Free The Hummingbird by Kati Hiekkapelto

that odd?’
‘What?’
‘That they didn’t visit you together.’
‘Not at all. I’ve only thought of it now. Jere never visited us anyway. I’d always felt that he would find any excuse not to come whenever possible. Perhaps he was shy. It was disappointing, of course. Juhani had always wanted a golfing partner, but Jere wasn’t interested in things like that. So it’s hard to say whether it was out of the ordinary or not. I doubt it. Surely we would have noticed if something had really been off kilter. Wouldn’t we, Juhani?’
‘I would say so. They were doing just fine. Now we’ll never know what would have happened when Riikka moved to Jyväskylä. I’d assumed the relationship would have gradually fizzled out.’
Juhani’s voice broke.
Irmeli stood up and went into the bedroom. When she returned she handed Anna a photograph, her hands trembling. Smiling back at her in the photograph was a chubby-cheeked girl, a high-school graduation hat upon her shoulder-length, chestnut hair, a bunch of roses in her hands. She was looking straight at the camera. Her eyes were greyish blue, lightly made up, and there was a sense of determination in her somewhat introverted expression. Her lips were full and beautiful. This was the face that had been destroyed. Like all young girls’ faces, it was pretty and attractive. Anna could feel her throat tightening.
‘She was going to move next week. We’d booked the van and everything,’ said Irmeli quietly, her voice frozen and impassive.
When the dam finally breaks, there will be no shoring it up again, thought Anna. Suddenly she felt how much she missed her own mother.
 
When she arrived back in town, Sari asked Anna to join her at the gym in the police station. Because she only had two hours of her shift left, Anna was happy to go. One of the advantages of being a police officer was the opportunity to dedicate exactly that amount of working time to sports activities every week. Today was a day offfrom her running schedule, so a good weight-training session would do her a world of good. She wanted to get to know Sari, a woman who seemed the complete opposite of Esko: funny, relaxed, sporty and tolerant.
In the changing rooms Anna stole a few glances at her colleague’s athletic body. She was tall and muscular without being too sculpted. In a word, she was handsome. It was hard to believe that two children had stretched her stomach and dangled from her breasts. Women generally started to sag. Sari had the fair complexion and toned body of a Viking goddess.
‘How old are your children?’ asked Anna.
It was always safe to start talking about someone’s children. People loved talking about their own children, as long as they were smart and well behaved and lived up to their parents’ expectations without making a fuss.
Sari’s eyes lit up. ‘Two, and three and a half.’
‘Still so young. Did you adopt them? You don’t look like you were pregnant only a couple of years ago.’
Sari laughed, clearly flattered.
‘I didn’t put on weight with either or them, though I ate like a horse all the time. I must have a phenomenal metabolism or something. And I’ve always done a lot of sport, and Pilates three times a week while I was pregnant.’
‘Wow. Are they girls or boys?’
‘One of each. Siiri and Tobias.’
‘How do you do it? Such young kids and a job like this to boot?’
‘I get along just fine, actually. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but we have a nanny at home – it’s an absolute must. Though the kids are still young enough that sometimes I don’t sleep all that much. Still, I don’t really spend time wondering whether I’ll manage or not. I sleep whenever I get the opportunity. I can fall asleep anywhere and everywhere.’
‘Now I’m envious! If only I could do that. What does your husband do?’
‘Teemu is an engineer; he’s always away on business. Thank God I don’t do nights, and I’m almost always free on weekends; Virkkunen and I have