Page 39 of The Sleepwalker (Joona Linna #10)

Joona watches as Caroline hurries away on unsteady legs, hunched over slightly.

He waits a moment, then walks through to a parlour with a large Isaac Grünewald painting hanging on the wall, gold leaf joinery, stucco work and an enormous crystal chandelier.

He continues through the heavy double doors into a corner room with windows looking out onto the Fyris River, taking in the oak panelling, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and three different seating areas.

A blonde woman in her thirties returns a volume of Descartes’ letters to the shelf and half-turns towards him. She is leaning on a cane in her left hand, but she moves it over to her right as he approaches, possibly to avoid having to shake his hand.

‘I overheard what you just said to Caroline. Incredibly sad news, but I’m glad for her sake that it’s you leading the investigation,’ she says. ‘I’m actually a little starstruck to meet you.’

She has a scar on her face, stretching from the edge of one eyebrow to her chin.

‘Your work on the porcelain children case was impressive,’ Joona replies, pausing a few metres away from her.

‘Don’t forget to ask Caroline about her sister-in-law. That’s where I would’ve started, anyway.’

‘OK,’ says Joona.

The woman starts making her way towards the hall, the tip of her cane thudding softly against the Persian carpet. Joona holds open the heavy salon doors for her.

‘You know, I just pretend to be helpless for the advantages it brings,’ she jokes.

‘Same here.’

Joona follows her over the creaking parquet floor and out into the hall, where she drapes her coat over her arm, opens the front door and turns to him.

‘Leave some cases for me, Joona,’ she says as she leaves.

He moves back through the parlour to the large living room and hears Caroline wailing through the walls.

Joona sits down in an armchair, takes out his phone and skims through his messages. On the coffee table, there is a book of Mikael Jansson’s photographs from various Formula One races.

After a few minutes, Caroline Bandling comes in and sits down opposite him, crossing her legs and apologising for making him wait. Her eyes are puffy and red, but she is just about holding it together, like the first delicate ice in winter.

‘Julia has gone,’ he says.

She nods, clasps her trembling hands on her right thigh and meets his eye.

‘Are you sure it’s Pontus?’ she asks.

‘I’m afraid so.’

Her face crumples again, and she turns away and presses a hand to her mouth. Swallows hard and looks at him.

‘Sorry, I’ll pull myself together,’ she says, clearing her throat.

‘Take however long you need.’

‘You’ve got a job to do,’ she says, drying her cheeks. ‘It’s just that I’m struggling to take it all in .?.?. You’ll have to forgive me.’

‘Caroline, you’ve just received the worst news possible, and it’s no problem at all if you want to wait a few days .?.?. But I’m going to need to ask you some questions.’

‘It’s OK,’ she says, clasping her nervous hands again. ‘Just start, and we’ll see .?.?. How it goes, I mean.’

‘Thank you,’ Joona replies. He starts the voice recorder function on his phone and sets it down on the table in front of her.

‘You’ve got a hole in your jacket,’ she says.

‘I do.’

‘I can mend it, if you like.’

‘Thanks, but I’ll do it this evening.’

‘I’d like to, it’ll help calm my hands.’

Caroline gets up and leaves the room, returning a few minutes later with a sewing basket. Joona takes off his jacket and hands it to her.

‘It’s very kind, but you really don’t have to.’

She reaches for her reading glasses and then takes out a few different threads, holding them against the material before eventually settling on the right colour.

‘Don’t tell me you were shot,’ she mumbles.

‘Stabbed, actually.’

She looks up and gives him a soft smile, as though he were an unruly child. Joona sits down opposite her – still wearing his shoulder holster on top of his grey shirt – and watches as she deftly sews up the hole from the inside so that it is no longer visible.

‘I was happy with Pontus,’ she says as she ties and cuts the thread. ‘We used to say that we were always young together, if you see what I mean .?.?. And we planned to keep it that way, until we were really old.’

She switches to a finer needle and thread and mends the glossy lining before turning the jacket the right way out and handing it back to him.

‘That was so kind of you, thanks,’ he says as he pulls it on.

‘No problem.’

‘The two of you have a daughter together, and Pontus has a sister .?.?. Do they know he was missing?’

‘Only my sister-in-law .?.?. She told me she thought he was having an affair,’ Caroline says with a sudden smile.

‘And you’re sure he wasn’t?’

‘Yes, I .?.?. I think I can be pretty confident about that.’

‘But she thought he was?’

‘OK,’ she sighs. ‘What I’m about to say is extremely personal .

.?. but when Pontus first vanished, I called her and she told me that she’d been keeping a secret for a while, that she felt so guilty about it and hadn’t known what to do .

.?. At some point over the summer, she’d seen a rather saucy text Pontus had written, arranging to meet a woman called Kimberly at a hotel in G?vle. ’

‘What did you say to that?’

‘God,’ she mumbles, picking a loose thread from her trousers. ‘I had to explain that I’m Kimberly, that it’s a game of ours, a sort of roleplay .?.?.’

‘We found drugs in his hotel room.’

‘Do I need a lawyer?’ she asks calmly.

‘I wouldn’t say so. I don’t care about the drugs, in any case. All I need to know is where you got them from, the dealers you’re in contact with and whether you have any debts.’

‘Our finances are stable .?.?. and Pontus always gets whatever he wants from a member of staff at the university.’

‘Did he have any enemies?’

‘Hold on a minute, I just need to .?.?. You said you were with the NCU in Stockholm. Why do Uppsala police need help from the NCU?’

‘As the investigation is still ongoing, I’m afraid I can’t say.’

‘Was he murdered? Is that it?’

‘How long did you stay in ?lvkarleby?’

‘Kimberly got there at nine p.m. and left at two the next morning,’ she replies. ‘My driver can confirm that.’

‘Is there anything else I should know?’

‘I don’t even know what happened to him.’

‘Still.’

‘I’m not sure, this is all a bit much. You could leave your card.’

Joona reaches for his phone and shares his contact details with her before getting up from his chair.

‘One piece of advice .?.?. talk to your family before they hear what happened from elsewhere,’ he says.

‘I’m going to go and see our daughter now,’ she says, standing up too.

‘Yes, it would probably be good for you to be together now.’

‘Amanda is going through a bit of a difficult period at the moment,’ she explains. ‘She suffers from schizophrenia and is currently on the psychosis ward at the University Hospital, which is reassuring, but it’s not going to be easy to break the news to her.’