Chapter 54

It was early morning. The sun was rising, but the manor was still in darkness. Simon thought it was a good time to stop by. There was a guard in the booth and a light on in the kitchen, but otherwise the property was deserted.

Jacob was waiting for him inside the gate. Simon could sense his eagerness right away.

‘I saw her, Jesus Christ, I saw her!’

‘Shh, Jacob, you’re shouting! Who did you see?’ Simon asked.

But Jacob seemed incapable of lowering his voice.

‘Sofia. She’s in the cellar. She’s on a bed down there!’ he cried.

‘What the fuck?’

Simon realized that he, too, had raised his voice. His ears began to buzz. I knew it, I knew it!

‘At first I was going to call the cops, but obviously I don’t have a phone, and then I thought I should talk to you first. Could she be there of her own free will?’

‘No, definitely not.’ Simon felt dizzy; there was a bitter taste in his mouth. Got to get Sofia out of there right away. But how? ‘No, don’t call the police. Oswald will hide her, or… shit, I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do to her if the police show up. Look, I have to come up with a solution and talk to Benjamin. Are you coming with me?’

Jacob shook his head.

‘I have to let the animals out to pasture today. If I’m going to leave, they’ll be better off outdoors. They can survive for a long time out here. But the whole staff is going out to clear land in the woods tomorrow. Only Oswald and a guard are staying behind. Elvira and the babies are going to the mainland. I can escape then.’

‘Make sure you are able to stay behind when the others leave. We’re going to need you here. Take my phone so we can talk. I’ll get another one somehow.’

Jacob stared at the phone Simon had placed in his hand.

‘I mean, you can’t just call any old time. If someone were to hear…’ he said.

Simon took the phone back.

‘I’ll put it on silent. Just keep it in your trouser pocket and you’ll feel when it vibrates. We have to get Sofia out tonight somehow.’

‘That’ll be tough. He’s got two guards at night. And the cameras are on – they’re always aimed at the front of the manor house.’

Simon thought for a moment, but each idea ended in some impossible problem.

‘I need some time to think… Let’s do this: you stay here and let out the animals and find out if the cellar window is big enough for us to pull Sofia out. Then we could get her when the staff are gone tomorrow. I’ll call you when I’ve figured something out. When’s the best time?’

‘Right after evening assembly. I’m always alone in the barn then.’

‘Here, take my key for the gate,’ Simon said. ‘In case you need to get out before then. And then you can open it for us when we get here.’

Jacob stared at the key, then squeezed it as if it were the key to the mystery of how the universe had begun.

Simon jogged all the way home to the pension. He found Inga and asked if he could borrow her phone to make a call because he’d lost his own in the fields.

‘Of course, Simon. Keep it for the day. Hardly anyone ever calls me anyway.’

Simon hurried into the cottage and dialled Benjamin’s number. He got the voicemail three times before a sleepy Benjamin answered.

‘Hop in the car and start driving. You have to get the nine-thirty ferry. I found Sofia.’

Benjamin showed up at Simon’s cottage panting and sweaty. It seemed he had run all the way from the ferry. Simon was already at the computer, working on a plan. He told Benjamin about his encounter with Jacob. When he was done, Benjamin sank onto the sofa and slapped his forehead again and again.

‘This is insane! We have to go to the police, Simon. We can’t handle this on our own.’

‘Yes we can. We have to. Oswald knows the police on the island and won’t let any officers through that gate until he’s hidden Sofia somehow or another. We can’t take that risk. I have a plan, and I want to run it by you. It feels like I’m overlooking something.’

Benjamin’s forehead creased in despair. He looked overwhelmed. He hadn’t been on the island in over two years, and now here he was in Simon’s cottage, thoroughly nonplussed. But Simon continued his monologue.

‘If we just run up to the manor and try to get Sofia out, whatever guard is left will be there in under a minute. And then there will be a row. We could probably get past him, but he or Oswald would call the police and say we’re trespassing. It would be chaos, and I don’t want to take any risks. We need to get a head start somehow.’

Benjamin nodded eagerly.

‘What if I go to the booth and distract the guard? I can argue with him for a while as you and Jacob get Sofia out. Benny did contact me once. I can say I have information about Sofia.’

He paused for a moment to think. It was a good plan, but it wasn’t watertight. The guard had a motorcycle. He could catch up with them. And Oswald had contacts. Simon mentally reviewed his favourite action films and – bullseye.

‘I’ve got a better idea. We’ll set off a smoke bomb or a fire bomb in the cellar once we’ve got Sofia out. Or something that makes a hell of a bang, to attract the attention of the guard. You don’t think the guard would come after us if there’s a fire at the manor house, do you? He and Oswald will be the only ones there. Jacob said Oswald was sending the whole staff into the forest first thing tomorrow morning.’

‘Shit, wouldn’t that be arson?’

‘Nah, it would only be a bang. Maybe a tiny fire in the cellar. They’ll put it out. There are sprinklers everywhere. I’ll argue with the guard and give you time to get Sofia out, and then I’ll come around and set off the bomb before we escape. So you don’t have to suffer the guilt for the rest of your life,’ Simon said dryly.

Benjamin stared at Simon and shook his head.

‘Simon, you’ve really changed since we last saw each other. I like this plan. Just think of how disappointed Oswald will be when Sofia vanishes right under his nose. But won’t the security cameras be on the whole time? How do we know they won’t catch us that way?’

‘Jacob has sneaked into the guards’ booth a few times. He sent me an email from their computer. Around three in the morning, the guards go to the kitchen for a sandwich. They leave the booth unmanned in the meantime. Jacob can go in and turn off the cameras so they won’t be recording. It will freeze the image.’

‘How do you know all that?’

‘I helped out with the electrical stuff once in a while when I was there. And listen, we can make sure Edwin Björk will attest that you haven’t set foot on the island. He always knows everyone who’s on the ferry.’

‘What about Jacob?’

‘We’ll say Jacob escaped to the Björks’ just like Sofia did. And that he’s been hiding there since early this morning. Björk and his wife Elsa will say so.’

‘Have you talked to Björk?’

‘Yeah, before you got here. It gets even better: he has a small motorboat, and he’ll be waiting for us so he can take us across the sound with Sofia.’

Benjamin’s eyes were full of doubt.

‘Shouldn’t we just go to the police?’

‘It’s not that simple. There are pictures and emails to prove that Sofia isn’t here. We can’t take the risk that Oswald will try to hide her.’

‘But the police know what they’re doing.’

‘Sure they do. Here on Fog Island? Don’t be so naïve, Benjamin. You always believe the best of everyone. Do you even know whether that Östling character is still chief of police? Don’t forget, he was super tight with Oswald. I’m not taking any risks – we have to get Sofia out. Then we can go to the police.’

Benjamin’s gaze turned inward.

‘Shit, just think of her, down there, all alone. She must be fucking terrified.’

‘Exactly. And that’s why we need a fool-proof plan. Don’t you see that?’

‘Of course. I just want to get Sofia out.’

Simon sat down at the computer and surfed for a bit, mumbling to himself.

‘What are you doing?’

‘I think I found the solution. We don’t have time to go to the mainland for supplies, but we can make a small bomb by ourselves, a Molotov cocktail. Listen to this: “A glass bottle filled with flammable liquid, usually petrol or alcohol, which is touched off by an ignition device, often of make-shift construction, such as a rag stuffed into the neck of the bottle. The flame spreads quickly. Makes the sound of an explosion.”’

‘Jesus, Simon, that sounds lethal. We don’t want to set the whole manor on fire, do we? I mean, arson… you can get years in prison for that.’

‘You know what, Benjamin? I don’t care. That bastard has ruined so many lives. I don’t give a shit if his nasty manor burns down, as long as we get Sofia out. There won’t be anyone there but Oswald and a guard. As long as they don’t run straight into the flames and commit suicide, no one will die. Can you think of a better way?’

Benjamin shook his head.

‘This is nuts. You don’t have a crush on Sofia or something, do you? You seem even more desperate than I am.’

‘I don’t like her like that, Benjamin. I would go insane if I spent more than a week with Sofia. She’s way too impulsive, too messy. We’re just friends. Really good friends. Anything else?’

‘No, it was just a thought.’

‘Great, then let’s get to planning. First I have to talk to Jacob – he needs to stay until tomorrow and freeze the security images during the night, and let Sofia know we’re coming. And open the gate for us.’

Simon fished Inga’s phone from his pocket.

‘Jacob has a phone?’

‘Yeah, for the moment he does. Smart, right?’

Benjamin scratched his head and wondered what had gotten into Simon.

He decided he would never again underestimate someone who seemed a little slow and liked to poke around in the dirt.