messages. Two were from Jonas who, being the responsible boy he was, had gone home to be with Dina instead of sleeping at his friend’s, after Louise told him she was staying in Hvalsø. He’d walked the dog and was on his way to school now.
That warmed Louise’s heart. She missed him. Overnight, it seemed, he’d grown up into a mature teen. She knew it wouldn’t be long before parties and friends began to pull at him more strongly than the yellow Labrador, whom he’d taken good care of as he’d promised.
The last message came from a number Louise didn’t have on her phone. C was hit by a car, call. Frederik.
17
T he asshole meant to hit me,” Camilla told Frederik again, in the car on the way home.
The X-rays had taken an eternity, and it had been the wee hours of the morning before the doctor finally examined her. Only then had he decided to keep her under observation for a day, to make sure she hadn’t sustained a concussion.
Camilla’s entire body had hurt too much for her to complain about waiting. Everyone in the emergency room had been in the same boat. Several slept on hard chairs, and a mother had left despite her son’s considerable pain from a fall on his trick two-wheeler scooter. She’d sat straight in her chair and waited patiently for eight hours as blood soaked through the tall teenager’s pants at the knees and tears ran down his acne-covered cheeks.
The emergency room nurse had walked around with her eyes on the gray linoleum floor, avoiding contact with the many people waiting. “These poor people,” Frederik had said, after trying several times to get someone to help. “My wife was rushed here in an ambulance and still no one has time to look at her. HEY! ANYONE HERE?”
But nothing happened, apart from an elderly lady with a scarf tied neatly around her head, who looked up from her magazine and said her husband had fallen down the stairs at the train station.
It had to be tough, working here every day under this kind of pressure, Camilla thought, when the doctor sent Frederik home and told him to come back for her the next day. They had waited for the doctor all morning, with compelling reasons to protest cuts in the national health care system going through her head.
* * *
“We can’t know he ran you down on purpose,” Frederik said. Without saying it directly, he was critical of her for not having reflectors on her bicycle. That, of course, annoyed Camilla even more.
“Oh we can’t, can we? Well, I can. I can goddamn tell when a driver turns his brights on right in my eyes. I was standing in the middle of the road. It wasn’t like it was dark when he sped up to hit me!”
Frederik nodded while concentrating on traffic. “Whether he tried to hit you or not, there’s no doubt he was driving way too fast,” he said. “And we don’t allow unauthorized vehicles. But right now, I’m just relieved you weren’t hurt worse.”
Camilla cooled down. She knew he was right. The doctor had said it was a miracle her injuries weren’t severe. He’d added that the next few days she would probably feel like she’d gone twelve rounds in a heavyweight fight. But no bones were broken. Her black-and-blue eye looked bad. The doctor thought she must have hit a tree trunk after being flung into the air. The right side of her face was swollen, closing up her eye. Camilla had been shocked when the nurse handed her a mirror.
“Tønnesen went out and put the chains up so nobody can drive into the forest now. Once in a while, someone ignores the signs and drives down to the creek. But this happened on one of the small roads, and I’m thinking we may have a poacher. What did the car look like?”
Camilla thought for a few moments, then shook her head. “It was bigger than most cars, but I don’t know if it was a van or a four-wheel-drive. It came at me like a big, black shadow.”
That’s all Camilla could remember. She had no idea how long she had been on the ground.
That warmed Louise’s heart. She missed him. Overnight, it seemed, he’d grown up into a mature teen. She knew it wouldn’t be long before parties and friends began to pull at him more strongly than the yellow Labrador, whom he’d taken good care of as he’d promised.
The last message came from a number Louise didn’t have on her phone. C was hit by a car, call. Frederik.
17
T he asshole meant to hit me,” Camilla told Frederik again, in the car on the way home.
The X-rays had taken an eternity, and it had been the wee hours of the morning before the doctor finally examined her. Only then had he decided to keep her under observation for a day, to make sure she hadn’t sustained a concussion.
Camilla’s entire body had hurt too much for her to complain about waiting. Everyone in the emergency room had been in the same boat. Several slept on hard chairs, and a mother had left despite her son’s considerable pain from a fall on his trick two-wheeler scooter. She’d sat straight in her chair and waited patiently for eight hours as blood soaked through the tall teenager’s pants at the knees and tears ran down his acne-covered cheeks.
The emergency room nurse had walked around with her eyes on the gray linoleum floor, avoiding contact with the many people waiting. “These poor people,” Frederik had said, after trying several times to get someone to help. “My wife was rushed here in an ambulance and still no one has time to look at her. HEY! ANYONE HERE?”
But nothing happened, apart from an elderly lady with a scarf tied neatly around her head, who looked up from her magazine and said her husband had fallen down the stairs at the train station.
It had to be tough, working here every day under this kind of pressure, Camilla thought, when the doctor sent Frederik home and told him to come back for her the next day. They had waited for the doctor all morning, with compelling reasons to protest cuts in the national health care system going through her head.
* * *
“We can’t know he ran you down on purpose,” Frederik said. Without saying it directly, he was critical of her for not having reflectors on her bicycle. That, of course, annoyed Camilla even more.
“Oh we can’t, can we? Well, I can. I can goddamn tell when a driver turns his brights on right in my eyes. I was standing in the middle of the road. It wasn’t like it was dark when he sped up to hit me!”
Frederik nodded while concentrating on traffic. “Whether he tried to hit you or not, there’s no doubt he was driving way too fast,” he said. “And we don’t allow unauthorized vehicles. But right now, I’m just relieved you weren’t hurt worse.”
Camilla cooled down. She knew he was right. The doctor had said it was a miracle her injuries weren’t severe. He’d added that the next few days she would probably feel like she’d gone twelve rounds in a heavyweight fight. But no bones were broken. Her black-and-blue eye looked bad. The doctor thought she must have hit a tree trunk after being flung into the air. The right side of her face was swollen, closing up her eye. Camilla had been shocked when the nurse handed her a mirror.
“Tønnesen went out and put the chains up so nobody can drive into the forest now. Once in a while, someone ignores the signs and drives down to the creek. But this happened on one of the small roads, and I’m thinking we may have a poacher. What did the car look like?”
Camilla thought for a few moments, then shook her head. “It was bigger than most cars, but I don’t know if it was a van or a four-wheel-drive. It came at me like a big, black shadow.”
That’s all Camilla could remember. She had no idea how long she had been on the ground.
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