Run Run as Fast as You Can (10 page)

"So what is it you want me to do?" she asked with a pounding heart.

The man grinned, then leaned closer to her face. Susanne gasped in fear.

"I want you to run," he said. "Run as fast as you can."

26

November 2013

L
ISA COULDN'T FIND
rest all day. She had spent the morning at the hairdresser's with her group. All of whom had annoyed her immensely, even that extra woman that the loud-talking Sophia had brought along with her. Lisa knew who she was. She was that author who had written two bestselling books about horrendous things happening on Fanoe Island years ago or something. Lisa hadn't had the time to read them and probably never would, but it was bad to be seen in that woman's company. She wasn't very popular right now among the people on the island even if her books had made Fanoe a popular tourist attraction among the rest of the population. Lisa was upset with Sophia for having brought that woman along and making Lisa look bad in the eyes of her possible voters. It was just so typical of Sophia to never think about anyone but herself.

Lisa hit her fist into the steering wheel in anger and wondered if she should drive past Sophia's and teach her a lesson once and for all. No, there was no time for that now. There was someone else who annoyed her even more. Lisa had been thinking about her all day, not being able to get her out of her head again. Not after what Tim had told her about this woman. How could anyone be so idiotic and selfish as to come on to a married man? And she was even married herself. It was simply not something you did. She should have known better.

Appalling. Inexcusable. Horrendous.

Margrethe was fussing in the back seat while Lisa drove into her driveway. She parked in the garage and took her baby out. She put her in the playpen while thinking about this woman and how somebody ought to teach her a lesson.

Lisa clapped her hands in joy. Oh, how she would love to be the one to do it. She went into the kitchen and started baking cookies for her family. As she put them in the oven, the telephone rang. She picked it up.

"Yes?"

"Lisa Rasmussen?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Per Egon."

Lisa froze.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"I think I do."

"Great then you also know that you don't stand a chance against me, right? I have had my eye on that seat on the City Council that you want for eight years and I'm going to get it," he said. "You might as well pull out right now."

Lisa laughed. It was true that yesterday someone had pulled out of the race for City Council and now there was one seat open. An elderly member had announced that he was retiring. Lisa knew there were two who wanted it, since the rest of the seats were spoken for. Per Egon was a local hero, born and raised on the island, the son of a former very popular mayor, whereas Lisa had just moved to the island. She had all odds against her, but that had never been an obstacle before in her life. Lisa was going to win this no matter what it took.

"Well, if you're so sure, then why do you feel the need to call me and tell me all this?"

Per Egon went quiet. "I'm just trying to save you from being publically humiliated. But if that is what you want, Lisa Rasmussen, then by all means, be my guest. But I tell you there is no chance in hell you'll ever get my seat."

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," Lisa said, staying calm and fighting every urge to yell at the man.

"Oh but I am."

Lisa forced a loud laugh. "Well I guess the fight is on, then."

"Oh, it is on."

Then he hung up. Lisa threw her phone on the table. The back of it fell off.

Bastard. Prick. Who the hell does he think he is? Doesn't he know who I am? I'll show him and this whole damn town.

Lisa picked up her phone and put the back on. Then she turned it on. It still worked. The cookies were done just as Amalie came through the door. Lisa put on her best and most gracious smile. Amalie looked at her mother with the cookies in front of her, then she rolled her eyes.

"Don't you know how many calories there are in those?" She scoffed and ran upstairs.

Lisa felt the anger rise, but kept it inside with a forced smile. Like so many days before this, Lisa swallowed her rage and smiled. She kept smiling the rest of the evening when Christian came home with Jacob and all the way through dinner. She even smiled when her husband told her that she was being stupid for spending all this time and his money on this foolish election and then took off to go to the pub and hang out with his friends, while she had to put all the kids to bed by herself.

But when midnight came and she snuck out of bed, she smiled no more.

27

November 2013

"
Y
OU LOOK LOVELY."

Officer Morten Bredballe smiled when I opened the door. I blushed. "Do you like the hair? I had it done this morning."

"You look stunning," he said. "But you always do."

"Aw, that's such a nice thing to say," I said and grabbed my jacket. "I'm leaving now Maya," I yelled.

"Okay," she yelled back.

I shrugged. "That's about the most she speaks to me these days," I said with a smile and closed the door behind me.

"Sounds familiar," Morten said as we started walking. "Jytte hardly ever utters an entire sentence to me anymore. It's mostly grunting and mumbling. But I'll take what I can get, you know?"

I laughed. The icy wind bit my cheeks on our way to his car. It was getting really cold now. I drew in a deep breath when he opened the door and held it for me. I liked the fresh air here on the island. It was really different than in the city. Colder and definitely more windy, yes, but it had this rawness and freshness to it that I had never experienced before. I enjoyed it a lot even when it got colder. I felt healthier and stronger here. And I felt like my kids were too. I was still very happy to have moved here even with all the bad things that had been going on. I had a feeling things were going to shape up soon, I thought and looked at Morten when we were in the car. He wasn't a handsome man, but he had such nice eyes and the best smile. I loved making him smile and laugh. One thing I had learned on our trips to Eastern Europe was that he had a great sense of humor. I enjoyed that a lot, since in my marriage to Michael we never laughed at any of the same things. Actually Michael hardly ever laughed. He was so serious all the time and never understood my jokes or even pretended to. He thought I was foolish and scolded me for not taking anything serious. In his eyes, I couldn't do anything right.

Morten took me to a small restaurant called
La Petite Cuisine
downtown. He told me it was his favorite place. The food was great, even if I had had better, but the company was exquisite. Morten was so sweet and caring and he laughed at every joke I made. Not because he wanted to impress me or anything, but he really laughed with all his heart because he thought it was funny. It felt good to just forget about everything else for a few hours. He seemed a little shy and hardly shared anything about himself, and I did most of the talking, but I didn't mind. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

"Did the plumber ever show up?" I asked when the dessert arrived.

Morten shook his head. "Not yet. He might have taken the ferry to the mainland to drink. I hope he'll turn up when he runs out of money. He hasn't been using any of his credit cards, though, which is odd. We have asked the bank to alert us when they can see he is using one of them."

I nodded and ate a scoop of my homemade vanilla ice-cream with hot cherry sauce. "Sounds strange if he is on a bender."

Morten shrugged. "He might be using cash."

"True," I said pensively. "What about Simone Beaumont?"

"What about her?"

"Anything new in the investigation?" I asked. "I can't help wondering about the car. Did she drive it into the ocean on her own or what?"

Morten shook his head. "She was dead before it hit the water. Hours before, according to the forensic report."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Then who drove the car?"

"It was on cruise control. Whoever shot her must have placed her behind the wheel, then turned it on and put it on cruise control with the intention of having her drive into the ocean. Maybe he thought we wouldn't find her in there or something."

"Hardly a very good hiding spot," I said with my mouth full of ice-cream. "Who did the car belong to?"

"It was a stolen Land Rover. The owners told us it was stolen a couple of weeks ago. It was taken from outside their house in Vejle."

"That's on the mainland."

"I know."

"So the killer is not from around here, you think?" I asked.

Morten shrugged again. "Well it's hard to say, but my theory is that he is from the mainland. That he came here and killed Simone, maybe for no specific reason at all, then got rid of the body and the stolen car before he left the island, maybe even on foot. You know, just by taking the ferry back."

"So you think he is gone?"

Morten exhaled. "I sincerely hope he is." He rubbed his face, then looked at me with a smile. He grabbed my hand across the table. "Let's talk about something nice. I hate talking about work."

I chuckled. "You're so right. I'm sorry. I was just being curious. So Jytte is in high-school. What does she want to do when she is done?"

Morten laughed. "You're really bad at this," he said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

He held my hand in his and looked at my fingers. I tried hard to find something to say that wasn't related to his work. "So tell me about your ex-wife, Jytte's mom. Where is she?"

Morten let go of my hand and leaned back with a deep sigh. "I was hoping to avoid that question for a little while longer," he said.

"Okay," I said. "Whenever you're ready to tell."

"Thanks," he said. "I might need a little time."

"That's okay."

"Good."

Naturally, that was all I was wondering about the rest of the evening. All I knew was that Morten was alone with Jytte. I had no idea if the mother was still in his life in any way and now I feared that she was. I was afraid he was still helplessly in love with her or something. It left me feeling stirred up inside that he wouldn't tell me about her.

"You're so quiet all of a sudden," he said in the car on our way home.

I forced a smile. "I'm just tired, that's all."

And I'm wondering if you're still secretly in love with your ex, that's all,
I thought to myself but never said it out loud, naturally.

He parked the car in front of my house and escorted me to the door. My heart was pounding in my chest. Should I invite him in for coffee? Do I want to? I realized I didn't. I felt insecure and kept picturing this ex-wife of his as this gorgeous, perfect woman whom he dreamt about at night. Then I wondered if he was going to say her name during the act if I ever let him into my bed.

"I would invite you in, but … I have a busy day tomorrow, so …" I said.

Morten looked disappointed. "That's okay. I'll just …" he leaned over and kissed me awkwardly on the cheek. "I have an early shift too," he said.

"Plus Victor hasn't been sleeping well lately, so …" I kept excusing myself.

"No, no, that's okay. Victor is important. He needs his sleep, right? Maybe … So maybe I can call you or …?"

"Yeah. Sure. Call me sometime." I exhaled and looked at him. "I'm sorry," I said.

"No, no. You don't have to be. I understand. I'll see you around." Morten started walking. I bit my tongue. This evening had been so nice up until that awkward moment that ruined everything.

Say something nice. Something that'll make him feel better. Say something before he leaves and it ends like this. You like him, for Pete's sake.

I closed my eyes and opened my mouth to speak.

"I …"

Morten turned around and interrupted me. "I'm sorry," he said. "Could we please start over? I had a great night. I would really like to see you again."

"I'm sorry too," I said. "I'm being silly here."

"No, you're being reasonable. It's better to take things slowly. I am just really … really attracted to you."

I blushed like a schoolgirl and had no words.

"But you're so right," he continued. "It is much better to wait. Plus there is the whole ex-wife thing. I noticed how it bothered you and I could have bit my tongue off afterwards. It's just that it was really a bad time for me and I didn't want to ruin a great evening by telling my sad sob story."

I felt stupid. I walked closer, then leaned over and kissed him on the lips. I closed my eyes while kissing him.

"Wow," he said afterwards.

"Let's do this again soon," I said.

"Let's."

Smiling, I turned and walked back towards the house. Morten was still staring at me as I opened the front door. I turned and looked at him one last time.

"Goodnight," I said.

"Goodnight," he replied, then waved and walked back to his car.

I grabbed another glass of red wine before bed and sat outside on the porch looking at my backyard while drinking it. I didn't feel tired yet, so I decided to take a stroll through the yard down to the beach. It was cold, but the night was clear and starry and I loved these quiet nights. I walked for a long time across the sand dunes thinking about my life and the men in it. I really liked Morten, but didn't dare fall head over heels for him. I had been burned too much to do so. People always came with baggage and I still hadn't been allowed to look into his. I remembered being completely taken with my ex, Michael, and how I had been so blind with love that I didn't see the warning signals. I remembered my dad talking to me about it before we were married. He tried to warn me, telling me that Michael had a coldness to him that he didn't care for. He told me that a thing like that was only going to get worse the older Michael got and that I should be aware of it when making my decision. But his warning only made me want to marry Michael even more.