Page 18 of In the Bones
“It’s a bizarre situation,” Tim conceded. “We’re hoping you can help us work some things out.” Tim, Mac noticed, was treading carefully, conscious of keeping accusations at bay. This was one of the things Mac respected most about Investigator Tim Wellington: until someone disappointed him by proving themselves to be guilty, Tim didn’t cast blame. If it turned out Mikko Helle was a murderer, well. There would be time for contempt down the line.
“I didn’t even know there was a crawlspace,” Mikko said. “And I definitely did not know there were human bones inside. Do I need someone special to clean that up?” The man wrinkled his nose. “The house is supposed to feel like new.”
If the man was playing dumb, the act was convincing. It looked to Mac like he was processing what Tim had just told him for the first time. Picturing a dead body in his basement, undiscovered for months. The idea of that clearly disgusted him on multiple levels, this fastidious Finnish athlete in his lustrous house. The presence of the phrogger was disarming,sure, but those bones? That was a hard truth, and a difficult reality to accept.
Unless he’d had months of practice because he’d known the body was there all along.
“What about the intruder?” Tim asked. “Did you have any inkling that someone was hiding in your house?”
Mikko shook his head. “Eva said she heard some noises when we showered after swimming. She mentioned it yesterday too. I thought she must be imagining it. Old houses, yes? The intruder, this stranger who was in my ceiling, she killed someone?”
“The investigation is ongoing. Does the name Jenny Smith mean anything to you?”
“No. I don’t know anyone with that name.”
“You sure about that?” asked Tim. “She told us we should talk to you about the bones.”
“What? No. I told you, I don’t know anything.”
“Have you ever had a run-in with a stalker?”
“No,” he said again. “Sometimes people get in my face online, but that’s all. You think someone’s obsessed with me? That woman in the walls?” The idea seemed to please him.
Tim said, “The perpetrator claims she was only here four days, and the remains are much older than that. When exactly did you buy this property, Mr. Helle?”
“Last September. It was right before Labor Day.”
“September,” Tim repeated. “We’ll need your realtor’s name, and the names of everyone who worked on the renovation.”
“OK, yes. Whatever you need. Did you talk with Nicole?”
Mac had been working hard to remain invisible, a fly on the wall not worthy of a glance, but at the mention of her sister, the leg of the stool she was sitting on scraped the floor, the sound echoing through the room.
Tim’s eyes flicked to Mac, but Mikko didn’t notice, or perhaps he didn’t care. “We’re talking to everyone,” Tim went on. “You said this is your summer place?”
“I have a condo in D.C.’s West End. New construction. Beautiful building.”
A source of pride, clearly. Mikko seemed to care a lot about material things.
Mac could sense the effort it took for Tim not to roll his eyes. “I’ll need you to take a look around,” he said. “Make sure nothing of value has been stolen.”
“Yeah, all right. Of course.”
“Then I’ll need to know the dates of all the trips you took up here, from your first visit to this one. I’m afraid you’ll need to extend your hotel stay a little longer,” Tim told Mikko Helle. “This house is currently a crime scene.”
SEVENTEEN
Mac
“Charming, that one,” Mac said dryly once the interview was done and Mikko Helle, his girlfriend, and the Tesla had gone back to their hotel.
“Oh, I think it’s refreshing.” A smile tugged at Shana’s lips. “It isn’t every day someone offers you an autograph during an interrogation.”
“Maybe I should have accepted. Is it worth anything?” Tim asked, feigning interest. “Our house could use a paint job …”
They were out on Mikko’s back deck, and the moment of levity was welcome. Mac knew where Tim was headed next. Any minute now, Nicole would be leaving her house for the state police station to give her formal statement. Mac couldn’t stop thinking about what might have happened if Nicole had spent more time at the house, in close proximity to Mikko Helle, or the phrogger, or whoever left a woman in the cellar to rot.
“I think we need to eliminate the possibility that this is all hockey-related,” said Tim. “He was a high-profile athlete for a while. He’s young and wealthy, and not shy about it. News about that kind of thing gets around in small communities like this one.”
