Itsy Bitsy Spider (Emma Frost #1) (10 page)

I left a little
earlier than what I had planned with Sophia since I had something I wanted to
do first. I put the bottle of wine in the car and drove down to the police
station instead. I found officer Dan inside.

He smiled and got up from his chair.

"Doing the nightshift again?" I asked.

"Yup. I'm a night owl so it suits me just
fine. I like to go to bed in the morning and sleep most of the day."

"Sounds like a vampire," I said with a
laugh.

"I hear they are very popular these
days," he said with a grin worthy of a vampire. "What can I do for
you?"

 "I was actually hoping you'd be here.
Can we talk for a second?"

"Sure," he said and opened the door so
I could get behind the counter where he was standing. "Let's go over here,
where my desk is."

I sat down in a chair in front of him.

"Do you want some coffee or
something?" he asked.

"No thank you," I said. "I won't
stay long. I have somewhere else to be. I just wanted to get some answers to
something that has been bothering me."

"Do you mind if I grab one? I have a long
night ahead."

"No, by all means."

Officer Dan left and I heard him in the kitchen.
He returned with a big steaming cup in his hand. He was still smiling. I could
see his muscles underneath the light blue police-shirt. "There," he
said and sat down with a sigh. "I'm all ears."

Officer Dan leaned over the desk towards me.
"What did you want to know?"

"Well ... uh ..." I cleared my throat.
"I'm writing this book ..."

"You're writing a book?" he said with
great enthusiasm and drank from his cup. "That's really interesting. I
didn't know we had an author living on the island. What's it about?"

"Well that's the thing. The book is going
to be about Mrs. Heinrichsen and ... well the murder and ... now that we had a
new one on the island, I thought I would come and ask for some details about
the two killings."

Officer Dan sat up straight in the chair. He
looked at me mischievously. "I see. You're here on professional business.
I didn't realize that. I better be careful what I say then. Am I in the
book?"

"I wasn't planning on it to be
fiction," I said.

Officer Dan laughed. "Well maybe I can be
the vampire in your next book, when you decide to write something people will
actually read."

"Very funny."

Officer Dan grinned. "Okay, let's get
serious," he said. "What did you need from me?"

"I was just wondering about the two cases.
Do the police work with the theory that the two cases are connected?"

Officer Dan took in a deep breath. "Between
you and me, yes we do."

"But that's not what you've told the
newspapers."

"Not yet. No."

I lifted an eyebrow and looked at him.
"You're lying to the press?"

"Well lying and lying. We're withholding
some information. That's all. Don't look at me like that. It wasn't my
idea."

I chuckled. "Of course not, but why? Why
don't you tell them the entire story?"

Officer Dan exhaled. "Because they are
afraid of panic. This town, well the entire island lives from tourism. We don't
want people to think it is dangerous to come here. That's all."

I leaned back in my chair and looked at him.
"But it will come out eventually. Then what?"

"Then we will hopefully have solved the
case."

"Or you'll get a lot of unintentional
publicity, and not of the good kind," I said. "I used to work as a
reporter, and they don't like to be lied to. The police covering up a potential
serial killer? Not a good headline."

Officer Dan shrugged again. "It's not a
serial killer until there are more than three victims. And the other stuff is
not my headache. As I said. I didn't come up with the idea."

"Then who did?"

Officer Dan shook his head and let out a
resigned sound. "I don't know. I just follow orders. But a qualified guess
is that it was the mayor and the chief of police."

Astrid went
into labor
at night. It started with small
contractions every now and then, then more forceful ones and finally the
extreme pain that kept rolling in over her, making her think this was in fact
going to kill her.

In the beginning she tried to scream in a last
desperate attempt to alarm the world that she was down there in this hole in
the ground, in pain, in labor about to have a baby.

"HEEEELP!!" she screamed whenever she
had the strength for it.

But no one came. Soon Astrid forgot her
circumstances, her situation and surroundings and kind of went into a world of
her own where only her and the extreme pain existed. When the water broke and
soaked the entire bed, she knew there was no turning back now. This was it.

She moaned and whimpered and fought her way
through every contraction, through every wave of pain and every now and then
she wondered if this was even normal. If it was supposed to hurt this bad or if
something had already gone wrong? Could contractions really kill you? Could it
kill the baby?

Oh God, don't leave me here
now. Don't leave me, please don't leave me now.

She tried to look at herself like Jesus on the
cross. The pain as something cleansing, something that God inflicted upon her
to cleanse her from her sin.

In the midst of it all she called out for her
mother while crying. But all she heard was her mother's voice from the day she
had told her she was pregnant.

How could you be so stupid?
How could you do this to us, do this to me? I knew you would end up destroying
my life one day. Now look at you. What were you thinking? Having sex outside of
marriage? God will punish you for this, my child. Mark my words. God will
punish you.

Astrid felt another contraction and tried to
embrace the pain that followed. She didn't scream anymore, nor did she yell.
All she did was let the pain take her and her body to where it wanted to go,
knowing the pain wasn't something she was supposed to fight, if it was in fact
God's wrath upon her, then she shouldn't fight it, she should let it do its
work in her till it had cleansed her from all sin. Wave after wave rolled in
over her and finally she felt an overwhelming pressure from inside and as she
followed it, let it overtake her body, she suddenly felt something, felt
something move between her legs. She looked down and realized the baby's head
was peeking out. She whimpered and cried as she felt the last desire to press
again and the baby slid right out of her and landed on the bed.

Oh my God, oh my. Is it alive?
Is it breathing? Why isn't it saying anything? Isn't it supposed to cry?

Astrid grabbed the slimy and bloody creature in
her arms and held it against her chest. Her heart was pounding, why wasn't the
baby crying?

Then it came. The most relieving sound in the
entire world for Astrid. The sound of her baby screaming for the first time.
Astrid looked at her baby, then cried herself, holding it in her arms, rocking
it back and forth.

"You're here. You're finally here,"
she mumbled while the baby continued crying. "I shall never be alone
again. You and me, boy. We will make it. Together we shall make it."

Astrid found a pair of scissors and cut the umbilical
cord. Then she put her baby on her chest and let him eat from her breasts until
she suddenly felt like more contractions came, smaller but still. Finally she
gave birth to the placenta that she flushed in the toilet. She washed her baby
in the sink, then clothed him in the clothes and diapers the woman had given
her the last time she was there. The baby cried and cried and Astrid believed
it was still the best sound in the world. Finally there was going to be life in
this hell-hole. Finally the silence was broken.

"I met someone."

I was on my second glass of red wine when Sophia
just blurted it out. Her eyes shimmered with excitement.

"Really?" I said. "Who is
he?"

"The chef down at restaurant Kabyssen at
the harbor. He is originally from the mainland. Moved here three years ago. Boy
oh boy how he can cook. Not any of all that foreign food, no Italian or Chinese
or any of that sushi stuff. No good old-fashioned Danish food. Just the way my
grandmother used to make it. With lots of gravy, meat and potatoes."

I smiled. "Sounds great. How is he with the
kids?"

"That's the best part. He loves kids.
Simply adores them. More than grown-ups I get the feeling sometimes. You should
see him with them. He plays these crazy games and builds forts in the living
room. He is wonderful."

"Wow. You sound almost like you're in
love." I sipped my glass thinking about my meeting earlier that night with
officer Dan. I had to admit I kind of liked him. He had that charm to him and
it didn't hurt that he was good-looking as well.

"Well I just might be," Sophia said
and winked her eyes. "Well at least so far I'm enjoying his company.
That's all. But you never know. I might end up like one of them housewives you
hear so much about."

"Is it getting that serious? How long have
you been seeing him?"

"Only two months. I didn't want to say
anything in case it turned out to be nothing, you know? But now I'm kind of
getting the vibe that he wants more. Yesterday he talked about us moving in
together like it was something we were actually working on.
Once we live together
, he said. And then
he talked about how much it would help me out to have two incomes in the
household and stuff. I swear I almost choked on my meatball. I had almost given
up on the thought of ever finding anyone to actually be serious about. I
thought that ship had sailed, if you know what I mean. But he is willing to
take me and my five kids and all."

"Sounds like a keeper," I said.

"I know." Sophia smiled widely. She was
so happy, I had never seen her like this before.

"So has he been married before? Does he
have any kids?"

"He has been married once before, but they
never had any children. That was actually why he left, he told me. He wanted
children and she didn't. She just waited seven years to tell him. Can you
imagine that? All those years he thought she was off the pill and they were
trying, but she was taking the pills when he wasn't looking. He found out when
they started fertility treatments. The doctor told him. She broke down and told
him she didn't want to lose him, but she also knew he wanted kids so bad that
she would eventually lose him if she ever told him how she felt about having
kids, that it just wasn't for her. That's when he gathered his things and left
her."

"Brutal. Who would do such a thing?" I
asked.

"Who wouldn't want to have kids?"
Sophia laughed.

I stared at her. "You're not pregnant
again, are you?" I looked at her glass. She hadn't touched her wine at
all.

She blushed. "Maybe a little bit?"

I almost spit out all my red wine. "You've
got to be kidding me!"

"What? Stephan is so excited. He always
wanted children. It's the last chance for me. After this one, I'm closed for
business."

"I bet you said that when you had your last
one too," I said.

She shrugged. "So what if I did. This is
different. Stephan is cute and nice and maybe ... maybe the love of my
life."

I sighed with a smile. "Well I guess a
congratulation is in order."

"Thanks," Sophia said and smiled
widely. Her eyes shone like only a pregnant woman's could.