Page 106 of The Sleepwalker

‘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 andhanding 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 Gävle.’

‘What did you say to that?’

‘God,’ she mumbles, picking a loose thread from her trousers. ‘I had to explain thatI’mKimberly, 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 Älvkarleby?’