46. Miko the policeman

I think I have said it before but it is so strange when the victim of some kind of injustice is close to do comparing it with similar cases you hear or read in the papers. When you read about domestic violence victims in the newspaper you have the luxury to have feelings, to get angry to react one way or another, even to hate. But when it comes to somebody close to you and when you are able to see the immediate results of this kind of violence then you are numb and you think everything else except what makes sense, the logical.

So despite the fact my logic was telling me that the police should know it never crossed my mind to pick my mobile telephone and call the police or find a way to take her to a hospital so a doctor could examine her face and basically make a report that would again lead to the police. Somebody had to stop the man and what was unbelievable that neither me nor Leena who knew what was going on we were doing anything, we were standing there watching and bringing every time …a glass of water!

Leena came out of her room while I was battling with my self on my next move and she said with a very low voice “I called the police!” I was relived, she had finally taken the decision that it was enough. I asked her if we should get ready to go to the police station, “No, Miko is coming here!” Miko? I thought you called the police! I had no idea who Miko was but my mind went to all the Mikos I knew and none of them was a policeman, “Miko, who lives on the third floor.” I was confused and she understood it. “Miko on the third floor is a policeman and he will tell me what to do.” And before I say anything the doorbell rang and she went to open the door.

Of course I knew Miko and of course I knew he was a policeman, after all I had seen him a lot of times in his uniform but another strange thing when you are in similar situations, you never think clear and Miko never crossed my mind. The weird thing is that we often meet in the small community road and we chat for a few minutes, Miko likes long walks that sometime last twenty and thirty kilometres something that I always joke about. But as I said it never crossed my mind to tell him everything and ask for his help. But then again he must have heard something all this time, Juha had been anything but quiet in this neighbourhood.

After Miko said a quiet hello to me Leena sat on the sofa and Miko on the other side of the table and she started telling him everything in Finnish. Finns have a very unique attitude towards authority – any kind of authority – that I have to admit I never seen before. They fear and respect authority the same time and Leena would tell Miko who that moment was not her neighbour but a policeman, the truth and nothing than the truth. Apparently she would tell him everything with every single detail.

As I said the whole conversation was in Finnish but I could sense that Miko was going through a battle inside him, it was the professional who had build the necessary cynicism after all these cases he had got involved, cases with much worse ends than this tonight and the same time he was opposite a person he knew and if I remember well had taken care of his wife when she was ill. But the professional soon won and he started here and then interrupting with question and that lasted for more than an hour. In the end he took a notebook out of his pocket and kept some notes.

Then he turned to me, “Did you see anything?” Well I haven’t seen anything but I explain how I came to be in the house, about the scream and embarrassed I admitted that past events had made me conscious with Leena’s problem. He didn’t say anything, probably he understood exactly what I was trying to say. “If we need, will you come as a witness?” I answered yes without hesitation or second thoughts and he turned again to Leena to continue their conversation. Only this time he was doing most of the talking, obviously he was giving instructions.

“Are you staying here for tonight?” Miko question caught off guard, I had never thought of that actually I had never thought that Juha might return and this could turned to something more dangerous. I was ready to answer when Leena said something in Finnish and Miko just nodded. She can stay in my place, and they both gave me a light smile continuing their conversation in Finnish. And then after a bit Miko stood up and got ready to leave putting his notebook back to his jacket’s outside pocket.

“Do you want some coffee?” Leena asked me after Miko had left. I suppose a cup of coffee would make me good but what I really needed that moment was a cigarette, strange thing with all these I had forgotten to smoke and now things had somehow clamed down it was coming back and the damn feeling was coming back strong. She said I could go to the small garden for my cigarette while she was fixing the coffee and I did. After checking that everything was quiet in my patio cross the community road I noticed that there was light in Miko’s apartment on the other side of the small path and he was standing in front the balcony door looking our way and talking on the phone. The man obviously had seen too many things in his line of work and he was taking the necessary protection measures or …I have been watching too many episodes of CSI lately!!!