Death Spiral by Leena Lehtolainen

figure skater has a slender, short build. Being too tall just makes jumps harder. Janne is just over six feet, which is like a couple inches too tall for a good triple axel. And Noora’s legs are too short and her hips are too wide, and she puts on weight easily. But she’s crazy flexible and so talented. Wait, what am I saying?”
    Silja realized she had been using the wrong tense and started crying. I’d been surprised how well she had controlled her nerves up to that point. I asked whether she wanted to stop the interview, but she said she could continue.
    “Rami and Elena were pretty tired of Noora’s tantrums too. I know Rami’s been trying to calm her down, but it hasn’t helped.” Silja choked on another sob. Koivu handed her a packet of tissues that was lying on the table, and I noticed he was blushing. Silja was gorgeous even when she was blubbering.
    “So, things have been pretty tense on the team lately, despite all the success. How did Elena Grigorieva and Rami Luoto divide up their work?”
    “Elena just moved to Finland a couple of years ago. In Russia she specialized in training pairs skaters, but now she also trains singles because there just aren’t very many pairs here. Rami has been coaching all of us since we were kids, and it was his idea that Janne and Noora should try pairs skating. He got pretty far with them, and now he’s started doing choreography for juniors and beginners competitions. I think he’s more interested in that than coaching. How they divide things up can be pretty confusing, though. Sometimes Rami handles things and sometimes Elena does, and I think that irritates her. But their results have been good.”
    Talking about skating instead of relationships was clearly helping Silja calm down. But we needed to get back to that.
    “And Rami and Elena’s relationship? Did they fight? Whose side did Noora take?”
    “No, they didn’t actually fight. Rami is sort of . . . he always gives in. I think he’s a little afraid of Elena. And Noora definitely trusted Elena more than him. Janne says Rami’s style fits him better, though.”
    Silja took another nose-blowing break and sat quietly as if considering something.
    Then she straightened her shoulders and looked at the wall as she said, “I’m really afraid Janne killed Noora. He was totally pissed last night. I’m surprised he didn’t throw Noora down on the ice in the middle of a lift. When I was leaving the rink, he came into the box where I was taking a drink. Elena was just showing Noora a free-foot position for the death spiral. Janne was furious. He said, ‘Stupid bitch, I could kill her right now.’”
    Silja burst out crying again, and I leaned forward in my chair to pat her on the shoulder, since I didn’t know what else to do. Koivu looked as if he would have liked to caress Silja’s hair pulled back in its ballerina bun.
    “Plenty of people say things like that without meaning anything by it,” I said. “I understand you feel like you’re betraying Janne by telling us, but don’t worry. We don’t go around arresting people just because of words. Is this the only reason you wanted to meet with us?”
    “No, not just that. Dad didn’t tell me how Noora was murdered, but I heard him talking to Mom . . . I don’t think they knew I could hear. Was Noora really beaten to death with her own skates?”
    I didn’t know what to say. Silja looked from Koivu to me with hopeless pleading in her eyes.
    “Please tell me the truth! If I don’t know what happened, I’m just going to imagine something worse!”
    “Noora was beaten with her skates, but the cause of death was a smashed skull,” I said quietly.
    “How long did it last? How much did Noora suffer?”
    “I don’t know exactly, but everything must have happened pretty quickly if Noora left the rink around seven and was found just before eight.”
    I had been trying to comfort myself all day by telling myself that at least Noora hadn’t had to