"Well, we didn't find anything, boys," the American analytics officer informed them as he peeled off his print blockers.
Magnus and Kurt turned to each other and sighed. So he had worn gloves. Great, Kurt thought, that just makes our job that much harder.
They thanked the team that came in, and walked back over to where the machete had been left by their killer. It had crime scene tape around it, and cameras that the crew was packing up after using to examine the weapon. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon of the forest, casting a strange orange glow over everything.
Magnus suddenly thought of something. "How are we going to figure this out if we don't even have any witnesses?" Kurt looked up. "What do you mean?" "Well, if I remember correctly, it said in the case file - there were never any survivors of these murders!"
Kurt rubbed his chin for a second. "What about Shelly? Didn't she say she worked as a counsellor at this camp before? I mean, back when it was a regular, child friendly summer camp?" "Actually yeah, I do remember her saying that… but, that could mean-"
Kurt took a deep breath as he realized what Magnus was getting at. That meant if the killer really knew what he was doing, Shelley might be next.
"Alright, we'll… we'll check her cabin to see if she's still there, if she isn't, good, she's somewhere safe, but if she is, we have to send her back to civilization before he comes for her." Magnus swallowed. "What if," he looked down, "We're too late?"
Kurt shut his eyes, and rubbed his temples. "I don't know, Magnus. You know innocent people die all the time in the firing line of criminals. That's why people like us do what we do. To protect them." Magnus nodded, his older partner's words supplying him with a subtle sense of confidence.
They headed back inside the cabin, and Kurt grabbed his phone. He waited as the line rang, waiting for Shelly to pick up.
"Anything?" Magnus asked. Kurt held up a finger, and was silent for a second. "Um, hi, Shelly, it's Kurt. We just want to make sure you're alright, we saw the guy in the forest last night… uh, if you get this message, we'd advise you to leave right away, just for safety's sake." He hung up.
"She didn't answer?!" "No, Magnus, I just left a message because I felt like it." "Sorry… but we have to go make sure she's alright!" Kurt looked over at the younger cop. "I don't think a missed phone call gives us cause to investigate, Magnus…" "If we wait any longer, it could be too late."
Kurt reluctantly nodded at his point, and the two went out, making the lengthy trek over to the other side of camp. Thankfully they didn't have to cross through the forest to get to her cabin, and promptly made it there.
"Shelly?" Kurt called as they knocked on the door. "Hello?"
Magnus peered through the window. Kurt carefully turned the key in the lock, but realized the door was already open. Magnus swallowed uneasily, eyes darting around apprehensively.
"Shelly?" Magnus asked as he looked in the rooms. Kurt checked the shower and the living room, but both were empty. He breathed a sigh of relief. "It looks like she left already." Magnus nodded slowly, giving the place the last once-over. He finally decided Kurt was right, and followed him out.
They went back, and spent the day looking over the pictures of the machete and discussing the possible whereabouts of its owner.
"Where the bloody hell would he even stay?" Magnus asked, beginning to get frustrated at the case. Kurt looked at him. "I don't know. I don't think comfort is first on his agenda, he probably sleeps in the forest or something. If he does sleep."
Magnus ran a hand through his hair in exasperation.
Later, it was almost night time, and Magnus looked out the window. "Wow. It's… already dark," he said nervously. Kurt eyed him thoughtfully. Usually, Magnus was the particularly valiant one of the two, and for him to be this on-edge was quite out of character for him.
Magnus noticed his partner's stare, and chuckled a little. "I'm just a little jumpy when I've been away from home soil this long." Kurt raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Well, I'm gonna turn in, Magnus, I don't know about you, but I'm bloody exhausted." Magnus nodded distractedly, and waited for Kurt to go to bed, claiming he was feeling restless.
He sat thinking for a few minutes, and eventually went to his room. But as he shut out the light, he still had an incredibly uneasy feeling about the whole situation with Shelly. He thought back to what Kurt had said about the lives of innocents, but he couldn't just stand by and sleep in his bed knowing that something bad could have happened to her.
No, he decided, I'll do this myself.
He got up, and checked Kurt's room, where the older officer was asleep, and he was, snoring loudly in the dark. Magnus took a deep, shaky breath as he got his gun and his jacket, and left the cabin quietly into the cool night.
He padded lightly across the bed of leaves and gravel path, clutching his gun tightly with one hand. He licked over his lips, shivering a little, and eventually made it to Shelly's cabin.
The door creaked noisily as Magnus nudged it open with his foot, and he peered inside the pitch black area before going in. He took a deep breath, and looking behind him, entered the cabin.
He took out his flashlight, and looked around until he found a lamp. It looked like it was about to die, as it was flickering and extremely dim already. He heard a knocking sound behind him, and swivelled around, cocking his gun.
It was only the door being blown against the frame and reopened repeatedly by the wind. He exhaled. "Get a hold of yourself, Martinsson," he whispered, and proceeded to the next room. He and Kurt had checked these earlier, but he had felt, for some reason, that they had missed something.
He crept through the room, looking around again, but still found nothing there. He checked the bathroom, and the other room as well, and sighed as he still found nothing.
My intuition is seldom off… he thought. I was sure there was something wrong!
Just as he was about to leave, something caught his eye in one of the bedrooms.
He looked in, and found two strands of string hanging from the closet door. Magnus frowned. They seemed to be a shiny red colour, and looked like sewing thread.
He walked closer, inspecting it, and suddenly dropped the strands as he realized that they weren't string- these were strands of hair!
He looked at his fingers, seeing the shiny red colour on them. It made sense now. He shuddered to think of what he would find if he opened the door to the closet, and his eyebrows lifted as he contemplated going and getting Kurt.
No, he thought, I found this. I've got to make sure it's her.
He slowly wrapped his fingers around the doorknob, and pulled it open.
"Oh god!"
When he saw what was inside, a single tear ran down his cheek and he covered his mouth, dropping his flashlight and letting it roll. When he went to pick it up, he realized he was standing in a pool of blood, seeping out of the closet he just opened.
Suddenly, the lights died in the living room leaving the whole place in darkness, and the front door banged shut. Magnus jumped, and started to shake.
"Kurt?" he backed up a little.
"Wallander, is that you?"
There was no response. Knowing that the wind couldn't have shut that door that hard, he knew that it would be stupid to go out through the front, especially in the dark, so giving one last glance around, he jumped through the back window, hitting the ground with a muffled smack.
He looked around, and he could see his breath again coming out in short, frequent puffs as he began to run back to his own cabin. He kept looking around him, paranoid that he was being followed.
"KURT!" he yelled as he ran in, shutting the door behind him. There was a pause, and he heard a stir in Kurt's room. After a few seconds, the half closed door creaked open, and Kurt trudged out.
"Hm? Magnus, what- did you go out?" "Kurt, I went back to the cabin! Kurt it's… I…" he squeezed his eyes shut, and Wallander frowned in concern, seeing how shaken up Magnus really was.
"Here, just… sit down, calm down," Kurt said, sitting down in a chair and gesturing to the other one. "I can't… Kurt, I saw…" he took a breath, "It's Shelley. She didn't leave Kurt. She was, her… and, and… oh god…"
Kurt paled a little as Magnus used his hands to describe the state he found her in. They had been too late after all. And the results were horrible.
Just then, there was a faint knocking on glass sound coming from Kurt's room, and the two detectives backed away to the front door away from it.
Suddenly, something dawned on Magnus. "Shit…" he said frantically, and ran outside, Kurt running after him to stop him. "Magnus, come back here! He's out there!" The younger cop left anyway. "Damn," Kurt muttered, and followed after him hastily. He wouldn't let anything happen to him.
"Magnus!" he called, and found him going into the forest, where they had gone the night before. "What are you doing? Are you insane?!" Kurt asked, catching up. Magnus turned to him, gesturing to the crime scene tape with a knowing look on his face.
The tape itself remained untouched, but as they looked to the tree stump, they realized - the machete was gone.
But that wasn't all.
"Look," Magnus whispered, pointing to the front of the stump.
There, engraved with, no doubt, the weapon, were three little lines, spaced apart. And one had a slash through it.
"Kurt… those lines are us. One down… two to go."
Wallander stared at the markings. What the hell had they gotten into?