Secrets?

by Christer Tholin

  “Move it! You—to the left. I’ll go right. She’s disappeared into the woods,” one of them yelled.

  Elin crouched low to the ground. Two figures appeared, one on each side of the stack of wood. They were the two men armed with knives. They charged into the woods and past her bush. Phew, they hadn’t seen her. Now what? Wait? They wouldn’t be searching the forest forever, and when they returned, they might look more carefully here. Maybe there was a better hiding place. Or better yet, she could steal her way over to one of the cars. With a little luck, the key would still be inside, and she could take off in spite of her injured thigh. She waited a few more minutes. She still heard the two men, though now they were far away. There was no sound at all from the hut. Elin raised herself up with care. Damn, that hurt. Hopefully nothing was broken. She limped along behind the pile of wood and peeked into the yard. The cars weren’t parked too far, the BMW being closest. There was no one in sight, so Elin crept over to the car. She had barely noticed a movement from behind when something hit her on the head—and everything went black.

  12

  Lars was waiting outside the dressing room. His daughter Stina was taking a shower in the clubhouse along with the other girls on her soccer team. She had started playing offense lately; before that, she had always played defense. He had driven her to practice and watched from the edge of the field. In the second half of practice, they had formed four teams and played some short games. Stina had actually scored two goals, and that warmed his fatherly heart. Now he saw her coming with one of her teammates, both with red faces and wet hair, happily chatting together.

  Right at that moment, the phone rang. Lars looked at the display—it was a cell phone number. He hit the green button.

  “Hello, this is Lars.”

  “Hej, Lars, it’s Maja.” Maybe he should save her number, after all.

  “Yeah, what can I do for you?”

  “Lars, I’m worried about Elin. She’s gone, and I can’t reach her.”

  “Do you know where she went?”

  “She didn’t say anything. I was expecting her to be home by now.”

  “Well, maybe she went shopping, or she’s having a glass of wine somewhere.”

  “No, I’m afraid she drove back to the cabin where the four guys are.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “At noon today, the guy in the brown parka was standing outside my studio again. I didn’t find that at all amusing, so I called Elin. And now her gear is missing, and on her nightstand she left a piece of paper with a picture of a map that shows the cabin’s coordinates.”

  Lars was hyperventilating. “Oh, crap! Why can’t this woman ever stick to an agreement?”

  “You know her, Lars. She’s probably been gone for several hours, and I just found the paper. I’m afraid for her.”

  “Did the two of you discuss this beforehand?”

  “No, the guys hadn’t shown their faces for more than a week. I know, though, that Elin still couldn’t get it out of her head. She used the Internet to research the three names we’d found.”

  “And what was the result?”

  “As far as I understood it, there was nothing unusual. Lars, I can’t just stay here the whole night and wait for her. What if those guys nabbed her?”

  Lars thought it over. He would have to take Stina home, change, and then drive to Maja’s. “Maja, I’m at my daughter’s soccer practice. Luckily, she just finished. I’ll come to your place and pick you up, but I’ll need half an hour for sure.”

  “Thank you, Lars, I’ll wait. Hurry!”

  “See you soon.”

  Lars hung up. He would have to make tracks. He turned to his daughter and said, “Hey, Stina. That’s great that you made two goals. But now we have to get going and head home fast. Your papa has to take off again, and I’m in a rush. You still got some steam in you, Stina? Let’s see who makes it first to the car!”

  “Sure, Papa!” And Stina took off. Lars would never catch up, but this way he’d gain a little time.

  They arrived at their townhouse a short while later. Lars parked the car in front of the garage but kept the motor running and sprinted into the house. He quickly pulled on his green outdoor clothing and took his backpack and gear, which were always ready to go. Then he bolted for the front door. Lisa blocked his way.

  “Are you leaving again?”

  “Yeah, Elin is probably in trouble. Her friend Maja and I are going to go look for her.”

  Lisa knit her brow. “Lars, you’re not doing something dangerous again, are you?”

  “I hope not.”

  “Whenever Elin is involved, something happens. And I don’t want to be visiting you in the hospital again.”

  “I know, Lisa. But last year, Elin saved my life. I’m not going to leave her hanging. I’m sure you understand. I’ll be careful.”

  “I hope so. Call me as soon as you can.”

  “Will do.” And with that, he was out the door and running straight to the car.

  13

  Elin slowly came to. She could hear voices. Her head and her thigh both hurt. She was bound to a chair, and the cable ties were cutting the flesh at her wrists and ankles. The men had stuck a piece of duct tape on her mouth, leaving her only able to breathe through her nose. As she opened her eyes, she could see that she was sitting on a chair in the middle of the living room. The sofa stood across from her, and on it sat the little girl, cowering. Around the girl’s neck was a metal band that was secured to the wall by a chain. The girl had pulled her knees close and wrapped her little arms around them. She was whimpering softly.

  Elin heard footsteps behind her. Someone was coming into the cabin from outside.

  “Did you get her?”

  “Yeah, Markus whacked her one good.” The man with the balding head pointed at Markus, who was standing next to Elin and smacking his left hand with the baton as a show of triumph. Elin recalled that she had dropped the baton as she was hurtling through the window.

  “Good job. So where was she?” The speaker was the tall man, who had just come in and was now looking Elin up and down.

  “She was sneaking over to my car—back there by the logs.”

  “So what do we do with her now?” the balding guy asked.

  Somebody else came in.

  “Look what I found.” It was the driver of the Volvo, who was holding Elin’s camera and binoculars and now showed them all the pictures she had taken. The small display on her camera jumped from image to image. “She took a ton of photos of us.”

  Luckily, only that day’s images were on the camera. The rest were on a memory card that Elin had left at home.

  “That little slut.” Markus turned toward Elin. “Why is she even interested in us? Shouldn’t we worm that out of her?”

  “Not right now. We’ll deal with her later,” the tall man replied. “First, I want to finish filming the girl. Otherwise, we’ll have nothing to show for today.”

  The others nodded. The tall guy appeared to have the say here.

  “Are you still up to it? I mean, after all the crap with this one?” asked the driver of the Volvo.

  “Oh, yeah.” The tall guy grinned. “Now I’m really in the mood. Could even get a little rougher than usual ...” He let out a raunchy laugh. “There’s just one thing I have to do before the fun begins.” He turned to Elin. “You, you little piece of shit ... you bashed me with this club earlier, and my arm still hurts. Markus, you already had your revenge. Now give me the stick!”

  Markus handed the tall guy the baton. Elin’s breathing got quicker. The tall man leaned down and looked her in the eyes. “Enjoy it, you little piece of shit. I promise you, this will be tame compared to what we do to you later.”

  And with that, he raised his arm and smacked her full force on her right thigh. Elin was in so much agony that she couldn’t breathe, and all you could hear through the duct tape was a muffled shriek. The men howled. The blow had struck her on her injured thigh, which must
have already been black and blue. It took a while for the pain to subside, so Elin missed the first few sentences of the conversation that followed.

  “ ... that’s why I don’t think there’s anyone with her. We would have already found him. Does she have a phone?” the tall man was asking just then.

  Markus answered: “No, I haven’t seen one, and I checked her thoroughly. Even if she does, there’s no reception here.”

  “Good. Then throw her in the next room. Kjell, take the knife along and watch her.”

  “Uh, Gustaf, can’t we just tie her up good and tight? Otherwise, I’ll miss the whole session.”

  “No, we can’t risk it. You can leave the door open, but there’s no way I want her in that film.”

  Kjell nodded and grabbed the back of the chair. “Hey, Justus, help me out already.”

  The driver of the Volvo nodded and hoisted the chair by the front legs. Together, the two men carried Elin into the bedroom and set her against the wall by the bed. Kjell, the guy with the balding head, sat down on the bed and held the knife to her face.

  “So ... us two cuties could have a little fun, too, huh?” he whispered to Elin. He grinned at her as he ran the tip of the blade down her throat. Elin shut her eyes. She was bound tight from head to toe and couldn’t move at all—she was completely defenseless against this shithead. Elin could feel him sliding the knife across her breast and under her blouse. He pressed a little harder, and the top button fell off. After the third button, he ripped the blouse open, slipped the edge of the blade under Elin’s bra where both cups joined, and cut it in two with one jerk. The two halves fell to the side, exposing Elin’s breasts.

  “Yeah, much nicer, don’t you think?” he whispered. His breath stank.

  At that moment, the action started back up in the next room. They apparently had everything in place again, and one of them was going at it with the girl. She was screaming “No, no” and wailing. It was awful to hear, but it diverted Elin’s tormentor, and he stood and went to the door to devour what was going on in the living room. That was apparently more important than plaguing Elin.

  The minutes that followed were horrific. Elin was forced to listen to everything transpiring in the next room, but she could do nothing about it. The men’s furious moans and the little girl’s wails were interrupted only by terse instructions delivered exclusively by the tall man. Elin could hear “Your turn” and “You, in the mouth—him, below,” and she couldn’t begin to imagine the details. Just what kind of people were these? Without a shred of compassion? When it was over, all she could hear was the quiet whimpering that came from the girl, and at last the men seemed done.

  After that, they reviewed the sequences on the computer and moved the equipment to the side. Markus informed them that he had uploaded everything. Finally, the tall guy said, “Bring in the slut!” And the two men carried Elin back into the sitting room. They set her down with her back to the couch. From behind, she could still hear the girl quietly crying.

  “Oh, Kjell, you’ve already started unwrapping.” Markus laughed as the other men howled.

  Once they calmed down, the balding guy asked with a devilish look, “Shouldn’t we take some pictures of her, too?”

  “Kjell, you already know that photos of women that age don’t bring in squat. There are lots of much prettier girls who put their photos on the web for free.”

  “I wasn’t talking about the usual naked girl pictures. I was thinking more of a snuff video—you know, we could mix business with the practical end of things and have a little fun on the side.” He looked around the circle. “We could strip her down and then each of us take a knife and run the gauntlet. A film that goes all the way to the agonizing end—make a good video, huh? What do you think?”

  Elin felt like throwing up. She knew what a snuff video was. It was a series of terrifying scenes that ended with the death of a person. Most of these videos only faked the person’s death, but there were some where the whole thing was real, and in certain circles, these videos fetched a lot of cash. Dammit! She’d made a huge mistake. She would never get out of here—they were going to kill her. And she couldn’t help the girl, either. It had all been for nothing. Why did she have to do everything on her own? She desperately needed backup, but there was none.

  Gustaf, the leader, nodded—to Elin’s horror. “Not a bad idea. But not in here. One, it’ll make a major mess, and two, it’ll go off better in the woods. We’ll tie one of her feet to a tree. That way, she can run around a bit without getting away.”

  The men were thrilled. They were all incredibly excited, like little kids around a Christmas tree. Except that Elin was the present, and she came without any wrapping whatsoever. Elin felt sick to her stomach and was frantically trying to think of what she could do. Maybe she could trick them when they brought her outside the house. As soon as she got rid of this chair, she’d at least have a chance.

  Her hopes were dashed to pieces by the next sentence out of the tall man’s mouth: “We’ll carry her out to whatever tree we pick, chair and all. And we won’t cut her loose from the chair until we’ve strapped her leg to the tree good and tight.”

  The men murmured in agreement. One of them went to the kitchenette to fetch two more knives.

  “Hey, Gustaf, do you want me to give the kid another shot?” Kjell asked. Elin thought back to her web research. The man in the brown parka, whom she had identified as Kjell Norden, was a nurse and naturally knew all about injections.

  “Nah, she’s not gonna run away. We’ll take care of her later. I’m thinking we’ll run another sequence with her later on.”

  “Today?” asked the driver of the Volvo.

  “Use your head, Justus! This is already the second time some tramp has been sniffing around here. You think that’s a coincidence? We’re not safe here anymore, and we need to clear the cabin as fast as we can—by tomorrow at the latest.”

  “Shit, you’re right.”

  “OK, let’s go.”

  The driver of the Volvo and the balding guy picked up Elin’s chair and carried it through the front door, down the steps, and into the forest. Gustaf had already gone ahead and selected a tree. He motioned to the men to walk towards him. A little farther into the forest, and they came to a large beech with enough room around it for what they had in mind. Markus had brought the camera and tripod and positioned them at a suitable distance. Now he was adjusting the settings. The men set Elin down beside the tree, and Kjell began strapping her leg to the beech with a thick rope.

  “I want her naked, like Kjell said,” ordered Gustaf.

  “It’s hard to get her clothes off as long as she’s tied to this chair. And if we untie her, there’s no way she won’t start struggling,” replied Justus.

  “Then get some scissors,” was Gustaf’s retort.

  Justus turned and ran back to the house, giving Elin another moment of reprieve. What were her options? They wanted her stripped naked and bound to a tree, where they’d attack her with knives. She had only one chance: to get her hands on one of those knives. Then she’d be able to defend herself and also cut herself free of that rope. But she’d have to manage it right at the start. Once they stabbed her, it would all be over. It’s just that that psychopath had chosen her left leg as the one to bind with the rope, and her right leg was almost useless, so her mobility was seriously limited. Still, Elin was not about to give up, even if no one with an ounce of sense would have placed their bets on her right now. She closed her eyes. This was not how she had imagined her end.

  Justus came out of the house and yelled, “I found some scissors!“

  So this was it. Elin took a long, deep breath.

  14

  Lars was driving down the Essingeleden Expressway, with Stockholm sprawled out to the left. The Stadshuset, which hosted the annual banquet for the Nobel Prize awards, and the historic Old Town with its city palace were in clear view between the stretches of water. Maja was sitting beside him, her dark hair woven into a
braid. She had also changed her clothes for the drive to the woods.

  “Maja, if your assumption is right and Elin is actually at the cabin, how exactly did she get there? Did she take your car again?”

  “No, it’s still parked in the courtyard. That’s why I also thought at first that Elin was taking care of something else. Until I found the map.” The map was lying in Maja’s lap. “She must have gotten a car some other way.”

  Lars nodded. Yes, when Elin wanted something, she always found a solution.

  The news came on the radio. The war in Syria, the refugees in the Mediterranean region, and the poor popularity rating of the Swedish opposition party Moderaterna were followed by a local announcement: a five-year-old girl had gone missing in Tyresö, a locality southeast of Stockholm. They had found her bicycle in a nearby wooded area. The organization Missing People was already at the site, and a large police contingent was combing the forest.

  This was not good, thought Lars. If Elin really was in danger and they needed police backup, they might have a tough time getting it, since Tyresö was not far from the cabin in Vidja. But Lars would rather not say that to Maja. On the other hand, he still held up hope that Elin might simply be at her observation post and had lost track of the time. In that case, she’d definitely hear about it from Maja.

  A quarter hour later, they came to the dirt road.

  “Now what? Park here or keep going?” asked Lars.

  “Turn the corner here. We can watch at the same time for the car Elin was driving. Then we’ll at least know if she’s actually here.”

  “All right, except that we have no idea what kind of car she took.”

  “Well, there can’t be too many cars standing around here.”

  That was true. The properties were all large, so the owners had plenty of space to park their cars. There was no reason to use the road. Lars turned onto a cross street, but there were no cars there.

  “Drive a little further. If you make another left turn up ahead, I think we should end up back on the road we took here.”