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  “Karin?” She could hear her mother’s voice on the other end of the line. It was her mother, at long last. “Karin, are you okay?”

  Martijn tried to wrestle the phone out of Karin’s hand. She tossed the phone forward, ahead of her in the dirt, and she elbowed him in the jaw to try to get him off of her. He crawled over her head and grabbed the phone, quickly putting it to his ear.

  “Grace! Hey! It’s me,” he said. He was breathing heavily, but he was trying hard to sound normal. Karin knew her mother wouldn’t buy it. “Sorry, dropped the phone.”

  Karin could not hear the words on the other end of the line. “Yeah, Karin twisted her ankle. It’s pretty bad. She fell down, and she was alone in the woods. But I found her! She’s all right. Just hurts every time she takes a step, as you can hear. We’re still on our way to the campsite.”

  Karin was still lying facedown on the ground. Martijn had put his knee on her shoulder to pin her. “Mom! Mom!” she cried. “I’m not okay…” He pressed his hand down to cover her mouth, pressing her lips into her teeth and making her lip bleed. She could taste the copper flavor of the blood in her mouth. She tried to bite his hand, but he pressed harder.

  She could hear just the vague sound of her mother’s voice. Was she looking for her? Did she know Karin was in danger? She must know that she was missing from the dropping. They must all know, mustn’t they?

  The thought that her mother was trying to find her made Karin suddenly roar. With all the energy of her twelve-year-old body, she heaved herself up from under Martijn’s knee and hand and shoved him over into the dirt. “Mom!” she cried. “Help me. He’s got me. He won’t let me go. He’s looking for something, but he’s holding me hostage. You have to send the police.”

  Martijn, in his fury, threw the phone at Karin and then lunged at her to try to make her stop shouting. She didn’t stop. “I’m in the middle of the forest, near the mouflon place. Somewhere between there and the museum.”

  She kept yelling while she scrambled to find the phone in the dirt. She had no idea if her mother had heard what she’d said. Then she saw it, glowing there in a heap of grass, and grabbed it before Martijn could leap on her again.

  Once she had it in her hand, she ran. She ran as fast as she could. Martijn was not far behind her, but she held the phone to her ear and spoke, “Mom?” she said. “Mom, are you there?”

  “Karin! Thank God. I’m here. We’re coming! We’re going to get you. The police are here. Try to get somewhere safe. We will find you.”

  Karin kept running as fast as her legs would carry her. She could sense Martijn behind her, and he wasn’t far. His breath was loud and labored as he ran—that was lucky for her; he was middle-aged and out of shape—but she could hear it just behind her back. She ran on, never losing speed, and starting to gain momentum when she got over the top of the mound and started down the incline toward the forest. She could see the line of dark evergreens so close, and she was going to make it.

  Then Martijn’s hand landed on the back of her shoulder and got hold of the neckline of her jacket and pulled it hard. She was jerked back and almost fell, feeling the collar of her zipped-up jacket tight against her neck, the zipper digging into her skin.

  For a second, she thought the jacket would strangle her if she didn’t fall, but she managed to reach up and grab the zipper and unzip the jacket, so that it came loose and fell off her back. Martijn toppled backward into the sand, holding the jacket in his hand, but not Karin. The phone flew out of her hand then too, and she couldn’t turn around and get it. She could hear Martijn cursing as she tensed her legs and picked up speed. He had the box now, she thought. He had the box in the jacket, if he bothered to search it. He would find the phone too. But he didn’t have her.

  And there was the forest, right in front of her. She dove into its embrace, smelling the soft, cool peat, the welcoming scent of pine trees. This place she had fled earlier was now a safe haven. She didn’t have the phone, but her mother knew she was in danger—and that was good.

  She slowed just a little bit to try to catch her breath, knowing that Martijn had fallen and it would take him a moment to find the phone and come and chase her again. Her chest was heaving from sprinting, and she was drenched in sweat. Her walking was fast, though, ducking under branches and feeling leaves whip against her face, until she could start running again. Then she looked around and saw a tree that was wide enough for her to hide behind, and she scrambled over to it, hoping that Martijn was far enough behind her that he wouldn’t get here for a while—maybe until the police got there—and at least the tree might conceal her if he did.

  The last thing she had heard her mother say before the phone flew out of her hand was “I’m coming, Karin.”

  Chapter 32

  Memory

  By this time, it had become a circus in the parking lot. Cop cars, the Amber Alert team, the Scout program leaders, and broadcast news vans from the early morning news crews of the local and national TV stations were all clustered near the gates. The reporters had been instructed by the police to stay well away from the parents for now, but they were hovering, ready to pounce, microphones in hand and video cameras on shoulders, as soon as they got the word.

  Grace had run back to Detective van Dijk’s car when Karin had managed to get a call out to her, and Detective van Dijk sat beside her as she screamed into the phone, trying to hear her daughter. Karin had bravely managed to keep the line open just long enough for the location to be traced by the cooperating phone company. They knew where they were. They just had to go get them.

  Even before the line went dead, Detective van Dijk had received the location from the trackers, then relayed that information to all units and called out the police helicopter from nearby Arnhem. Grace was still screaming when he put a hand on her arm to comfort her. “You did good,” he said. “We’re going to get her back now.” And he put his car into gear.

  The car rumbled across the gravel and then spun out a little as they reached the dirt road. Grace was a wreck. She could not believe that her suspicions had been confirmed—Martijn, her husband, the man she had married, had done all this. He had hurt her, he had hurt children, and now he had kidnapped Karin and maybe at this very moment was hurting her too. Her head felt like it was about to explode with fear. She sat at the edge of her seat as Detective van Dijk drove and just screamed, “Faster! Faster!”

  She glanced behind the car just long enough to see that they were being followed. At least a half dozen news vans were behind them, getting ready to capture this whole thing as it unfolded. How could she have let this happen? What had she done?

  Detective van Dijk swerved onto a narrow dirt road that went directly through the woods; it looked barely wide enough for a car. They crushed patches of heath and drove through sand, over hills, and just barely beneath trees. It had to be against the park rules to drive here, but she was grateful. He was leaving some of the news vans in the dust.

  “We’ll be there soon,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

  But she did worry. All she could do was worry. Every second that passed felt like an unbearable eternity. “I’ll try to call him again,” she said. “Try to convince him…”

  She dialed Martijn’s number, assuming he would not pick up, but he did. The phone rang just three times, and then he was there.

  “Hello, Grace.” She heard his voice, the voice she had spoken to so many times over the last few years, when he had been her closest confidant. He had always had a surprisingly gentle voice, soft and low and kind. Who was this man she had thought she knew? That she didn’t know at all? “Thank you for calling. You helped me locate the phone.”

  Oh shit, she thought. “Where’s Karin?”

  “That’s a good question,” he said with a chilling level of calm. “I seem to have lost her. She seems to have gotten away.”

  Detective van Dijk looked over at her, silently nodding. “Keep him talking,” he whispered.

  “What is this all
about, Martijn? I don’t understand. Why would you hurt little girls? Why would you try to kidnap Karin?”

  “Oh, I had no intention of kidnapping Karin,” he said, still surprisingly calm. “I like Karin. I don’t want to harm anyone. I think the other girls must be okay, aren’t they?”

  “Other girls? What did you do to them? Where are they?”

  “I’m guessing they’re lying down in the grass, having a little nap, after they got a bump on the head,” he said, as if he were telling a fairy tale. “You know I don’t hurt little girls, Grace. I’m not a violent person.”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “Okay, well, I hurt you this morning, and I’m sorry for that, but you know you make me so angry,” he said. “You really provoke me. I didn’t mean to push you.”

  Grace swallowed hard. She knew that arguing with him at this point would not help at all. “What did you do to Karin? Where is she now?”

  “Like I said, I lost her. She was supposed to lead me to the place where Pieter hid something from me, but we never got there. It’s a pity, really,” he added. “If she’d only helped me to find it, this would be all over right now. I would be gone, and she would be fine.”

  “What is it that you need to find, Martijn?” she asked.

  That was when he hung up.

  Chapter 33

  Hiding

  Karin’s legs were starting to cramp because she had them pulled so close to her body, up against the tree. Was Martijn even chasing her now? She didn’t know, and wasn’t going to look back to find out.

  Maybe he had found the little box in her jacket pocket by now and was satisfied. She should have told him she had it. She should have just given it to him. Maybe then he would’ve just left. She hoped, she prayed, that he was somewhere out there, far away from here, and not coming anywhere near the forest. Not coming to get her anymore.

  She started to shiver again, but she didn’t know if it was from the cold, because she had no jacket, or if she was just afraid. How long would it take her mother to get the police to come? How hard would it be for them to find her now? How long would she have to wait? And would Martijn get to her first?

  There was a crunching sound in the woods—footsteps. At first she thought, prayed, it could be deer. Couldn’t it? It could be animals. Even if it was the wolves again, she would be happy. But it sounded like a step and then a slide, a step and then a slide. Like a peg leg walking in wet leaves. Karin tucked herself into a tiny ball, trying to become as small as she could possibly be, and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

  “Karin,” she heard a quiet, soft, girlish voice whisper, not far from her. “Karin, it’s me.”

  She turned and looked, her eyes searching the woods around her, but she couldn’t see anything.

  Then it came again: “Karin, it’s me. Look to your left.”

  Karin turned and saw Margot there, or at least her small face, swaddled in a green camouflage tarp that cloaked her inside a large bush. Her face was very dirty—almost half of it was covered in something black that seemed to coat her temples and cheeks. Her eyes were bloodshot; it seemed she’d aged ten years since Karin had seen her last, just yesterday.

  “Margot,” Karin whispered, but too loudly, knowing that she was endangering them both. She loosened her grip on her knees and crawled out from behind her tree and toward Margot’s hiding place. They grasped each other in a hug, careful not to make too much noise. “How long have you been here?” Karin asked.

  “I was just over there,” Margot said, pointing to another clump of bushes. “I heard you run into the forest and I was afraid it was him, coming back. Then I saw it was you. I stayed quiet for a while until I saw that he hadn’t followed you. It’s been about fifteen minutes now, I think. I’m guessing that he’s lost your trail or he gave up looking.”

  “What happened to your face?” Karin asked, reaching out to touch her fellow Scout, who just several hours ago she had disliked for no apparent reason. Margot drew back, not wanting to be touched.

  “He hit me,” she said. “It had to be him. I was walking along next to him and suddenly I felt this thing, like I’d been shot in the head, and then I fell. I think he used a rock, but I don’t know.”

  Karin looked closer and understood that the black on her face was actually dried blood. “Oh my God…” Karin said, in the softest whisper she could manage. “You must have bled a lot. I can’t believe he did that. I mean I can believe. I mean, he tied me up and chased me too. I think he’s actually crazy.”

  “Wait a second,” Margot said. “Shhhh.” They both stopped their whispering and listened. Karin could hear the faint sound of something shuddering. Maybe it was thunder—a storm approaching. Maybe it was the rattling of a truck? The sound seemed to be repetitive and rumbling.

  The two girls huddled together, and Margot opened her rain tarp to let Karin get in. She kept listening. It wasn’t a sound of someone walking in their direction. It was coming from somewhere else entirely. It was coming from the sky.

  It became clearer, and came closer. Chud, chud, chud.

  It wasn’t a storm, and it wasn’t a truck. It was, Karin realized with a sudden burst of joy and relief, a helicopter! A helicopter was whirring overhead. Her mother, the police, whoever was going to save them, were on their way.

  She looked up through the trees but couldn’t see anything. But the more they listened, the more she was sure it was there. It was flying over the park. Soon it would be right above them. Whoever was inside the helicopter would be looking down, trying to find her. Trying to find them. They could be rescued!

  But then she and Margot realized, maybe at exactly the same moment, that they probably couldn’t be seen here, in the middle of the forest, with all these trees covering them. One of them would have to go back out into the clearing to get the helicopter’s attention. Martijn would probably still be there. He’d be waiting for her, the moment she ran out.

  She considered for no more than a few seconds and decided it had to be her. Margot was badly hurt, and it was her stepfather who had done it. She had to take the risk that he would see her, so the helicopter people would find them both. “I’m going,” she said to Margot. “You stay here.” Once she was on her feet, she added, “We’ll get you once we’ve got Martijn in cuffs.”

  Margot yelled her name to try to stop her as Karin ran back in the direction she had come from, not sure how dense the forest was in any other direction. She kept her head up, eyes alert, as she tried to find her way out of the woods again. The whirring of the copter overhead drove her on, toward the end of the tree cover. Chud, chud, chud. It might not be long before they would see her.

  Karin reached the edge of the trees and looked out, trying to see if she could spot Martijn, but the clearing seemed to be empty. She looked up and could see the helicopter had already passed and was going in another direction. It was about to be too far out of sight. Now was the time to go, if ever there was a time.

  She threw herself into the open space and sprinted, right back up a large mound of heath where she knew she’d be visible to anyone who was looking—even Martijn. She started jumping up and down, up and down, waving her arms wildly. “Look here!” she shouted. “I’m here. Look here! Look here!”

  Within seconds he was upon her. Martijn, seemingly out of nowhere, dove at her legs and knocked her down flat on the ground. All the air rushed out of her lungs when she hit the sand. It felt like she had been punched in the back. She couldn’t inhale and she couldn’t exhale for a few terrifying moments.

  He climbed on top of her and tried to hold her down. His feet dug into her ankles and his hands pressed into her hands. He was heavy, and strong. Much stronger than she was. Karin struggled to breathe, wheezing through her chest.

  Karin looked up and saw the helicopter, which seemed to be flying away, past the clearing. It hadn’t seen her. They hadn’t seen her. They were not coming back. And Martijn had her again.

  Karin closed her eyes and tried a
s hard as she could to breathe. She had so little energy left. Finally, she managed to get some words out. “The box,” she said. “You can have the box. It’s in my jacket pocket. You can have it…” He was pressing her down into the sand and she could feel the ground starting to engulf her.

  “What?” he said. “Where?”

  “In my jacket pocket,” she said. “You tore it off me. It’s there, I swear. Go look.”

  Miraculously, he got off of her and went to look for her jacket. Maybe he knew where he’d left it, maybe he didn’t. It gave her at least a few seconds to get her breath back. She could maybe use that moment to run off again. But she just wanted the helicopter to see her, and save her. “Please!” she cried, turning over and managing to get up onto her knees. “Please! Come back! Don’t leave!”

  Just then she heard a scream, loud and piercing, and a thump. She turned and looked where the scream had come from. She watched as Martijn fell to the ground—and behind him, there was Margot. She held a very large rock in her hand. She had somehow managed to hit him on the head with it.

  Karin and Margot stared at him as he fell. Then Karin finally got a good look at Margot, because the sun had started to rise. One side of her face was covered in the dried black blood, and she guessed there was a big gash at the temple; a dark purple bruise had started to form near that eye.

  Still holding a very large rock in her hand, Margot moved forward, so that she could stand over Martijn, where he had fallen. She held the rock up over his head and stood there menacingly, in case he tried to move again. Karin walked toward them, determined to keep him down if he tried to get up again.

  The two girls stood over him as he put a hand to his temple and rolled over and his eyes blinked open. They could hear the chud, chud, chud of the helicopter again, which seemed now to be turning around, over the forest, and heading back in their direction, at last. Karin looked up to see the copter moving slower, and she waved her arms frantically. Margot also started jumping up and down, waving her arms and holding the rock in the air. “Here!” they cried, “Here!” until long after it was clear they didn’t need to do it anymore. Karin started to breathe normally again as her hair began to whip in the wind. She felt relief, seeing the copter descend.