’t insist. Unusually, she didn’t mention the absence of the hat and scarf either.
The world looked different when Pia stepped out of the flat. The snow had started to melt, and there were dark brown puddles of slosh and sand on the pavements as she walked up to the tram stop alone. Maija took another day off work. Iain had stayed the night with them. He was still in bed when Pia and Maija were drinking coffee in the kitchen. That was another reason Pia wanted to go to school. She didn’t need to be there when Maija and Iain ‘discussed things’. Pia realised she’d stopped worrying about what he meant to her mother. If her mother wanted to marry, that was her affair. Soon Pia would be going to university and moving away from home anyway. She’d talk to Anni about that today. Of course, Pia wanted to see Heikki too. Though what she’d say to him she didn’t know.
The classroom was quiet when Pia walked in. Everybody watched her. She looked past the staring eyes of her classmates to the back of the room. When she saw Anni’s smiling face, she ran up to her and hugged her.
‘I’ve got so much to tell you,’ she whispered.
‘Later,’ Anni replied.
Pia sat down at her desk and turned around. Heikki was sitting with his legs up on the desk in front of him, balancing the chair against the back wall. He grinned stupidly at Pia. She nodded and turned back to face the front of the classroom. She was leaning over to Anni to ask her where they’d go after the class, when the Old Crow walked in.
The teacher looked deadly serious. Pia glanced behind her and saw how Heikki brought his chair back to the ground with a loud bang.
‘I have some sad news to tell you this morning. Miss Joutila, one of our most respected physical education teachers has been severely injured and is in hospital. I would like you each to write to Miss Joutila, to cheer her up.’
As Pia and Anni walked out of the classroom, Heikki ran after them. ‘Can I come with you?’
Pia looked at Anni. She nodded. Their next class would have been with Miss Joutila, so they had a free period followed by lunch.
‘Sure,’ Pia said.
The hospital was a few tram stops further up into Töölö. Heikki and Anni were reading the names of the wards on a huge sign. But Pia went straight up to a desk and said, ‘My aunt is here, a Leena Joutila, can I see her?’ A nurse in a white uniform took them to the lifts and showed them down a long corridor.
Miss Joutila was sitting up in bed in a large room on her own. A window overlooked the hospital car park and a row of flats. She had bandages on her arms and a funny-looking neck brace. Her face looked red and sore. Pia shivered. What had the Russian done to her?
At first Pia didn’t think Miss Joutila recognized them. She looked at the nurse blankly when she said her niece had come to visit her. But as Pia, Anni and Heikki moved closer, Miss Joutila waved her free arm at the nurse and pulled her face into a faint smile. The gesture seemed to hurt and she grimaced instead.
Pia sat on a chair close to Miss Joutila’s bed, ‘Can you talk?’
‘You’re a good girl, Pia.’ Miss Joutila took hold of Pia’s hand and Pia saw how tears started running down her face.
‘It’s alright, Miss Joutila. He’s not coming back.’
Miss Joutila was silent for a long time. Her face was pale, apart from a couple of red patches on her cheeks and forehead. There was a deep gash on her jaw.
Heikki and Anni said, almost at the same time, ‘What do you mean?’
Pia looked over to the door and got up to shut it.
‘Kovtun has gone. I saw him fall overboard on the ship before it sailed,’ she whispered when back at her seat by Miss Joutila’s bed.
Everybody stared at Pia.
‘He killed that poor woman…’ Miss Joutila started sobbing, ‘and it’s my fault.’
Pia thought how brave Miss Joutila had been after all. Iain had told her she’d tried to save Pia when Kovtun had drugged her, only to be beaten up by the Russian herself. She was only saved by a passing car, which had disturbed Kovtun enough for him to leave Leena to die in the cold. It was a miracle she’d been able drag herself to the main road where the police had found her.
The door opened and the nurse came in. She went to wipe Miss Joutila’s eyes and face with a white cloth.
‘Now, now,’ she said and turned to give Pia a stern look, ‘this won’t do. You mustn’t upset your aunt so!’ Her severe dark eyes met each of them in turn. ‘I think you’d better go.’
Pia looked at Miss Joutila and said, ‘I’m really glad to see you, Leena.’
Miss Joutila tried to smile and squeezed Pia’s hand. Pia wanted to hug her, but was afraid the nurse would tell her off, or that she would hurt Miss Joutila.
‘Get better soon,’ Pia shouted from the door, ‘I need to practise my back flip!’ Pia heard a gurgling sound from the room as she closed it after her. What do you know, the gym teacher had a sense of humour too! She took hold of Anni’s arm and walked up to Heikki.
‘Rixi Bar?’ she said.
They sat in a corner table at the coffee place. Anni bought cinnamon buns. While Pia watched Heikki eat two in quick succession, Anni spoke in a low voice.
‘My Dad says the Soviet Embassy hasn’t said a word about Kovtun. Just that they’re making some routine staff changes.’
‘What does that mean?’ Heikki said with his mouth full of food.
‘They’re sending the current people to Siberia and replacing them with more reliable ones.’
‘Is that good or bad for Finland?’ Pia asked.
Anni shrugged her shoulders. ‘They’re all bad.’
Pia looked at her friend. She wanted to tell her how worried she’d been about her, but something stopped her. Perhaps Anni would always be alright and Pia should instead worry about herself. She was the only person who could make her own dreams come true. She smiled at Heikki who was reaching for the last of the cinnamon buns.