Page 139 of The Sleepwalker

‘He was just worried .?.?.’

‘Worried,’ she repeats, taking another drag. ‘Do you want to come over?’

‘I can’t, I’m heading back to the lab in the morning. Thinking about helping the police again.’

‘Why?’ She laughs.

‘Because that’s, like, the basic requirement of moral courage: trying to help if you can,’ Hugo replies, feeling his eyelids grow heavy.

They have just ended the call when Hugo hears quick footsteps on the stairs from the floor above, followed by a hesitant knock on his door. He sighs and closes the drawer in thenightstand, then gets up, steadies himself against the wall with one hand and unlocks the door.

‘Come with me,’ Bernard whispers.

‘What’s going on?’

His father is wearing his navy-blue dressing gown, and his hair is standing on end, his eyes anxious.

‘There’s someone outside, in the garden,’ Bernard explains.

‘What? Who?’

‘Just come with me.’

As Hugo follows his father down the dark hallway, he thinks about how similar the situation is to his nightmares.

The floorboards creak underfoot, and the crystals on the baroque wall sconce clink softly as they pass.

They make their way into the large library, where there is a staircase up to the next floor. The door to the kitchen is wide open, and the window out onto the drive shimmers darkly. It feels like a beady eye, following them up the stairs.

On the first floor, the lights are out and the curtains drawn. The only source of illumination is coming from the main bedroom, where Agneta is standing beside the bed with a tablet in her hand. In the pale glow from the screen, her hair looks grey. She has her glasses on, and is wearing a pink cardigan over her nightie. Her cheeks are glossy with night cream.

‘Is he still there?’ Bernard asks quietly.

‘Yes.’

‘Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?’ says Hugo.

‘Keep your voice down,’ Bernard tells him, taking the tablet from Agneta and putting it down on the bed. ‘We don’t know what’s happening, but there’s someone sneaking around in the garden.’

They huddle together so that they can study the feed from the six security cameras outside.

‘I can’t see him,’ says Bernard.

Agneta reaches out and touches one of the six frames, making it fill the screen.

The cameras have switched to night-vision mode.

A figure dressed in black passes through a dark spot and moves around the east wing of the house before disappearing from view.

‘Jeez .?.?.’ Hugo whispers.

The bushes in the garden look like black cracks against the light dusting of snow, but towards the top edge of the screen, the soft glow from the Christmas lights on the driveway is visible.

Agneta switches back to the main feed.

The intruder is now on the third camera, crossing the grass by the sunroom where there was once a small play area.

They pause in a dark corner.