Page 203 of The Sleepwalker

Joona has just started recapping the hypnosis session in his mind, thinking about Hugo’s description of the sturdy canvas bag, the crowbar and the bloody tooth in a plastic pouch, when he remembers exactly what it was that jumped out at him.

Attached to the zip, Hugo had seen a keyring featuring a train and a large G.

A G and a train.

One of the small hamlets close to the road camera that captured the Opel was the former station community of Grillby.

Joona takes the first exit, pulls over to the side of the roadby a Burger King and runs a quick search online. He finds the logo for Lokomotiv Grillby, the local floorball team, almost immediately.

A train inside a large letter G.

He contacts the national command centre over the comms unit.

Due to a fallen tree, there are long tailbacks just before Rotebro, so he turns around and heads north again, towards Märsta.

Enköping Police send four officers in unmarked cars to scope out the area, and one of them reports back to say that they have spotted an Opel matching the APB parked outside the large silo before Joona reaches Grillby. He asks the local officers to hold back and put up roadblocks around the whole of the community, then requests backup from a specialist operative unit.

70

Hugo has packed his bag and is standing in the corridor outside Lars Grind’s office. He presses the buzzer and waits, but the littleWILLKOMMENsign remains dark. He knocks and tries the handle instead, but the door is locked.

With a sigh, he takes out his phone and rings the doctor’s private number, but his call goes straight through to voicemail.

Hugo presses the buzzer again, holding it down for longer this time, only taking a step back when he sees Rakia approaching down the corridor.

He thinks back to the video he recorded, the moment when she briefly came into view before injecting him, oddly illuminated and with wide eyes and a grubby plaster on her finger.

‘Can I help you?’ she asks coldly.

‘Do you know where Lars is?’

‘At a meeting with the research centre at the hospital.’

‘Ugh, what the hell .?.?.’

‘Why do you need to see him?’

‘I was going to head home, but I need more zopiclone to tide me over Christmas.’

‘I don’t have the authority to give you any.’

‘Can’t you ring him?’

‘He never answers his phone during meetings.’

‘So when will he be back?’

‘Two at the latest, he said,’ Rakia replies as she walks away.

Hugo walks back down the corridor and pops his head into the day room. There are only two people still inside.

Svanhildur is sitting alone at one of the tables, Kasper at another.

Hugo checks the chalkboard and sees that today’s lunch is roast chicken, fried potatoes and pickled fennel.

Svanhildur has only a mug of coffee in front of her.

He walks over, says hello and puts his rucksack down on the floor.