Farewell to Freedom by Sara Blædel Read Free Book Online Page A

number, even though she didn’t expect he would call when anything new turned up on the case. She would follow up on it later, and in the meantime she would try to find out what the police had learned about the murder on Skelbækgade.
    She called the chief of homicide at Police Headquarters, who impatiently referred her to Willumsen, but so far that was a dead end. Willumsen and Camilla had butted heads on several occasions in the past. The first time was when a colleague of hers at the paper had been murdered because of a drug story he was working on. It hadn’t improved Camilla and Willumsen’s relationship when she quoted him in a article and made prominent mention that his title had recently changed from “detective superintendent” to the lesser-sounding “police superintendent” as a part of the reorganization.
    So now she sat here with her hand on the receiver, wondering whom she could call instead of Willumsen. She decided to start with Louise to find out who else had been assigned to the case.
    Camilla and Louise had known each other since high school in Roskilde, and even though they were quite different in many ways, they had become best friends over the years. She dialed Louise’s cell number, bypassing the phone tree through the main police switchboard.
    â€œActually I’m on that case,” Louise said.
    Camilla could hear traffic noise in the background.
    â€œAm I bothering you? You sound like you’re outside.”
    â€œIt’s fine. I’m on Sønder Boulevard. We’re trying to find out who the girl was. I’ll just step into a doorway so I can hear you better.”
    â€œIs there anything new? Have you found out where she was from?”
    â€œNo,” Louise replied. “Apparently no one saw anything.”
    â€œWhat happened out there in Kødbyen?”
    Camilla realized Louise was stalling to avoid giving privileged information to the press, so she tried reassuring Louise that she was of course aware that the lead case investigator should actually be the source for all the information about the case, and it worked.
    â€œHer throat was slit in the middle of the night,” Louise explained, “but you won’t get much farther on the story right now. We’re going to spend the rest of the day and evening canvassing for witnesses, and obviously we’re hoping that someone can help us ID her. I’m under the impression that Willumsen is planning to release a picture of the victim sometime tomorrow, but you’ll have to talk to him about that.”
    Camilla nodded at the phone, knowing that she would have to accept going through official channels if she wanted more information, so she changed topics and told Louise about the abandoned baby that Markus and his friend had found.
    â€œI think what shook Markus the most was that a mother just abandoned a newborn baby like that, leaving her lying there all alone. If they hadn’t found her, she could have died.”
    â€œIt must have been a terrible experience for him,” Louise said, suddenly warm again, and concerned. She asked how Markus was doing now.
    Although Louise didn’t have any children of her own—and had maintained for years that one could easily have a happy and meaningful life without children—she was very close to Camilla’s son. Sometimes Camilla even felt a little excluded when Markus and Louise were together.
    â€œI think he’s all right, but I suspect it’ll stick with him for a while.”
    â€œIs there anything I can do?” Louise said, full of concern.
    Camilla said he was still over at his friend’s house.
    â€œThen I’ll call him tomorrow and tell him he’s welcome to call me if there’s anything I can do. Also, I’ll try to see if I can find out how the baby girl is doing. Another division would be handling that case, so I haven’t even heard about it—and obviously we have