The Chestnut Man: A Novel

Rosa searches the empty farmhouse. She finds the man humming a nursery rhyme at a stove and grabs his axe. He remains calm, saying Kristine is “somewhere nice now” (456), and alludes to being locked in a basement with his twin sister by their parents. Rosa stresses she just needs information. He overpowers and incapacitates her.

Rosa wakes bound to a steel operating table in a white room. In sterile coveralls, the man reveals her childhood lie sent him and his sister to Chestnut Farm; he tracked her after she became minister. He details the process of amputating Kristine’s hand to frame Bekker for her murder. He then amputates Rosa’s left hand. When she wakes, he continues the account of Kristine’s abduction before preparing to amputate her right. A beeping alarm alerts him to an approaching car on CCTV. Rosa faints again.

Thulin is bound in a car trunk. She recalls arriving with Genz and finding a workspace with photos of the victims and themselves. Genz revealed himself as the killer before knocking her out. 

Thulin hears a car, followed by Hess calling her name. Unable to shout, she kicks the trunk.

Hess finds Rosa’s car and enters the unlocked house, discovering the workspace. He knows Genz can see him on CCTV. Remembering an old crime scene photo, he finds the basement entrance hidden in a kitchen cabinet. Descending, he notices bloody footprints leading only up, signaling that Genz is upstairs. Just then, Genz swings the axe from the doorway above, grazing Hess’s brow.

Hess wakes bound in the basement. Genz uses his thumb to unlock his phone, discovers the call to Nylander, and brutally kicks him. Genz admits to stalking them and finding out about their plans to entrap them. 

Hess sees Rosa unconscious on the table. Genz douses the room, Hess, and Rosa with gasoline, lights a chestnut man figure, throws it, and shuts the door.

In the barn, Thulin breaks through the rear seat into the car’s interior, seeing and smelling fire. When Genz gets in, Thulin hides behind the driver’s seat.

In the burning basement, Hess uses the saw to cut his bindings. He frees Rosa just as fire reaches her, carrying her to a corner. Hess then locates a barred window and saws through the bars, allowing them to escape before the fire engulfs them. Hess drags Rosa to safety and runs into the woods.

Thulin attempts to overpower Genz, but he anticipates her and beats her down. He taunts her that Hess is dead. Preparing to kill her, they both hear a man’s hoarse voice screaming Genz’s name from the woods.

Hess stands in the snowy road, having cut through the woods. In a tense standoff, Genz accelerates at Hess, who fires his gun at the car but hesitates, afraid of hitting Thulin. 

At the last moment, Thulin acts, causing the car to swerve and crash into the woods. Both are thrown through the windshield. Hess finds Genz impaled on a tree branch and asks where Kristine is. Genz dies without answering.