You couldn’t make this stuff up. This was more like an anecdote or a tall tale you told during the department’s annual New Year’s reception or a remarkable story to tell your grandchildren on a chilly winter evening. But only if this story resulted in a happy ending.
The car exchange had already been calculated in. Romina was undeniably a woman with many ideas, so they had already assumed that she had arranged a backup for herself. However, with a GPS system in place, this didn’t seem like a problem to them. As long as Oso stayed with David, they would know exactly where they were.
At least they were sure about which type of car they were driving now. After the car exchange, everything seemed fine. Because it was fairly busy on Hooker Street, they had reduced the distance between them to one kilometer. During the car switch, they had parked their cars on the side of the road for a moment. When the dot started moving again, they also started to move again.
One of Benitez’s colleagues informed him about everything that was happening through an earpiece. When Romina found the transmitter hidden in the teddy bear, he had still had some hope. There was always a chance that she mistook it for a part of the bear or something else, because who would think there would be a GPS transmitter hidden in a stuffed animal? When she forced Heleen to open her shirt, he knew they were in trouble. He quickly responded by putting up a roadblock at the highway exit with the patrol cars that were on standby. He also closed off Hooker Street in the direction of Blanes. This made it impossible to escape using the regular roads.
“Stupid bastard,” Benitez growled.
“Thanks,” Alderon replied stoically.
“I was talking to myself.”
“That works, too.”
Automatically, Benitez looked at every car that passed them from the opposite direction. There was no black Seat among them. They had not come back this way.
At the location of the accident, a small group of people had gathered. His trained police eyes told him that there were three parked cars there, plus eight men and two women. Customers, young people looking for excitement after a night out, and prostitutes. What they looked like or whether they fit any description did not interest him. There was no black SEAT along the side of the road.
Alderon continued to drive. Benitez looked back and saw that his colleagues followed. He turned back and could see on the screen that they were fast approaching the GPS transmitter. When they reached that location he didn’t see any lit-up metal reflecting in the streetlamp, no unexpected clue, no sound that suggested any activity … no black SEAT.
“They can’t be very far away,” Benitez broke the silence. Despite his confident tone, he could not prevent the hint of doubt that also sounded in his voice.
Alderon nodded.
“In theory.”
53
“Calm down,” Romina hissed. After she found the bug, her mood had become even worse. “In about one hundred meters you will see an embankment on the side of the road. Slow down to forty kilometers an hour, and I will tell you when to turn to the right and then go upward. There’s a gap there between the trees through which the car can easily pass.”
Heleen nodded. She kept the speed that Romina wanted and at the same time tried to gauge the new situation. It seemed hopeless.
“Here it is. Slow down and turn right … now.”
With cold sweat on her hands, Heleen steered the SEAT off the paved road. The headlights lit up a hill with trees. It seemed to go straight up, and it was very steep. Even though she was overcome with fear she could see that even a bicycle would have trouble finding enough space to penetrate the dark forest. In the corner of her eye she saw a shadow; it was Romina’s gun, which she used to point out the correct route.
“You have to go through there. At the …”
With the all the courage she could muster up in the midst of her despair, Heleen pressed down hard on the accelerator. Her speed had slowed down to a walking pace. On the middle of the slope, the car jerked hard and the engine stalled. She slammed on the brakes and instinctively pulled the hand brake.
“First gear, stupid!” Romina screamed out. “Start the engine and drive up that hill in first gear!”
The soft surface moved underneath the car tires as Heleen peeled out. Because the tire grip was minimal, the back of the car started to fishtail back and forth. She pressed the accelerator in deeper. She revved the car and the engine roared as they almost reached the highest point of the hill.
“To the right!”
Heleen saw the opening and pulled on the steering wheel. The back of the car slid to the left. Her attempt to correct it was useless. While the front slipped through the trees, the back slammed into another tree. The sound of the blow made it clear that the left taillight was shattered.
“Slowly … now stop and turn off the lights.”
Heleen breathed a sigh of relief and waited for Romina’s next command. In an attempt to suppress her fear, she put her hands in her lap. It was better to keep those trembling hands out of her sight, she thought. She could not afford to seem anxious or weak now.
Romina had now focused her attention on David, who had been quiet as a mouse during the past few minutes and looked at her with wide eyes. She patted him on the head sweetly. Then she pulled him close and kissed him tenderly on both cheeks.
“You’re a big boy. Mama is proud of you. If you stay in the car with Oso for a few more minutes and stay very quiet then I will get you lots of goodies later. Deal?”
Romina let him go. Softly, she pushed him back down. She pressed Oso firmly against his chest.
“My dear boy.” She smiled lovingly at him. “I need to go get something out there in the forest, and then I’ll be right back.”
David reacted intensely. The situation was very confusing to him. He had really grown used to Ana and Heleen over the past few months, and now this woman was back again. He jumped back up quickly and slipped right past Romina. His stretched-out arms clasped around Heleen’s head.
“No don’t go! Auntie Elena, please stay here with me!”
Romina struggled to suppress her natural response.
“Auntie Elena?” she asked sarcastically. “She needs to help Mommy to carry some things first. The sooner you calm down, the sooner we will be back.”
With a very icy tone she said to Heleen, “Will you open the trunk and get out of the car please, Auntie Elena?”
She pressed the button to open the trunk, which unlocked immediately, and got out of the car.
Romina pressed the childproof lock. She went to the trunk and came back with a shovel and a flashlight.
“Keys.” Heleen handed over the keys, and Romina locked the car. David roared with fear and sadness. He hit his palms against the side window. Heleen tried to swallow her compassion for the boy. David’s loud wailing was hard to ignore.
“Walk.” With a brief nod, Romina indicated the direction. Heleen had barely taken three steps when she felt a poke in her back from the shovel. Heleen accelerated her pace. Her gaze was focused on the beam of light from Romina’s flashlight. The dry wood creaked under her feet. The moonlight reached the ground on the more open areas, while in the thicker patches the light was filtered. This constant variation gave the forest a spooky appearance.
“Stop.”
Romina let the artificial light glide across a tree trunk. In the middle of the trunk there was a carved heart. The letters F and R were clearly legible.
“So romantic,” she said, grinning.
By gesturing her right hand, in which she held her gun, she made it clear that Heleen needed to make room for her. She stepped away and stood with her back against the tree trunk. She held the flashlight in her left hand while clutching the shovel under her left armpit. She very carefully measured three equal steps. In that spot she stopped. She dropped the shovel on the ground.
“Now dig, Auntie Elena.”
54
Oscar Alderon drove with the police lights on. The area moved past th
em slowly. Benitez scanned the right side, while Alderon watched the other side sharply. They were looking for a small clue or an indication that would confirm their suspicions.
Benitez had learned from several of his colleagues that the black SEAT had not been spotted anywhere. They must have turned somewhere. But Hooker Street didn’t have any side streets.
After Romina had found the bug and removed it, she had literally forced Heleen to drive the car into the woods. There’s no other way, Benitez thought. If they traveled at a normal speed, they would have encountered the roadblock by now.
They reached the part of the road that was flanked by a hill to the right. From this natural embankment, a red flash of light reflected in the headlights. It had the same effect as the reflectors that were on poles along the provincial roads.
“Stop,” Benitez said.
He got out and pointed the beam of his flashlight on the lowest part of the hill. The tire track was marked clearly. Against the ridge of the hill, there were more marks. The car had slipped there.
Benitez walked up the hill. Just before he reached the highest point, he switched off his flashlight. He slowed his pace and bridged the last distance on all fours. Carefully, he peeked over the hill. He saw the black SEAT parked among the trees. He sank back down and grabbed a radio from his pocket.
“Come here,” he whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”
For someone with his stature, Alderon was remarkably agile. The detective got out of the car and crept up the hill like a predator. He hunched down beside his colleague and raised his eyebrows.
After Benitez explained the situation and his plan with hand gestures, they immediately took action. They crept over to the car slowly. Benitez positioned himself next to the left rear, while Alderon went to the right of the car. As agreed, Benitez took the lead. Cautiously, he stood up. His gun was pointed at the left rear. His finger was on the trigger.
A terrified little boy looked into the barrel of the loaded gun.
55
The shovel moved through the loose sand easily. The first backpack was buried about a meter deep, and the straps were already showing. Heleen’s efforts to delay had not worked. Romina knew the sand was loose, and after each attempt Heleen made to slow down she poked the barrel of the gun in her back.
Heleen leaned forward, pulled the bag up, and put it at Romina’s feet.
“The second half is one meter to the right. Go stand in the hole and dig farther.”
Heleen did as she was told. During her hard work, she had contemplated using the shovel to hit Romina. But by standing right behind her, the Spanish woman had made this almost impossible.
She moved the shovel diagonally forward. The sand slid down. Like an experienced gardener, she put the heap on the metal shovel and threw it next to the hole. When she put the shovel back in the ground, she felt resistance. If this was the second backpack, then it was all over. Heleen felt her desperation grow.
The hopelessness of her situation had begun to sink in after Romina had left David behind in the car. Totally heartless. What kind of mother left her terrified child alone in a locked car in the darkness of the forest? What kind of parent would do that?
When she had started digging, it became clear to her why Romina had not taken her son. The kidnapping and the crazy ride were only child’s play compared to what was yet to come. She wanted to save David this horrific scene. Even the most horrendous mother wouldn’t take her child to an execution. At some point, she had even considered just kneeling down in the dark hole and asking Romina to just end it already. Then this suffering would finally be over. Then she wouldn’t have to be so scared and worried anymore.
But as she continued digging, she became determined not to give up. She just needed to buy some more time. After all, the police couldn’t be that far. They were aware of the situation and were doing everything in their power to save her. She had to believe that. Time … that was all she needed now. Every second counted. But suddenly she felt the second bag of money in the sand.
She stopped digging and straightened her back.
“That letter … I still don’t understand. What did that even accomplish?”
Romina tapped the barrel of the gun against her head.
“Dig.”
As slowly as Romina permitted, she leaned back over. This had only brought her a few seconds. Not exactly what she had envisioned.
“That letter was a distraction,” Romina said suddenly. She laughed hoarsely. “I wrote that letter from my prison cell. It is a little more difficult to assess the situation from there than when you’re actually back on the outside again.”
Heleen pushed the shovel back into the ground again. To her horror, this movement loosened up the sand. A piece of the second pack was now visible.
“If I succeeded in my escape attempt, I would have every available policeman on my trail within hours. That letter would confuse everyone. After they found the abandoned ambulance and the bloody overalls, there would undoubtedly be investigators that wanted to classify it as a suicide. She made some bad choices in her life, destroys the remaining part of the loot, and turns the gun on herself. Shit happens, case closed. Certainly not something to spend any more precious man-hours on.”
The light beam moved across the second backpack, making more than half of it completely visible. Although she knew that a few firm tugs would be enough to pull the bag out of the sand, Heleen put the shovel back in the ground again to gain more time.
The backpack was loose. Heleen knew that the end was in sight now. Once she put this bag of money next to the hole, it was only a matter of seconds before Romina would do what David was not allowed to see.
She grabbed the handle. With all her strength she pulled the bag out of the earth. Her upper body came back up. She stood upright. Her right arm hung limply down next her body, so that the backpack remained in the pit. She looked straight ahead into the darkness. Behind her, Romina breathed heavily with excitement.
“The fact that you wanted to create confusion with that letter is clear to me,” Heleen said. Although fear raged throughout her body, she tried to sound relaxed.
“But what did you actually hope to achieve by putting me in a bad light? That part did not make sense to me.”
That was the last straw, and Heleen knew it. Romina’s intentions were obvious. But she had to create as much delay as possible. It would surprise her if the Spanish woman continued to play the game all the way to the end and would even answer her now. She closed her eyes. No one was coming to rescue her anymore.
“That’s for me to know and for you to find out, Auntie Elena.”
Simultaneously with her cold words, Romina hit Heleen on the side of her head with the barrel of the gun. Without making a sound, she sank to her knees.
56
Dancing on a volcano, Benitez thought. That’s exactly what you’re doing. You walk with your eyes half closed, on the edge with no way out. Every decision is crucial now and could be fatal.
David’s frightened little face was engraved on his retina. The boy wanted so badly to be set free, his body language told him it did not matter to him who opened the door, as long as someone did. …
With pain in his heart, he had decided to leave David in the car, gesturing that he should be quiet and just had to wait. Forcing the lock was easy, that was not the point, but it was too risky. When the alarm went off, which he assumed it would, he would have to remain extra sharp. This created a situation that was more confusing and dangerous than the current situation.
The two colleagues from the car that followed them had put themselves in strategic positions all around the car. They hid behind the trees and had an unobstructed view of the left door. Romina would never leave without her son and would have to come back to the car.
Hopefully it won’t get that far, Benitez thought. A shootout was the last thing he wanted. There were never any winners in a shootout. He kept the beam of his flashlight at his feet. He stopped eve
ry five meters and gazed around in the dark.
They were now nearly fifty meters away from the car. Keep going straight or turn slightly? Because there were no footprints, they had to rely on their intuition.
They had decided to split up. Two separate individuals stood a better chance of succeeding than one team on the same track. Alderon cut to the left. Without making a sound, he disappeared between the trees.
Benitez stood still again. Every fiber in his body was urging him to act quickly, but he took his time so that he would not make any mistakes. Slowly, he only moved his head from left to right.
In his right peripheral vision, he saw a faint glow. He estimated the distance to that point and walked cautiously in its direction.
Romina looked at Heleen’s unconscious body and shrugged. Could someone really be that naïve? Of course not. With her feigned innocence, she had merely tried to win some extra time. Until the very last moment that hint of innocence had circled around her like a deceptive aura. Even when her dirty little game was revealed, she had continued to play dumb, and, actually, that was kind of impressive.
She opened a backpack and pulled out a stack of bank notes. With quick movements, she tore the stack into small pieces and spread the bits of paper in the hole and in the surrounding area. She lit the next bundle on fire with a lighter. When the bills were burned so much that they could no longer function as legal tender, she extinguished the flame and scattered the embers all around. Reluctantly, she picked up a third batch and also ripped it into scraps of paper.
What a waste of money, she thought. However essential this step was to her plan, it remained heartbreaking to destroy money, especially when it was your own money.
The scenario that she had come up with in her mind was still going according to plan. In the letter, she had written that she had destroyed the money from the insurance scam. Heleen’s dead body would be explained away just as she had planned. The story that would come out would go something like this: a desperate Romina Castellano had escaped from prison. In her prison cell, she had written a letter in which she expressed regret for her part in the insurance scam. She also clearly explained the involvement of Heleen van Rijnsburg in this case. Before Romina committed suicide, she destroyed the remainder of the money. By doing this, she punished Heleen van Rijnsburg for her betrayal and her sly attempt to get custody of Romina’s son and take him away from her sister. After she was confronted with Romina’s letter by the police, Heleen van Rijnsburg left her home in the middle of the night with David. Shocked by Romina’s claim that she had destroyed all of the money, she drove to the place where it was hidden. Once she arrived at that place, in a forest on the outskirts of Blanes, she was confronted with the burnt and torn bills of money. In a fit of rage, she killed little David and buried him in an unknown location. Once she came to her senses after committing this horrible act, she put a gun to her head and took her own life.
Cruise: A Thriller Page 21
