The Forgotten Girls Read Online Free PDF Page A

joints being passed around. Not that she had smoked any herself, but she would lie in the grass with the others and gaze up at the stars.
    “Do you still come here?”
    “My parents live here,” she answered briefly. “But it’s been years since I’ve been to the lake.”
    Lies! Louise often went there when she needed to gather her thoughts. To her, Avnsø Lake had always been the most beautiful and peaceful place on earth. She loved sitting against a tree at sunset, watching as the light made the pitch-black surface look as if it were filled with flames. It was the ultimate meditation.
    Of course, there were painful memories, too. And a nightmare she’d worked hard to put behind her. But that was none of his business. Just like the fact that she had brought her foster son, Jonas, along the last time she went. In fact, none of what she did was any of Eik’s business.
    “There,” she said, pulling over. “We’ll park up here.”
    She could see the light reflecting off the water at the foot of the hill; a narrow path ran straight to it. This was where they used to ride their bikes when she was a child. It was also a goodbridle path, especially when it was time to ride back up at a gallop.
    She pointed ahead to show him that they could also walk down a little farther and take the forest road, which was slightly less steep.
    “Is there good fishing out here?” he asked after he got out of the car.
    Louise nodded and suddenly remembered catching some small roach fish with a homemade fishing pole one time. She seemed to also recall something about pikes or perch. “There’s a path down by the water so you can walk all the way around the lake.” She pointed at the thicket to their right. “We need to get to that side.”
    They had to walk a quarter of the way around the lake to get to the place where the forest worker had found the woman.
    “Shhh.” Eik suddenly hushed and put a hand on Louise’s arm.
    She stopped talking and heard a child crying. The sound was heartbreaking as it reached them through the trees.
    “People come out here for picnics,” she explained, lowering her voice. “There are picnic tables down there.”
    Many people came to Avnsø Lake when the weather was nice. When Louise went to school in Hvalsø, they had come on several field trips out here as well. The girls would sit in the meadow tying garlands while the boys carved their initials in tree trunks or swung out over the lake from a rope that hung from one of the large trees. At least that’s how she remembered it.
    Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of the child, who was now crying so hard that she worried for a moment if he or she could even breathe.
    “Why isn’t anyone comforting the kid?” Eik grumbled. Hewas already heading down the steep path, grabbing onto a few of the shrubby branches to keep from slipping.
    She locked the car and followed him.
    O N THE LEVEL stretch by the lakeside where the swing had hung from the tall tree for as long as Louise could remember, she spotted three small children. The child who was crying was a boy in a striped windbreaker and jeans. He sat on the ground, sobbing so violently that his entire face was beet red, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. Next to him, a second, blond boy lay on his stomach. He was dragging himself across the ground like a caterpillar while emitting a series of loud, unhappy sounds that threatened to turn into crying.
    Louise stopped and looked at the last child—a girl wearing loose red clothing. She was sitting dangerously close to the water, her fingers in her mouth and dirt all over her face.
    Two, three years old at most, Louise guessed. Who left small children alone in the woods this close to a lake? She quickened her pace as the girl got up and toddled all the way to the water, where she dropped to the ground, leaning forward as if she wanted to catch the slight ripples lapping the edge.
    Before Louise was able to get there, Eik was beside the