Miss Polly had a Dolly (Emma Frost #2) (6 page)

On Wednesday at
around noon
I usually had lunch with my neighbor from
across the street, Sophia. She was a teacher at the local school but was on
maternity leave now with her newborn. Today I had prepared a nice salmon quiche
with spinach and feta cheese. It was one of my favorite dishes to make.

Sophia came over just before noon and sat in my
kitchen while her baby was sleeping in the carriage. Like most Danish moms, she
had left the carriage outside on the porch so the baby could sleep in the fresh
air, as the doctors recommended. That always made them sleep better and longer
and it was good for their lungs and the whole respiratory system. Her baby was
a heavy sleeper so usually we would have two hours to chat, something we both
needed a lot. With her six kids and no husband, she needed to unburden herself
every now and then, and so did I, especially today since I had just found out
the day before that my dad had a girlfriend.

"I can't believe he never told you about
her," Sophia said while I cut a piece of the quiche and put it on her
plate. "I mean how long have they been going out?"

"He said they had known each other for two
months."

"Two months?"

I nodded and poured some water in our glasses.

"I don't believe it," Sophia
continued. "I mean you'd think we would have known, right? This is a small
island. Someone must have seen them together. Why haven't we heard
anything?"

"My guess is they have kept mostly to
themselves. Maybe because my dad was afraid I'd get upset." I put some
quiche on my fork and put it in my mouth. It wasn't the greatest quiche I’d
made, but it would do.

"I'm loving this, by the way," Sophia
said with her mouth full pointing at the food on her plate with her fork.
"It's really good. I tell you, if you didn't cook for me every Wednesday
like you do, I wouldn't get anything proper to eat all week. I do not have the
time or the energy to cook. I mean, I do spaghetti and meat sauce and lasagna
now and then, but nothing like this."

I was flattered. I had never been much of a
cook, but the last couple of months I had been practicing a lot, much to my
children's surprise and delight. They loved my food and that made me feel
really good. I had discovered that I liked pleasing others with good food. And
for some strange reason I enjoyed watching them eat it. Maybe it was because my
mother had never cooked much and I was always so jealous of my classmates who
came home to freshly baked buns or cake and all I ever had after school was
cereal that I poured into a bowl myself. I wanted to be different than my
mother so I had started baking a lot lately and then I ate what I’d made with
my kids and sometimes my dad, in the afternoon once they got back from school.
It wasn't good for my weight, but the kids seemed to love getting a break like
that with me, especially Maya who was always on the run these days. It was good
for her to have that break every now and then and in that way I got to talk to
her as well. Victor was different. He just ate while staring at the table
saying close to nothing, before he stormed out to the yard to play with his
precious trees.

"Well I'm glad you like it," I
answered and ate another bite. I looked at the puffed dough in the corner of
the kitchen table. I was going to make it into small buns for this afternoon as
soon as we were done eating. Maybe I’d put some egg and sugar on top to make it
a little sweeter. "So are your kids ready for the audition this
Saturday?" I asked before sipping my water.

Sophia nodded. "Ida is singing all day, so
is Christoffer. And it's the same songs over and over again. I'm going nuts, I
can't get them out of my head again." Sophia chuckled then kept on eating.
"You're still going with me, right?"

"Sure. I want to see what it is like."

"Good. Cause I need you to take care of the
three young ones while Christoffer and Ida audition. I can have the baby in a
sling on my chest, but the other ones, I don't know."

"What if we ask Maya to take care of them
at home, in your house?" I asked hoping to get out of babysitting myself.
"I'll pay her what she wants. You don't have to worry about that."

Sophia's face lit up. "That would be great.
I'm really looking forward to going and it would be rough with all those kids,
you know?"

"I know," I said and got up. "I'm
sure she won't mind. Do you want some coffee?"

"Yes, please. That would be great. I never
have time to make real coffee anymore. I use that instant crap and it really
tastes like water. I need my coffee good and strong."

I smiled and poured water in the pot. "I'll
make it so strong you won't sleep for days," I said. Suddenly our
conversation was interrupted by the sound of sirens.

Sophia got up from her chair. We both walked to
the window. Far away we could see the island's only police car driving towards
the beach. It was very rare that the police car actually had to put on sirens,
so naturally we were curious.

"What's going on?" Sophia wondered
aloud.

We put on our
jackets,
took the baby-carriage, and walked down to
the beach following the sound of the siren and the blue light in the distance.
When we got down there we spotted all of the island's six police officers
running around like they were searching for something. On a dune in the
distance, we spotted a woman talking to one of the Officers. She was sitting on
a stretcher belonging to an ambulance parked right next to her. Sophia and I
looked at each other, then decided—without speaking a word—that we
had to get closer to figure out what was going on. Luckily one of the officers,
Morten Bredballe, came towards us just as we started descending towards the
beach area. Sophia knew him since he had often helped her contacting the father
of a few of her children that still lived on the island, when he didn't pay his
child support.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

Officer Morten looked at her perplexed. "A
child is missing. A little girl."

I gasped thinking about Helle's story.
"Could she have drowned?" I asked.

The officer sighed. "That's what I would
have usually thought, but this is different."

"Why is it different?" I asked.

"Well the woman you see over there, is the
girl's governess. She was down here with her, when she disappeared. She saw her
talk to someone, then walk off with that person willingly. The woman tried to
run after them and stop them, but fell and hurt her leg. She couldn't get up
again on her own.

"So she saw who it was?" Sophia asked.
"Can't you just find that person then?"

"She didn't see the face. She doesn't even
know if it's a man or a woman. All she saw was someone with a dog, dressed in a
heavy raincoat walk up to the child and talk to her. Then the girl took the
person's hand and they walked off. Disappeared between the dunes over
there," Officer Morten said and pointed to our right. A small trail went up
through the dunes and into the grass. The place was packed with summer cabins
behind it. "Do you think the girl might be in one of the cabins?" I
asked.

"That's where we're going to look now.
Knock on every door there is," he said with a deep sigh. "I hate when
it's kids, you know?"

I nodded. That had to be the worst part of the
job as a policeman, when it was an incident that involved children. "Who
wears a raincoat when the sun is shining?" I asked.

The officer shrugged. "That's what I would
like to know. The governess first thought it was harmless for the girl to talk
to the person and the dog and that she would eventually come back. So at first
she didn't do anything. Plus she was on the phone with the kid's father. Well,
it's all a mess right now. All I want is to find the girl before this evolves
into a bigger problem. It might just be some deranged old man or woman, maybe
even someone senile who thinks it was his or her daughter or something. Maybe
they offered her some candy. Hopefully whoever it is will let her go back home
soon."

"We'll keep an eye out for her as
well," I said. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Josephine Gyldenstjerne.
They're visitors to the island, but come here every year."

I looked at the officer. "Gyldenstjerne? As
in the Count and Countess Gyldenstjerne? Is she their daughter?"

Officer Morten sighed again. "Yes, she is.
That's why we're a little nervous that this isn't a coincidence. This might be
a kidnapping for ransom."

"I see."

"How old is she?" Sophia asked.
"We need to know what we're looking for in case we do see something."

"She's six years old. Has long blonde hair
and blue eyes. Slightly chubby. She's wearing a white dress. That's all I know.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

"Of course, officer. We'll keep an eye out
for her," I said and let him walk past us.

As Sophia and I walked back towards our own
neighborhood I couldn't help think that Helle's daughter had also been six
years old when she disappeared.

Josephine
walked inside the old
lady's house and followed her
into the living room. She had stopped thinking about Ms. Camilla and her
parents. All that was in her head was the spectacular doll and she really
wanted to see all of them. Ms. Camilla had to wait. Josephine knew she would be
in trouble for this, but she was already in deep trouble for running down to
the beach when Ms. Camilla had told her not to, so what did it matter?

Django was playing around, and Josephine patted
his back. As she followed the nice old lady into the living room, she paused
and gasped. In there, on shelves from wall to wall, in every chair and on every
couch, were dolls. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of them. Dolls in all sizes
and all with different faces. Josephine, who had always loved dolls more than
anything in the whole wide world, shrieked with joy.

"You like them?" the old woman asked
with a smile.

Josephine nodded eagerly. "They're
beautiful."

"I make them myself," the lady said.

Josephine walked closer to one sitting on the
couch. She reached out her hand trying to touch its leg.

"You can look but don't touch them,"
the lady said behind her. "They're very delicate. I don't want them to get
greasy and dirty. They are to be looked at, not touched, understand?"

Josephine nodded even if she didn't understand.
Why would anyone have that many dolls and never play with them? It seemed
silly. If they were hers she would be playing with them every day. Except Ms.
Camilla would never let her. Josephine growled at the thought of going back to
the mansion. But eventually she would have to. There was no way out.

"How do you even make them?" Josephine
asked while studying the doll in front of her. It had blonde hair just like her
and looked so lifelike. It was big, too. Almost as big as her.

"Oh that's really difficult. Took me many
years to learn. Do you want to see where I make them?" the lady asked with
a gentle voice.

Josephine nodded. "Yes, please. I would be
delighted to."

"What great manners, you have. Your parents
must have raised you well," the lady remarked and started walking towards
a closed door. When she opened it a set of stairs leading down appeared.
"It's in the basement," she said and signaled for Josephine to follow
her.

The basement was deep and it got colder the
further they walked down. Josephine was freezing because she was still wet from
being in the water and she rubbed her arms to generate some warmth. Soon a big
room opened up. It had low ceilings but the lady could still stand upright. A
big desk was leaning against the wall. The lady turned on the lamp and
Josephine spotted a lot of tools that she knew about from her books. One of
them was a scalpel. Josephine had read about doctors using them. There was also
a pair of rubber gloves, scissors, a whole box of needles, lots of string,
tweezers, then a bottle of something called Borax; she didn't know what that
was for. Next to the table were four big bags of something else Josephine
didn't recognize.

"That's excelsior," the lady said when
she saw Josephine look at them. "I use that to fill out their
bodies."

"And what is that?" Josephine asked
and pointed.

"That, my dear, is a box of fake
eyes." The lady shook the box and laughed.

Josephine thought they looked at little creepy.
All those small eyes staring at her. "So this is where you make the dolls?"
she asked and looked around in the room. A big lifelike doll was standing in
one corner looking back at her.

"Yes it is. Do you like it here?"

Josephine shrugged. She spotted something in the
other corner. It looked like the cages where her daddy kept his big dogs that
he used for hunting.

"What do you use that for?" she asked.

The old lady smiled widely. "That, my dear,
is for you."