Free Seven, eight ... Gonna stay up late (Rebekka Franck #4) by Willow Rose Page B

all the time?"
     Amalie wasn't ready to talk. Tears were
still rolling across her face. She felt so lost. If Camilla was here, then she
couldn't have told the police or Amalie's parents what had happened. That meant
they weren't looking for her, they weren't on the verge of finding her. Now
with Camilla being here, instead of on the outside, then no one would know
where to begin looking. For all they cared Camilla and Amalie had gone sailing
and once they didn't come back they would begin the search for them. But who
would know that they had even been at the festival? Who would help track them
down?
    Amalie sulked and for the first time in her
life, she gave in. She didn't hold it back any more.

Chapter 20
    I couldn't
believe I lost her. I searched and looked and talked
to everybody I could find. Once the concert was over, the parking lot at the
festival turned into a conglomeration of people and cars moving. I knew I had
to give up, I knew I had been defeated. I texted Sune and he came to find me. I
was sitting on a bench at the parking lot with my head in my hands. I wasn't
crying, but I was close. The frustration, the feeling of failing knocked me
down.
    "What's going on?" Sune asked and ran
to me. He squatted in front of me, then grabbed my hand. "What
happened?"
    I looked into his soft eyes, then exhaled.
"I lost her," I said. "I was this close to warning her, but I
was too late. If it hadn't been for that man, maybe ... just maybe I would have
found her."
      "Whoa, hey, let's back up a little
here," Sune said. He got up and sat next to me on the bench. "Try and
tell me the story from the beginning."
    I sighed deeply. "Okay. Where to start?"
    "Well how about beginning where I left you?
In the press-room?"
    I nodded. "Of course, sorry. Well after you
left me, I wanted to finish my article."
    "You never finished it? What have you been
doing all this time?" He interrupted me.
    "Let me talk," I said. "A phone
started ringing in the room. At first I thought someone had just forgot it
there, so I tried to continue my work, but then it hit me. Who has One
Direction as a ringtone?"
    "Someone who has a child that likes to play
with your phone?"
    "Or maybe a teenager! I got up and went to
look at Camilla's phone that I had been charging for her and realized it was
her phone that was ringing. When I looked at the display it said
'Amalie.'"
    "So naturally you picked it up, I get it.
But it wasn't her, was it?" Sune asked while putting his arm around my
shoulder.
    "No. It was some guy. Some creepy guy.
Worst of all I told him where to find Camilla. I thought he was Amalie, it was
before he spoke ... it's complicated. But anyway I had a feeling he wanted to
find Camilla so I tried to warn her. But I was too late. Once I arrived at the
tent, she wasn't there. I spoke to a couple of boys who said she had left with
some guy. Then I figured he had taken her out of the festival somehow, and I
ran here. But now with all the people crowding the place, I have no chance of
spotting her." I gesticulated resignedly. "She's gone!"
    "Well we're still here," Sune said.
"We'll tell everything to the police."
    "I thought about that, but ..." I
looked up and met Sune's eyes. He tried to smile to make me feel better.
    "But what?" he asked.
    "I think I just realized something," I
said and sat upright.
    "What?"
    "The girl. The first girl, the friend who
disappeared." I found the poster in the pocket and unfolded it. I showed
him the picture. "Why haven't I thought about this before?"
    "Thought about what?" Sune said
confused. "Please fill me in."
    "Amalie. Her name is Amalie. Camilla told
me she couldn't go to the police because the media would be all over the story
in a matter of seconds."
    "You know who she is?"
    "Yes. Look at the picture. Imagine her five
or six years younger. That's how many years it’s been since the public last saw
her face. After that her parents sent her to attend a school in Switzerland.
I'm quite puzzled to know how she is