Death Spiral by Leena Lehtolainen

looked around, but then collapsed back to sit on the bed. Sweat still beaded on his face, and his eyes were glued to the floor.
    There was no point trying to get him to answer any questions. The only thing he was willing to say was that he had nothing to say. I didn’t know what to do. Even though I had a hard time believing Janne was guilty of Noora’s murder, he was acting exactly as if he were guilty. And he was clearly disturbed—leaving him alone could be dangerous. Should we call Taskinen and ask how to proceed? No. I had to make these decisions myself. If I ever became head of the unit, I wouldn’t be able to lean on anyone else. We were going to need an arrest warrant from a detective lieutenant, though.
    “Gather your things,” I finally told Janne. “We’re going to the police station to continue this.”
    “Did you hear what Sergeant Kallio said?” Koivu snapped when Janne didn’t react. “We also need your car keys to send them for analysis.”
    Now Janne looked me straight in the eyes for the first time. “What’s going on? Are you arresting me? I’m not going anywhere unless you carry me.”
    “You have the right to counsel during your interrogation. Would you like to call a lawyer now?” I asked, trying to stay calm. I didn’t want to drag Janne off to jail by force. I preferred to scare him into talking.
    When he didn’t make a move to stand up and get dressed, I opened a wardrobe door, where I found socks and shirts. I handed Janne a green sweater and black socks and ordered him to dress. Not answering, he just sat motionless and stared at the floor.
    During my entire police career, there had been only a couple of situations in which I’d been this at a loss. Part of me said that arresting Janne was an extremely bad idea, since there wasn’t really any evidence he’d played a part in Noora’s death. But refusing to cooperate at all was strange, although it could have been a result of the shock at hearing the news of Noora’s death.
    But I was getting angry and I wanted to go home.
    “Then we’ll dress you. I’ll count it as practice, although you’re a bit big for a baby,” I said and started pulling the socks onto Janne’s long-toed feet. The situation was absurd. Of course I had undressed drunks and conducted strip searches on all manner of misfits, but Janne was handsome enough that touching him embarrassed me. Fortunately Koivu came over and put Janne’s sweater over his head while I grabbed a pair of deck shoes and a jacket from the entryway.
    “The car keys,” I said. “And anything else you want to take with you.”
    Janne didn’t react, so I told Koivu to search Janne’s jacket pockets, and there were the keys, along with the keys to the apartment, which I also collected. I asked Janne to stand, but he had been serious about not leaving without being carried.
    “Should I get the handcuffs from the car?” Koivu finally asked. Luckily no one else was present to witness the sorriest arrest I had ever made. Koivu sometimes trusted a little too much in my ability to handle things.
    “Oh, we can manage him without,” I said and lifted Janne by the shoulders.
    “Goddamn it, don’t try to lift him in your condition!” Koivu bellowed with surprising anger in his voice, then grabbed Janne and jerked him to his feet. Koivu was a couple of inches taller than Janne and thirty pounds heavier, and although I was small and pregnant, lifting a third of Janne’s weight was not an issue. Ultimately he gave in enough that he started moving his legs, and we were able to get him down to the car with some of his—and our—dignity intact. Koivu sat next to him in the backseat. When we turned onto the Turku Highway, to my surprise Janne started to talk.
    “On what basis am I being arrested and my car being searched?”
    I told him about the red Nissan Micra that had been seen in the parking garage around the time Noora’s body was dumped. When he heard this, he gave an