The Ringmaster by Steen Langstrup

Author:Steen Langstrup
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: award winning, scandinavian, finale, gas station, filmed, torture crime, danish cinema, torture horror
Publisher: 2 Feet Entertainment

ON THE DISPLAY, THE NUMBERS 112

TOnIGHT YOU SHALL BOTH DIE

The letters were red as Agnes knew they would be. Block capital letters. All but the single n. A cold wind was blowing through the carwash gates and Agnes huddled against the cold.

Belinda bit her lip, looking both scared and reflective at the same time.

Agnes was still holding her cell phone in one hand. On the display, the numbers 112. She was not too fond of the darkness outside, nor the threat on the carwash wall, yet she was still to make the call. The muscles in her hand holding her phone were aching with tension. She tried to relax a bit but it was hard.

Her eyes moved to the surveillance camera high above them. “The recording from that camera will show who did this,” she said softly. However, they didn’t have access to the hard disk where the recordings were stored. They were locked away somewhere off-premises. She didn’t even know where. “I’ll call the police and then I’ll call Arni.”

Arni was the owner of the petrol station. The only person she knew for sure to have access to the recordings. He needed to come ‘round. He made the system this way in an effort to avoid robbers or shoplifters from destroying the evidence of their crimes.

Belinda searched the darkness outside. “I’ve got this awful feeling we are being watched.”

“Let’s go inside and call the po…What? What is it?”

“Someone’s out there! By the billboards!” She pointed out of the carwash to the two large billboards on the left side of the petrol station. One of the billboards advertising a brand of cereal that mostly consists of chocolate, the other a movie about Swedish crime. Between the two billboards, she glimpsed a person.

“I see him,” Agnes whispered, her heart leaping into her throat. “I’m calling the cops right now. I don’t like this.”

Belinda was silent.

Agnes hesitated, finger lingering above the call button on the display. “What’s that in his hand?”

“A cell phone,” Belinda said. “He’s filming us.”

Agnes pushed the call button as the guy stepped forward, strolling toward them. The cell phone connected and beeped once, before Belinda snatched it from her hand and cut the connection.

“Why did you do that?” Tears were filling Agnes’s eyes. She was properly afraid now. Outside, the guy was closing in on them, holding up his cell phone, making no attempt to hide the fact that he was filming them.

“It’s Christoffer,” Belinda confessed, a tormented expression on her face.

Agnes felt her jaw drop as all the anxiety, all the fear, the tingling sense of being watched melted into a ball of anger. “Your boyfriend? Mr. Happy Slap?”

“It’s not my fault, okay?”

“Did I scare you girls?” he shouted, laughing.

Agnes looked at the words on the wall. The lowercase n among the capital letters. “You recognized his handwriting. That’s why you told me not to call the police before we’d examined the carwash!”

No answer, Belinda had already left the carwash, rushing to her boyfriend.

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