Seven, eight ... gonna stay up late (Rebekka Franck #4)

by Willow Rose

  "Who was that? Was it him again?"

  I nodded, then let the tears roll across my cheek. "He still has the girls. He even knows my name. How does he know my name, Sune? How?"

  Sune put his arms around me and hugged me. "I don't know. Maybe he's just really smart."

  I looked out the window. It was almost morning now. I sniffed and hugged Sune again. Then I got up and found some clean clothes in my backpack. I put it on the bed. "We better get dressed," I said. "It's going to be a busy day."

  Sune stretched himself. "Isn't it a little early? We worked till late last night. It's Sunday. We're done with this assignment, the festival is over."

  I found a pair of his clean underwear and threw them at him.

  "The festival might be over, but our work has just begun."

  Sune grabbed the pants and held them in his hand. "Why do I feel like there's something you're not telling me?"

  "Because there is," I said and went into the bathroom to turn on the shower. When I came out to get my shampoo Sune stared at me.

  "There is? Do you mind telling me, then?"

  "See for yourself," I said and looked at my laptop that was open on the table in the corner.

  "What's this?" He looked at the screen.

  "My article in today's paper."

  Sune scanned it quickly, then stared back at me with wide open eyes. "Have you gone completely mad?"

  I shrugged. "I might. I don't know how a person can actually tell if they have in fact gone mad or not."

  "But ... but ...you wrote an article about Princess Amalie of Merchenburg and her friend being abducted during this year’s festival? Are you crazy?"

  "I guess. I thought it was the only way I could get the message out to people. Jens-Ole said that he wouldn't be able to read my article since it was finished so late. I guess he trusted me. Don't think he'll make that mistake again."

  Sune shook his head. "You have finally completely lost it. Do you have any idea what kind of media circus this is going to create?"

  "I have a feeling, yes. But I thought it was worth a shot."

  "But you have no documentation. No police statement, nothing. You risk getting fired over this."

  "I know. I wrote it as a personal story. I wrote about how I met Camilla and what she told me. Then I wrote that she had disappeared last night. I don't assume anything, I just tell them what happened and then I used the photo from the poster. I'm hoping to wake up the parents and get them to react somehow. And I'm hoping to wake up the population to get them to start looking for the two girls. Maybe someone saw something? If a small hint leads to their rescue, then I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice my job and career."

  Sune smiled at me. "Now that's what I love about you," he said. Then he walked over to me and grabbed me by the waist. He kissed me gently, then demandingly. His hands were on my breasts when my phone rang. Then we laughed.

  "And so it begins," Sune said. "Don't answer this now. Wait till you are done in the bathroom. If it's important they'll call again. You better get in that shower now while you still have the time. In about half an hour they will be all over you like vultures."

  "I know," I said and kissed him one last time before I went back into the bathroom. When I got out Sune was sitting by the computer.

  "Have you seen this?" he asked.

  "I haven't seen the paper yet, if that's what you're asking." I took off the towel wrapped around my hair, then found my brush.

  "It's not in the papers yet. It's all over the news agencies and the online papers."

  "About Princess Amalie? That was fast." I walked closer expecting to see my story on the screen. Instead it was something completely different.

  "Someone stole the remains of Erik Klipping from Viborg Cathedral. They found his grave under the altar empty this morning. They took the coffin and everything. Apparently removed the altar somehow, then dug themselves through the floor.

  I dropped the brush on the bed and stormed to him. "Erik Klipping? As in the King Erik Klipping? The king who was murdered in Finnerup Lade in 1286?"

  "The one and only."

  Chapter 25

  Allan had a great Sunday morning. He enjoyed the morning coffee and reading the paper next to Sebastian, before he sent him on his way with a smile, a kiss and a "see you tonight."

  Sebastian had promised to visit his parents all day and take part of the usual Sunday lunch where he would sit and pretend not to be gay in front of the entire family even if they all knew that he was. It was a charade that Allan was very pleased with not having to take part of. Besides he had so much more to do this Sunday that Sebastian didn't need to know about.

  Once he closed the door Allan ran upstairs and got dressed. He looked forward to finally being alone with the girls. And now it was time to have some fun.

  He had been plotting his next move all night. It wasn't part of his original plan, but he was entitled to some fun on his own, wasn't he? Allan thought so.

  As he ran downstairs to get ready, he kept thinking about that woman, Rebekka Franck. Ever since she approached him in the parking lot, he hadn't been able to get her out of his head. She was so striking. A perfect specimen. He just had to have her somehow. He had to fit her in. But how? How could he make her a part of all this? Maybe she could play a role somehow? Oh how he loved his twisted little games, he enjoyed plotting them as much as he enjoyed executing them. Well almost.

  He walked to the garage and pulled out a tall jar covered with a red dishcloth. He felt the chill of excitement as he brought it with him to the kitchen. In the cabinet he also found the chloroform for later. Then he took the jar and the chloroform and walked towards the door leading to the basement.

  He heard them move once he opened the door. Not that they could move much in those small boxes. He lit the light and looked at the fear filled eyes staring back at him from behind the plastic. Then he smiled.

  "Good morning, ladies."

  Both girls started yelling and hitting the sides of the boxes, while Allan calmly put the jar and the bottle of chloroform on the table next to them.

  "Let us out of here, you sick bastard," Princess Amalie said.

  He approached and looked at her inside of her box. "Tsk. Tsk. Now is that a way to talk for a young royal lady like yourself?" He said.

  She hit her hand hard into the plastic while grunting. She seemed feeble, weak from starvation and thirst. That was good. Once he began what he had prepared for her, she would long to feel like that again.

  Camilla grunted and started hitting the box with her fist.

  "Don't bother. You'll only wear your pretty little self out," Allan said to her while taking down the body hanging on the hook. Camilla gasped when she realized what it was. Allan threw the body in the corner of the room, and then covered it with a black plastic bag. Then he walked to Camilla's box and knocked on it. "It's armored plastic. A bullet won't even be able to go through it. Cost me a lot of money to have it made, but it was well worth it."

  "What do you want from us? Why are you keeping us in here?" Amalie yelled.

  Allan turned his head like an owl and smiled. "Because I can," he said.

  "Please," Camilla pleaded. It was pure music to Allan's ears. How he loved and craved the sound of a pleading victim. How he dreamt about it at night.

  "Please let us go. We'll never tell anybody who you are or what you look like. We'll do anything you want us to."

  Allan lit up and grinned. He liked the sound of that. "Well I don't need to set you free to get you two to do exactly what I want," he said. "All I want you to do, or rather all I want to do to you, is right in here. There is no need to get you out of those boxes."

  Then he giggled and picked the jar up from the table. Like a magician he removed the dishcloth while exclaiming "Ta-da!"

  Allan grinned as he watched the girl's eyes become big and wide. Then he closed his and enjoyed the sound of what came next. The sound of both of them screaming for their lives.

  Chapt
er 26

  "I had to do it, I'm not going to be sorry for it," I said into the phone. "I didn't want to leave this town and the two girls without at least letting the world know what happened to them."

  I held the phone far from my ear while Jens-Ole yelled in the other end. "No documentation ... whatsoever! No police statement, no nothing. Now I have to explain to the entire world ... explain what to them? I don't even know! What the hell is going on?"

  "Those girls were kidnapped. I'm positive. I had no way of finding their parents since I didn't know Camilla's last name and I don't believe I would be given permission to talk to the royal family, being stark raving mad as the entire world thinks I am. This is my way of helping the girls, I just pray that some good will come out of it. That's it. You can fire me if you want to."

  Jens-Ole grunted a couple of times in the other end. "You know I'm not going to fire the damn best reporter I have," he said. "I’ve been called upstairs to explain myself to the big bosses later today. I'll fight for you, but can't promise you anything."

  I smiled and looked at Sune. He was sitting next to his backpack with his phone in his hand waiting for me to be done so we could drive home. He looked like a little boy waiting for his mother.

  "I can't ask for anything more," I said.

  "Hmf." Jens-Ole went quiet. I was about to say goodbye, when he spoke: "But it is a damn good story, if it turns out to be true," he growled. "Is it true?"

  "Yes. The kidnapper called me last night. I think he wanted to brag or something. He said he had the girls."

  Jens-Ole inhaled sharply in the phone. He was thinking hard, I could tell. "You should try and contact the police again. Tell them he called. Yes, do that, then drive back home. We might need to send you back to Roskilde again soon if there's a development in the case."

  "Does that mean we're on the case?"

  Jens-Ole grunted again. "It's all yours. Make me proud."

  Then he hung up. I looked at Sune. "Sounds like your plan worked," he said. "It was what you wanted, wasn't it?"

  "I had hoped for it."

  "It's all over the news agencies," he said and handed me his phone. I scrolled through the news bulletins and found several related stories under Breaking. Apparently they had bought the story after all. They were all quoting Zeeland Times for the story since they didn't want to get their hands dirty in case it turned out it wasn't true after all, but the story was too good to ignore. This was good, I thought. The best development I could think of. Now the police had to take it seriously and the parents would be informed. There really wasn't much more I could have hoped for. Pictures of the girls would soon be all over the medias and the public would be talking about it, looking everywhere for the girls.

  "So we're going back now?"

  I bit my lip. "I guess we have to. Julie is coming home tomorrow from Aarhus. She has camp next week, Tobias too, right? That riding camp?"

  Sune nodded. I only paid the nanny for four days. I can't afford anymore."

  "Okay. Let's go home, then." I grabbed my backpack and swung it across my shoulder. "We need to go past the police station first. I have to tell them about the call last night."

  This time we were taken a lot more seriously when we walked into Roskilde police station. An officer showed us into a room and soon another officer joined us with a stack of papers in his hands. He greeted us and told us his name was Richard Brandenburg. He was dressed as a civilian and told us he was with the NEC, the National Investigation Center. He was very pleasant to talk to. He lifted his fairly bushy eyebrows as he pulled out my article from the stack of papers and looked at me. "We have contacted the parents," he said. "Just as you explained in the article, they didn't know that the girls were at the festival and they were very surprised at all this, especially since they read about it in their morning paper."

  "Well, that was unfortunate," I said. "But I felt it was necessary since I had no idea how else to contact them."

  The officer nodded. "I get it. I think it was great you did it. The parents have since contacted the captain on the boat they were supposed to be on and confirmed that they were not there and no one has any idea as to where they can be. If you hadn't written the article no one would have discovered their disappearance for several days and that could be fatal in a case like this where time is of the essence. It has sure awoken some people up in here. This morning has been a true inferno at the station. Not something they are used to. They have an entire team of three people just to handle the press. It's quite the circus. But as long as it helps the girls, right?"

  "Right."

  "Now. I know you have written everything in your article, is there anything else we should know? Anything about the girls or maybe something you saw while looking for them? Anything would be a huge help right now."

  He leaned back and poured a cup of coffee from a thermos next to us. "Anyone?" he asked and pointed at some empty cups. We both shook our heads. We just had breakfast at the hotel. Officer Brandenburg put sugar in his cup and stirred it with the spoon.

  "There is something," I said. "I think I might have spoken to the kidnapper."

  The officer almost choked on the coffee. "You spoke with him?" he exclaimed. "How? When?"

  "He called me. Well actually he called Camilla. See I have Camilla's phone, she gave it to me, so I could charge it for her in the press area where we have access to electricity since we need it for our phones and laptops. You can't get electricity on the campground of the festival. So as I was charging it, it rang. Since the display said Amalie, I thought I'd pick it up in case she was looking for her friend. That's when I spoke to him. He was using Amalie's phone to get to Camilla. That's how I knew that he was coming for her, but I was too late. I tried to run to warn her and get her out of there, but she was gone when I arrived."

  The officer nodded as he wrote down on his pad. "Yes, yes, good. Continue, please."

  I felt Sune's hand in mine under the table. He knew how bad I felt for not being able to save Camilla, and for telling the kidnapper exactly where she was.

  "Then last night he called again," I said.

  The officer looked up and our eyes locked for a second. His were very serious. "What did he want?"

  "He said he couldn't stop thinking about me, that I could come and see the girls if I wanted to. Something like that."

  "So he told you that he has the girls?"

  "Yes. And I believe that they're still alive. He spoke about them as if they were."

  Officer Brandenburg nodded and wrote on his pad. "Okay, that's good, yes," he mumbled. "Anything else?"

  "He knew my name," I said.

  The officer lifted his head and stared at me again. It scared me slightly.

  "Do you think she should worry?" Sune asked.

  The officer stared at him. He didn't answer. "We don't know much about this guy yet," he said. "But I would advise the both of you to be careful. We can provide police-protection if that's what you want?"

  I shook my head.

  "My guess is he's just teasing you, you know playing with you," the officer continued.

  "Why?" Sune asked. "Why would he want to tease Rebekka?"

  The officer sighed. "Well maybe he gets a kick out of it. If he knows your name, then he most likely also knows that you're a journalist. Maybe he wants to be famous, to have his name in the paper. It's all a lot of guessing at this point in the investigation. Right now we're focusing on finding these two girls alive and then taking care of the press, naturally. The story of the abducted princess will go around the world in a matter of hours."

  "Do you think that's what he wants?" I asked. "Could that be why he chose Princess Amalie?"

  "That is very likely the motive," Officer Brandenburg said. "That or money."

  Chapter 27

  Camilla was screaming. As soon as the man revealed what was in the jar, she began screaming and she couldn't stop. She pleaded, she begged.

  "Please don't, please don't hurt us," she screamed.
But nothing seemed to help. It was as if the man enjoyed listening to them scream and cry for help. It was like he enjoyed it, fed from their fear.

  In the jar in his hand the Tarantula was crawling up the sides. Camilla looked at it and began hyperventilating as the man walked closer to their boxes. He stood between them, then pointed at Amalie.

  "No, please, no," she pleaded.

  The man smiled viciously, then turned and pointed at Camilla. She shook her head fast.

  "No. No," she said. Then she cried.

  The man laughed. "Now, who will it be?" he asked. He turned and pointed at Amalie. Then he started counting: "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe ... Catch a tiger by the toe. If she hollers, let her go ... Eeny, meeny, miny, moe."

  Saying his last word his finger landed on Camilla's box. She whimpered and whined. Her jaw was shivering in fear. "Pleeease," she pleaded.

  The man looked at Camilla. "You won!" He said. "Lucky you!" His eyes were shining as he looked at her inside of the box, smiling like a child on Christmas day. Camilla was hyperventilating. She focused on keeping calm as the man moved closer to her box. She saw him approach the tube that she now realized was closed with a lid that was screwed on and could only be opened from the outside. The lid had several air-holes in it. The man took a screwdriver and began opening it slowly, one screw at a time. Camilla was whimpering while staring at the Tarantula in the jar. It was moving up the sides now. She shivered in fear. Camilla had always been terrified of spiders and this one was bigger than any she had ever seen.

  Once the lid was off he picked up the jar, then took off the lid and helped the spider into the tube. Then he closed the lid.

  Camilla stared at the Tarantula in the tube, while sobbing and trembling. She watched it come closer, slowly approaching the end of the tube. With its long hairy legs it crawled along the sides and into the box. It was above Camilla's head now, sitting on the plastic, so close Camilla could feel the hair from its back tickle her skin. She was breathing heavily, while Amalie was screaming from across the room.