Page 12 of The Sleepwalker (Joona Linna #10)

Bernard had been waiting in Agneta’s freshly washed Lexus for almost an hour when Hugo finally emerged from Kronoberg Remand Prison.

The teenager was carrying his possessions in a plastic bag, and he paused on the pavement with his shoulders hunched. Bernard got out of the car, waved to his son and then walked around to the passenger side to open the door like some sort of chauffeur.

Two hours have now passed, and Agneta is busy frying three thick pieces of sirloin steak while Bernard sets the table and prepares a salad.

The beta blocker she took earlier has her heart wrapped in its calming embrace.

It could be hormonal, but over the past year everyday situations have started to make her feel anxious and uncomfortable, and open conflicts have become downright unbearable.

Hugo comes into the kitchen and saunters over to the stove. He is barefoot, wearing jeans and a shiny black shirt, with a black beret on his head. He smells like Bernard’s shower gel.

On the white sideboard, there is a box full of books, the Portuguese translation of the latest novel in Bernard’s series.

‘So, how does it feel to be home?’ Agneta asks as she grinds pepper onto the meat.

‘One prison gives way to another,’ Hugo replies without looking at her.

‘Is that so?’

He shrugs and tucks his necklace inside his shirt, then checks his phone.

‘What do you mean?’ Bernard asks as he puts the steak knives down beside their plates.

‘I’ve got a chemistry test tomorrow, a biology test next week .?.?.’

Agneta lifts the melted butter from the stove and slowly pours it into the vinegar and egg yolks.

‘Are you hungry?’ she asks with a smile as she mixes the béarnaise.

‘Yeah,’ he replies without any enthusiasm.

‘That reminds me,’ says Bernard, glancing down at a scrap of paper. ‘A detective called while you were in the shower, the one who interviewed you in custody .?.?. Joona Linna. He said he wanted to talk to you. Sounded very friendly, and—’

‘OK.’ Hugo sits down at the table.

‘Here’s his number.’

‘Just share the contact with me.’

The others take their usual seats.

‘Hat off, please,’ says Bernard.

Hugo doesn’t seem to register his request, just sips his water and starts eating.

‘Hugo?’

With a sigh, the teenager takes off his beret and drops it to the floor beside his chair. He has a bandage on his forehead, crusted with dried blood.

‘What happened?’ Bernard asks in a raised voice, getting to his feet.

‘Man, chill out,’ Hugo mumbles.

‘Can I see?’

‘Stop it,’ he says wearily, tilting his head away.

‘What happened, Hugo?’

‘Nothing, I just fell out of bed in my cell.’

‘You were sleepwalking, you mean?’

Hugo shrugs, and Bernard takes his seat again.

‘Because you’re going through a serious episode at the moment, aren’t you?’

‘I dunno.’

Bernard runs a hand across the table. ‘I spoke to Lars, and he said that he—’

‘What the hell did you do that for?’ Hugo snaps. ‘You don’t need to talk to him. I can handle this myself, I told you.’

‘I just asked if he could help if this went to trial.’

‘Ugh, please.’

‘He knows what he’s talking about, Hugo. He’s been a great help to you, and—’

‘Yeah, such impressive results,’ Hugo cuts him off, gesturing to his own head. ‘I’m just as fucked up as I was when I first went to see him.’

‘You know, I remember what things were like when you were little,’ Agneta says, speaking up for the first time. ‘We had to take turns sitting by your bed, night after night .?.?.’

‘Thanks a bunch.’

‘And it wasn’t until you were admitted for the second time that things got a little better,’ she continues.

Hugo sighs and turns his attention to his phone.

‘No sighing, please,’ says Bernard.

‘OK.’

‘And no phones at the dinner table.’

‘God, what is up with you?’ Hugo mutters.

‘We need to talk, about your behaviour and your tone here,’ he says. ‘Towards us – towards Agneta, who I love, and who has only ever been kind and loving towards you.’

‘Whatever.’

‘No, I mean it .?.?. I’m serious, Hugo. You can’t keep living here if you’re going to behave like this.’

‘Fine,’ Hugo says, getting up and grabbing his laptop from the counter.

‘I’m talking to you. I really need—’

Hugo leaves the kitchen.

‘Please don’t walk away while I’m .?.?.’

Bernard hurries after him into the hallway.

Still sitting at the kitchen table, Agneta hears a hanger screech against the rail and the repressed anxiety in Bernard’s voice as he tries to reassure his son.

‘We can work this out, Hugo,’ he says.

She doesn’t catch the boy’s response, because the shoe horn clatters to the tiled floor, and the front door opens and slams back against the wall.

‘You’ll always be welcome here, you know that. I didn’t mean—’

Bernard follows Hugo outside in his stockinged feet, and Agneta hears him shout ‘sorry’ with heart-breaking anguish.

*?*?*

Hugo passes the tall maple, whose red leaves have always reminded him that his mother moved back to Canada.

He strides up the driveway, hears his father shouting behind him, and continues along Pettersbergsv?gen.

When he reaches Bellman’s Well, he turns right and stops.

He lowers the bag containing his laptop and chemistry book to the ground and does up his black leather jacket before setting off again.

In his pocket, his phone starts vibrating, but he ignores it.

Hugo doesn’t know what the problem is, or why he feels so trapped, suffocated. Agneta’s presence always makes him ashamed at having lost touch with his real mother.

He knows that he is unfair towards her, but his life is none of her business. That’s just the way it is. She exists, and he does, too. But he has just been released from prison, and his dad is going to throw him out, and it’s all her fault.

Hugo never asked for a new mother, he never chose her. It was his dad who brought her into their lives, who let her move in and wanted to share a bed with her.

He knows he was an anxious child, but he had no choice; he was afraid of going to sleep, didn’t want to sleepwalk, and she was the only one who was there for him. He couldn’t help but turn to her for comfort, to cling to her even though all he wanted was his own mum.

Once, after Hugo woke up in the patch of nettles behind Dr Grind’s garage, she sponged him down with cold water and applied a menthol-scented ointment to soothe the stinging.

He can still remember the feeling of cold, invisible leopard spots all over his body.

Hugo went out to pick wild strawberries afterwards, threading them onto a long blade of grass and giving them to Agneta to say thank you. He had never seen her look happier than she did then, and an icy chill gripped his heart and he ran away and sat down on a bench in Krausparken.

Before Hugo met Olga, Agneta had almost made him forget his real mum.