Page 205 of The Sleepwalker

Hugo twists a little fennel onto his fork and spears a wedge of potato.

‘You’re really not going to report it?’ Svanhildur presses him.

‘I mean, it’s not illegal. The money was both of ours.’

‘But she took it.’

‘Yeah.’

Svanhildur chews on her bottom lip and absent-mindedly cracks her fingers before looking up again.

‘So what’re you going to do? You need to go to Canada and find your mum.’

‘I’ll think of something. I can always get a job at—’

He stops talking as the lights go out. Neither he nor Svanhildur has time to react before the power comes back on, the bulbs blinking and the ventilation humming again.

Kasper is now just two metres away from their table, brandishing his bone again.

‘OK, bye,’ Hugo mutters to him, a clear note of irritation in his voice.

‘What’s going on, Kasper?’ Svanhildur asks.

He turns to her, jabs the bone in her direction and bares his teeth.

‘Come on, man. Chill out,’ says Hugo.

Kasper takes a step closer, and the lights flicker again, but this time they stay on.

Hugo leans into Svanhildur and continues talking in a low voice.

‘I don’t know. I’ve started to think maybe I should talk to Dad about the whole Canada plan, that he might want to come along.’

‘That sounds like a great idea.’

Kasper moves forward again. He smiles and holds out the bone, stretching as far as his arm will allow, but he pops it back in his mouth when Hugo gets up.

‘Look, what do you want?’ he snaps.

Hugo doesn’t get any reply, and he sits back down, puts his cutlery onto his plate and turns away from Kasper. He has just started telling Svanhildur about his mother’s family in Québec when he feels something wet on the back of his neck, and he swears and leaps up. Turning around, he sees Kasper standingwith the moist bone in his hand.

‘Leave me the fuck alone,’ Hugo mutters, keeping his voice low.

Kasper backs away, sucking on the bone. He pulls it out of his mouth and points at Hugo, then goes back over to his own table and starts drawing in saliva again.

Svanhildur is trying not to laugh, and her face has turned red. She turns her coffee cup in her hands before looking up.

‘Maybe we could hang out over Christmas?’ says Hugo.

‘I’d love that.’

‘Cool.’

‘We could open a bank account together,’ she says.

71

Just seventy minutes have passed since the Opel Kadett was spotted behind the silo in Grillby, but a command post has already been set up outside the petrol station at the intersection of Länsvägen and Storgatan, with two black vans, three cars and a command vehicle parked by the flagpoles.