by Willow Rose
It was still worth it.
Just as Jesper was about to plunge the knife into the woman’s chest, he heard feet coming up the stairs.
They’re here. They’ve come into the house!
He heard fumbling at the door, someone trying to open it, but he had locked it so she wouldn’t escape in case she woke up. Then, someone yelled.
“Hello?”
Jesper smiled. Fools. “Hello?” he yelled back.
“Who’s in there?” the female voice yelled back.
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Jesper said, making his voice sound light, like a female’s. Jesper giggled. He had always been excellent at making voices. For a while, growing up, he had thought that was what he was going to do for a living…be a comedian who did impressions. But the chance never quite presented itself to him.
Besides, he liked this better.
“What?”
Jesper scanned the room. There were no other ways out.
What are you going to do?
Jesper laughed a madman’s laughter. This had turned out to be even more fun that he had ever dared to anticipate. So much more fun.
49
August 2014
“ARE YOU ALRIGHT in there?” I yelled through the door, the gun shaking between my hands. The poor woman in there had no idea what had happened to her husband. Or maybe she did, and had gone into shock. She didn’t sound like she was in her right mind. What was that about a man and a curtain? I didn’t understand. I was still shivering from what I had seen in the yard.
“Yes, yes, fine,” she answered.
She sounded strange, I thought. And why wasn’t she asking me who I was and what I was doing in her house? Something was definitely off.
“Something terrible happened,” Sophia said. “I’ve called the police. Whatever you do, don’t look out the window. Please unlock the door so we can help you.”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” the voice replied. “The lock is broken.”
I looked at Sophia, who shook her head. This was too weird.
“Something is wrong here,” I whispered to Sophia.
“Her voice sounds really strange,” Sophia whispered back.
“You think the killer is in there?” Sophia’s voice was trembling.
I shrugged. “Maybe,” I whispered back. “Maybe he has someone in there with him. Maybe he’s going to kill her. I’m going to kick the door in now, and then I’ll use your method.”
“My what?” Sophia asked.
“Shoot first, and ask questions later.”
I lifted my leg and kicked the door. I broke a giant hole in it, then kicked it again and got it open. Just as we walked into the room, we heard a loud crash, the sound of glass breaking.
“The window,” I yelled.
I rushed towards it, just in time to see the killer slide across the roof and jump onto the branch of the big tree in the yard.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” I yelled after him, but he had already reached the ground and started running. When he reached the small red car and was about to get into it, he suddenly stopped. He turned his head and looked directly at me for just a second before he jumped inside the small red car and drove off.
“Shoot! He’s getting away!” Sophia yelled.
“It’s too late. He’s gone,” I said.
I heard moaning behind me and turned. A naked woman was on the bed, her arms and legs tied down. I ran to her. She had blood on her face.
“Are you alright?” I asked, while untying her arms and legs. In the distance, I could hear the siren from the island’s only police car. I had asked Sophia to call for help, to avoid any confusion in case it was Morten who picked up at the police station.
The woman groaned again. She was trying to open her eyes and lift her head, but it was too painful. At least she was alive. That was more than I could say for her poor husband in the yard. I still shivered when I thought about him. His dead body had been strapped onto a pole and placed in the middle of the yard. It made him look like a scarecrow.
Scarecrows don’t talk. Of course.
I couldn’t get the pictures out of my head…the head hanging lifeless from his neck, his chin touching his chest, his lifeless eyes staring into the darkness, the blood running from his wounds in the chest and leg. The killer seemed to have gutted his leg open, and I wondered if he had removed anything this time. The brain and the heart seemed both untouched.
I felt so confused. What was this all about? What was it with this killer’s obsession with The Wizard of Oz? Who was he killing over and over again in his mind?
Voices came from downstairs; I could tell they belonged to Morten and Dr. Williamsen.
“Up here,” Sophia yelled.
The woman was awake. She was blinking her eyes. “Where…where am I?” she asked.
“Sh. Don’t get up.” I spotted the metal rod on the floor. It had blood smeared on it. “You were hit on the head. Just stay still till the doctor comes. The police are on their way as well,” I said. “Rest your head.”
“Wh…?” The woman was overwhelmed with pain, and didn’t try to speak anymore.
I spotted a black sports bag next to the metal rod. It was open. I walked to it and looked inside. Then I gasped.
Sophia looked at me. “What?” she asked. “Is it the killer’s?”
I stepped aside, so Sophia could take a look. She gasped as well. “The shoes. The ruby red slippers! He was going to put them on her, wasn’t he?”
I nodded. “I think he was. We interrupted him and made him run.”
“We saved her life, then?”
“I think we came just in time.”
“Emma? What happened? Are you both alright?” Morten stormed in. He stared intensely at me.
My heart started beating fast. It had been almost four weeks since he left me in my kitchen. I had no idea what to say to him. I just shook my head. “We’re fine, I guess.”
“This girl needs medical attention,” Sophia said.
“What happened to her?” Dr. Williamsen asked.
“She was struck with that metal rod over there. Whoever did it, jumped through the window and disappeared in a small red car,” I said. Then, I paused and took in a deep breath.
“Her husband…is in the yard.”
50
August 2014
JESPER MELANDER WAS washing his hands, rubbing them aggressively with soap. He was growling and groaning in anger.
How could it have gone so wrong?
He thought back to what had happened, while the blood from his fingers and arms turned the sink red. He was making a horrible mess. Jesper looked at himself in the mirror, and tried to wash the blood stains off of his cheeks.
You should have killed her while you had the chance, you fool. You should have killed them all…the two women as well.
Why hadn’t he? Why hadn’t he just killed them all? Instead, he had hesitated. He had shown weakness. He had panicked.
Carefully, he took off his shirt. It was filled with small pieces of glass from when he jumped through the window. It was lucky that he was so agile. All the workouts over the last few years had finally paid off. He was quite impressed with himself…to think that he had managed to climb over the rooftop and jump to the tree, then crawl down and jump to the ground. They didn’t stand a chance. They would never catch him.
Jesper laughed at his own reflection.
Don’t they know they’ll never catch me, those fools? They have no idea who they’re dealing with. They’ll never find me.
But it had been close this time. Too close. That couldn’t happen again. He would have to make sure of that.
Jesper had decided to change his plans slightly. He had to get rid of that woman. She had seen him. He was certain she had. Just as he had jumped into the car, he had turned his head and looked back. He had seen her standing in the window, looking at him. She knew too much. Why was she even there? Why was she knocking on the door this late at night? W
ere they neighbors? No. Jesper knew he had seen the woman in the window somewhere before. He had seen that face, those chubby cheeks, and annoying face before. But where?
He went to his office to look at the bookshelf. He ran his fingers over the back of his many books, then paused and took one out. He looked at the picture inside the flap. There she was. Looking right back at him, smiling like she knew his dirty little secret.
So you want to play ball, huh, Emma Frost?
Jesper closed the book with a slam, then threw it on the desk. He snorted in anger. She annoyed him immensely. He couldn’t stand the fact that she was the reason why he hadn’t succeeded in completing this kill, this piece of art. And, on top of it, he had lost the shoes. He’d had to leave the bag with the shoes behind, and he had never managed to put them on her feet. Jesper growled again, then grabbed the many listings of homes for sale on the island and ripped them apart. He threw the pieces on the floor and stomped on them in anger.
Jesper took in a deep breath, and leaned back his head, trying to calm himself down. This was not the time to lose control. It was all about staying on top of things. And he was always a step ahead, wasn’t he? Yes, he had been so far. And this Emma Frost had no idea who she was dealing with. Besides, he had managed to finish the man. It was a masterpiece…hanging him up him like a scarecrow in the yard. Jesper was impressed with his own ingenuity. It was quite clever, wasn’t it? It would definitely make the papers in the morning.
Another cruel idea was slowly shaping in the mind of Jesper Melander. An idea so brutal, it caused him to smile at the very thought of it. Jesper rushed into the garage and searched through his mess. He pulled out a red gas can. It was heavy. He looked at it with delight. Then, he giggled at his own creativity.
Well, my little pretty, I can cause accidents, too!
51
August 2014
THE WEEKEND PASSED and Monday came. I was still shaken up pretty badly about what had happened in Sonderho. I hadn’t slept much since. I kept seeing the man in the yard, hanging from the pole, every time I closed my eyes. It freaked me out.
Every minute of my waking hours, I fought the urge to call Morten and ask him if they knew anything more about this killer, and if they were anywhere near finding him, but I was afraid he would think I was using the case as an excuse to talk to him, which might be partly true as well. I didn’t want him to think I was as desperate as I felt.
The fact was, we hadn’t spoken for four weeks now, except for the hour he spent with me on Friday night, writing down my testimony about what had happened when we arrived at the house. I had given him my description of the killer the way I saw him right before he jumped inside the red car. But, the fact was, I didn’t see him very well in the darkness, and the little I saw from the streetlights on his face wasn’t really useful. Morten had been very professional when interviewing me, and that hurt like crazy. He hadn’t said a word about us or anything. He asked if I was all right. That was all. Not a hug, not a comforting word of any kind. I couldn’t believe he could, all of a sudden, turn this cold. It almost made me cry just thinking about it.
I guess we were definitively over, then?
I had no idea what had happened to the woman on the bed, but assumed she had been airlifted to the mainland and was safe in the hospital. But, again, I didn’t know, because I didn’t want to call Morten. The papers said she was still in intensive care and that she had suffered a severe blow to the head.
Sophia came over and sat in my kitchen after lunch. She looked as bad as I felt inside.
“What? No cake or buns? You’re not baking today?” she asked.
I poured her a cup of coffee.
“I’m not really in the mood,” I said. I smiled awkwardly. The fact was, I had been on a baking frenzy all weekend and had just finished the rest of the carrot cake from the day before by myself. I was too embarrassed to tell Sophia, but I hadn’t stopped eating all weekend. It was the only thing that kept me from thinking about the killings and about Morten.
“That’s not like you,” she said.
I sat with my cup between my hands and stared into the black coffee. Images of the woman on the bed flickered before my eyes.
“Can’t blame you,” Sophia continued. “I’m still freaking out as well. Did you hear the latest?”
“No, what?”
“I read it in the paper this morning, but apparently the killer cut something out of the husband.”
“I had a feeling he might have,” I said. My heart started pounding. “What was it this time? The heart, the brain again?”
She shook her head. “No, it was way weirder than that. It was a nerve or something. Something that starts with an s.”
I grabbed my laptop and found the article online from today’s paper. I had stayed offline all morning, trying to keep my thoughts in other places.
“It’s called the sciatic nerve,” I said.
“What’s that?”
I Googled it. “Apparently it’s the longest and widest single nerve in the human body. It goes from the top of the leg to the foot.”
I looked at Sophia. She made a grimace. “Why on earth…?
“What’s going on here?” I asked and leaned back. “What is this guy up to?”
“First he takes the heart, then the brain and now a…a nerve from someone?”
“The heart, the brain, the nerve, where have I heard that before?” I stared at Sophia while it all came to me. “The heart, the brain, the nerve,” I repeated over and over again, slowly remembering the song. I Googled it and found the lyrics. Then I started singing:
“If I only had the nerve…”
Sophia jumped in.
“I'm afraid there's no denyin' I'm just a dandelion, A fate I don't deserve…”
“I'd be brave as a blizzard…”
“I'd be gentle as a lizard…”
“I'd be clever as a gizzard…”
“If the Wizard is a Wizard who will serve…” I stared at Sophia, while we both sang the last sentence of the song in unison:
“Then I'm sure to get a brain, a heart, a home, the nerve!”
52
August 2014
“WHAT DO YOU make of it?”
Sophia looked agitated. She sipped her coffee, while looking at me like she expected me to know everything.
“He’s obsessed with the movie,” I said.
“Some obsession.”
“Pretty creepy,” I said, and sipped my coffee, while wondering what we could use this for. These were all the things the Lion, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and Dorothy wanted to get from the Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man needed a heart, The Scarecrow needed a brain, and the Lion needed courage, the nerve. So the killer collected all of these things. Did that mean he was done?
“He still hasn’t gotten what Dorothy wanted,” I said.
“What?” Sophia asked. She looked confused.
“He has all the things the others wanted, the heart, the brain, the nerve, but he hasn’t gotten what Dorothy wanted yet.”
“And what was that?”
“A home. She wanted to go home.”
Sophia scoffed. “So you think he’ll steal someone’s house next?”
“Maybe. Who knows what he’ll come up with?”
There was a fumbling by the front door and I heard Maya enter. She stuck her face through the door to the kitchen.
“Hi,” she yelled.
“Hi, sweetie. How was your day? Do you want something to eat?”
“No, I have homework. Maybe later.”
Then she left.
“I’d better get back,” Sophia said. She finished her coffee. “My kids will start pouring in as well in a few minutes.”
I gave her a hug. “See you later.”
A few minutes passed before Victor came through the door. As usual, he stormed into the kitchen and sat at his chair, waiting for his food to magically appear.
So, I toasted some bread and served it with jam on it. He hadn’t
slept well lately either and looked pale.
“So, how have you been, buddy?” I asked. “Is school getting better?”
He didn’t answer. He stared at the table while chewing. Small talk didn’t interest him. But, I figured that since he didn’t say anything, he’d had a good day. I reached into my pocket and pulled something out and placed it on the table in front of him.
“I found this rock this morning while taking my walk on the beach. You think you’d like it?” I asked.
Finally, he lifted his eyes. He stared at the yellow rock. He had been into rocks a lot lately. Rocks and trees were his entire life.
He grabbed it and looked at it in the light. I felt really proud, seeing the smile on his face. He felt it in his hand, then hit it against his front tooth.
“It’s amber, Mom.”
“Really? Well, I had a feeling you would know what it was. It’s yours if you want it.”
Victor looked at me and smiled. “Thanks.”
My heart skipped a beat. It was so rare that I got to make my son happy. It felt so good, the few times I succeeded.
“It’s going in my collection,” he said and stood up, then stormed through the house. I heard the door to the yard slam, and knew he would be busy for the next several hours. It made me happy to know he was happy out there with his rocks and trees.
I had just finished cleaning up his food, when Dr. Sonnichsen arrived. I let her in and called for Maya, who ran down the stairs. She was always looking so much forward to the sessions with Dr. Sonnichsen, and especially today, since it had been the weekend.
They went into the living room to do their thing, and I returned to the kitchen and started preparing dinner. I looked at my laptop while peeling potatoes. I hadn’t gotten much work done today, either, and was starting to get stressed out about this book. All I needed was to edit two chapters, but somehow, I couldn’t find the energy to do it. I kept wondering about the strange Wizard of Oz-killer. Then, I thought about Morten, who was all alone trying to crack the case. I knew he was probably very frustrated by now.
