One, Two ... He Is Coming for You (17 page)

I grabbed his hand. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Dad??” Julie’s happy scream filled the room.

Peter turned and looked at her. “Sweetie pie!”

She ran toward him and grabbed his right leg.

“I’ve missed you so much,” she said. “Did you come to scare away the bad
guys who did this to Grandpa’s house?”

Peter took her in his strong arms and lifted her up. Then he kissed her
belly and she laughed.

“I sure did,” he said. “I sure did.”

Julie looked at me with big puppy eyes.

“Mommy, can Daddy stay? Please?”

I looked at him and sighed. I was still afraid of what he might be up
to. He wasn’t well and I couldn’t trust him. But it was good for Julie to be
with her dad again. That was important and I had to think of that as well.

“Please?” he said with the same voice as Julie.

I wasn’t sure of my decision but I took the chance. “Okay, then.”

They both started cheering.

“But he’s sleeping on the couch.”

I didn’t get much sleep that night. First, I had to clean up the mess and
that took several hours. Peter was nice to help me while Dad took the kids
upstairs and put them to bed. When we were done cleaning and the house almost
looked like itself again, I told Peter I wanted to go to bed, but he took out a
bottle of my dad’s wine and opened it.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” I said knowing what normally
happened to Peter when he got too much to drink.

“Just one glass?” he begged.

“Okay, just the one,” I said.

We sat down in the kitchen and he poured two glasses.

“Cheers,” he said.

“Cheers.”

We drank and were quiet for a few seconds. I looked at him. He looked
nice but like he had gotten five years older in a short time. Maybe this had
been harder on him than I thought. I was so mad about what he did to us that I
never thought about his feelings. But how was I ever to trust him again?

“So how have you been?” I asked.

“Horrible.”

“It hasn’t been easy on us either.”

He took my hand. “Listen. I know I have been an idiot. I know I need
help. But I can’t make it without you and Julie. You are my life. Without you
two there is nothing left to live for.”

“You locked us in the basement, Peter. It is not very easy to trust you
again.”

He sighed and let go of my hand.

“I know. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened to me. Why I reacted that
way. But I’m working on it, okay?”

“Okay.”

We chatted and talked for hours and for a while it felt just like old
times. Almost that is. I remembered what I used to love about him and I saw
glimpses of that old Peter during the night. I told him all about Julie, her
new school and new friends, and I could feel how much he had missed her. I
started to feel badly for him. It wasn’t fair to Julie either that I had robbed
her of her own dad.

After three glasses of wine I finally called it a night.

“Goodnight,” he said and walked to the kitchen sink where he started
washing up our wineglasses.

“It was really nice talking to you again,” I said on my way out.

He looked at me from the sink. “I thought so too.”

“Goodnight.”

All night I tossed and turned and thought. What if he really had changed?
What if that counseling actually had helped him? I used to love the man more
than life. Could he get back to being the same again? Could we have it all
back? Our family? Our great life? I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take
the chance in case it failed again. It would be too hard on Julie. But he was
still her father and she loved him.

As did I.

31

When I got downstairs the next morning my dad and Peter were sitting alone
in the kitchen. Their conversation stopped when I walked in. They both looked
at me and smiled.

“Don’t stop on account of me,” I said.

“It’s okay,” Peter said and got up. “I was just telling your dad I
really appreciate his hospitality, and that I will no longer be a burden for
you. I will be going back to Aarhus later today.”

I was surprised. “Oh, okay,” I said and poured myself a cup of freshly
made coffee and put a piece of toast on my plate.

He grabbed my shoulder. “I have some business to attend to, but if it is
okay with you I would like to come and visit again on the weekend. I will get a
room at the hotel this time.” He let go of me. Then he stretched his back as if
it was sore. “I’m too old for a couch anyway.”

I smiled. It was strange but I was happy that he was coming back. I
hated to admit it, but I had missed him.

At the office I got some very happy news. Sune had been released and was
on his way back to the office. Just as I walked through the door Sara told me
with great excitement his new lawyer had gotten him out. The lawyer apparently
had heard that the National Police had taken over the case and they thought the
four killings were related. Then she had argued that Sune was in jail when the
last man was killed and therefore couldn’t be the murderer. The police had
bought the argument and said he was still under suspicion but a free man for
now as long as he didn’t leave the country.

Sara had bought a big cinnamon cake at the nearby bakery and put a flag
on Sune’s desk and computer. She gave me a flag to hold in my hand and started
waving hers as Sune entered the room.

“Surprise! Welcome out of jail,” Sara yelled while waving the flag. Then
she hugged him.

He looked quite surprised but also glad.

“Thank you, Sara. For everything,” he said and then he looked at me and
gave me a hug. “And thank you too.”

“You are very welcome,” I said as we sat down and Sara cut the cake.

“So how are you?”

“I can’t wait to see Tobias when he is done with school today. Has he
been behaving well?”

“He is the best. Julie is going to cry her heart out when she learns
that he is not going to sleep in her room any longer. So is my dad, I think.”

Sune laughed.

“He’ll be back another time.”

“I know he will.”

“So how did they treat you in the slammer?” Sara asked.

I ate my piece of the cake. A little to heavy on the cinnamon if you ask
me, but otherwise it was okay.

Sune laughed. “They treated me all right, I guess.”

“Did they beat you?”

He laughed again. ”No, they did not. It’s not like the movies. They were
strict and questioned me a lot, which was unpleasant. I answered them I
realized I sounded more and more like I could actually have done it. I have
wanted to kill him for years. I wanted to do exactly what was done to him.”

“Did you tell them that?” Sara asked with her mouth full.

“I did. I was honest and that almost got me into a lot of trouble. But
luckily I had a good lawyer who kept her ears and eyes open.”

“That was great,” I said. ”So you are all right now?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

”I’m glad to hear that, because I have a lot to tell you. We have a
killer to catch so we can prove your innocence.”

I told Sune everything that happened since he was gone—the dead
body I walked in on in Elsinore, the man I tried to follow down the stairs, and
the attack from behind that left me unconscious.

“You shouldn’t have gone there alone,” Sune said.

 “No, so I have heard.” I got up and got my purse. I found the
photo of the boarding school boys. I showed it to Sune.

“Only one is left now,” I said.

He nodded. “I know. Do you think he is the killer?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t strike me as the type. But then again, who
does?”

“You’re right. He doesn’t fit the profile of someone who would weld his
own cross of spikes. But maybe he could have had someone else do it.”

“That’s a possibility.”

“What about Irene?”

“She has a pretty good motive. But is she strong enough to carry me up
the stairs? She’s not a big woman.”

“Maybe she had help.”

“Mmm … I don’t know. I didn’t get the sense there was more than one
person in the apartment when I was there. But I did tell the police about my
suspicion toward her and Ulrik Gyldenlove, and I just hope they will talk to
them.”

“You could talk to both of them again.”

“I know. Maybe I should. But the killer knows me now and knows I am on
to him. He’s probably the one who messed up my father’s house. I don’t know who
else it would be. But that means I have to be careful. I have a family to think
of. I think it was a warning.”

Sune nodded pensively. “It might have been. You really have to be
careful now.”

I thought about the fact that if it was the killer who had messed up my
dad’s house then it meant he knew where I lived. That made me scared for my
daughter and father.

“So what do you suggest that we do?”

“Well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking in prison and I didn’t come up
with much. But I have one idea. It might not lead to anything, but it’s worth a
try.”

I looked at him and finished my coffee. “Yes?”

“It’s a small thing and might not help us in any way. But I thought
about looking into the pastor’s computer.”

I smiled. “Looking into? As in hacking yourself into?”

“You know what I mean,” he said. “Maybe we’ll find something that could
give us a clue.”

“You know if the police find out they could lock you up again,” Sara
said with a concerned voice.

Sune nodded. “I know that very well. But I have to do something. The
police still have me on their list of suspects. They even argued that I might
have had an accomplice on the outside to commit the last murder. They haven’t
let me off the hook just yet, and I might be arrested again if there’s another
killing now. I don’t have anything to lose anymore as far as I can see.”

I totally understood what he was saying. He’d been sitting in the jail for
days without being able to do anything. Now he wanted to clear his name. He’d
been wrongfully imprisoned once before and that had almost ruined his life.
This time he would fight to the end.

32

What Sune found on the prison pastor’s computer wasn’t a pretty sight. It
only took him two hours to hack into it. He showed me some of what he found.
Most of it was short movies of real killings and torture. Sometimes it was men,
sometimes women, and even sometimes small children, all taped somewhere far
away by someone who was willing to kill and torture for money. They were all
bad quality, like they were recorded on a cell phone or a really old camera.

“This is horrifying,” I said as Sune played me one of the videos. It
showed a group of young boys beating up a homeless man until he didn’t move
anymore. One of them recorded everything on a cell phone.

“I know,” he answered. “But that stuff turns some people on for some
weird reason we will probably never understand. And they are willing to pay a
lot of money for it.”

“This turns them on?”

”Yes. The screams of pain are arousing to them.”

“You mean they get off on someone being tortured and killed?”

“I’m afraid so.”

I leaned back in my chair with a strange feeling in my stomach. How
could anyone be so sick?

“You are right. I’ll never understand that. It’s too disgusting.”

I left Sune at the computer and went to the kitchen to get some water.
Then I sat at my own desk and tried to get my thoughts straight. Giovanni had
tried to call me again a couple of times and Sara had left four notes telling
me to call him back before she went insane. Maybe it was true what they said.
The more you played hard to get, there more he wanted you.

So I decided to call him back.

“Finally,” he said with that cute accent of his. “Where have you been? I
have called and called.”

“I know. I’ve been very busy.”

“I know you have a busy job, but I get so worried about you.”

I had to admit I didn’t think he would actually worry about me.

“So when can I see you?” he asked.

I looked at the picture of the welded cross Sune had printed for me. It
was lying on the desk in front of me. My stomach acted up again. What if it
really was Giovanni in the apartment? What if he hit me in the courtyard and
carried me back to the apartment to make me look suspicious? What if he only
wanted to see me now so he could finish me off?

“It’s better that we lay low for a couple of days,” I said.

“What are you saying?”

I almost felt his disappointment through the phone. ”I just mean that it
might be better to take a little break from each other. My ex-husband is coming
this weekend and I don’t want to confuse Julie too much.”

“Your ex-husband? What does that mean? Are you getting back together
with him?”

“I don’t know right now. I just know that everything is a little
complicated and I need time to think.”

“So that is it? Just like that?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“But you must have some feelings for him since you are telling me to
stay away from you. Something I find impossible to do.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. A headache was beginning to take shape.

“Just give me a week, all right? That’s all I am asking.”

“Okay. Don’t take too long, though.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

I hung up feeling lousy. I had no idea what was going on with me and I
hated that. I was used to being in control of my emotions. I didn’t like this
situation.

“Everything a-okay?” Sune asked without looking up from his computer.
His fingers danced on the keyboard.

“I’m fine.” I sighed.

 “You don’t sound fine.”

“It’s nothing.”

“I might have something that might cheer you up.”