Silence is Golden

            by Megan Hourula

 

            Kissa. KEY-sa. Matti had been saying the word so much that it no longer sounded right. Kissa. He pulled into the parking lot that was just to the right of the Finnish Hall. Lodge 21 was built in 1932 and his great grandfather was one of the founding members of the brotherhood. His great grandfather had also been a member of the roskaväki. Matti’s own father renounced the roskaväki when it was his time to join, which gave way to hard times for his family, who already had little influence with The Family. Getting out of his white 1988 Corolla he looked at the rows of black cars surrounding him: Mercedes, BMWs and town cars. Matti sighed remembering there was a reason he couldn’t forget Kissa. He wanted in and for the first time it seemed like they wanted him too.

            The hall was plain, you could tell by the dirty grey paint that covered the building. The color of the trim and doors were both blue but they didn’t match and that bothered Matti. As though someone was watching he walked to the side door that opened up to the parking lot and led to the basement. He looked up to the apartment addition where the caretakers lived and saw the light was on. He could hear the music from the Chinese circle dancing group that met every Thursday night. All kinds of groups met in the Hall making it the perfect front. Matti had spent the last 6 months in Helsinki, Finland. He was very happy to be in warmer weather. He knocked on the wooden door three times and heard the a muffled “yes?” come through the door.

            “Matti Ahonen.” Matti’s voice cracked. The door opened to a room of about five men, one laughing while the rest remained expressionless continuing their conversation. While the elders still preferred Finnish, they mostly spoke English at their meetings. Matti muttered a small apology for interrupting and found a spot on the wall to lean against. Matti hadn’t been in this room since his grandfather was alive. The large room connected to an industrial style kitchen reminded him of the days he would hide from his mother in the cabinets under the sink. The men sat around a folding table in folding chairs, the counter that  closed off the kitchen was covered with coffee cups. The man leading the discussion was Janne Hautamaeki, he was talking quietly and fast to the head of the roskaväki,  Timo Lahtinen. It had been Lahtinen who had sent him to Finland.  Antti and Anssi Autti, brothers, sat next to each other listening and nodding but their expressions remaining blank. The Autti brothers were the muscle and frightened Matti more then he would like to admit. The man who had laughed at Matti was the only one to acknowledge he was there. Markku Kalle approached him. “So, welcome back!” Markku said laughing. “You feel welcomed?”

            “I don’t really know,” Matti responded. While not one for small talk, he didn’t dare cross the line and ask what was going on. Markku continued to stare at him.

            “Hautamaeki thinks something is up, you know,  he thinks that someone is a traitor. He says someone has been helping to lead away our customers and ruin our business, you know. Thinks, maybe, there’s a conspiracy.” Matti was happy to get some information though it only lead him to more worries. It was them who had sent him on the trip, surely they didn’t think he was the traitor?

            “Ahonen!” Timo called him over. “ Matti, welcome back. You have a good time?” Matti nodded. “We have been having problems since you left. The market for saunas has never been hotter nor has it been hotter.” Only Markku laughed at the joke. “You see while the demand has been going up, so has police suspicion. You find that while you can keep some of the officers in you pocket you can’t keep all of them and they have made clear their goal of shutting down our little operation. They say the black market on saunas has to end. If that weren’t bad enough, Janne says there is someone who betrays our business.  My cousin tells me you have done good work in Helsinki and that I should welcome back into the roskaväki. So, I give you a job.  You and Markku are gonna figure this.”  With that Timo dismissed them. They looked to Janne for more information.

“Check on Johnny,” was all they got.

            When Markku and Matti walked into Spangers they didn’t have a plan. The idea was to get Johnny to confess to everything, and hopefully without any violence. The restaurant was nothing like Matti remembered. The building appeared newer and gave the impression that it was looking for a new class of people, it had been very long since he had last eaten there. They headed straight for the back room where they knew Johnny would be with his boys. Johnny wasn’t the most intelligent guy, but he knew how to lead and was always trying to get more territory. “ Markku, mieluinen” Johnny greeted with a grunt. Then noticing Matti, asked who he was.

            “Johnny this Matti, just got back from working in Helsinki. Timo had him working with his cousin, you know.”

            “Yeah, that so? Well what brings you here?” Markku looked to Matti to join in, but Matti just looked away. He had no interest in saying anything, not yet.

            “Well buddy, you know, we’ve been havin’ some troubles lately. You see we ain’t been getting a lot of our shipments, you know.  There is some concern up top of foul play. See, when we can’t provide our saunas, how we gonna make money, you know?”

            “yeah, what’s that got to do with me? We on the same side last I checked.”

            “Oh, I know that and Matti here knows that, but others are getting suspicious. We felt that you deserved a fair warning, you know, being that we’re such good friends. Ain’t that right Matti?” Matti who had been slouching behind Markku moved closer to Johnny and nodded.  Reading the look in Johnny’s eyes, he could tell he wasn’t understanding and so he decided it was time to clarify.

            “Johnny, now I been gone a while and maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t it you who watches over the Marina? Hasn’t Timo given you run of the place down there? Don’t you see, if the fishing boat that used to carry the shipments ain’t bringing them in anymore, they are going to look to the guy in charge. See what he’s doing wrong. We just wanna help you out.” Johnny was begging to look nervous. He tried explaining that he would never do anything against the roskaväki. And that he didn’t control what cargo the fishing boats pick up or lost while out in the waters. Johnny was trying to end the conversation.

            They had gone there to scare out a confession, but Johnny wasn’t biting. Matti figured even if it was him, he wasn’t smart enough to get what they were playing at. They would need to find their own evidence.  As they left Johnny told them that he appreciated them looking out for him and would see what he could do to help them find their guy.  After, Markku checked in with the leadership and they were told to go stay at the Hall till they got news.

            It was late when Matti got the call from one of the Antti brothers, he couldn’t tell which one.   He told Matti that they had intercepted a message about the missing shipments signed by a guy named Karl and it was in Swedish. It looked like Johnny was off the hook, he could barely speak the one language and would deal with the Russians before going anywhere near the Swedish. But that didn’t explain why Johnny had acted so shifty. The brother, explained that they didn’t know where it was going but it was coming from, this restaurant in north Berkeley. Without saying another word, Matti understood that he and Markku were to leave, now.

            Matti hated that they always took his car, it was old and smelled bad, plus Markku had a driver.  It seemed the more time Matti spent with Markku the more he talked. Matti tried not to listen to the noise coming out out his mouth, the jokes he told, the way he laughed, how he had to talk to everyone they met and always had something else to say. All Matti could do to keep from screaming was to think about how Markku could help him find the Swede. As he tried to ignore him he heard Markku say, “ then I quoted him, you know, and said, ‘I ran for myself, not Finland.’ Oh the guys really got a kick out of that, you know, what's his name... oh Paul Norman or something.”

“Paavo Nurmi” Matti said without thinking.

“What?”

“Paavo Nurmi said that.  Every Finn knows that.”

“Yeah, I guess they do.” Markku Kalle replied laughing. 

“Yeah they do.”  Matti had figured it out. Kalle was Finnish for Karl. He glanced at Markku through the corner of his eye and wondered if he knew that he knew. His question was answered when he felt the barrel of a gun jabbed into his stomach and heard the voice once so joyful, bark,

            “Eyes forward, keep driving!”  Matti did as he was told. The adrenaline was making it hard for him to focus as his hands shook. Markku laughed thinking it was fear, maybe he was right, Matti couldn’t tell anymore. His mind racing he needed something to say anything. It made sense, that is was Markku. He talked more then he should and willing showed more emotions then you average Finn. They were getting close to the restaurant and didn’t talk a genius to realize that once the car stopped he’d soon be sleeping with the kala.

            “So you fooled everyone didn’t you?” Matti spit out the words as he thought them. He could expect Markku to take enough time replying to not notice him getting lost.

            “Ha, well when you’re good you’re good. I have been stealing their business for years and they only just noticed. It’s funny really when you think about it. Ha. Of course all I really been trying to do is get that damn password. It’d mean a complete take over of the Sauna market if I could ruin their business. I’d like that.”

            Matti heard himself say, “I know the password.” And he felt the gun dig deeper into his side.

            “Don't lie to me!” Markku shouted, though his eyes betrayed him. He was going to listen to anything Matti told him. Matti thought about, how did he know the password but Markku didn’t? Matti just figured that Markku’s loose lips betrayed more then he knew.

            “Yes, it is a new one, I just got it from Timo’s cousin. He gave it to me as a way in, to show Timo  I could  be trusted.” Matti knew that now he would be expected to tell him the password. Markku’s eyes had been so focused on Matti that he hadn’t realized where they were now headed through a red light in the middle of a busy intersection. When Markku heard the honking he looked around and saw the giant SUV coming right at him. He dropped the gun in fear and looked to yell at Matti who was diving out of the car, leaving Markku.