by Willow Rose
"I'll be right there."
Chapter 26
July 1997
The van seemed to drive forever. Nina was so hungry and had such a deep thirst when it finally came to a stop and the door was opened. A man stuck his head in and pulled her out. Nina protested, but he didn't seem to understand any Danish. Either that or he didn't care. Another man helped pull her out and carry her inside a small house on a farm somewhere. There were no other houses in sight.
A door was kicked open and she was thrown on the bare floor. Nina was crying and screaming as the door closed and she heard it lock. Nina got to her feet and hammered her fists into the door while crying for help.
Then she fell to the ground again wondering why this was happening to her, why these people had the right to treat her like this? She suddenly sensed she wasn't alone in the cold room and as she raised her head up she looked into the eyes of several other girls, all children just like herself. Nina wiped her tears away and tried to speak.
"Who are you?"
Three of the girls shook their heads, the rest just kept staring at her. One spoke in a strange language. Nina signaled that she didn't understand. The door opened again and a woman peeked in. She handed Nina a bottle of water and a loaf of bread, then she closed the door again and locked it. Nina drank and ate greedily while the other girls' eyes rested on her. When she was done, Nina rested her exhausted body by leaning against the wall and trying to sleep.
A few hours later the door was opened once again. The woman walked in flanked by two men. They divided the girls into three groups, then told Nina and the two girls in her group to follow her. Nina didn't understand a word of what was being said, but the men pushed her in the right direction and she followed the other girls out of the room. They were led to a room upstairs where five men sat in chairs waiting for them. Frightened, she looked at the woman who spoke a lot of strange words, then pushed Nina ahead, into the middle of the room along with the two other girls. Then she grabbed Nina's blonde hair and showed it to the men and they all smiled and nodded. It felt very uncomfortable for Nina. She was used to people admiring her blonde hair, but not like this. The woman started touching her and taking off her dress. Nina protested and cried, but received a slap across the face as answer. It burned badly and she sobbed, but didn't dare cry out loud anymore. The woman continued to undress her and soon she was naked in front of the five men who all seemed very pleased with what they saw. Then the woman spoke a word that Nina understood since it was very similar to the same word in Danish. She said:
"Dance."
At first Nina didn't understand. She looked confused at the woman and received another slap across the face. After that she obeyed. Nina started moving her body and the men all smiled and laughed, one was even clapping his hands. Nina didn't like the way they stared at her body. She felt tears roll down her cheeks but didn't dare to wipe them away. Her face was still burning from the slaps.
"Dance, dance, dance," the woman repeated again and again. All three girls were now dancing, moving their hips and the men were clapping and laughing. At that moment, in that room with the fat old men looking at her, Nina learned a valuable lesson. If she was to survive this, she had to perform. So Nina swung her blonde hair around causing the men to gasp in awe and she put her hands on her hips and started moving in circles receiving applauds and many smiles in return. Even the woman clapped as she performed and afterwards Nina was given a soda and a real meal of chicken and rice for dinner while the other two girls only got dry bread. She was taken to a room alone where she had a real bed to sleep in and they even brought her clothes to wear. They didn't look like any clothes Nina had ever worn before. Well, you could hardly call them clothes at all, but at least she knew that she had somehow stood out and made her mark. Nina knew that she was going to be the one who survived this, because she had somehow learned how to play the game.
Nina slept for almost an hour before the door to her room was opened and the woman entered. She spoke to Nina in words she didn't understand and then let one of the fat old men enter the room. Nina felt her heart beat rapidly as the woman left the room again and left her alone with the man.
"Dance," he said and lifted his arms. "Dance".
So she did. To save her life and get better food than the others and a room to sleep in, she danced wearing the new clothes they had given her. She danced for the man on the floor next to the bed and saw how she pleased him. After a while, he walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder to make her stop. Then he ripped off her clothes.
Chapter 27
April 2013
I took the car even though I'd had some wine with the dinner. I even ran a red light and definitely broke the speed limit on my way downtown towards the kiosk where Maya had called from. She and her friend were still inside when I arrived.
I parked the car outside on the street and ran to the door and knocked on it. Maya had locked it and as she opened it for me she burst into tears. Then she threw herself in my arms. Her friend was crying hard too, so I took her in my arms as well.
"She is dead, Mommy…" Maya said in between sobs. "Someone killed her. We went in here to get a soda for the ride home on our bikes and then…we found her like this. We were so scared. We didn't know if he was outside somewhere waiting for us. I was so scared."
"It's okay," I whispered, trying to calm them both down. "Where is she? Where is the body you found?"
"Behind the counter. It's bad, Mom. It's really bad."
"Okay. Lock the door behind me and stay where you are," I said and let go of both of them. "I'll go and look and then we'll call the police, alright? I need to know what to tell them."
Maya sobbed and nodded. "Okay." She and her friend grabbed each other's hands. They were both shaking pretty hard.
I walked closer,bracing myself for what I was about to see, but as I saw it I realized there was no way I could have ever prepared myself for something like this. I covered my mouth with my hand while breathing heavily and fighting the desire to scream. The body was placed behind the counter, in a chair. She was covered in blood and had been stabbed several times in her stomach and chest. All her clothes were soaked and a pool of blood was on the floor under the chair. I felt sick to my stomach. But worst of all was what he had done to her breast. He had ripped a part of her shirt and her left breast was showing. He had sewed something into it. I gasped when I realized what it was. A small bowtie. It was white but the blood had colored it red.
I tried hard to maintain my calm and found my cellphone and called the police. A few minutes later Officer Morten Bredballe knocked on the door of the kiosk and Maya let him in.
"Where is it?" he asked out of breath as he came up next to me. I pointed and turned my face away. I couldn't hold back my tears any longer and Officer Morten grabbed me just as I was about to collapse.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"No," I said. "I need to sit down."
I sat down on the floor while the officer took a look at the young girl's bloody body. I heard him gasp and sigh deeply several times as he examined it without touching anything. Then I heard him call for the island's doctor, Doctor Williamsen to come immediately and bring the ambulance. I managed to get up and walk over to Maya and her friend and together we walked outside and waited.
Officer Morten joined us a moment later.
"So who found the body?" he asked.
"My daughter and her friend," I answered.
"Alright. I'll need to take your statement right away. Did you touch anything?"
Maya shook her head. "Just the door."
"Alright. We'll need to get your fingerprints to be able to distinquish between yours and the killers. Then I'll need to get your statements. But first we must wait for Doctor Williamsen to declare her death and I have to call for the forensic department from the mainland to come and examine the place. I'll probably need to call in more officers tomorrow. As if we didn't have enough on our hands right now."
&nbs
p; "The girl," I said. "Did you ever find her?"
Officer Morten shook his head. "No. I'm afraid we didn't. She seems to have vanished into thin air. I just don't get it, you know? This is an island for, Christ sake. There is not that many places she could be."
"Could the kidnappers have taken her to the mainland?"
Officer Morten nodded. "That is a possibility. I mean we are checking all cars that leave the island by ferry, and the staff working at the ferry is keeping an eye out for anything, but to be honest they could have had a boat ready and sailed right towards the mainland without us ever knowing it."
"And now this, huh? Is there a surveillance tape that might help see who did this?" I asked hopefully. I really didn't like to think that this guy was out there somewhere waiting for his next victim. This was nasty and the girl not much older than Maya. It scared the dickens out of me.
"That was the first thing I checked for," Officer Morten said. "Unfortunately, it's gone. Whoever did this took it with him."
"Whoever did this has done something like it before," I mumbled as Officer Morten received a call on his cellphone.
Chapter 28
April 2013
I drove Maya to the police station the next morning to have her fingerprints taken. She was tired and still quite shocked when we got into the car. After taking her statement, Officer Morten had let us go home and get some sleep. I had driven Maya's friend Annika home and explained everything to her parents before finally being able to bring my own daughter home and let my dad get back to his house.
Maya had wanted to sleep in my room, so we shared my bed for the night and neither of us got much sleeping done. Instead we ended up talking most of the night. It had been years since I had felt this close to my daughter and even if the circumstances were extremely horrible and sad, I was happy to have been there, to be the one to take care of her. We had truly bonded that night, even about her dad and how she sometimes cried when I didn't see it because she missed him and hated the fact that he never wanted to see her because of his new wife. I cursed Michael far away while comforting my daughter.
"How are you doing?" I asked after starting the engine. "Are you okay with all of this?"
"I just want to get it over with so I can return to my normal life," she said nodding. I spotted something on her arm.
"What's that?"
She looked down, then shook her head. "It's nothing. It's Patrick's autograph."
"You met him?"
"Just briefly, close to the hotel. He gave us both an autograph. He was really nice," she said.
"Well good for you," I said and put the car in gear. "At least you got something out of last night."
I parked outside of the police station and grabbed my daughter's hand as we walked towards the entrance of the small police station. I smiled thinking about the first time we had come to the island and picked up the key to our new house here. It was no more than eight months ago, yet it felt like a lifetime. I could hardly remember what my life was like before Fanoe Island. I thought about my book and was so grateful that it had sold so well all over the country. That gave me a freedom to be with my family and take care of them the way I had always wanted to. It was great that I didn't have some boss to answer to on a day like this when my daughter needed me.
"I still keep seeing her sitting there on that chair," she suddenly said as I grabbed the door handle and was about to open the door for her. "It was like she could still see me, you know? I know it sounds weird, but I kept expecting her to move or to try and say something. I keep wondering what if she wasn't dead when we walked in? What if she was still breathing and wanted to tell us who had done this to her, but she couldn't move her lips? How horrifying would that be?"
I reached over and stroked her hair. "I know you'll be thinking a lot about this for some time to come, but try not to let your imagination run off with you, sweetie."
"Yeah, but that's the problem, Mom. It's really difficult. I mean she was about my age, right? A little older, but still. And the guy is still out there, here on the island. Will he do it again? Will it be someone I know the next time?"
"Sweetie. You need to relax. We have no idea what went on before this. Maybe he knew her. Maybe he was an old boyfriend that she had recently broken up with, maybe he was jealous. You never know. But you can't let fear ruin your life and keep you from doing things you like and living your life."
Maya sighed and let me hold the door for her as she entered while mumbling, "You're right, Mom."
Inside, Officer Morten was very sweet to Maya and took her through all the procedures while telling her with a kind voice what he was doing and why. When they came back to me she was smiling for the first time since last night.
"What so funny?" I asked.
"Oh we were just talking about the TV show and the auditions tomorrow. Officer Morten has a daughter who is going. She's sixteen so it is her last chance to audition. He thinks she'll win the whole thing and make him rich so he doesn't have to hunt criminals anymore. I told him that if a sixteen year old gets rich she's probably not going to share it all with him. She might give him a new car or something, but that's probably it."
I chuckled and gave Maya her jacket. She was so pale from lack of sleep and the shock. It worried me to see her like this. "Do you have any leads officer?" I asked.
He looked exhausted, as well, and I was guessing that he hadn't slept, either. "No, not so far. No one saw anyone enter the kiosk last night around the time we suspect the killer entered and no one saw him leave either. But the bowtie sewed into her breast has been seen before. The police on the mainland have been looking for a killer for several years who sews a bowtie into his victims just like that. They call him the 'bowtie killer'. It's very original, I know."
"The bowtie killer?" I exclaimed. "I remember hearing about him. Yes, that's right. Last year I think it was, he killed a girl in Roskilde, I think it was and that was when they started writing about him in the press. I had completely forgotten about that. I guess since we haven't heard anything for a long time, that I thought he was gone somehow. So he is still on the loose? Do you think he's still on the island?"
"It's not very likely," Officer Morten said. "A killer as clever as he is wouldn't stay in the same place for long. My colleagues who are working on this case have told me that he has never struck in the same place twice so far. He's long gone if you ask me. Probably took the last ferry out last night, or maybe even had his own boat ready."
I nodded, thinking I should feel more relieved, but I still couldn't shake this unease inside of me.
What if he's still out there? Lurking, waiting to find his next victim, his next prey.
"And what about the girl?" I asked.
"No news yet."
"Could she have run away? I mean the life of a Countess can be pretty strict and not much fun for a child, right?"
"I probably shouldn't tell you all this, but since you know so much already I guess it's no harm. The thing is, she did run away. She ran from her teacher and nanny, down to the beach probably because she just wanted a little fun. Then this dogwalker came along and for some reason she walked away with him."
"Did anyone see the dog? What kind it was?" my clever daughter asked.
"It was a German shepherd, but don't run around and start questioning everyone with a German shepherd, promise me that?"
My daughter laughed and nodded. It was good to see her happy again. I was so afraid that last night's event would push her into some sort of post traumatic stress disorder or something. I had been wondering if I should take her to see a therapist to talk about all the things she had been through lately, but now at this moment at the police station she seemed to be doing okay. I could still sense the sadness that the shock had left her with, but something inside of me, call it a mother's intuition or whatever, told me she was going to be alright. She could handle this.
"Say, I know a woman who lost her daughter some years ago, you know the woman Helle who has
a store down town?"
"I know Helle, yes. Most unfortunate what happened to her daughter. It was in 2005 as far as I recall. But she drowned. That was the conclusion of the investigation if I remember correctly. I wasn't here back then. I was stationed in Northern Jutland before I was transferred to Fanoe Island three years ago."
"But they don't know, do they? They never found the body?" I asked.
Officer Morten sighed. "I think I know where you're going with this and I might as well stop you right there. On this island, children disappear from time to time. They walk into the water and are sucked out. This has always happened and it happens because parents do not look out for their children properly. If they go out there in the ocean alone thinking they can make it to the island and the tides come in, they drown. Doesn't matter how good a swimmer you are, even an adult can be sucked out."
"But what happens to their bodies? Why aren't they found?"
He shrugged with a tired look. "Who knows? They get pulled out far enough they never return. That's just the way it is. All I can say is watch those kids of yours, don't let them wander off."
"Lets' go, Mom. I'm tired," Maya said and pulled my sleeve.
"Okay, Maya," Officer Morten said. "You're done here and I'll be in touch if we have further questions."
"Thank you officer," I said and turned to walk out. As I reached the front door and was about to open it, I suddenly stopped and turned to face Officer Morten again.
"One last question, officer. Have any of the children disappearing from this island been a boy or has it only been girls?"
Chapter 29
April 2013
Naturally Officer Morten couldn't answer my question so I took it home to my computer. Maya went to her room to get some sleep while I started researching the missing children of Fanoe Island. That was when a title popped into my head.
"Lost: The story of the missing children of Fanoe Island," I said out loud and smiled. It needed a little work, but as a working title it was great. Something told me there was a story here to be told. Maybe if I interviewed the families whose children had gone missing I could start to piece it together? It was definitely a start.