Silence Read Online Free PDF Page B

right shoe after all, and jumped into the water. He let himself sink to the bottom, catapulted himself back to the surface and swam far out to the middle of the lake.
    Only now did he really feel how those two properties had been weighing on his mind, and what a great relief it was not to have to drive to that Helsinki suburb again at long last, to offer two more flats in dire need of renovation, as if tempting someone to have a sour beer. It had been a mistake to take on those properties in the first place, particularly as the seller had expressed unrealistic ideas of the price he could get and had been a prickly character in general, but in view of the present financial situation Korvensuo hadn’t had much choice. And ultimately it had been worth while, because thanks to a builder who would undertake to renovate the two flats himself and was obviously glad of the job, those properties were off his hands.
    He swam back to the bank, swung himself up on to the landing stage and dressed. In half an hour’s time Marjatta and the children would be arriving. And another half an hour later so would their guests. Johanna and Arvi Mustonen with their two daughters. And Pekka, his young colleague, a man he really liked. Pekka did good work, he was a quiet, decent man.
    It was going to be a fine evening. He draped his jacket and tie over his arm; he had a T-shirt in the car boot. He felt good. He turned round once and after a few seconds turned again in the opposite direction. Then he ran up the slope to his car.
    2
    T he children were chasing back and forth between the sauna and the lake, never tiring. Aku, Laura and the Mustonens’ daughters. Timo Korvensuo watched them, and felt nothing but pleasure, relief and a sense of agreeable emptiness after several days of hard work.
    The Mustonens’ younger daughter was wearing a pink bathing suit, the older girl wore red bathing trunks with a green and white striped bikini top. He liked the look of that, it didn’t trouble him, he talked to his guests in relaxed mood and merely took in the details out of the corner of his eye. The drops of water on the girls’ skin, the older girl running her hand through her hair in a certain way, the water spraying on his arm when the girls ran round the table.
    They were playing Catch, and Aku was always It and had to be caught. The girls got him down, swarmed over him and tickled him, and Aku laughed, otherwise not bothered, and was already jumping back into the water. The girls followed. They swam far out, their laughter dying away in the distance.
    ‘Please take care!’ Marjatta called.
    ‘They’ll be all right,’ said Arvi.
    ‘Anyone like a second helping of meat?’ asked Korvensuo.
    Johanna and Marjatta waved the offer aside. Arvi raised a hand.
    ‘You too, Pekka?’ asked Korvensuo.
    ‘Well, yes, just a little more,’ murmured Pekka. Korvensuo was mildly amused by his young colleague. When it came to selling houses, Pekka Rantanen wasn’t half as diffident as now, sitting carefully motionless on his chair, saying hardly a word and eating little. People acted so differently in various situations.
    Korvensuo served meat on to the guests’ plates, turned round, which the others didn’t seem to notice, sat down, began eating heartily and let Arvi muse on the state of the national Finnish football team.
    ‘They have good players, but they just don’t make the best use of them. You can bet we’ll be left nowhere again,’ he said, and Korvensuo nodded as the children’s laughter came closer again.
    ‘Terrible luck with injuries,’ murmured Pekka.
    ‘While we’re talking about football, why not switch on the box? The Under-21s have a game today.’
    ‘Sure, if the ladies don’t mind,’ said Timo Korvensuo, but the ladies were deep in discussion of second-hand shops. Korvensuo smiled to himself as he carried the little portable TV set out on to the terrace. He placed it on a chair, switched it on and fiddled around to find the