The duty officer reported that the last time he had tried Kinnunen’s apartment, he had reached my boss’s new girlfriend. She had told him that Kinnunen was sitting on the esplanade on the patio of the Belle Époque Kappeli Café in the company of four pints. We had long since lost track of how many times we had been forced to cover for Kinnunen’s dereliction of duty and no longer even bothered cursing him anymore. Rane and I just decided to get down to business without him so we wouldn’t have to keep people hanging around the station all evening. I decided to interview the choir members in alphabetical order since I couldn’t come up with anything more sensible. I planned to ask the questions while Rane took notes. It was clear that he wasn’t going to be much help with the case. He was already checking out in anticipation of a Monday morning with no alarm clock and the opportunity to purge his mind of all the cares of the world. But Rane would still hear what the witnesses had to say, and I’d be able to get at least a few initial impressions from him before he disappeared for his vacation.
