Plot

Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.

Rex and Saskia are on holiday, a young couple in love. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia disappears. Rex dedicates the next three years trying to find her. Then he receives some postcards from her abductor, who promises to reveal what has happened to Saskia. The abductor, Raymond Lemorne, is a chilling character to whom Rex is drawn by his intense desire to learn the truth behind his lovers disappearance. The truth is more sinister than he dared imagine.—Matthew Stanfield <mattst@cogs.susx.ac.uk>

Inspired by the current Tour de France, married Amsterdammers Rex Hofman and Saskia Wagter drive to France to go on a cycling vacation. At a highway gas station/rest stop in France, Saskia goes inside to use the facilities and make some purchases, but Rex never sees her come out. Despite the two having had a serious argument earlier that day, Rex doesn't believe she left him on her own volition and that she was abducted. His cursory questioning of people at the gas station does provide some information, but does not result in Rex finding out definitively what happened to her. Fast forward three years... Rex has a renewed fervor in finding out what happened to Saskia, often taking to the media as a plea to the public about any information. His new girlfriend Lieneke supports his efforts, but she may only be able to be the third wheel in their relationship for so long. Rex's search is spurred by the occasional postcard he has received by an unknown person asking to meet him at the same café in Nîmes, that person who never shows up. But that person eventually does show himself to Rex. He is Raymond Lemorne, a chemistry professor and family man with wife and two daughters. He admits that he used several rudimentary and unsuccessful ruses in the past to try and lure women into his car with the purpose of knocking them unconscious with chloroform. His quest was inadvertently spurred by his daughter's worship of him after he saved a girl from drowning. Raymond vows to tell Rex the entire story only on the condition that Rex experience exactly what Saskia experienced. With no hard evidence tying Raymond to Saskia's disappearance, Rex has to decide if he will go along with Raymond's conditions to find out what happened to Saskia.—Huggo