Easy as One Two Three (Emma Frost) (6 page)

"It's the right thing to do, Zelllena. Trust me on this. You're safe now. No one will ever be able to find you here."

14

April 2012

"
D
ID YOU SEE THAT?"

Signe looked at Mads with excitement. He seemed troubled and kept looking behind him to see if anyone was following them. They jumped into a taxi and drove to the hotel. "It was awesome," Signe said, as they went back into their room. "I mean, he had no idea what was coming and then you just hit him like this!"

Signe swung her fist through the air to make it look like Mads had when he hit the bartender. Mads sat on the bed. Signe climbed up on his lap. She held his face between her hands.

"Do you have any idea how sexy you are to me right now?" she asked.

"Signe. I killed the guy," Mads said. "I'm terrified of ending up in some Egyptian prison. Can't you see that?"

"But Mads. He was raping me, don't you remember? He was holding me by the neck and wanted to rape me. You're my hero. You fought for me." She leaned over and kissed him. They fell backwards on the bed and soon she was all over him. She grabbed his shirt and pulled it off. Never had she wanted him more in her life.

"Take me, Mads. Use those strong hands that just killed a guy to take me," she moaned.

"You're insane, do you know that?" he asked and rolled around till he was on top of her.

She laughed manically. Mads smiled and leaned over her and kissed her. "My crazy wife," he whispered, then put his hand up under her dress. "When I saw you today with that guy, it made me so angry. So jealous…you have no idea. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to beat the crap out of him and I wanted to fuck you right there on the spot afterwards. You're a crazy bitch, but I like it. You scare the shit out of me, but it arouses me." Mads grabbed her by the neck and blocked her breathing for a little, then let go.

Signe gasped for air and coughed.

"I could kill you as well, right here and now," he whispered.

Signe moaned. Her body writhed underneath him. "Fuck me, killer. Fuck me while trying to strangle me."

Mads grabbed her neck and entered her while blocking her breathing again. She was struggling underneath him and it made him go at her even faster, even harder. When her face turned red, he loosened his grip slightly to let her breathe. She moaned and groaned and she sailed into an orgasm like none he had ever given her before. He held her down and came right after.

Then he let her go. He fell to the side with a deep moan. Signe was gasping for air and panting. When she caught her breath, she started laughing. Mads laughed as well.

"I love you," he said and turned to look into her eyes.

"I love you too. Let's get out of here."

"We still have two weeks left of our honeymoon. Are you sure?" Mads asked.

Signe nodded. She was tired of this place. It was already getting boring again. "Yeah. We had our fun. It's time to move on. Plus, I don't want to have to deal with the police in case they come knocking on our door."

Mads sighed, satisfied. "Where do you want to go? Home?"

"No. Let's go somewhere exciting. Somewhere fun. I was thinking we could go to Turkey. I have never been. I hear Alanya should be fun."

"Well, we still have the money my parents gave us as a wedding gift to buy a house," Mads said. "We could use a little of that if we need to. Just buy a smaller one, maybe?"

An idea was shaping in both of their minds. One that wouldn't be popular with Mads' wealthy parents, but that just made it even more fun, now didn't it?

To Signe it did. She knew how Mads' mother felt about her not being good enough for her son and about them getting married when they were only nineteen. His mother was the one who ran the show when it came to family affairs. She had controlled Mads all of his life and Signe knew how much it had bothered her that she was no longer able to control him. So now that they had decided to get married anyway, the mother insisted on making all their decisions including choosing a house for them to live in.

"We don't need no stinking house," Signe said.

15

April 2014

R
EBEKKA LET ME USE
her computer. I stared into the screen, not knowing where to start. I had no idea who this guy was. All I knew was that his name was Mads Schou and, as far as Rebekka had told me, he belonged to a very wealthy family who lived in Karrebaeksminde in one of the old villas by the sea.

Sune was going to take care of all the official stuff, like searching for him in the police database, so where did that leave me?

Well I started out by finding him on Facebook. I searched his name and found several by that name, but only one located in this area. I opened his profile. A nice picture of him from his wedding day was the first thing I saw. It was his cover photo. His profile picture showed a close-up of his face, smiling and looking nothing at all like the guy I had seen in the hospital every day since my daughter disappeared.

He was young and quite handsome. I scrolled and saw posts by others stating they heard about the accident and how sorry they were for what had happened to him and that they hoped he would be okay. His settings were very private so I couldn't see any of his other pictures unless I became Facebook friends with him. I scrolled through his profile again and tried to go into previous posts, but couldn't do that either. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to try and log into his account. I couldn't guess his password, so I used my hacking skills that I had learned from an old boyfriend and got access to his account. It was surprisingly easy.

I looked up from the screen and my eyes met Morten's. He was on the phone talking to someone from the police. Rebekka was right next to him. I really hoped they were getting somewhere. I didn't feel like I was.

I scrolled his page and looked at all his posts. He wasn't one to post a lot of stuff. Mostly his posts were about his favorite soccer team—Liverpool. I looked through his pictures and saw lots of pictures from his wedding. Signe Schou was his wife's name. Why hadn't I met her in the hospital? It was always the sister and the mother who were there. I didn't understand that. On his profile, it said they were still married, so it wasn't like they had divorced. Besides, they had only been married two years. Where was she?

I wrote her name, followed by a question mark on a piece of paper next to me, then continued through his profile. I would check her out later. Now I was looking for anything that could tell me what he was doing on the day he was hit by the car.

The latest post he had made was the day before the accident. It simply said YNWA. It was posted on Signe Schou's wall. Apparently, she had posted the same on his the next day. I looked at it, then at Sune.

"Do you know what YNWA means?"

"You'll never walk alone," he answered. "It's a signature for Liverpool fans. You know, the English soccer team?"

"I know," I said disappointed. I had hoped it meant something important. "It was Mads Schou's last post on Facebook on the day before the accident."

Sune nodded. "So he’s a Liverpool fan, huh?"

"Guess so. Seems to be all he posts about. That and pictures from his wedding two years ago."

"Interesting," Sune said and returned to his screen. His fingers were dancing rapidly across the keyboard. I looked at it, impressed. I had never seen anything like it. I stared at the profile picture and suddenly felt like I was wasting my time. I should be out there in the world looking for Maya instead of going through this guy's private stuff.

I went back to the front page and looked at it. I leaned back wondering what it was about this guy and his pictures that annoyed me.

Then, something caught my eye. I leaned forward and clicked on "Events." Maybe twenty events showed up…birthday parties, weddings, cocktail parties and so on. But one in particular caught my eye.

"Bingo," I said.

Sune looked up again. Rebekka came towards me. Morten followed her.

"You got something?" Rebekka asked.

"Look at this. This event is dated for the day when he was hit by the car."

Rebekka came closer, then read the invitation out loud:

"Murder Party?"

"That's what it says," I said.

Rebekka continued to read: "Only for the invited. A murder will take place on April 19th 2014 at noon in the old theater in Karrebaeksminde."

Rebekka looked at me. "What the hell is a murder party?"

I shrugged. "Maybe it's like those murder game parties. They're often used as fundraisers. They turn off the lights and then someone is tapped on the shoulder and has to fall to the ground and then when the light is turned back on the others are supposed to guess who did it. Something like that," I said. "There’s an old novel written about it too…an old Miss Marple mystery."

"Whatever it is, it looks like it is where Mads Schou might have spent his last hours on Saturday the 19th," Rebekka said. "If you look here, he accepted the invitation and said he was going to participate."

16

April 2014

T
HEY WERE RUNNING TESTS
on him. Mads could feel it when they stuck their needles in his skin and took blood samples; he could hear them talking amongst each other, some of the nurses were even making jokes while taking samples from his body.

And he couldn't do a damn thing about it. He was stuck inside of his own body and couldn't tell a soul he was still alive. Still, Mads was clinging to a tiny ray of hope. Mads had moved his pinky. He was certain he had. It had felt different than when he tried to move anything else and it didn't react. The pinky reacted. It really did. It might not have been much motion, since no one seemed to notice, but it was something. Now he only wondered if he would be able to get them to notice before they cut him open and took his organs.

His mother and sister hadn't come yet. Mads had no idea of time or date. He only knew it was daytime, since the room was constantly filled with nurses and doctors and it was never like that at night when everything went frighteningly quiet and all he could hear was his own thoughts.

Now he heard a nurse come in the room and he listened to her clogs as she walked across the linoleum floor. Mads had learned the sounds pretty well by now. He knew the difference between them in the way they walked. He used the rhythm in their steps, the sound of their shoes, things rattling in their pockets, humming voices or whistling, or just the way someone cleared his throat to distinguish between them. That's how he knew the person approaching now was a woman. By the sound of her clogs. She was very tall, he guessed. Her steps were far apart and he guessed she had very long legs. Mads focused all of his strength on moving his pinky again and, this time, he was determined that she should see it. She just had to.

She was almost by his bedside now. She stopped and he guessed she was checking his monitor and the fluid next to him. She changed the bag of fluids that kept him hydrated, then pressed a button on the monitor to make sure his heart rate was okay. Mads knew her every move. Six times a day they did the same routine. Then she wrote the numbers down on his chart and hung it on his bed. Mads moved his pinky all he could to signal her that he was awake. Usually when they were done with the chart, the nurses left and it would be hours before anyone came back, unless they were doing more tests. Mads tried all he knew how to. He was certain the finger had to be flipping in the air by now, with all the strength he was putting into it. Then something extraordinary happened. While Mads was expecting to hear the steps of her leaving the room to attend other patients, she didn't. Instead, she paused. He listened carefully, but heard no steps, no movement whatsoever. Could it really be? Was she looking at him?

Please see it. Look at my finger. Please see me!

More steps. They weren't walking away. They were approaching. Mads couldn't believe it. She was coming closer. With great excitement, he listened to her steps while moving the fingertip as much as he could. He was getting tired now, but the desperation kept him going.

Please just see it. Please?

The nurse stopped. She was being very quiet now. He sensed that she was close. He could feel her warmth. He could hear her breathing. Was the sound coming closer? Was her breathing coming closer to him? Was she leaning down towards him?

She’s seen it. She must have seen it!

Mads felt her warm breath on his skin. She was close to his ear now. Was she examining him? Was she going to say something? Had she realized he was awake and now was checking him out closely? What was she doing?

Suddenly, a voice rung in his head. One that filled him with such a horror his heart almost stopped.

"A, B, C…It's easy as one, two, three…"

Then he screamed. Inside of the prison that was his own body, Mads started screaming with utter terror.

17

April 2014

"
S
O WHAT DO WE
do next?" Sune asked.

"We know the guy probably went to a murder party game or fundraiser at noon on the Saturday that Maya disappeared," I said. "Maya hit him with the car at two o'clock, not far from the theater." Rebekka had found a map of the town and we were now looking at how far away from the theater the accident took place. It was very close. "So, we must assume he was on his way home from this party? And that was when he stepped out in front of the car without looking. Right?"

The others nodded.

"So, I'm thinking it’s a good idea to find out who else was at this party," I continued. "Maybe someone else left the party at the same time he did. Maybe they saw Maya…." I paused. It was really far-fetched. There was already a guy that had seen her drive off. Maybe it was about time I just admitted that she had run off? "No. It's no use," I said resigned.