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cash—added to which there’s the criminal charge. So—do you accept all that?”
    “Can’t you call the district superintendent? Surely you’re not under the authority of Kuopio.”
    “I’d have called him to start with, but the superintendent’s out fishing at this moment in time. He won’t be back till tenish, if then. I’m unfortunately the most senior officer here. Kuopio advised not turning you loose under any circumstances. Anyway, where would you go now, on a wet night like this?”
    “But where are you going to put this hare?” Vatanen added, with a touch of malice.
    Attention again focused on the hare, whose basket had been moved from table to floor during the counting. From down there, the young hare was peacefully following the progress of the interrogation. It saw a new problem dawning for the police.
    “Hmm . . . where to put that hare, then . . . So what if we confiscate it, for the state—and let it out in the forest? It’d surely manage okay there.”
    Vatanen produced the license he’d obtained in Mikkeli.
    “I have an official permit to keep this animal in my care. It cannot be confiscated, or illegally turned loose—deprived of my protection, in other words. You can’t put it in a cell, either. A cell’s too unsanitary a place for a sensitive wild animal. It could perish.”
    “I could take it home for the night,” one of the younger constables offered.
    But Vatanen had an objection: “Only if you’re trained in the management of wild hares and possess an appropriate hutch. In addition, the animal definitely requires special foods—meadow vetchling, and many other special herbs. Otherwise it could die of food poisoning. If anything happened to the hare, you’d be liable, and animals of this quality are costly.”
    The hare was following the interchange; it appeared to nod during Vatanen’s words.
    “A fine mess,” the duty officer exploded. “You’d better get out of here. Come back tomorrow, for interrogation. Ten sharp. And take that hare with you.”
    “Hold on,” the young constables warned. “What’ll Laurila say when he hears that? And what do we know about this fellow? Look at that money. Yet he hasn’t even got a car. Where’s he from? Is he really Vatanen, in fact?”
    “Yes ... Hm. Don’t go yet. Have to think. Bit of a bind—the super’s out fishing. Anyone got a cig?”
    Vatanen offered more cigarettes. Again they smoked. Nothing was said for quite a while.
    Finally, the younger constable said to Vatanen: “Don’t get us wrong. We’ve got nothing against you personally, you know, nothing at all, but we have our regulations—for ourselves, too, us police. Without that hare, for example, everything’d be so much simpler. Look at it from our point of view. For all we know, you might be a murderer. Could have bumped someone off before you left Helsinki ... gone out of your mind, perhaps, wandering aimlessly around here. In fact, you are wandering aimlessly—you might be a danger to the whole community.”
    “Let’s not overdo it,” the duty officer said. “No one’s talking about murder.”
    “But we could be, in theory. I don’t say we are, but we could easily be.”
    “Just as easily, I could be a murderer myself,” the duty officer snorted. He stubbed out his cigarette, gave the hare an angry stare, and then: “Let’s do it this way. Stay here regardless—in this duty room if you like—till I can call up the superintendent. That’ll be in a couple of hours or so. Then we’ll get it all straightened out. Meanwhile, take a nap on that bunk, if you’re tired. We can have some coffee if you want. What’s all the hurry? How does that sound?”
    Vatanen accepted the offer.
    The hare, in its basket, was put on a night-duty bed at the back of the room. Vatanen asked if he could have a look at the sort of cell accommodations they had at Nilsiä Police Station. The duty officer willingly got up to show him. The whole company trooped to the