Vanished?

by Christer Tholin

  Funny how distant it all seemed now. And there he sat, a prisoner, when his plan had been for a time of rest and relaxation. Instead, he had been knocked down twice, and his greatest hope now was to come out of it all in one piece.

  Saturday, September 26

  25

  Lars was cursing. “I was afraid of this. There’s nobody here.”

  He and Elin had found the cabin right away: Dalvägen 16. They had walked around the house and inspected everything, but it looked like no one had been there recently.

  “Where the heck did his flashy ol’ sports car drive off to?” Elin looked at Lars questioningly. Lars gazed down at her from above. Elin had a fine-boned, small build, something no one would ever believe from just talking with her on the phone.

  “I don’t get it, either. To some neighbor’s nearby?”

  “Yeah, that could be anywhere around here. There are a whole bunch of little roads that veer off to the right and left.”

  “Well, at least we know that the Porsche turned off onto Dalvägen. And back at the turnoff, the sign said it was a dead end, didn’t it?”

  “Yup.”

  “So let’s go back to the mailboxes and take another look around.”

  They walked back to the dirt road where they had parked their car. It had all started out so well. Since Martin was still unreachable, Lars had picked up Elin as arranged, and they had made good time. Elin was in a good mood throughout the whole ride. She was cheery and enjoying the chance to work in the field. She had done a great job preparing, even printing out all her research and bringing it along. She had also asked Lars about his equipment after grabbing the small metal case with his paraphernalia. She had him explain everything: the lock pick, the night vision goggles, the GPS tracker, the walkie-talkies, etc.

  Then shortly after they left Falun, Elin proved herself to be truly with it. A red Porsche had passed and pulled ahead of them. Elin immediately noticed and started searching through her files. She found the correct printout and excitedly confirmed her suspicion: the Porsche was registered under the name of Thomas Lind—the license plate matched. On learning that, Lars did his best to keep the Porsche in his sights, which was not so easy since it was completely ignoring the speed limit and was much faster than his Volvo. Even though Lars and Elin figured it was probably heading to the same place, they still preferred to err on the side of caution. The Porsche did in fact turn onto Dalvägen, but Lars and Elin chose to wait by the turnoff to avoid being too conspicuous on the dirt road. That turned out to be a mistake, because the Porsche wasn’t at the cabin, after all.

  Lars examined the mailboxes but could detect nothing unusual. As was so common in Sweden, the numbers related only to the mailbox positions, and there were virtually no names and addresses.

  Elin had walked farther up the road, and she was now calling Lars over.

  “Did you find something?” he asked

  “Yeah, look! There are shards of glass from a car on the ground here, and there are also a lot of tire marks.”

  Lars examined the spot. “Yeah, it looks like there might have been an accident here. There’s even damage on both sides of the road. I hope Martin wasn’t involved in it, but that could explain why he hasn’t called. Maybe he’s at the hospital in Falun.”

  “In that case, he must have had some incredibly bad luck to have crashed into the only other car for miles around on a road this small.”

  “Yeah, and they don’t drive that fast here. But if alcohol had anything to do with it …”

  “Let me show you something else. Right at the spot of the accident, the road veers off to the right, and there are a ton of tire marks there. There must be a fair amount of traffic here. And look! There are fresh tire marks on top of them. They could be from our sports car, couldn’t they?”

  She was right. There were clear traces of fresh tracks in the mud. Judging from their width, the tires that made them were wide, but they didn’t belong to a freight truck. Lars studied the road some more. The marks appeared to go on for a while, but he could see no house.

  “Listen, Elin, I’d like to take a closer look at this, but I don’t want to risk losing the Porsche. Let’s split up. I’ll keep going down this road on foot to find out where these tire marks lead. In the meantime, you drive back to the start of Dalvägen.”

  “OK, and what do I do there?”

  “You wait and keep an eye on anyone driving in or out, and you write down every single license plate number. If the Porsche drives out, tail it!”

  “Even if you’re not back yet?”

  “Even then! Can you swing that?”

  “I’ll try. We’ll see what I can get out of your Volvo. This is getting exciting!”

  “OK, we can keep in touch by phone. Hang on a minute.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Oh, crap, there’s no service here.”

  “What about the walkie-talkies?”

  “They don’t have a long enough range. It’s almost ten kilometers to the start of the dirt road. We would need CB radios for that.”

  “Why don’t we have any?”

  “Because they’re pretty big and clunky, and we don’t normally need more than a range of six to eight kilometers.”

  “Gotcha. So then we’ll only be able to maintain contact once you’re back in range of the cellular network.”

  “Maybe the walkie-talkies are a good idea, after all. I’ll take one, and you take the other. I may get within range for those sooner than for the cellular network. That could save me a few kilometers of trekking.”

  “Well, a little movement would be good for you after the long drive.”

  “Right. Too bad I have an injured leg.”

  “Oh yeah, sorry. Didn’t think of that.”

  They tested the walkie-talkies and then set off down the road in opposite directions.

  Lars hadn’t expected to go so far into the forest. He must have already walked two kilometers, but the tire marks kept going and going. And no wonder: there hadn’t been a single turnoff.

  There was the sound of an engine from up ahead. The car seemed to be coming closer. Lars figured it would be better to stay out of sight, so he took a few steps deeper into the forest. He hid behind a tree, curious to see whether the Porsche would appear. From his hiding spot, he peered in the direction of the engine sound.

  No, it was not the Porsche but a large pickup truck with black fenders in front of the hood and an extra set of headlights on the roof. And right behind the pickup came the Porsche. So it had come here, after all.

  Lars was trying to decide: should he follow them and try to contact Elin? Could be that Liv’s husband had simply picked up a neighbor and was driving with him back to his own cabin to have him fix something. But Lars still wanted to know where they had come from just now, so he decided to keep walking.

  It was another ten minutes before Lars finally spied a house between the trees. With vigorous strides, he walked onward until he came to a yard where chaos seemed to be the dominant theme, with weeds and junk battling for supremacy. Lars went up to the house and looked in one of the windows. There, too, chaos reigned, but the overall effect was of emptiness. The door was locked.

  Lars took a closer look at the yard, where he noticed a number of tire marks in the mud. Some of them led to a big shed that almost looked like an old barn. He walked diagonally across the yard to the large double door, which was secured with a chain and padlock. The sides of the shed, however, were constructed of nothing more than a single layer of crude planks that had seen better times. They had all kinds of cracks and holes. Down below to the right, one of the boards had been broken off, so Lars made use of the gap to peer inside. He recognized the two cars parked beside each other. He lay down on the ground to get a better look—good thing he was wearing his outdoor clothes. Then he took his flashlight from his side pocket and shined it into the shed. There stood a Jeep and an Audi A4. The Audi had a German license plate.

  26

  They had been on the r
oad for at least an hour, although it was hard to gauge the time. The truck had rocked back and forth quite a bit at first, but now it drove more smoothly and at a faster speed. Martin figured they were on the freeway. This time, they had a large piece of chipboard and a blanket as a pad, so at least they weren’t lying on a cold truck bed. Of course, there was neither heat nor air, and it was also dark. But they had been given two bottles of water with the seals intact, which meant it was unlikely they contained sleep inducers. Their kidnappers probably wanted to avoid having to carry them from the pickup truck once they arrived at the destination.

  The night had passed quickly. Down in their room, the man with the rifle had provided them with two sandwiches, a bottle of water, and another mattress. Soon after that, they lay down and quickly fell asleep. In the morning, they had to wait a while before their guard arrived. Meanwhile, Liv told Martin first about her parents and then about her children. Martin headed up his story with tales of his separation from his wife and of his daughter.

  Some time later, they heard engine sounds, and after that, everything happened very fast. Two men suddenly entered, both of them armed and masked. Martin and Liv had to hand over everything they had: cell phones, watches, and wallets. They were led upstairs and had to crawl back into the pickup. They were not allowed to speak, and of the two men, only one—the one from the day before—said anything at all, and then only the bare essentials in short commands.

  As a result, neither Martin nor Liv had any idea what was happening or where they were being taken. They were both worried. It was clear to them that with the way things stood, it would be virtually impossible for Lars to find them. Their sole hope now was to be released unharmed on Tuesday, as soon as Liv’s objection period had expired. The best-case scenario, then, was three more days of imprisonment.

  Liv lay curled up in a ball beside Martin and uttered not one sound. She had placed a great deal of faith in the notion that the private detective would rescue them. But with how things looked right now, it was clear to her as well that their chances for freedom were slim.

  27

  Lars hurried back to the main road as quickly as he could. Maybe he would be in luck, and a car would come by and pick him up. He assumed that Elin was tailing the Porsche as planned, which meant that he would now have to figure out how to catch up with her. That was why he was all the more surprised to see his Volvo parked beside the mailboxes, with Elin sitting inside it.

  Lars opened the door. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hey, Lars. So nice of you to finally come.” She grinned at him, teasing.

  “Didn’t you see the Porsche? It tore out of here, along with a pickup truck.”

  “I’ve got it all under control. Don’t get so riled up!”

  “Elin, you should be following that Porsche. Speaking of having things under control!”

  Elin glared at him. “Can’t you first listen to what I’ve done before drawing a bunch of hasty conclusions?”

  They stared at each other a while. Then Lars finally yielded.

  “OK, so what happened?” he asked.

  Elin was content and smiled to herself. She scrunched her little snub nose.

  “Get in the car!”

  Lars walked over to the front passenger seat and got in. He was fuming inside, but what else could he do?

  “So, happy?”

  “Yup. OK, so listen! I was standing down by the junction when I suddenly heard a car approaching. I got out of the Volvo, positioned myself by the side of the road, and was making hand signals. The pickup just zoomed on by, but the Porsche stopped. I asked the driver if there were any nearby restaurants. He said he didn’t know of any. While I was doing that, I bent down and stuck one of our GPS trackers inside his wheelhouse. I had figured that tailing him might be hard since Porsches are a lot faster. Besides, I didn’t want to leave you alone here. Smart, huh?”

  Lars was flabbergasted. That was a great idea.

  “Yeah, I have to hand it to you: nice work. Did you also activate the tracker?”

  “Does Dolly Buster hit the bed on her back? Seriously, Lars, do I look like a moron? Besides, you showed me how to do it on the ride up here. The only thing I couldn’t get to work was the search program, because you didn’t give me the password for the laptop.”

  “Wow, you did amazingly well, Elin. I’m proud of you. So let’s turn on the computer right now!”

  He grabbed the laptop and hit the power button. Elin started the Volvo, and they drove off.

  “So what happened on your end? No sign of the German guy?” she asked.

  Lars looked up. “Yes, there was. I found his car—it has to be his: an Audi A4 with German plates standing next to a Jeep, and both of them hidden in a shed. The Audi was badly smashed on one side, so I’m guessing it was involved in an accident. I wrote down the license plate number for the Jeep. You have Liv Ulldahl’s vehicle info, don’t you?”

  “I’m sure I do. It has to be in those papers somewhere. Take a look through the stack ... So was there no cabin?”

  “Yeah, there was. I even climbed inside through one of the windows, which luckily was easy to open. It was pretty chaotic inside, but there was no one there. The problem is that I didn’t come up with anything concrete. But there is a room in the cellar with a steel door that can be locked. There was a bed and mattress inside it, but otherwise nothing. It’s possible that someone was being held prisoner there. And if that’s the case, then that person is now being brought to a different location. I’m assuming that Thomas Lind was the only person in the Porsche. Did you see anyone else in the pickup truck?”

  “No, just the driver. But it did have a large covered truck bed.”

  “Exactly. OK, I got the program going. It’s searching ... yup, the tracker is functioning. It’s working great. Brilliant work, Elin! They’re not all that far ahead of us.”

  “Good.” Elin smiled with satisfaction. “So that means we’re tailing them?”

  “Yup, exactly. Let’s just hope they don’t split up. The only one we can track is the Porsche, and my guess is that neither Martin nor Liv is in it.”

  “So Lars, what do you think is going on here? I mean, what role is Liv’s husband playing? Is he even involved? Or is he trying to free his wife?”

  “Well, it doesn’t look like a rescue attempt, and it also doesn’t look like a ransom payment. If Martin or Liv or both are in the pickup truck, that would mean that they’re lying in the truck bed, which means that they’re being held prisoner. And since the Porsche and the pickup truck are traveling one right behind the other, it looks to me like the two drivers are in it together.”

  “But why would Lind kidnap his own wife?”

  “I don’t get it, either. Hang on, I’ve found the right printout. Right, so the Jeep belongs to Liv Ulldahl, which means that either both of them were kidnapped or they ran off together. But then Martin would have called off the job, wouldn’t he?”

  “Yeah, who knows what goes on in people’s heads.”

  “You’re probably right. It doesn’t matter. I don’t see where we could look for them here. We’ll keep tailing the two cars for starters. Hit the gas a bit—it would be great if we could get a visual of the pickup truck.”

  28

  More than anything, Thomas would have loved to hit the gas so that he could pull the whole thing off as quickly as possible. But he had to be careful to not overtake the pickup truck. He was also slowly getting tired. And no wonder. Since yesterday, he had had a pretty full plate. First, he had gone back and forth on how to solve the whole story as originally planned. But there was no chance of that anymore. That German guy had screwed it all up. Who the hell even knew who he was? Did Liv have something going with the guy? If so, then only she was to blame for the consequences.

  In any event, the German guy knew where they were hiding Liv. After all, he had found his way there—however he managed that one. That made the German a risk. And by now, he had had plenty of chances to cha
t with Liv, which meant that Liv now knew where she was and only had to put two and two together.

  No, there was no longer a legitimate way for Thomas to get out of this. He would have to make a clean break. And that would have to include Bosse, who, when Thomas called him at 6 p.m., had done nothing but whine that Liv and Martin had now seen his cabin and also knew his car. He wanted out. It wasn’t easy getting him to calm down. Thomas had told him a little about a new plan he had come up with, and he had promised him that everything would turn out all right. The first step would be to relocate the two captives, and he already had a new place. Bosse had bought the story but had insisted that Thomas help him move the two hostages. And Thomas had to admit that it would be hard for one person to deal with both captives, so it made sense for both Bosse and him to be there.

  And now they were on their way to the new hiding place. Thomas had scouted it out earlier that morning. He knew there were a lot of summerhouses south of Gävle and that they weren’t being used at the moment. He had broken into one of the cabins and checked it out. It would work for his purposes.

  Thomas had taken care of everything else the night before. It was just great what all they had stashed away at the construction company. That was what had convinced him that he could wrap this up on his own. It was hardly a fun time, but he didn’t want to involve even more people. His new contacts in Russia could certainly have settled all of his problems with ease and professionalism, but that would mean getting entangled in yet another dependency. No, he would have to pull this off by himself.