Thirteen, Fourteen... Little Boy Unseen (13 page)

The man stared at me strangely. “Well, I feel horrible. I can tell you that much,” he said. “I knew one of the victims. Or, rather, I knew her daughter. Pastor Kemp’s daughter Camilla. I went to school with her. I wasn’t too fond of the mother, but the daughter was so nice. Beautiful as well. Such a shame.”

“Why weren’t you fond of the pastor? I thought she was very popular around here?” I asked.

“Well, not that it’s important, but her daughter was homosexual, and the mother never approved of that. She threw her out and told her never to come back. Camilla died of AIDS back in the nineties and they never made up. Today, the mother still preaches against homosexuality. You’d think the death of her daughter would make her change her mind, huh? Well, now she’s gone.”

“She was against homosexuals?” I asked, when another piece of the puzzle suddenly fell into place. I looked at David.

“Yes, I even heard that she tried to help families with homosexual teenagers to convert their children, so to speak. You know how some people think it’s a disease and that it can be cured. But I don’t know if that’s true.”

36

“
T
HERE’S THE
connection,” I said to David, as we walked back towards the office. “At least between the therapist and the pastor.”

He nodded pensively. “But what about the others? The couple in the lake? Were they fighting against gay rights as well?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” I said, and sped up.

We walked into the office and I showed David to the computer where Sune usually sat. It looked strange to have someone else sitting there, especially David, since I knew how Sune felt about David. Sara thought it was exciting to have someone like David in our editorial room. She kept glancing at him and making small moaning sounds when he got up and walked to the restroom or to the kitchen to get coffee.

“He’s so handsome,” she whispered, as soon as he was out of the room.

David loaded the pictures and we started picking out the right ones for the vox-pop. David went to the bakery to get us sandwiches for lunch, while I wrote the article. As soon as it was sent and we had eaten, we both sat at my computer and started researching. 

The couple from the lake had been identified as Dan and Tina Toft. They were a couple in their fifties. They used to live in a house in the middle of Karrebaeksminde. He was a lawyer; she was a secretary. Everything about them seemed very ordinary.

“According to this, they’re leaving behind a son,” David said.

I shrugged. “We should talk to him, then. What’s his name?”

“Hans Toft.”

“Can we find him?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It’s a pretty common name. But it’s worth a try. Let me do just a simple search.” David reached over and tapped on the keyboard. “There you go. There are forty-four with that name in Denmark. Apparently, none of them live around here. The closest is in Roervig, more than an hour and a half from here.”

“But, it might as well be any of the other forty-three out there,” I said with a sigh. 

“You’re right,” he said, and picked up his cup and drank from it. Even when he sipped coffee he was attractive.

“I say we simply go to the couple’s address and talk to the neighbors. What do you say?” I asked. “Maybe do a little vox-pop out there and ask them how they feel and so on. Maybe snoop around a little. According to the police report, they were killed in their home and then taken to the lake.”

David put his cup down and smiled. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

I grabbed my phone and looked at the display, hoping Sune would have called, or at least texted, but he hadn’t. I sighed and put on my jacket. David looked at me with a smile.

“Are you alright?” he asked when we got outside.

“I guess,” I said. “It’s just Sune. It’s strange. He hangs out with our neighbor constantly, and last night he came home drunk, and today he didn’t even bother to show up when I called about this job. I don’t know what to do about him.”

We walked towards the car in silence, while I wondered what to do about Sune and our relationship. I missed him like crazy, and I hated myself for enjoying David’s company this much. I felt so disloyal for discussing Sune behind his back, and especially with David. I couldn’t stop wondering about that text David had sent me the night before, telling me he missed me. What did he mean by that? Did I want him to want more out of this than just friendship?

David put his hand on my shoulder. His touch warmed me. My stomach was hurting with sadness.

“It’s okay, Rebekka. You can talk to me about anything. I’m your friend, remember?”

“I know,” I said. “It’s just so hard to explain. I mean, it’s like I hardly know who he is anymore. It’s like he’s pulling away from me. The past few days have been a nightmare. I don’t know what to do. It’s like he’d rather I left him completely alone, but I’m afraid that if I do I’ll lose him.”

“Maybe it’s just a phase,” he said. “Maybe he needs to act out a little and have some space to figure things out. Then he’ll come back to you.”

“But I just…I get so angry at that Jeppe guy. Ever since he came into our lives, everything has changed. It changed Sune completely. I really hate him.”

David tilted his head. “Do you really think it is fair to blame everything on him? Yes, he came into your lives and everything changed, Sune changed, but could it be that Sune might have acted out anyway? If it hadn’t been this guy, maybe he would have…maybe found someone else to act out with?”

“You meant the problem goes deeper than that?” I asked.

“Yeah. Maybe it would make things easier if you simply accepted this Jeppe guy.”

I pressed the remote and unlocked the car. “You really think so?”

“Plus, you can’t really force him to do anything, you’ll only end up pushing him further away. Give him the space he needs, and then he’ll realize how great a life he has.”

“So, what you’re basically saying is…I have no choice. Accept the way things are and hope for the best? Doesn’t sound very reassuring.”

David opened the door to the passenger seat, then paused and smiled. “I wish I could say something else to make you feel better, but…”

“Well, that’s not your fault.”

I sat in the driver’s seat, thinking about Sune and this Jeppe guy. Had the troubles started when he came into our lives, or were they already there? Was David right? I had put all my anger and frustration on Jeppe, thinking he was the problem, but maybe it had started long before this.

The thought didn’t make me feel any better.

37

L
EONORA
C
HRISTINA
Stroem shared a name with royalty, but that was about all she had in common with the princess that was the daughter of King Christian the 4
^th,
back in the seventeenth century.

While the princess was engaged at only nine years old, and later married and had ten children, Leonora Christina had never met the right man, and never had any children, much to her regret. Well, at least not yet. At the age of almost twenty-nine, she wasn’t out of the race just yet, even if her mother believed it was all over for her.

“He’s never going to leave his wife. You must know that by now,” she kept telling her.

But, Leonora believed he would. At least that’s what he kept telling her he was going to do. And she believed him. Even after four years together, she believed he would soon tell his wife that it was over.

“I just need to wait till after the vacation to Bermuda,” he had told her. “It would simply ruin the vacation if I told her before we went, and I can’t do that to the children.”

“Of course not.”

“What was it he said the last time?” her mother now said on the phone, when Leonora explained to her what Morten had told her. It was Friday afternoon, and she had just come back from the firm when her mother had called. What a way to kick off the weekend.

“Oh, yes, he had to wait till after the wife’s surgery,” the mother continued.

“Well, he could hardly spring this on her right before she went into surgery,” Leonora said. “You can’t blame him for that. They have, after all, been married for fourteen years and have two children together. It’s a big thing to split up after that much history together.”

“It was plastic surgery, Leonora. Don’t you see it?” her mother argued. “It’s the same damn thing every time you ask him. He keeps coming up with excuses. It’s been four years now! Don’t you want a family? Don’t you want to move on?”

She did. But the thing was, she really loved him. He was everything to her. They had met at the law firm. She was an associate and he was one of the partners. Morten had hired her four years ago, when she was fresh out of law school. She had been the youngest in the firm. On a conference trip to Aalborg, the northern part of Denmark, he had made a pass at her at the hotel bar. She had let him, since she had been intoxicated by him and the way he talked. They had sex in the hotel room all four nights they spent there, and while lying there, Morten had started complaining about his wife.

“I want out,” he had said. “I can’t stand her. But there’s always the children, you know?”

It was his second time around, he had told her. He had a child with another woman that he was married to for only a few years, when he’d met his current wife, who he’d had an affair with until it was discovered.

“She got pregnant, and I had to marry her. It was a mistake. She was nothing but a fling, a flirt, and now I’m stuck with her. She’s nothing like you. You smell incredible. You’re so beautiful I can hardly believe it. I have never been with a woman this beautiful.”

He had asked her to save herself for him, and she had liked that. Soon, he bought her an apartment close to the firm, where they would meet up during lunch breaks or in the afternoon when his wife thought he was working late. He would tell her how amazing she was, how deeply he loved her and wanted to be with her instead of his dreadful wife. So, Leonora had decided to wait for him, wait for him to find the right time to leave his wife. And she knew he would eventually, because he really couldn’t stand her. But there was always something. Always something they had to wait for. Leonora was saddened every time he postponed it, but at the same time, she found it very appealing that he was so concerned about his wife and children’s wellbeing that he didn’t want them to be hurt. It would happen. It just had to be at the exact right time.

“But the right time will never come, Leonora,” her mother hissed on the phone. Leonora was tired of having the same conversation over and over with her mother, and tried to end it.

“Listen, I got to…”

“You’re stupid, Leonora. Such a waste…”

Leonora felt the tears build up in her eyes. She felt so exhausted. So tired of hoping and waiting. So tired of having to defend herself and him. It was, after all, her life, wasn’t it?

“There’s someone at the door,” she lied. “Gotta go. Bye, Mom.”

Tears rolled across Leonora’s cheeks as she hung up the phone. In many ways, she didn’t have anything in common with the famous princess from the seventeenth century, but she did have one thing in common besides the name. They both ended up living their life in a prison because of a man.

While wiping her eyes with a tissue, she was interrupted by the sound of someone actually knocking on the door. Thinking it might be him, Leonora corrected her shirt and make-up in the mirror before she went to open the door. She peeked through the peephole before she opened the door, and was disappointed to find it wasn’t Morten stopping by after work.

It was just a police officer.

38

“
W
HAT CAN
I do for you, Officer?”

The man looked at the girl and smiled. He couldn’t quite figure out how he was feeling, standing in front of her again…a mixture of sadness, excitement and fury. How he loathed her. She was still as beautiful as back then. He understood why Alex had loved her so deeply. But he also remembered how his sister had cried, devastated by what she had done to her. He could still hear her crying when going to sleep at night, thinking no one would ever be able to love her. Thinking she was incapable of making anyone love her.

Leonora shook her head. “Officer? Is everything alright?”

The man smiled. “Oh, yes, yes. Sorry about that. I’m just going around the neighborhood. We have had a series of robberies in this complex. Have you seen anything suspicious around here?”

Leonora shook her head with a sniffle. Had she been crying? She seemed sad, almost hurt. It pleased the man.

“No, Officer. I haven’t. You say someone broke into our complex? Did they steal anything?”

“Yes, last night someone broke into the apartment above yours. The owners came home while he was still there, and he ran to the balcony and climbed down. We suspect he must have landed on your balcony before he jumped to the ground. Could I take a look?”

Leonora stepped aside. “Of course, Officer. I haven’t seen anything. But that is very upsetting news. I mean, I was home all night last night and didn’t hear anything.”

The man walked inside the apartment and Leonora closed the door behind him. He smiled gently to make her feel comfortable in his presence.

“Have I seen you before?” she asked, while he followed her through the hallway. It was a huge apartment. Beautiful high ceilings with stucco. The floors, old and wooden, creaked as they walked across them.

“You might have seen me around,” the man answered.

“Well, I see a lot of officers around in my line of work,” she said.

They entered the living room. The man took a thorough look around. Just as he suspected. It was nicely decorated with expensive designer furniture. Everything was white and light.

“So, were you alone last night?” he asked.

Leonora paused. She looked like she was thinking about the answer. Then she shook her head. “No. Someone was here with me. But he left at nine.”