Nine, Ten ... Never Sleep Again (18 page)

The kids were
ecstatic.
Tobias slept in Julie's room and the next
morning, they both got out of bed and went downstairs to play on Julie's iPad
without waking up anyone else in the house.

Peter was less excited about the whole thing. He
barely spoke a word to me the night before and, in the morning, I heard him
leave the bedroom without a word to me. I felt bad. No that's an
understatement. I felt horrible. I felt like the worst scum on earth. I knew
Peter was mad because I was more concerned about Sune than about him and our
failing relationship. Because I worried more about Sune than about keeping my
family intact. I knew that was how he felt. But it just wasn't that easy for
me. I cared about Sune and I had to try and help him out. I loved Tobias and
couldn't have just left him at the hospital.

I got out of bed and took a shower before I went
downstairs. When I was done, I walked back to the bedroom and picked up my
phone. Someone had left a message. I called my voice mail and listened to it.
It was Jens-Ole.

"Hi Rebekka. I know you guys are busy and I
realize it might be quite insensitive given Sune's situation, but I wanted to
let you know that the organ thieves have struck again, in case you hadn't
heard. This time it was another woman in her apartment in Hasle. That makes it
five cases in total these thieves have on their consciences. Three deaths and
two survivors. Just wanted to fill you in. Let me know how you're doing and
tell Sune we miss him."

I hung up and sat on the bed. Another woman in
her apartment? What kinds of animals were these bastards?

I got dressed and walked downstairs where Tobias
and Julie were laughing and  playing on the iPad. "Mindskill again,
huh?"

"Yeah, Tobias loves it too, Mommy. He knows
how to get into a mode with dragons and butterflies and everything. And he
knows cheat codes."

"He does? Wow." I said and walked into
the kitchen. Peter was sitting in there all by himself eating toast with
cheese.

I pulled out a chair next to him and sat down.
"Is this how it's gonna be, Peter? You not talking to me?"

He sighed and wiped his mouth on a napkin.
"I don't get it Rebekka. You come here to be with your family and then
you're hardly with us."

"I can't help it that organ thieves are
killing people and hurting one of my best friends and co-worker, can I?"

"I guess not. I just really wish Julie and
I were higher up on your list of priorities."

I poured myself some coffee from the pot and
sipped the cup. I didn't know what to say to him. To be honest, all I could
think of was Sune and how he was doing.

"You're going to see him at the hospital
today, aren't you?" Peter asked.

I sighed. "Yes, Peter. I am. He's seriously
hurt. I'll take the kids with me. Tobias needs to see his dad and Julie wants
to be with Tobias. Look I'm trying my best here to please everybody."

"And you're doing a really good job,"
Peter said and smiled sarcastically. "You're making everyone happy except
for me."

I closed my eyes. "Sometimes it's just not
about you, Peter. Sometimes it's about people who have been hurt, people who
were almost killed."

"People like Sune. Like your
ex-boyfriend." Peter took another bite of his toast. It crunched between
his teeth. The sound annoyed me just like he annoyed me immensely right now.

"Yes, I care about him still. Is that what
you want to hear? Yes I still love him. There you go. Are you happy?"

Peter's face changed drastically. He got up from
his chair.

"Peter don't … It doesn't mean I don't love
you as well. It's just not that simple for me. I can't just stop caring for a
person like that. I'm not like you. I can't turn off my love like a
faucet."

Right before he walked out the door to the
kitchen, Peter turned around and looked at me. "Do what you want to today.
Go see him. See if I care. I'll be in my studio painting."

"Peter … don't be …" But it was too
late. He had left.

Karl Persson
soon proved
to be an interesting contact. After
meeting at the bar, they had moved on to another bar, then another and, by
nighttime, they were both so hammered they could hardly stand up straight.

Henrik crashed at Karl's place. A small basement
in an old house from the seventies. He woke up on the couch with a serious
hangover to the sound of the TV. He opened his eyes and looked straight into
the eyes of Karl.

"Wakey wakey, hands off snakey," Karl
grinned.

Henrik growled and sat up. With only one eye
open he looked at the TV screen.

"What's going on?"

"You're famous," Karl shrieked.
"They found your girl. Genius to make it look like it was the organ thief
by the way."

Henrik growled again. He hadn't really thought
of it as a cover up, but it was kind of effective, though he didn't like the
idea of giving the feminists the credit or even more attention. That was what
they wanted wasn't it? That was their purpose to it all, wasn't it? To get some
lame point out to people. Exactly what the point to it all was, Henrik couldn't
figure out, but they didn't fool him. As soon as he found their leader, he was
going to ask her about it. He was going to get her to explain everything.

Right before he killed her.

"How do you know it wasn't the organ
thieves?" Henrik asked.

"It's not his style. This one reeks of
desperation, of frustration and anger. Plus the organ thief would never pick
someone in her own home. He's only after businessmen on trips being
unfaithful."

"How do you know? And why do you keep
talking about it as if there is only one? The police seem to think it is an
entire group."

Karl clapped his hands in excitement.
"Because I know him."

Henrik opened both his eyes widely. "You
what?"

"Yes," Karl said with a shrill voice.
"I know the organ thief."

"How? How do you know him?" Henrik
asked.

"I talk to him on a daily basis. Remember
last night when you asked if there were others out there like you and me?"

Henrik remembered asking if there were others
out there like Karl, not himself.
I'm not
like you, you crazy imbecile.

"Yes. Vaguely."

"Well, I answered that we often chatted
with one another. That's how I know him and others just like him. We support
each other, we help each other out."

Like a support group from hell
or what?

"You do? How? How do you get in touch with
this organ thief? How do you find him?"

Karl clapped his hands again and jumped in
excitement. He pulled out an old laptop and placed it in Henrik's lap.
"His name is Bill Durgin. He's new to the chat forum, but I speak with him
almost every day. He always writes right before a kill, when he is sitting in
the hotel bar waiting for his victim. He especially looks for businessmen who
pick up women and bring them back to hotels. If you look at the screen you'll
see his latest writing."

Henrik looked at the screen. Karl had been
writing in the chat room all morning while Henrik was still asleep. Someone
called Alex Andreyer had answered. And then there was one message from the one
called Bill Durgin. Henrik read it.

I didn't kill those women.
Someone out there is impersonating me.

Don't be so angry about that,
a
Thomas De Quincey answered.
It just means
you have the public's attention. You are someone people want to be. Someone
people out there are trying to copy. Only the biggest artists are being copied.
Be proud.

"Who's that Thomas De … Quincey?"
Henrik asked.

"He's the one who came up with the whole
thing. He created the secure chat room. We were shut down a month or so ago
when the police discovered us because of some lunatic named Allan Witt who went
berserk, but Thomas created a new page for us, even more secure than the first.
He's the real genius here. His art by far excels any of what the rest of us are
doing."

"So, he is the leader? He is the one
telling you what to do?" Henrik asked.

"Well, not exactly. He has set up some
rules for us to follow so we won't get caught. He helps us out to become all we
can be and not get stopped by the police. He helps us with details when we come
to him and ask for his help. He makes sure we don't screw up. He has killed
more people than any of us. We draw on his expertise, so to speak."

"What's in it for him? Why is he doing
it?" Henrik asked.

"We donate a sacrifice to him," Karl
said. On TV an officer was talking to the reporter in front of Barbara's
apartment.

"A sacrifice? What kind of sacrifice?"

"We donate something. It can be the body of
our first kill, or a body part, or photographs or something like that. But it
has to be something big. Something that characterizes us as killers and why we
do it."

Just when I thought the world
couldn't get any crazier?

Henrik rubbed his forehead wondering what he had
gotten himself into. He scrolled the chat and stopped at a message send by Karl
earlier in the morning. He read it while Karl watched TV, grinning from ear to
ear.

Caught myself a little
something last night. Will have fun with him for a while, then cut him to
pieces and eat him for dinner tonight. My first male. Thought it was about time
I progressed. Wish me luck.

Sune looked at
lot
better when we arrived at the hospital. He was
sitting up when Tobias and Julie ran to him and crawled into his bed.

"Easy there kiddos. He just had
surgery," I said.

Sune chuckled and hugged the both of them.

"Wow, you look great," I said and placed
a bouquet of flowers in a vase next to him. "You even have some color in
your cheeks again."

"I feel a lot better. How has he
been?" He said and touched Tobias' hair.

"I think he is fine. A little worried last
night and found it hard to fall asleep, but being with Julie helped a lot, I
think."

"I'm fine Daddy," Tobias said. Julie
laughed, acting silly, and Tobias copied her.

I smiled, enjoying watching them together again.
I missed it.

"Those two have been inseparable ever since
I brought him home."

Sune looked at me. Our eyes locked. I felt warm.
A stirring grew inside of me. "Thank you," Sune said. "Thank you
for all you have done."

"It's no problem, really. It's nothing. The
least I could do."

Sune grabbed my hand and pulled me closer.
"I don't think it's nothing."

Julie jumped down from the bed and pulled my
shirt. "Mommy. Can Tobias and I go out in the hallway and play Mindskill
on your phone? I want to show him something."

I looked at Sune. "Don't you think Tobias
wants to be with his dad a little?"

"It's okay," Sune said. "Let them
have their fun."

"Okay then. Just don't leave the floor,
alright?"

They both promised. I gave them my phone and
they stormed out the door. I pulled a chair close to Sune and sat down.

"So I was planning on calling officer
Jansson later today," I said. "You know to hear how they're doing on
catching those who did this to you and all. Did you hear there was another
case?"

Sune looked at me, then shook his head. "No
I've been kind of busy with getting well and all."

"Of course, no, I'm silly. It was another
woman. That makes it two women who were both killed in their own apartments and
three men who were attacked in hotel rooms. It's weird I think. There is
something I don't quite understand. Why bother with the hotel rooms where you
could easily be spotted if you might as well go inside someone's apartment and
take their organs. And another thing, in both cases with the women, the
attacker didn't take any of their organs at all. He just opened them up and cut
the organs loose. In the second case, the body had been more chopped with a
knife than cut professionally. It is very unlike what happened to you and the
kidney-guy." I paused and looked at Sune who was avoiding my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm being
insensitive here."

"No. I like to hear you talk, but …"

I interrupted him. "I was thinking that
maybe you could help me learn more by hacking into the police files? Or maybe …
no you're too tired."

Sune sighed and looked at me. "If it's
important to you, I'll do it."

I grabbed my laptop and put it on Sune's lap.
"Well it's not only important for me, it's important for you too."

I flipped through a magazine while he let his
magic fingers dance across the keyboard.

"There you go," he said. "I'm in.
Now I'll take a nap if you don't mind."

"No go ahead. I'll just go through
it."

Sune turned around to try and sleep.

"This can't be right," I said.

Sune turned and looked at me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "You're
trying to sleep. I'll be quiet."

He forced a smile. "No. I can tell you are
dying to tell me what it is Rebekka. Go ahead."

I jumped up from the chair and put the laptop on
his lap again. "See this? Look at the names here and there."

"They are the same. So what?" Sune
asked.

"These are the names of the women who were
killed and the women sleeping in the hotel rooms with two of the victims.
Apparently, the rumors were right about Henrik Fenger. He wasn't alone as he
claimed to be. But, don't you see? They are the same two women."

Sune looked at me. "So what do you think
this means?"

"Well, it's strange, isn't it? It can
hardly be a coincidence, can it? The same two women?"

Sune shrugged. "Who knows?"

I grabbed the laptop in my hands and scrolled
more, then opened a new file and gasped.

"What?" Sune asked.

"The body of Martin Damsgaard has gone
missing."

"Excuse me?"

"You know, the guy who died after having
his liver taken. Look here," I said and showed him the screen. "The
police believe someone broke into the forensic department in Aarhus where he
was being examined and stole the body of Martin Damsgaard a couple of nights
ago. There was no sign of breaking and entering, though." I paused and
thought for a second. "Hm, there was no sign of breaking and entering in
the apartments of the women either."

"It's all very interesting, Rebekka, but
…"

"I wonder if there is a connection to the
disappearance of the bodies of the kings from the churches?"

"Why on earth should there be a connection
to that?" Sune sounded tired now. He rubbed his eyes.

"I don't know, but it's strange
right?"

Sune exhaled deeply. "Maybe it's just me
because I’m really tired, but I honestly don't care, Rebekka."

"Don't care? How can you say that? These
people attacked you while you were asleep. They sedated you and took your
spleen. They almost killed you. You almost bled to death. How can you not
care?"

Sune closed his eyes. "I just don't. Not
anymore. It's not worth it."

"Not worth it? Hello? Where is the real
Sune and what have you done with him?"

"Very funny, Rebekka," Sune said with
a tired voice.

"Don't you want to catch these thieves or
at least help the police catch them? Don't you want them put away for what they
did to you?" I asked.

Sune looked at me. There were tears in his eyes,
but he tried to repress them. "Don't you see it doesn't matter anymore?
All I care about right now is getting well. And then I want to take my son and
go home."

I couldn't believe my own ears. What was going
on? This was so unlike him. "But we are so close. I feel that we are so
close to finding who is behind all this."

"Rebekka. I really don't want to talk more
about this. And I don't want you to come and pretend to be interested in me or
pretend to be caring or whatever it is you're doing here."

"What I am doing here? I'm trying to help
you out. I do care about you, Sune. You know I do," I said.

Sune looked at me. The look in his eyes felt
like a knife to my heart. "Who are you kidding here? Who are we kidding?
I'm sick of this. I'm sick and tired of this life going back and forth with
you, thinking one moment that you want to come back, knowing in the next that
you never will. Do you think this is easy for me Rebekka? Do you think it is
easy for me to be around you constantly?"

"What are you saying?"

"I get that you have a hard time choosing
between me and Peter so I'm going to make it easy for you. Leave and don't come
back. I'm going to quit my job at the newspaper and go away with Tobias, leave
Karrebaeksminde. There, I made the choice for you. Now leave."