Three, Four...Better Lock Your Door (19 page)

"I don't think you know him," I said.

"But I might. At least tell me his name."

I sighed. Why were they insisting on making a big deal out of this? "His name is Christian Lonstedt. He works for the
Express
. He's just a colleague and new to this area. It's nothing really. He’s just lonely and needs to get out a little."

Sara nodded pensively. "Don't think I've ever heard of him."

My cell phone started ringing on the table. I leaned over to grab it. "Well like I said, he is new to the area," I said and picked up the phone. It was my dad. "Hi Dad, what's up?"

"It's Julie. You need to come. She’s in the hospital in Naestved. She fell off the horse and hurt herself."

My heart dropped. "Is she alright?"

"Yes," Dad said. "But you better come."

"Of course. I'll be right there."

I was about to hang up when Dad stopped me. "Tell Sune I have Tobias with me here. He wanted to go with Julie in the ambulance. He didn't want to leave her side."

"Okay. Be there as soon as possible," I said and hung up.

"What's going on?" Sune asked.

I grabbed my coat from behind my chair and took my phone and bag. "We're going to Naestved," I said. "I'll explain on our way there."

C
HAPTER 33

D
AD LOOKED TIRED
and confused when I ran towards him in the emergency-room at the hospital. I had broken all traffic-laws including running several red lights to get there as fast as I could. Twelve minutes later I was hugging my dad in the hallway outside her room. Tobias ran towards Sune.

"How is she?" I asked. My hands were shaking.

"She’s fine," Dad said. "She fell off the horse and broke her wrist."

"I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have let her ride those beasts. It's way too dangerous for a small girl like her."

"It wasn't the horse's fault," exclaimed Tobias suddenly. "Someone was mean to it!"

"Tobias!" Sune hushed at his son.

I looked at Dad. "He’s right. It wasn't the horse's fault, nor was it Julie's," he said.

I was confused. "What are you saying, Dad?"

"You'd better sit down while I explain," he said.

I sat in a green chair, Dad and Sune sat next to me. Sune gave Tobias some change coin to go get a soda from the machine.

Dad sighed and shook his head. "If only I had been faster this wouldn't have happened. It's this stupid cane!" He slammed the cane in the floor. "I tried to run for her, I tried to run to help her, but I couldn't. I was too slow."

I grabbed his hand. "It's okay, Dad. Nobody's blaming you for anything. Just tell me what happened. From the beginning, please."

"Well I picked up Tobias and Julie after school like we had planned and drove them to the club a little outside of town where Tobias usually takes his riding-lessons. Everything was great, I mean the kids were having fun, enjoying being together again outside of school and we were all singing in the car. When we arrived at the club Julie borrowed a helmet and a horse and the lesson began. All the students were riding in circles in the outdoor riding arena. Julie was picking it up so fast I was really proud of her. I took a lot of pictures with my stupid phone. I guess I wasn't paying attention for a second or two, I was having trouble with this damn thing and the camera, but when I lifted the phone to take another picture I saw that Julie had stopped. She was talking to someone by the fence. The guy was giving the horse a carrot and talked to her."

"What guy? Was it someone she knew? What did he look like?" I asked.

"I never came close enough to take a good look at him before he was gone, but he was wearing a black suit and tie underneath a long black coat. I remember thinking that it was a strange way to be dressed in a place like this."

I looked at Sune then at Dad. I was so confused. What was this? "Why was he talking to Julie?"

"According to what she told me, he said that he knew you. He knew the journalist Rebekka Franck. He wanted Julie to deliver a message to you."

I felt a wave of anger build up inside of me. "A message. What message? Who was this guy?"

"He wanted Julie to tell you that he knew everything about you. He knew where you lived and you were working on a new story. He said it would be worse for you if you didn't back out, if you didn't drop the story."

"What would be worse for me? If I didn't back out from what? I don't get it. What is this supposed to be? Some kind of threat? Do they think this is some kind of mobster-gangster movie or something?"

My dad sighed and put his hand on top of mine. "Sweetie. He threatened your family, your daughter. Are you working on some story that could endanger you or Julie?"

I could literally hear the blood pumping through my veins. I was so angry I could explode. Who the hell did this guy think he was?

"Then what happened? How did Julie hurt herself?" Sune asked.

"Well, as soon as I saw this guy talking to Julie I knew I had to go and see who he was and find out why he was talking to my granddaughter. So I started running, but I couldn't make it in time to stop him."

"Stop him from doing what? What did he do to my daughter?" I asked with desperate voice. This was freaking me out.

"He had a whip of some sort in his hand and as soon as he told Julie to deliver the message to you he raised the whip and hit the horse in the face. The horse was naturally scared and it balked with Julie screaming and holding on to the saddle. Then it took off. It started running through the arena and eventually jumped the fence. The riding instructor was yelling and calling but it was too late. It ran towards the forest with Julie on its back. She fell off it inside of the forest and broke her wrist when she hit the ground. Her head hit a big rock." Dad showed me the helmet. The back was cracked open. "The helmet broke but luckily Julie's head is still intact."

I looked at the cracked helmet. "This could have been Julie's head," I said startled, alarmed to the point of a possible meltdown.

"Thank God she was wearing a helmet," Sune said.

I leaned back in my chair with a sigh. The story the man had been referring to had to be the story about the lobotomies done in the nineties. This was a serious threat to make me not run the story. These guys meant business. They could have killed Julie.

"Can I see her?"

"Sure. They will keep her for the night to make sure her head hasn't suffered any damage, but so far they say that it looks perfectly normal. She suffered a blow to the head though and we need to keep an eye on that. If she starts to throw up or something like that in the next couple of days."

"Sure," I said and got up from my chair. I didn't know whether to cry or be angry. So I chose to do neither. In a state of paralyzed shock I went into Julie's room.

She was sitting in her bed and smiling so sweetly when I entered. Her blue eyes stared at me.

"I'm okay Mom. Don't worry," she started. "Please don't be mad at Granddad."

I smiled and walked towards her. Her arm already had a cast on. "I'm not mad, sweetie," I said and sat on her bed. Then I hugged her for a long time until she pulled away from me.

"Mom, I just fell off the horse. It was really nothing. They say you have to fall off a hundred times before you're a real rider."

I laughed and touched her cast. "I guess we'll have to have all of your friends over to sign this thing, huh?"

She nodded. "I guess."

Then she went quiet, pensive for a moment before she spoke again: "Mom who was that man?"

I shook my head. "I don't know sweetie. I wish I did."

"He was really nice to begin with, but then he did that thing with the whip. Why did he do that?"

"I don't know that either sweetie. My guess is that he wanted to scare me. That's why he tried to get to you and give you the message instead of telling me himself. He wanted me to be afraid that something might happen to you if I didn't do what he told me to. He knows that you mean the world to me and I would never let anything happen to you."

"So you're not doing the story?" She looked at me with discontent.

"I don't think so," I said. "It's not worth it if anything happens to you. I won't risk it."

"Then he won," she said.

I exhaled deeply knowing that she was right.

"Mrs. Lejrskov, our teacher always says that if we don't tell on a bully then he'll just bully someone else."

I chuckled. "Well she is very wise. But this is a little more than bullying. Now get some rest, you hurt your head so you need it. I'll be right outside the door with Granddad and Tobias."

Julie put her head on her pillow with a smile. "I love you Mom," she mumbled just before I exited the room.

C
HAPTER 34

I
STAYED AT THE
hospital with Julie all night and brought her home the next morning after the doctor had checked up on her and assured me that everything looked fine and normal. She could even go to school the very next day if she wanted to, he said.

I called Jens-Ole from my car and told him I wasn't going to come in that day, that I needed to spend time with my family. Luckily he understood. I didn't tell him about the story or the reason for Julie's accident. I guess I was afraid that he would be mad at me for hiding the story from him or for going ahead with a story he had clearly asked me to drop.

Julie was tired but glad to be able to spend an entire day with her mother. I turned off the phone and Julie found an old puzzle with three thousand pieces that she wanted to do with me and her granddad. My dad made coffee and hot chocolate and we sat by the kitchen table for hours and hours putting the pieces in their right places, trying to create the beautiful mountain picture that was shown on the box. We laughed and talked about everything and nothing. It felt good and I really enjoyed it. My stress level went down immediately and I found myself not thinking about work for once. Julie who only had one hand to work on the puzzle seemed happier than I had seen her in a long time.

It was what we all needed. 

Later Julie and I took a nap together on the couch while Dad watched some program about gardening on TV. When I woke up it was almost six o'clock.

"Dinner," I mumbled. I had completely forgotten about my dinner with Christian. I looked at Julie. Her head was in my lap. She stretched herself and yawned. I had to cancel it, I thought. I couldn't leave her now. Not when she was this vulnerable and needed her mother the most.

"Weren't you supposed to go out tonight?" Dad asked.

I shook my head and caressed Julie's head. "I'm not going."

Julie sat up on the couch. "Why?"

I sighed. "Because I can't. You need me here."

Julie tilted her head and looked at me with her blue eyes. "Mom. We have been together all day. I'll be going to bed in like two hours. I think I'll be fine without you until then. Grandpa and I will do something fun, right?" She looked at him and he nodded.

"Sure," he said. "We always have fun."

"Are you sure it's alright?" I looked at their faces waiting for one of them to tell me it wasn't going to be alright, that they needed me here. I badly wanted them to need me; I really wasn't in the mood to go out and especially not in the mood to leave Julie. I wanted to be there to protect her should anything happen to her again. To my disappointment they both nodded.

Julie got up from the couch. "I'll help you find something nice to wear." She started walking up the stairs. I stared at her. I really didn't want to go.

"You can't keep an eye on her forever anyway," Dad said.

I chuckled softly knowing perfectly well that he was right. I needed to be able to live my life and let Julie live her life. It was just so difficult to let go.

Christian knocked at the door at precisely six o'clock. Julie ran to open it. I followed her down the stairs and came up behind her in the open door.

"Hi, I'm Julie," she said and reached out her hand.

Christian looked at little perplexed and I felt a pinch in my stomach. I hadn't told him that I had a daughter yet and suddenly I was afraid of his reaction. I wondered if he would react anything like Giovanni, the Italian artist I had dated.

Christian smiled charmingly and then he shook her hand. "Well hello there," he said. "Have you been helping your mom get ready?"

Julie nodded eagerly.

"I thought so. I think you did an amazing job with her," he said. "She looks gorgeous."

Julie was one huge smile. So was I. Finally, a guy who knew how to talk to my daughter. Finally someone who didn't consider children as something that should be “seen and not heard.” So far so good, I thought.

"Look Mom. He brought you flowers!" Julie said.

Christian pulled out a bouquet he had been hiding behind his back. "Actually they're for you little angel," he said and winked at me while he handed them to Julie. She laughed that sweet childlike laughter of hers.

"You'd better put them in water before they die, sweetie," I said.

"Sure" she turned around and was about to walk away.

"What do you say?” I asked.

She smiled at Christian. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much."

He bowed lightly with a pleasant smile. "You're very welcome."

"I like him, Mom," she said just before she ran towards the kitchen with the bouquet in her hands.

"Sorry about that," I said.

Christian shook his head. "No. Don't be. She's wonderful."

"I meant I was sorry I didn't tell you I had a daughter," I said.

"I knew that," he said.

"Oh. I just figured that since I hadn't told you that you didn't know."

"I'm a journalist, remember? I do research," he said with a grin. "How do you think I figured out where you lived?" He reached out his hand. "Shall we?"

I grabbed my jacket from a hanger in the closet right behind the entrance door and put it on. Then I yelled to Dad and Julie that I was leaving and closed the door behind me. He was still holding his hand out toward me. I took it. It felt weird holding someone's hand again. Other than Julie I hadn't held hands with anyone in years. Peter and I never did it much and after we had Julie it kind of stopped. It made me feel like a teenager again. It was odd but enthralling. I guess I enjoyed it.