"Because it was destroying me," she mumbled, sobbing, groaning. "My passion for her was destroying me. It made me soft. I have a purpose, a dream and I couldn't have someone like Victoria be in the way of that. I hated myself for signing those papers, but I had to. There was no other way out for me. I was falling for her, but she was dangerous to me. I was going into politics and I couldn't have this kind of dirt in my past." Irene Hoeg paused. Then she looked at the person in front of her, looked him straight in the eyes as she spoke. "But I wasn't the one who killed her. You were."
Dr. Irene Hoeg felt something grab her around the neck and she was pushed backwards into the hall of her own house. She muttered words but nothing but half-choked sounds spluttered out of her. The pain was excruciating but she knew she deserved it.
CHAPTER 43
WE CALLED THE POLICE from the car. Sune drove while I spoke to Johannes Lindstroem and told him about our theory and that I believed that Christian Lonstedt was on his way to kill Dr. Irene Hoeg. If he wasn't already there.
"We'll send someone to check it out," he said. Then he paused. "Please promise me you will stay out of it."
"I'm sorry. No can do," I said as we hit the highway towards Copenhagen and Hellerup north of it where Dr. Irene Hoeg lived in her big villa. I heard Johannes Lindstroem protest wildly as I hung up. Christian was my business now and I had to stop him before he struck again.
I knew how the Danish police worked and it was going to take hours for Johannes Lindstroem to convince the local department in Hellerup to send a patrol to disturb not only one of the most prominent politicians in the country but also the most choleric one. There was so much bureaucracy in the Danish police, so many people who didn't want to make the difficult decisions and therefore postponed it by referring the problem to someone else. There was no way I was going to let Christian get away with another killing. It was bad enough that he had been there all this time, right under my nose without me even suspecting he could be the killer. I shivered at the thought of having sex with him in his apartment, his hands on my body, the same hands that had killed all these people in cold blood.
Sune looked at me while he drove. "Do we have a plan or anything?" he asked.
I shook my head. "To save a life I guess. Even if it is Dr. Irene Hoeg's. Christian needs to be stopped."
"Sounds like enough for me," he said and took the exit towards Hellerup. We speeded to the extent that Sune would lose his driver's license for life if he were caught. But he didn't and soon we parked the car in front of the house. I was sweating. I suddenly doubted that we knew what we were doing. How were we supposed to do this?
Sune took out a baseball-bat from the trunk of his car and swung it over his shoulder. Then he grabbed my hand and held it for just a second while we walked towards the white villa. He smiled comforting and that really helped.
No one answered when we rang the doorbell. My heart was racing. Had we come too late? The sound of turmoil came from an opened window upstairs. I looked up. Someone was struggling, fighting.
"They’re up there," I said and pointed toward the window.
Sune pulled the handle. "It's not locked," he said and pushed the door open. We hurried inside and ran up the stairs. There was a scream, a bump and then silence.
We ran from room to room and found them in the bathroom. Christian was bent over Dr. Irene Hoeg's lifeless body on the floor. He had dropped the wig that was lying on the tiles next to him. Irene Hoeg had closed eyes; her head was bleeding from the back. Christian had the scalpel in his hand, ready to cut when I entered through the open door.
"Stop!" I yelled. "Victoria, stop!"
Christian turned and looked at me. The make-up was smeared all over his face. His eyes wore that cruelty in them that they had the last time I had seen him when he was about to make me his next victim.
When he saw me, he smiled. Then he giggled. "Come any closer and I'll cut her main artery."
I froze. Sune was right behind me. I raised my hand to hold him back. "Is she still alive? he asked.
"I don't know," I answered. My heart was pounding in my chest. There was blood on the floor next to her head, but it looked like she was breathing.
"You both came right in time for the good part," Christian said. "The final act." He stared at Irene Hoeg. Then he stroked her forehead and removed a lock of hair that had fallen down.
"The doctor hurt her head a little bit so she won't be attending the procedure, but I think we can go ahead and do it anyway," he said. "I thought about waiting till she woke up so she could see for herself how it is done, but you kind of ruined that."
"Is it important to you that she is awake?" I asked.
He turned and stared at me. "I prefer it that way. It makes it more fun."
"Did you wake up your parents just before you killed them as well?" I asked.
Christian nodded. "I did it for him, you know. Well for both of us, but mostly for him. He was hurting. I wasn't sure he would be able to survive it."
"You mean your brother, Christian?" I asked.
Christian smiled. "Of course. Who else? He was my only concern. See as I told you he was the weak one. I was strong I could take almost everything without letting it get to me. That was just who I was, but not Christian. He couldn't take the constant abuse."
"Did your parents abuse you?" I asked. "Was that why you killed them?"
Christian looked at me with menace in his eyes. It startled me. I felt Sune's hand on my shoulder.
"It wasn't only them," he said with distant voice. "It was all of their friends even acquaintances, anyone who was willing to pay what they asked. Every day it was someone new, every day new hands, new bodies, wrinkled bodies, old penises, hands touching us all over our bodies, pulling us, holding us down, penetrating us, forcing their sex in our mouths. Every single day of our lives. What really truly hurt was they didn't even charge them much for it." He paused and looked away. "I had to protect him. He wasn't able to do it himself. I had it all planned out and I needed him to help, but he backed out. Said he couldn't do it. I didn't understand after all they had done to us? How could he want to protect them? How come he didn't lust for revenge? How come he didn't want for them to suffer like we had? So I did it myself. I took the blame. Told them Christian had nothing to do with it. At least that way he would get his own life, he would be free to live. I told him to never visit, but he kept coming. He was a good boy, still is. I was the one who ruined everything for him."
"How?"
"I asked him to kill me. After the lobotomy I was nothing but a vegetable. I could hardly move. I sat in a wheelchair every day for years doing nothing but drooling. I hated it; I loathed myself and my helplessness. I was already dead. So when he came to visit I asked him to kill me. I begged him. Slowly over the years I took over his mind and showed him how to do it. I persuaded him like I convinced him to revenge what they had done to me. It is all my doing. Christian could never do it alone." He paused and sighed. "Now I would like to finish what I have begun."
"I can't let you do that," I said.
"Try and stop me," he said. "If you move I'll kill her."
It happened so fast I hardly noticed it. I felt Sune's hand push me backwards, and then from the corner of my eye I saw him swing the baseball-bat in the air and hit Christian in the face so hard he flew across the bathroom and landed on the tiles.
"Wow," I exclaimed. "Where did that come from?"
"I figured that if we moved he would kill her but if we didn't he would still kill her so we had nothing to lose."
I stared at Christian who lay still on the tiles. Blood was coming from where the baseball-bat had hit him. His eyes were closed but he was breathing. I exhaled. In the distance I heard sirens wailing.
CHAPTER 44
WE STAYED AND MADE our statements to the police and several hours later we were in the car on our way back to Karrebaeksminde. Neither of us spoke much since we had spent the last hours explaining and talking to police officers.
Explaining the entire case and the chain of events to them. Now we felt exhausted and all we wanted was to go home to our children. My dad had picked both of the kids up from school and brought them back to his house where they were now sound asleep on the couch as we entered the house. We carried them upstairs and put them in Julie's room. Then we walked down to the kitchen. Dad said goodnight and I found a bottle of wine that I opened and poured some into two glasses.
I lifted my glass and looked into Sune's eyes.
"Thank you," I said.
"Thank yourself. You solved the case."
"Couldn't have done it alone," I said and drank.
"True," he said.
I found my cell phone and called a number.
"This better be good, Franck," Jens-Ole said. "I just made popcorn and started the movie."
"I think you'll see that this is worth losing a few minutes of your movie for."
He paused. Sune smiled. "I'm listening."
"I have two stories for you. First one is that they have caught the lobotomy killer. The second is linked to the first story. You better sit down for it."
"I'm perfectly fine where I am," he said. "Bring it on."
I told Jens-Ole everything. All about Lundegaarden, the Prime Minister, Dr. Irene Hoeg, the lobotomy killer's connection and Mogens Holst. When I was done, he went quiet.
"You were right," he said. "I had to sit down while you were talking." Then he paused again. "Why the hell haven't I heard anything about this story until now?" He said.
"Well you told me it wasn't worth looking into as far as I recall. ‘A waste of time,’ I think you called it," I said.
"Well I guess I was wrong," he said. "Do you realize what this means? This could overthrow the government!"
"I know. So what do you say?"
"I say write this thing, write till your fingers bleed. But take your time. This needs to be well documented and well-researched. No one should be able to put a finger on this story afterwards and tell us we didn't do our job well enough. Cause they will try. Be certain of that. They will try to discredit you and your work. Don't give them the possibility to do that. First write the story about the lobotomy killer. Then we will run the next story big time in the coming days, even better weeks. Let's overthrow that government!"
"Let's do that. Now get back to your movie," I said and hung up.
I sighed with relief. Sune stared at me. "Are you sure about this?" He asked. "It was quite a scare you had the other day with Julie. What if they try something again?"
I exhaled and drank. Then I put my glass on the table. "I think I would be more scared if I chose not to do this," I said. "Scared of who I was becoming and where this country was going."
Our eyes locked. I felt a thrill inside from being with him again like this. Then I leaned over and pressed my lips against his. He pushed me away.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No."
His eyes looked disappointed. I leaned over and grabbed his shirt. I pulled him close. So close our lips almost touched. I felt his breath on my face.
"But I am sure I want to do it anyway," I said.
Then we kissed again.
THE END of Book 2
FIVE, SIX ...
GRAB YOUR CRUCIFIX
REBEKKA FRANCK #3
PROLOGUE
THE MAIN DOOR to the dining hall was ajar when the Priest approached it. A small knot of women and men stood watching, their backs turned to him as he walked closer. They were humming, chanting. The light from the candles was flickering, the spectators casting long shadows on the bare walls. Someone was screaming. Not ordinary screams. These were screams of evil from a possessed soul, screams from the pit of Hell. In the middle the Priest spotted a figure. A young naked girl was on her knees. Crying out, screaming. Her face was deformed and almost hairless. A big lump grew out of her forehead, making her face lopsided. She was torn with pain and strained. Her eyes glowed green when they stared at the Priest. She threw herself at the floor, screaming in agony and pain, her knees bleeding from hours and hours of kneeling.
She stared at the Priest who thought he saw the girl's skin turning green and fuming. Then he looked at her hands. They were covered in blood. The girl lifted them and pointed at the Priest. Blood dripped from her fingers and ran down her arm.
"YOU!" the girl screamed.
The word hit the Priest like a clenched fist in his face and he felt himself stumble backwards. The voice was so forceful, nothing like the girl's normal voice that the Priest knew so well.
The Priest lifted his hand holding a crucifix. "In the name of Jesus," he stuttered, still overwhelmed by the force of this demon that possessed the girl. "In the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I command you to leave this girl." But his voice was too weak; he knew that all too well. Evil spirits didn't listen to weak voices, they needed strong forceful commandments, and they needed to be driven out of the body.
"Filthy man. Shut up!" the naked girl screamed.
"In the name of Jesus, I command you ..."
A loud scream followed. The girl kept staring at the Priest. Then she laughed. Not the sweet laughter of a normal twelve-year old girl. No it was the laughter of death. The Priest felt her cold breath hit him in the face. It gave him chills. The naked girl threw herself on the ground, then got up and screamed again just before she bent over and ran as fast as she could towards the wall, banging her face into it, tumbling to the floor, bleeding from her mouth and lip. She looked at the Priest with a grin, licking the blood from her lip.
"She wants this," she said as if the demon was talking through her to the Priest. "She invited me in; she wants to come with me. I'm taking her."
The Priest walked closer then lifted his hand with the silver crucifix in a chain high in the air. "NO!" he yelled. "I command you to leave this body! I command you to leave her now!"
The girl stared at him. Then down at her body. Her skin was moving, almost bubbling, boiling underneath. The glowing green eyes were lifted and locked with the Priest's. He fought hard to tamp down his growing fear but felt himself stagger backwards. These eyes were not of this world. The pupils were dilated and looked like black holes leading to eternity, an eternity of pain and agony.
Like they were a gateway to Hell.
The priest lifted the cross, trying to cover himself with its holiness, protecting his eyes, shielding them from the evil staring at him, trying to drag him to Hell with them.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm the one who was within Cain," the girl stated with a devilish voice. "I am stronger than death. No one is stronger than me."
Then all sounds were drowned out by a sudden outburst of flaming timbers falling. Windows were popping, glass shattering everywhere, flames creeping up the walls making them black with soot. The Priest stared at the girl. Her face was plastered with a mixture of grinning and agony. Soon long lashing flames were licking the girl's legs and body. Through the hissing crackling sounds of fire the Priest could hear the girl laughing.
The Priest woke up in his bed screaming the words:
"She's coming. She's coming!"
The priest inhaled deeply a few times trying to catch his breath, slowly realizing it had all been nothing but a bad dream. He squinted at the alarm clock in the corner. Almost midnight. There was still time to get more sleep. He considered going to the bathroom to pee, but the soft pillow held a stronger appeal. With a relieved sigh he put his head back on the pillow and went back to sleep.
The sound of the wooden floor creaking followed by footsteps outside of his room roused him only a few seconds later. In the still darkness he reached to his nightstand and grabbed his crucifix.
CHAPTER 1
"THE WHEELS ON the bus go round and round, round and round ..."
We were all singing along in the car. Even Sune who had once told me he would never sing for anyone in public again after a girl once laughed at him when he had sung a serenade written
for her in his teenage years. I looked at him while repeating the verse for the fifteenth time since we left Karrebaeksminde. He was smiling as widely as I was. We had been looking forward to this vacation for weeks now. Since Christmas. I turned my head and looked at the kids in the backseat. My dad was sitting between them with an arm around each of them. He had grown as fond of Sune's son Tobias as he was of his own granddaughter, Julie.
"It's right up there, you have to take this exit," I said and pointed at the sign saying Arnakke.
Sune took the exit and soon we were lead through a thick pine forest with nothing but trees reaching into the sky surrounding us. I rolled down the window and took in a deep breath of fresh forest air. I looked forward to leaving the city behind and getting away from everything.
Even if Karrebaeksminde was very small for its size it was still a town with people and cars and work. Once Sune and I decided that we wanted to go on vacation together with the kids and Dad, we agreed that it had to be somewhere away from everybody and especially from work. Arnakke was still on the island of Zeeland, but it was further north and far away from the area that Sune and I normally covered for the paper.
This was going to be very relaxing, I thought to myself as Sune drove further into the deep forest.
Arnakke was a small town with only three hundred and ninety-four inhabitants. The area around Arnakke had been inhabited since the Stone Age. The name meant “eagle’s neck” since there used to be a lot of eagles fishing in the fjord that was called Isefjorden. You could still spot them occasionally, I was told, but it was rare now. I looked up at the sky between the trees but saw only crows. The road was slippery from the wet snow. The trees covered in the white powder. We had packed the car with sledges and winter clothing. I looked forward to tumbling in the snow with Julie and building a huge snowman or a snow cabin. I inhaled the icy air deeply into my lungs. The kids complained that it was getting cold in the car so I rolled up the window. I looked at Sune. This was going to be great, I thought. Just me and the people I loved in a small cabin far from everything, taking long walks, sledging down the hills.