Camilla turned onto Skovvej and immediately slowed down. Even at this distance, she recognized her friend sitting on a boulder, her long, black hair whipping in the wind.
“It’s so good to see you again!” she said when Louise got in the car. “Can you spend the night with us?”
Camilla had been surprised when her friend had called, wanting to know if she could pick her up in Hvalsø. Frederik had gone to Copenhagen—he was bringing dinner back—and she had just sat down to work on an article due the next day.
She had covered a pony show at the Roskilde Riding Club that weekend. Her former editor at Morgenavisen, Terkel Høyer, would die laughing if he knew what she was writing about as a freelancer. And when Louise called, she decided that the piece wouldn’t suffer one bit if she waited until early the next morning to write it.
She turned the car around in a neatly kept driveway to head back to Roskilde.
“Would you mind driving me to Holbæk?” Louise asked.
“Holbæk! What on earth for?”
“I need to stop by the jail.”
“The jail! Why?” She drove down the main street and under the viaduct. Louise didn’t answer.
“An interrogation?” Camilla asked. Still no answer. She was used to this; she had covered crime for Morgenavisen while Louise had been in Homicide. Some things they couldn’t talk about.
But Louise turned to her and told her about visiting Klaus’s parents and what René had said to her at the gamekeeper’s.
“Honestly, Louise!” Camilla said. “He might have just been throwing that out at you.”
She was dismayed that her friend had told all that to Klaus’s parents without knowing whether it was true or not. It also hurt that Louise had clammed up after the episode at the gamekeeper’s, only now telling her what had happened.
“I don’t think so,” Louise said, her voice small.
“He might’ve wanted to hurt you.” Something in her friend’s voice made Camilla want to put an arm around her shoulder. She glanced over at her, but Louise kept staring down at her phone.
“Can you even get in to see him at this time of day?” Camilla wondered if the assault had thrown her friend’s thinking out of whack.
“Mik gave me the green light to talk to him about a boy who’s been missing for a while. He’s been hiding in your forest, as a matter of fact.”
“What in the world does he have to do with a missing boy?” Suddenly she realized Louise must be talking about the boy she’d seen. She thought about his wet hair, how he’d run off.
“Nothing,” Louise answered. “But the boy’s father is visiting René tomorrow, so if I’m going to find out whether the family has problems, I need to talk to René now.”
“And while you’re at it, you’ll pressure him to tell you what happened back then,” Camilla said, nodding. This was more like the Louise she knew.
“I’m going to give it a shot,” Louise admitted.
“What about this boy?” Camilla turned off the freeway. “How is this all connected with those men from Hvalsø?”
“It’s the butcher’s son. You don’t seem all that surprised to hear that he’s been hiding in your forest. Don’t tell me you’ve seen him.”
Camilla nodded. “But he ran off before I could talk to him. Is he mixed up in something?”
Louise shook her head. “I don’t think so, but he might be emotionally unstable. His mother is dying; he’s had a difficult time handling that. He’s been very unhappy for a long time. Anyway, he ran off. How did he seem to you?”
Camilla tried to recall how the lanky boy looked. “Pretty ragged, I’d say. It was raining and he was obviously cold. I thought something was wrong. I even thought about calling the police in Roskilde, but then I got distracted by what happened with all that blood.”
“Blood?”
“It was so gross. I took off after the boy to ask him why he was running away, then I fell and got covered in blood, head-to-toe. Frederik says it’s something to do with the Asatro, the sacrifices to the gods they make out in the forest.”
She glanced over and saw a smile on Louise’s lips. “Don’t sit there laughing at me. I thought it was an animal they’d shot. It was just so disgusting.”
“When did this happen?”
“A few days ago.”
Camilla remembered her wet jogging clothes, still in the plastic sack. She should probably throw them away.
They drove past the train station. “Where do you want me to let you off?”
“In front of the police station is fine. Mik’s coming down to meet me.”
“I can wait for you. I just need to tell Frederik if you’ll stay and eat.”
Louise opened the car door. “Thanks, but I have to get back to Copenhagen. I hope I haven’t ruined too much of your day.”
“Of course you haven’t,” Camilla replied at once.
“Can you give me a description of the boy?” Louise asked, out on the sidewalk now.
Camilla thought for a second. “Light hair, maybe on the brownish side. A bit awkward, I think. Thin. But I didn’t see him up close. Straight hair; he needed a haircut. Jeans and a dark T-shirt. I don’t know if it was black or dark blue, but something was printed on the front.”
“That sounds like him,” Louise said, nodding. She turned when she heard Mik calling out to them from the doorway. “Thank you so much for the lift, Camilla. Talk to you later. I’ll call this weekend.”
“Driving Miss Daisy. Just let me know when you need a chauffeur.” Camilla waved good-bye.
She watched her friend cross the street and walk into the police station. Something in Louise’s voice had made her uneasy. A hint of anger. Fear, maybe.