The Lost and Hidden Years

Chapter Thirty-Five

10:52 PM
"Zola," Detective Ron Weissman called. "This is something you're going to want to see." He pulled his reading glasses off his eyes and squeezed over his eyelids as she took the papers he had just printed. She scanned the pages, reading a long list of history calls from one number in common with every phone number Gert had owned.

It all dates back to the 6th of September, 1998. Why does this ring a bell? She paced and it still hadn't made sense. She went back to the files she had been studying for the past few hours between Agnetha's and Gert's... records, reports, letters, and health. She paused. Letters.

"I'll be goddamned," she turned on her heel and marched to her own office, quickly picking up the phone, making a phone call to Detectives Ada Olson and Ross Lundberg, who were parked outside of Lena's home for the past seven, nearly eight hours.

"What's going on with you two, have you got anything?"

"No one has come, no one has left."

"But she's still in the home?"

"Yes, she is."

"Don't you dare let her out of your sight." She hung up the phone and immediately placed a call the district attorney, letting him know of the new evidence that had just come about. Was it enough?

* * *

11:21 PM
Björn had thought of many things during the night. In the study he spent hours with Christian looking for security footage from all four cameras around the house, but they had all been shut down after 11 PM. There was no way to know for them how the cameras had suddenly cut off. Björn and Christian had made sure to upgrade to better security, but somehow it had become corrupted. Same with the alarms. He checked the alarm network and it showed the house was disabled somehow at 2:15 AM and reactivated by 3:21 AM. Gert must have broken in, but how does she go missing silently? With no one knowing? Nothing added up to neither Björn nor Christian. And the cameras the investigators had found around the house– living room, kitchen, bedroom, and hallways? How could they have been put in and when?

When Linda, Christian, and Emma retired for bed, although not one soul was able to rest, Björn went to his bedroom to check on Agnetha. As far as he knew she went up a few hours ago to lie down, begged by Linda. He creaked open the dark room, the only light that spilled in was the yellow lights of the hallway. He saw her beneath the covers, curled up like a helpless child. His heart was crushed in the many ways a heart could be broken. He didn't want to disturb her. Stepping back and pulling the door towards him again, he stopped when he listened to her small voice fill in the large space.

"Don't go," she pleaded. "Please. Don't leave me." His heart sunk to his feet and he entered the room quickly to be beside her. She uncovered the space he usually lies in for him to slip in. "They haven't called?"

"No."

"What if we never find her? We don't know where he is. They haven't even found a place," she cried softly into his chest, unable to breathe at all. "My baby is gone, Björn. Our baby's lost. What if something happened to her?"

"Hey," he hushed her. "Agnetha, don't think like that. We're going to find her. I swear it. I found you and we will find her, too. Sweetheart, stop crying. You're breaking my heart and I don't know how to cope with it, seeing you like this. Please, I need you strong for me so we can get through it together."

"Why does it keep happening to us?" she sobbed. "Why are we so cursed? Why is it none of us can live in peace? It's all my fault. It's all on me, everything that's happened. I want to find her, Björn, and I want to move away. I don't want the reminder of losing her again and again. I don't even know where she's sleeping, where he's keeping her. She's only f-fourteen." Agnetha grasped onto the edge of his shirt as she cried. Her heart was shredding painfully. His hold tightened around her as he cried, too, unable to keep either of them from falling apart together. Both of them were strong, but this is the weakest point they have ever had to experience.