Open Secrets by Sheila Kohler

Author:Sheila Kohler [Kohler, Sheila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

PART VIII

SWITZERLAND

Saturday and Sunday

I

PAMELA

1

Early Saturday morning, right after breakfast, when everyone else has to go to a special lecture on the environment and the conservation of energy, which sounds boring to Pamela, she decides to stay in the garden. It is such a sunny day, the light so bright, the sky a pale blue. No one seems to mind. She descends the stone steps and goes into the sunken garden on her own. The birds are singing fiercely, the sun is shining so brightly, and she is thinking about her father, imagining him coming to find her, so she does not hear the man approach—or if she does she imagines it might be her father.

She is sitting on the bench, just staring at the silver leaves trembling in the light, when the man comes up to her. She notices his thick neck and broad shoulders. She thinks he might be a new gym teacher or a secretary or even a parent who has come to visit and entered the school grounds by mistake at the side gate. The moment seems not quite real to her, like something happening to another girl sitting in the school garden, seen from afar.

Then she sees what he has in his hand, but even then she feels there has been some sort of mistake. He says, “Pamela?” as if he knows her, and she wonders if he is some relative or friend of her father’s she has forgotten about, and why he would be carrying a gun. She keeps thinking this is not quite real, that there has been some error that will be explained.

Perhaps he is some sort of school detective. She stands up politely and nods her head, and such is her training that even despite the gun she makes a half movement to shake his hand.

Then he says softly and with an accent that she recognizes as Russian, “Come with me, please. If you come quietly no one will be hurt.” Then she understands what is happening, unbelievable though it might be. She feels rather like an actress in a play, and wonders what will happen next.

She casts a furtive glance around the garden, but there is no one in sight. All the students are in the lecture by now and the teachers either still in their rooms or in their common room having coffee or chatting with one another at this early hour. So she goes obediently down the narrow path, which he indicates with a slight nod of his head, going through the bushes and under the trees to the side gate, which the man must have come through and has obviously left open. Even as she goes, she is still not quite certain what this man wants of her. Perhaps this is some kind of a joke.

Outside in the street when she sees his shiny black car, she finally understands. Then she wants to turn back and run, but it is too late.

He tells her to get into the back of the car, and for a moment she hesitates, looking around for help.

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