Free The Killing Forest by Sara Blædel Page B

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.