You'll Thank Me for This by Nina Siegal (top novels txt) 📗

He didn’t answer the phone, but he did start to pace. Up and down in front of her. Up and down. Every time he turned his back, her fingers went to work behind her. She pressed on the hard edge of the metal case. She pushed until it started to kind of jiggle. He walked up, then he walked away. And she tried again. She could feel it coming loose from the tree. She could feel something happening.

At last she felt it fall into her palm. Yes, it was some kind of metal case. Not very large. It could only really be a memory stick in there. That was fine, because she could grasp it in her hand right now, and in the darkness he wouldn’t be able to see. She had to keep hold of it until he untied her, somehow, without letting him see it. But how?

“Listen, Martijn,” Karin started. “I have been sitting here trying to remember. What you said about him burying something ‘in a place he loved’? And I think I may have figured it out. He loved this place, definitely. But he loved another place in this park too. When you said that he hid them before he left for Syria the last time, it made me think. After we camped here that time, we went to the other place. We saw the mouflons in the morning, but then he said we had to pack up and we went to the museum for breakfast. I think I know where he might have put them, if he was hiding something. I think I know the place that he loved.”

“What?” He nearly leapt at her then. “You’ve been holding out on me this whole time?”

“No, no, I just figured it out,” she said. “I just remembered that day and where we went. After we were here, at this campsite, we went to the museum. I thought it was weird that we went to the museum. He never did that. But I remember that we went walking in the sculpture garden. In the massive sculpture park outside the museum, and we stopped near a sculpture for a while…”

Martijn looked like he didn’t really believe her. And that was normal, because she was lying. She wasn’t a very good liar. But she had to get him to untie her. That was the first thing. Only he had to untie her without noticing the little box, which she was trying to slip into her back pocket. But it was hard because her hands were tied and she was sitting on her butt. Somehow she’d have to stand up again and get the box into her pocket without him noticing. She started pressing with her heels into the ground to try to push herself up to standing. As she did that, her arms scraped against the bark of the tree. It hurt a lot, but now she had hope.

“I’m going to lead you there,” Karin said to Martijn. “I’ll show you which sculpture it’s in. I don’t remember the name of it or anything like that, but I will remember it when I see it. I’m sure that I’ll be able to find it once I see it.”

Little by little, she had gotten herself up to standing, at last. She was breathing pretty hard, and her hands were probably bleeding. “Just untie me, Martijn. Untie me and we’ll go there together and find it and we’ll get out of here. Look, it’s almost morning. We’ll call my mom and tell her we’re fine. We’ll figure out how to explain what happened with the other girls. You didn’t really hurt either of them, right?”

Martijn paced again, giving her the moment she needed to drop the little box into her back pocket. He came to stand in front of her again. “I don’t think so. I can find ways to explain what happened,” he said.

As if he’s some kind of mastermind, Karin thought. But whatever. As long as he unties me.

“This rope is hurting my hands,” she had to remind him. “And I can’t go anywhere until I’m freed.”

He stared at her for a little while, probably trying to figure out if he could trust her. “Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll untie you, but you’ll stay close to me, and lead the way.” He added, “No strange moves.”

“I know,” said Karin. “I know. I’ll take you right there. We’ll get there before sunrise.”

Martijn moved toward Karin and she did her best not to flinch as he grabbed her hands and undid the rope. She prayed that he didn’t notice the bulge in her back pocket, and by some miracle it seemed he didn’t. It was still just dark enough.

Once her hands were free, she shook them out; her wrists had been twisted in an awkward position and they hurt badly. She took a step away while still facing him, so he wouldn’t see the box.

“We’ll have to think of a really good story,” she said. “But you’re good at making up stories. I’m sure you can find a really good story for what happened to the other girls.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “That’s the least of my worries right now. Go on, Karin. Lead the way.”

Chapter 30Puzzle Pieces

It all didn’t add up to something in her mind yet, but Grace knew her suspicions were strong enough that she had to say something about it to Detective van Dijk. All that she suspected about Martijn—maybe it was crazy, maybe it didn’t mean anything, but she had to tell him.

She approached the two police officers and tried to interrupt. But before she could speak, Detective van Dijk said, “Sergeant Vos just informed me that there was a police raid here last night, and the people who set up the meth lab were all arrested and taken into custody.”

“My God. Was Karin with them?”

“No, and we have no reason to suspect that she had any presence here. No children were with them. Nor