CHAPTER 4
The secret room was behind the smallest silos, the one neglected by everybody; me and my sister used it, collecting there dresses and other objects.
I found the rusty entrance door the day I lost my bracelet in the grass near the silos wall.
Dad, my real dad, bought it for me, we went to a shop once to have his watch repaired and he asked for two identical bracelets, one for me, one for my sister; she didn't like it on her wrist, it was heavy, she said, and in the way of her sleeves.
I kept it on, always, because it was dad's gift, with my name engraved on the plate, family name and my birth date under.
I still wear it, hidden under the long sleeve of the winter coat I use to protect me from the snow.
I hate snow. It is so cold here.
I hate this place, a cabin lost in total loneliness, in the middle of hills and woods without end,
There are two others cabin here, five adults and me. Nobody never comes here, we're isolated from everybody, except those man speaking a strange language, using a different alphabet.
I'm a prisoner during the night, forced to sleep in a sort of basement.
People are strange, a man and a woman in the second cabin are always drunk, they make some alcohol by their own, using rice and other cereals with the smell of rotten things.
In every cabin guns and weapons, I cannot get to them, I'm sure I could use them. There was a place in my second home where three rifles were always looked up with recommendations never touch them, never get close a gun, never get hurt. But the voice in my head is not related to the place where the rifles were.
I close my eyes, I concentrate and I see an open kitchen, a large couch, a veranda, a tall man with blue eyes and facial hair.
"Remember: never touch a gun, it is dangerous."
"Why do you touch it?"
"Because it is my work, I'm a detective and I have to use it."
"If I become like you, could I use it?"
"Yes, but only after a very long time."
"I want to be like you."
A five year old girl talking with her father, a dead father
I've seen twice the Russians arrive, with a young woman in the truck, first time shortly after I arrived here.
I was collecting dry clothes from the wire between the cabins and got a good glimpse, it was a girl with dark hair, strange eyes, her hands bounded.
They took her in the third cabin, where Rasmus and Gunnar live. That night all the men stayed there, I was told to prepare food, more than usual, then Ole locked me early in my room.
The morning after the truck was gone.
The second time was in winter, it was dark but the light of the truck lights was enough.
The first truck arrived late in her afternoon and the second, bigger, soon followed. The drivers talked with Ole for a long time. They opened the hatchback of the first and dragged a figure with long blond hair, lifting her up into the second one, which soon left.
I caught a brief conversation when Rasmus came to speak with Ole, about the high value of a blonde woman.
So I started keeping my hair dirt, my face too, I wanted to appear ugly: it was quote easy, water was few so we took showers once a moth, especially in winter. I wore all my clothes one over the other to hide my body. I did not want to be moved again. Like those girls, because the language of the Russian was unknown to me, farther than my only hope to get free somehow.
_
Saga woke around eight and headed for the wardrobe to get a clean towel and a bathrobe. She took a long shower, wanting to get off the tiredness of the travel, not the scent of Henrik on her skin. She used one of his shower gel, she wanted to smell like him, a strange sensation, a different way to become one.
She met Astrid at the kitchen sink, the girl had a orange juice bottle in her hand, a glass in the other.
"Hallo, Astrid."
"You are back! Does dad knows?"
"He sure does. We slept in the same bed."
Astrid seemed not so stupefied to find in her house a woman she saw briefly only twice before, wearing a bathrobe only and asking for some juice.
Saga reflected about the traumas Astrid suffered in her life, being in the line of fire for two times during the last month would be extremely hard to endure by a lot of people.
Saga liked her boldness. Memories of herself at that age, against her parents, with Jennifer to protect.
"Good you're here, dad is so strange, it's two days he barely talks with me."
"I know. He'll explain you everything soon."
Henrik heard voices and got up, finding Astrid and Saga eating biscuits at the kitchen island. A scene of domestic peace that left him speechless.
"Dad, Saga is here, are you happy?"
His voice was somehow forced, hoarse, an effort in speaking.
"Yes, Astrid, I called Saga, I heed her help. We have to face a serious problem, together."
He stopped to get full Astrid's attention. "Anna's grave is empty."
Astrid's biscuit fell on the floor and it broke in small pieces, her mouth opened without a sound.
Saga looked at father and daughter.
"Astrid, I need to ask you some important questions."
Saga was in full detective mode, Henrik let her work without interferences. Astrid glanced at him and understood he was not opposing to the interrogation.
"When Anna got ill, you two were together?"
"Yes."
"The whole time?"
"I had to go to school most of the day."
"So who was with her?"
"Franck and Harriet, when Frank had to go to work."
"What did Harriet do?"
"She gave Anna some herbal tea, with no effect, so she wanted Frank to take her to the hospital."
"And Frank?"
"He wasn't sure it was necessary."
Astrid closed her eyes, refusing to remember.
"Was a doctor called?"
"Frank told me so, I was at school when the doctor visited."
Saga heard Henrik's muffled cry of pain.
She imagined his thoughts: if Frank never called a doctor sure he was responsible of her death. But the enigma of the empty grave was still unresolved.
"When Anna got worse?"
"I had to leave for school and she was moaning with high fever, I asked Frank to call somebody soon and he swore he'd do it. When I retuned home he told me he had took her to hospital and she had died two hours later."
Tears in Astrid eyes, running down her cheeks, so Henrik stood up, Saga was too harsh, he wanted her to stop. He had promised himself never make his daughter cry again after Kevin tried to kill her,
"Please, Saga", he pleaded.
She turned to him, her face concentrated, her body rigid. she was near the point, she was sure.
"I have to do it."
He saw her determination, her decision to find the truth, her sad half smile, asking forgiveness for the inevitable pain.
Henrik trusted her, not for the first time; she was right, she had to ask.
"Did you see her dead body?"
"No, Frank refused to take me to the funeral house. The day after we went to the graveyard and Harriet made a speech over the grave. They didn't wanted priests around. Anna was already buried."
"Are you sure? Did you see the coffin?"
"No! She was already buried. Frank told Harriet I'd be too distressed to see it."
Saga turned to Henrik, all her worst fears confirmed.
"We need to see Frank and Harriet immediately. I call Linn."
The first meeting was inconclusive, Frank refused to say a word. When they left Linn continued, promising Saga to pass swiftly whatever info she could get.
Harriet had been deeply betrayed by Frank.
A wolf in a herd of sheep, she sharply defined him when Henrik and Saga questioned her.
Her memory was not perfect as before so she did not remember clearly about the details over the burial, she was quite sure Frank never spoke about hospitals.
Saga and Henrik drove back in silence, Henrik afraid to give voice to his deepest thoughts.
Suddenly Saga turned and stopped in a parking lot.
"If there is no body, she can be alive."
"But where is she?"
"It was more than two years ago, she cold be everywhere."
"We'll never find her."
"We need to start from Frank, we'll check again his house, computer, everything. We need a lead. I'll ask Linn for a broader warrant, we'll return to the village for a deeper search. And we need Astrid."
"She's home with a neighbour, I need to get back."
"Lilian can send a car and bring her there, with her presence we can work faster."
"She hates that place now."
"She's coming to terms with the abduction. It's for her sister, she have to help us."
Henrik had to accept.
Astrid saw a side of Henrik she never imagined. The efficient detective, .the man who could spend hours in front of a pc, reading mails, files, controlling each part of the house she lived in for a long time.
Dad and Saga were a team. Determinate, efficient, capable.
Harriet offered tea, sandwiches and cakes, they nor drank nor ate.
Astrid was mesmerized in watching them work, sat at the same table, shoulders touching, thinking in synchrony. Henrik was concentrated on Saga only and the way she looked at him was meant to cut off the rest of the world. When Saga put a hand on Henrik's arm to point a particular file he briefly covered it with his, thinking nobody was noticing.
Astrid was sure they were more than best friends. Best friends don't use the same bed.
She resigned to wait, so she took another cup of tea and turned the tv on.
Henrik found her dozing on the couch late in the afternoon.
He couldn't stop, pure adrenaline was running in his body, stronger than his pills had ever been. He bent to caress his child's head and saw something hidden between a cushion and the arm of the couch.
A phone.
He woke Astrid, pointing at the object.
"Is it yours?"
"No, I think Frank had more than one."
"Saga! Come here."
Saga's gloved hand tried to switch on the phone on, it was without charge. She called John asking for en extra shift; an hour later John found the list of calls and started his long working night.
At home, Astrid observed dad and Saga more carefully.
He smiled for the first time of the day while cooking dinner, when Saga explained about how good foregin cuisine were.
She had travelled a lot during her two weeks away, she quoted places Astrid know only in school books.
Astrid understood her dad knew those places, too, he had toured Europe when he was younger
Henrik noticed Astrid's silence, she was like a fish out of water, not understanding the conversation.
"Once I went to France and Spain with my friends to celebrate we were twenty, we spent two weeks in a old camper, we had lot of fun."
"Astrid will sure love Paris, the museums, the paintings, the brasseries."
Saga had understood Astrid and got the right words to intrigue her.
"We could go there this summer, Astrid, imagine your first holiday abroad, what do you think? We could to the sea with Saga, south of France, Italy."
Astrid thought it was a moment of impossible joy after a day of madness.
At home her father was again the caring dad, not the ruthless detective of the afternoon at the village.
She barely nodded at the holiday project, her head was hurting for the confused feelings inside her; after she ate half her plate she retired early.
Henrik was puzzled and stared blankly at Saga.
She briefly rolled her eyes and started to explain him the obvious.
"It had been tricky for her today, you were in detective mode all time."
"I checked on her, I made her eat."
"Yes, then you noticed the phone and soon you forget her again."
Henrik stopped the table cleaning, Saga was right, he had been too busy in following the illusion is lost daughter was still alive that he neglected the living one.
He had to apologize, so he knocked at Astrid's door and remained with her a long time.
Meanwhile John called, his work was still long to complete, he promised Saga answers in the morning; Lillian had sent Barbara to help him with the pc who had just been delivered at the station.
Henrik returned and loaded the dishwasher.
"It's ok, I explained her how it was important to find proofs today."
"Daughter of a detective."
"Indeed", Henrik paused "she asked me about us."
"What?"
"She watched us today, she wanted to know if we are more than friends. I told her yes."
"Good."
"Are you angry?"
"No, it is the truth."