thing, half the force is busy making raids and arrests.”
He nods. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that tomorrow instead of coming out here.”
My phone rings. It’s Ai. “You asked for regular reports,” he says. “We’ve done thorough investigative work, and I have a comprehensive report for you.”
“Do you have dependable encrypted electronic gear?”
“No.”
“I’d like to come to your place at five thirty tomorrow morning. Is that acceptable?”
“Yes. That way, I won’t be late for school.” He rings off.
Now I bring up an uncomfortable but unavoidable subject. “I don’t know about killing Jan Pitkänen.”
Milo shuts off the engine. “You fucking hypocritical son of a bitch.” I’m sitting down. He takes a swing at me—with his bad hand and at my shot jaw—but I move my head and his fist goes by me. He pulls it together and doesn’t try again.
“I said something to you once about Sweetness killing a man. You called me a weak sob sister and told me to quit my whining. Pitkänen tried to kill your wife and child, and murdered my cousin—who never hurt a fly—and you’re having second thoughts. You’re supposed to be in charge here, but I’ve had to plan everything, do everything, and Sweetness and I are taking most of the risk. You’re telling me you can’t even do one simple fucking thing?”
He’s right, I’m a hypocrite. “Let’s just say I’m conflicted about it. I think when the people supporting him are dead, he’ll fade into the woodwork and leave us be. I’m thinking about buying him off.”
“This is about Kate, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess it mostly is.”
“Well, I saved her fucking life, not you. You think I don’t care about her? As long as that prick lives, she’s in danger. Let me put it this way: He’s dead. If you don’t kill him and I have to, we’re through. I’ll never speak to you again.”
“If I do and Kate finds out, my marriage is over.”
“I swear to you, after the fact, we’ll never talk about it again, even amongst ourselves. Kate will never know. You seem to keep forgetting that these people want to kill us and your family. Wouldn’t you rather lose Kate than see her and Anu murdered? Which course of action demonstrates your love for them more?”
He’s right. “I just want out. I don’t want any more blood, any more deaths.”
He lights one cigarette off the other. “You decided to play this game. You can’t just quit when you want to. Grow up.”
“And we play for blood.”
“That’s right. We play for blood.”
Milo will do it if I don’t, so Pitkänen’s dead either way. And Milo saved Kate. And I owe him a debt for that act of true friendship so large that I can never repay it. “You win. I’ll do it. But that means I have to know when and where. You should tell me everything about your plan.”
“I thought you don’t want to know the whole plan so you keep your hands clean, keep the guilt off your conscience, or whatever ‘weak sob sister’ shit is holding you back.”
“I already have a guilty conscience and blood on my hands. Killing Pitkänen doesn’t make much difference in that regard. Sweetness will do whatever you tell him. I think it would be good for you to tell me the plan, so I can play devil’s advocate and look for holes in it. If you make even the smallest mistake, you’ll be caught.”
We sit out on deck in the morning sun. It looks to be another perfect summer day. He begins. “We abduct Roope Malinen and drive him to his summer cottage in his own car . . .”
I stop him. “How will you know the right time? He has to be alone. He might have his family with him or friends visiting. It’s vacation season. Even your first move has unpredictable variables in it.”
He lights a smoke. I could chain-smoke a pack right now and follow suit.
“Any ideas?” he asks.
I think for a couple minutes. “Yeah. He loves social media. Maybe he’ll give you his itinerary. Follow his blog, Facebook and Twitter posts. See what comes of it.”
Milo grins. He hasn’t done that much lately. “Good idea. Of course, I already have his and his wife’s vehicles GPSed.”
“When you abduct him,” I say, “you can’t use restraints that mark him. If his wrists are chafed, it’s a dead giveaway that he was set up.”
“Good point.”
I get a beer from the cooler. I can’t remember the last time I