Easy as One Two Three (Emma Frost) (21 page)

He turned down the road and I watched in the mirror how the hospital disappeared in the background. It broke my heart having to leave my daughter there without knowing if I would ever see her again. It was brutal.

My hands were still shaking as we drove through town. I had never felt so helpless. It was the worst feeling in the world.

"I bet she was the one who pushed Mads," I said. "I mean, she must have been, right? She must have been the one who ran after him and pushed him in front of Maya's car. Then she must have taken Maya and driven off with her. That's the only explanation I can come up with."

Morten parked the car in front of the newspaper's office.

"What are we doing here?" I asked. "I thought we were going to the police station?"

"I’m going," he said. "You stay here with Rebekka and Sune."

"No. I want to go with you. I want to explain everything to Officer Hansen."

Morten put his hand on my shoulder. I hated when he did that. It made me feel like a child.

"You're too upset. You'll come off as a hysterical mother and he won't listen to a word you're saying. Let me talk to him. Officer to Officer."

"But…"

"Trust me on this, Emma. I know how he works. I know how to handle him. I deal with guys like him every day, remember?"

I calmed down. He was right. I was way too agitated and would only ruin everything. "Alright then. I trust you. But tell him you saw her too. You saw her face and had no doubt it was Maya. If it’s only me, then he'll think I was just being delusional. And hurry up. If that doctor moves her, then we'll lose her again."

The very thought made my heart jump. This was so tough. Having to wait like this. It was unbearable.

"Meanwhile, I'll explain everything to Rebekka and Sune," I said. "Maybe they can help us somehow. They know everybody in this town."

"I believe more in my way," Morten said. "But it's worth a shot."

I opened the door and got out. I stuck my face inside to say goodbye.

"Just promise me one thing," Morten said.

"Yes?"

"Don't do anything irrational. It's very important. You risk ruining everything. You hear me?"

I smiled and nodded. "I won't," I lied, then slammed the door and ran up the stairs.

58

April 2014

"
Y
OU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT
we’ve found out," Rebekka said when I stormed inside the office.

"Wow, what happened to you?" Sune asked when he looked up from his screen. "You look like you just fell from the moon."

"I found Maya," I said. The words felt so strange in my mouth after so many days of searching frantically for her, and so empty, since there was no happiness following them.

Rebekka got up from her chair and walked towards me. "You found her? That’s wonderful news!"

I shrugged and swallowed my tears. "It is and it isn't."

"Emma? What's going on? Sit down and let's talk."

I started crying, but tried hard not to. It didn't work. Sune and Rebekka sat next to me on their small couch in the corner. The table in front of me was stacked with newspapers. Sara even took off her headphones and came closer. "I'll get you all some coffee," she said.

"Now tell us everything from the beginning," Rebekka said. "Where did you find Maya? How did you find her?"

I took in a deep breath then started talking. I told them about Mads' Morse signal, about the visit to the ward and me seeing her and her not recognizing me. "She's being kept there for some reason under the name Zelllena Wold."

"What a strange name," Sune said.

"Morten has gone to talk to Officer Hansen and have him help us, maybe through the hospital management or getting a warrant to grant us access."

"But all of that takes time," Rebekka said. "And they might move Maya now that they know you know she’s there."

"That's exactly what I tried to tell Morten," I said and sniffled. "But he insists on doing this the right way. You know how he likes to play by the rules."

Sara brought us coffee and carrot cake, then handed me a tissue. I wiped my eyes, then grabbed a piece and took a bite.

"We need to do something," Rebekka said and looked at Sune for answers.

"I'll do some research," Sune said and got up from the couch. He went to sit behind his computer and I heard his fingers dance rapidly across the keyboard. I felt so blessed to have friends like these two in a moment like this.

"What was it you guys found out?" I asked. "You said you found something important?"

Rebekka looked at me. "Ah that. Yes, well it's not as important as your discovery, but I think it is interesting. It's about Signe Schou. I did some digging, well Sune did some and tried to figure out where they went on their honeymoon. We found their credit card information…I know, naughty us for breaking the law."

"Morten isn’t here," I said.

"True. What he doesn't know won't hurt him. But anyway. Apparently they went to Egypt at first, but then suddenly bought tickets to Turkey where they stayed only for a little more than a week, then they went to Monaco."

"So they travelled around a little. That's not so strange?" I asked.

"No. But there’s more. According to their bank statement, they lost a lot of money at a casino and after that the card was blocked. Sune couldn't trace them anymore, but I found an article in a local paper about two foreigners attacking a family in their home with the intention of stealing money from them, but it ended up with the murder of the wife. There was a picture of one of the arrested. A girl."

"Signe? She was arrested for murder?" I was baffled.

"Apparently, yes. Mads was never found."

"But we know they came back home? How did she go from a prison in Monaco to her mother's basement in Karrebaeksminde?"

"Sune found a way into the police's database down there and found the initial report taken when Signe was arrested, but it also states she was released a week later. She was picked up by a Mrs. Schou. Apparently, all charges were suddenly dropped."

"Mads' mother?" I asked. "Could she have paid them to drop the charges?"

Rebekka shook her head. "She might have paid them, but there was another reason why the charges were dropped. Am I right, Sune?" she asked.

He nodded. "She didn't do it."

"She didn't?"

"No. Apparently, the father in the house they attacked admitted two days later that he did it. He just used the burglary to cover it up. It was the perfect cover. In his statement, he said that the kids entering his home were heavily drugged. No one would believe a word they said. So he took the chance."

"But why? Why did he want to kill the mother?"

"Money. He wanted to get her life insurance. He was indebted…from gambling, like so many others. He told the children he would chop their heads off as well if they ever told he did it. But the oldest daughter broke down during her interrogation and told them everything. Later, the dad admitted the crime. He chopped her head off with an axe and blamed it all on Signe and Mads. The strangest part is that Signe never denied doing it. If you read her statement, all she could talk about was blood. They stated that she kept saying she saw blood everywhere. I guess they figured that was about as good as a confession."

"Maybe she thought she did it?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, she might have been so drugged that she had no idea what was reality and what was in her head."

Rebekka nodded pensively. "It’s plausible."

"They were friendly," I suddenly said.

"Who was?"

"Mads and Signe. On Facebook. They wrote something on each other's walls, remember?"

"YNWA," Rebekka said.

"You wouldn't write that if you were angry at each other, would you?"

"Probably not."

I looked at Rebekka. "But I don't know what to make of it."

"Well actually, there was another thing we found," Rebekka said. "Sune found a message from Signe to him on Facebook. She told him to come to the party…that she needed to see him…that it was important. She had something important to say. She pleaded with him to come, but he told her he didn't want to see her. That's probably why she knocked her mother out and escaped from the basement. She went to see him. Maybe she hoped he would show up anyway?"

"But she never showed up," Rebekka said.

"Instead, this strange doctor tried to attack him. Maybe she took Signe as well?"

"But all that doesn't help Maya," Rebekka said.

"It might in the end. So what we need now is a connection between Dr. R.V. Devulapallianbbhasskar and Mads Schou."

"Is that really her name?" Rebekka asked with a grin. "That's ridiculous."

"I know. I think it's a numerology thing. She seems to be into stuff like that. Crystals and numbers. She kept talking to us about our numbers…it's a whole numbers deal, I don't think I understand it anyway. But I'm certain she’s the one who attacked him and followed him into the street, then pushed him in front of the car. She seems crazy enough to do it. But why was she after him?"

"That's a good question."

"You might want to hear this," Sune interrupted us.

We both looked at him.

"Ward Q currently has three patients that don't exist."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I can't find their names anywhere else, yet they're all admitted to psych Ward Q. I can't even find them in the National Register. They don't exist. One of them is Zelllena Wold."

"Maya," I said.

"Then who are the two others?" Rebekka asked. "Could one of them be Signe Schou?"

"Sascha," I said. "Sascha DuBois. Yes, that’s it. Now I remember where I’ve seen the doctor's face before. On the stairs when walking down after visiting Sascha DuBois the last time. She disappeared after that. She never made it to the police station. The coffee cups were still on the counter. The doctor must have come right when we left. Oh my God, I saw her there. She even said hello to us. Who the hell is this woman?"

"I'm on it," Sune said and started tapping on the keyboard.

I sunk my teeth into yet another piece of cake, feeling anxious and uncomfortable at the thought of this woman having my daughter in her care. It was truly scary.

59

April 2014

I
T DIDN'T TAKE
S
UNE
long to find a lot of background on the dear doctor with the insane name R.V. Devulapallianbbhasskar. I had barely eaten the rest of my cake and washed it down with coffee before he started talking.

"It took a little longer because she’s changed her name so many times it's ridiculous," he said. "But from what I could find on her, she became a psychiatrist in 2001 and worked several places until 2006 when she was made Chief of Naestved Institution of Mental Health. But that’s not the interesting part. It’s what happened to her many years ago. In 1989, when she was only seventeen, she was arrested and convicted of the murder of her own father."

Rebekka looked at me, then at Sune again. "She was what?"

"Her father was found stabbed in their home. Elsebeth Berg, which her name was back then, denied everything, even though they found her fingerprints on the knife. She was evaluated, but found to be mentally fit for a trial. Because of the gruesomeness to the murder and since she was one month from turning eighteen, it was decided to try her as an adult…to set an example, they said. The judge convicted her and sentenced her to twelve years in a secure prison for adults."

"Wow, that was tough," I said. "At seventeen, you said?"

Rebekka looked pensive. "Wasn't there a case once about a seventeen year old who was wrongly put in a prison with adults, then it turned out she was actually innocent?"

"Exactly," Sune said. "Elsebeth spent three years in prison before the mother was arrested for stabbing her new husband. She admitted to having framed her daughter back then, because she thought she would get a lighter punishment, given her age."

"Oh my God," Rebekka said. "I remember reading about this case. It was awful. This poor girl was abused so terribly in prison by the guards and was in an isolation cell for almost six months at one point. The prison warden was fired after it came out that the girl had been badly beaten and sexually assaulted by some of the guards. It was an awful case. It made them completely stop trying teenagers as adults again. She received a huge compensation, as I recall."

"Two million kroner, yes." Sune said.

"And now she's a doctor taking care of our mentally ill patients," I said. "Wow. I think I need to call Morten and tell him this."

I reached for my phone and, as I did, it started to ring. It startled me.

"Hello, Emma Frost? It's Dr. Faaborg here, darling. I’m calling with more great news for you and your daughter."

"What is it?"

"Mads Schou is awake. It’s the strangest thing. Apparently, his machines stopped working last night; we still don't know how they got turned off, but it woke him from his coma. This morning, when the nurse came to check on him, he was sitting up looking at her. Then he jumped out of bed and grabbed her and started dancing with her. Can you believe it?"

I was stunned. I had seen the man just last night and he didn't look like anyone who was going to wake up ever. "No, doctor. I really can't. That is truly amazing news."

"Apparently, he was able to hear everything while he was in the coma. He wants to see you. He’s tired and a little confused, but keeps asking for the woman whose daughter drove the car. Is it possible for you to come to the hospital?"

I felt confused as well. I really didn't feel like I had the time right now, but the thought of having a reason to go to the hospital where Maya was being kept intrigued me strongly.

60

April 2014

R
EBEKKA AND
S
UNE CAME
with me in the car. Rebekka wanted to interview Mads and write about him waking up for the paper. Sune brought his camera. When leaving Karrebaeksminde and heading for the main road towards Naestved, I felt terrible. All those horrible things Sune had read about that doctor made me anxious. An experience like the one she had been through had to make her highly unstable and erratic. I had no idea what she might do to my daughter…and I feared the worst. I couldn't just let time pass and wait for Morten and the police to act, now could I? While that woman did God only knew what to my daughter? How could I? What mother could do that?