Miss Polly had a Dolly (Emma Frost #2) (5 page)

The water felt
amazing touching
Josephine's feet and covering her
expensive sandals. She chuckled and looked down as a wave came in and it
reached her knees. Even if she had lifted up her dress it still got wet on the
bottom, but she didn't care. Not about the dress, not about her parents, or
even about Ms. Camilla who was probably still yelling at her from the dunes.
She didn't even care enough to look back and see if she had followed her or was
coming for her. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that Josephine had a
few minutes to herself doing exactly what she felt like.

She laughed out loud again and stomped her feet
making the water splash up high. She closed her eyes and danced while soaking
her dress and thighs in the ice cold water. When she opened them again, she
spotted someone at the beach, someone walking a dog. Josephine looked at where
she had come down to the beach and spotted Ms. Camilla still standing up there,
probably just waiting for her to come back, since she couldn't walk in the sand
with her high heeled shoes and she was too prim and proper to take them off.
Josephine waved at her, then ran towards the dog that was playing in the water
just like she was.

"Be careful, he's a little playful,"
the owner said as Josephine approached the dog and it started jumping around
her in joy. Josephine laughed and looked at the owner. An old lady wearing a
green rain jacket with the hood covering her head.

"Can I pet him?"

Josephine was filled with joy once again as the
old lady nodded with a gentle smile. She wasn't allowed to have pets and the
only dogs she ever saw were the ones her dad used on his hunts with his
friends. They weren't playful and friendly like this one. Josephine laughed when
it jumped her. She touched its ears and face and felt how incredibly soft it
was.

"Django," the owner said and walked
closer. She grabbed the collar and pulled him down from Josephine. "We
don't jump on people. Especially not small girls in very pretty dresses."

"Is that his name?" Josephine asked.
"Django?"

The old lady smiled. "That it is. Do you
like it?"

"I love it. It's so cute."

The old lady chuckled. "I thought so,
too."

"Is it gonna rain soon?" Josephine
asked.

The old lady looked confused. "I don't
think so. The weatherman on TV this morning said sunshine all day."

"Why are you wearing a rain jacket,
then?"

The old lady chuckled. "Oh that." She
leaned over and looked into Josephine's eyes. Josephine liked her eyes, they
were nice and friendly. "That is just for fun."

Josephine laughed. "That is funny."

Django started licking her hand and Josephine
chuckled. Oh how she had always wanted a dog like this one, a friend to keep
her company during the long days, a friend she could walk with outside in the
yard or at the beach like the old lady. She looked at the woman in the thick
raincoat and suddenly spotted something sticking out from inside of the coat.

"What's that?" she said.

"This thing?" the lady asked and
pulled out the most beautiful old doll that Josephine had ever seen. She showed
it to Josephine.

"Yes, that. Is it yours?"

The old lady nodded. "That's my dolly. Do
you like her?"

Josephine nodded eagerly. Like any other
six-year-old girl, she could never get enough of dolls. "I love it. Does
it have a name?"

The old lady nodded with a big smile. "It
does. Her name is Little Miss Jasmine. Do you want to try and hold her?"

Django was running around playfully in the water
still as Josephine was handed the doll. She looked at it with stars in her eyes.
"She is so beautiful."

"It's an old doll. My daughter used to play
with it. The one eye is broken, but she is still pretty, I think."

"Your daughter is very lucky."

The old lady tilted her head and looked at
Josephine. "I have more at my house. Would you like to see them?"

"What a
beautiful day, huh?"
said Hanne,the
producer. 

She was standing next to Patrick on the top deck
of the small ferry. Patrick looked at the island approaching in the distance
through his dark sunglasses. He smoked his cigarette and blew out smoke that
the wind instantly carried away.

"So are you ready to take in a new
town?" she continued. "We've never been to Fanoe before. They are
really excited about us coming. The newspaper has been writing about it for
weeks and the local TV-station has been talking non-stop about it as well. It's
a big thing for a small community like this. It gives a lot of great publicity
for the show and you know how important that is. So put on your famous smile
and give them a fantastic show, alright?"

Patrick scoffed and smoked again. He hated these
so-called pep talks that Hanne always wanted to have before entering a new
city. Like this was going to be any different than the rest, just because it
was a small island in the middle of nowhere. It was all the same. Little did
Hanne know that for Patrick this was actually going to be very different than
all the other places they had been. He had something special planned, something
that would bring him much joy.

"You're not hung-over again, are you?"
she asked and tried to look into his eyes through the glasses. "I need you
at your best."

"I'm fine," he grumbled. He wasn't
hungover. He was still riding the rush of last night’s kill, but the buzz had
started to wear off. He hadn't been able to sleep once he got back to the hotel
room. The adrenalin had been rushing through his veins, so instead he had taken
the car and driven around the town for hours, racing every car he could see on
the road.

"Good. Cause you are our guy, you know that.
Without you there would—"

"…be no show, I know," Patrick said.
"I'm just saving my energy for later. You know, to give them what they
came for."

Hanne patted Patrick on the back with a smile.
He considered grabbing her and throwing her off the boat. They were alone on
the top deck. No one would ever know. He could say that she fell by accident
because she was leaning over the edge to look at the water. Patrick felt the
rush of adrenalin again. Ah, that wonderful sensation of being alive that he
loved so much. He had been so angry all morning after skimming through the
morning paper at the hotel and realizing that there was nothing in it about the
body of the Asian girl that he had placed in the restroom at the rest area,
sitting on the toilet. He had even left his signature mark on her body. But it
hadn't had the effect he wanted it to. At least not yet. Patrick liked reading
about his own killings. He especially liked to read about how the police still
had no clue who he was. Hell, they didn't even know how many he had killed so
far. Only about half of them had been in the papers anyway. That's why he
started to leave the mark. To make them see the connection. He wanted them to
know what he was capable of. How powerful he was.

He smiled mischievously and looked at the small
woman next to him. The water was splashing underneath the ferry. It was still
freezing cold at this time of year. She would die very quickly after she hit
the water. Now Patrick was chuckling and Hanne noticed.

She smiled. "It's good to see you happy
again. For a moment there I was afraid you were getting burnt out or something.
It's important to take good care of our host, believe me I know all about that.
I have learned my lesson. Can't repeat what happened to Rikke Bo when she was the
host of
Dancing Stars
. I worked
on the show back then, when she lost it, and that was not fun."

Patrick laughed, but not because of what Hanne
had told him. He laughed because he imagined Hanne's facial expression on her
way down towards the water. He tried to imagine what would go through her
pathetic mind in those terrifying last moments when she knew she was going to
die and she knew who had thrown her. Would she feel regret for being such a
cold bitch? Would she think of her children that she was always away from? Or
would she maybe regret having spent so many hours doing ridiculous TV shows
that no one cared about and that were forgotten as fast as they became a
success? Maybe not. Maybe she would just think:
You fucking bastard
!

That's what he hoped.

"That's my boy," she said and patted
him on his shoulder again. "Smiling and laughing again. That's what I like
to see. Those shiny white teeth. Keep it up, Patrick. They're hungry for you on
that island. They are desperate for that smile of yours."

Patrick put his arm around her shoulder and felt
how she was relaxed by his gesture, probably thinking that he liked her. He
tightened his grip slightly and felt her get uneasy. This was it. This was when
the anxiousness hit, when the victim first started suspecting that something
was wrong, but still refused to believe it.

"Wow you have strong arms," she said
with a slight shiver to her voice. Patrick adored the sound of that shiver. It
was what fed him.

"I work out," he said and tightened it
some more. All it would take would be one quick movement and she would be
flying. She was so tiny, so light, it was going to be a piece of cake.

"I feel that. You're kind of hurting me a
little," she said.

That's the point, bitch!

A door opened behind them. A cameraman Patrick
didn't remember the name of came out to them. "Hey guys, they need you
downstairs."

Patrick sighed deeply and loosened his grip. The
moment had passed. Hanne pulled his arm away and started walking towards the
door leading to the stairs. She opened the heavy iron door and looked at him.

"Are you coming?"

The trip in the
ice
cream truck was very long and Nina couldn't even
look out of the windows since there were none. And most unfortunately, there
was no ice cream either. None that she could see. So Nina started knocking on
the door she had come in from.

"Hello? Ice cream lady? I think I'm locked
in the car."

But no one answered. The car was still moving
and it was very dark. Nina never liked the dark much and her mother always left
a small nightlight on so she wouldn't be scared. But she was scared now, really
scared. She didn't even want ice cream anymore. She wanted to go back to the
playground, back to her mother, back to where she would be safe.

"Hello? Could someone please help me
out?" she tried again, but still no answer. Now Nina felt like crying.
This wasn't fun anymore. And it was her own fault for disobeying her mother,
for not doing as she was told. Nina curled up in a corner and started crying.
Carefully she folded her hands and started praying.

"Please God, please help me get out of
this. Help me get back home. I promise I will always do as I'm told from now
on. I'll never complain about having to wear dresses again. I promise. I really
do, God."

Nina wiped her tears away as she felt the
vehicle come to a stop. There were voices outside, then finally someone seemed
to be touching the door.

That's it. God heard me. I'm
going home now.

The door slid open and the ice cream lady's face
appeared. Nina smiled, relieved, but then realized the woman wasn't alone.
There was a man with her and he didn't have nice eyes. He was holding something
in his hands. A white cloth that as he stepped forward, pressed against Nina's
mouth and nose, so she could hardly breathe. She tried to scream, but nothing
but muffled sounds came out. She tried to move, but suddenly she felt so tired
she could hardly lift her arms. Dizziness came over her and everything started
spinning. She couldn't even hold her eyes open and soon she was flying in a sea
of stars.

When she woke up hours later, she was in a flat.
She was lying on a bed. When she opened her eyes, the ice cream lady came to
her and handed her a piece of bread and some water in a bottle. Nina drank and
ate greedily. Then the lady followed her to the bathroom and back to the bed
again afterwards. She didn't look as nice as she had when she’d offered Nina
the ice cream. No, she seemed angry, or upset or something.

"Where am I?" Nina asked when she lay
down on the bed again. The mattress was green and had yellow spots on it.

The ice cream lady didn't answer, she kept
looking at Nina, like she was examining her. Then she asked her to open her
mouth and she held on to her chin way too hard, while looking at her teeth. The
lady then grabbed her dress and pulled it up. Nina whimpered. She didn't like
it, but the lady continued anyway. She grabbed her panties and pulled them
down, then examined her privates. Afterwards, she walked away. Nina pulled her
panties back on while sobbing and watched as the lady talked to the man in the
other end of the room.
They had a short
conversation while the man’s eyes were fixed on Nina. He handed the lady what
appeared to be a roll of money. Uncomfortable with the man’s glare, Nina looked
down at the floor while sitting on the edge of the bed. Soon the lady came
back. She sat down next to Nina.

"I bet you're
wondering why you're here," she said.

Nina nodded while
pressing back tears.

"Well, your mother
no longer wants you. She told us to take you away." The woman paused and
looked at Nina. Then she shook her head. "What did you do, huh? Have you
been acting very bad lately?"

Now Nina couldn't hold
back the tears any longer. She couldn't believe it. Her own mother didn't want
her?

"Don't feel sorry
for yourself," the lady said. "You did this. You put this upon
yourself. If only you had listened to your mother more, then she wouldn't have
sent you away, now would she? I guess you're just too much for her to handle,
so now we have found someone else who will take good care of you. But you must
promise me to behave. You must promise me to do everything this nice man tells
you to. His name is Sergei. He will bring you to a new home where he has work
for you to do. If you do it nicely and to his satisfaction, he will take good
care of you, okay?"

Nina sniffled and looked
at the man with the almost black eyes. He looked dirty and sweaty. His hair was
glistening. How could her mother sent her away to be with a man, when they both
hated men so much? Was that her punishment for her? Had she really been that
bad?

"We leave in a few
seconds," he said. His Danish was poor and hard for her to understand.

"Where are we
going?" Nina asked while wiping away her tears.

The man smiled. Some of
his teeth were brown and Nina wondered if that was because he hadn't brushed
them well enough like her mother always told her to.

"Don't you worry
about that," the lady said and helped Nina get up. "Just behave and
everything will be fine."

"Come on,"
Sergei said in horribly bad Danish. "The car is waiting outside."