The Caller

Chapter 36

From a distance she resembled a little boy, with her short red hair. She didn’t know the two men, but she made note of what they looked like and how they were dressed. When they walked back from the water, she skittered quickly away and sank down against the trunk of a tree. She squatted until her thighs hurt, and she hardly dared breathe; she made note of the car. A Toyota Land Cruiser. The paint gleamed golden in the sun. The men didn’t talk to one another, but they glanced vigilantly around before climbing into the car. Luckily for her, they didn’t notice her bicycle a little way off in the heather. She curled herself into a tiny ball. She thought her heart would burst, thought her blood pumped so forcefully inside her they would hear it through the roar of the water thundering against the dam wall.

But they didn’t hear a thing.

They drove away, and everything grew silent.

And Else Meiner got on her blue Nakamura bicycle.