Page 236 of The Sleepwalker

‘You don’t understand,’ Bernard says with a strange smile. ‘I honestly think you’d be dead if I hadn’t intervened before—’

‘Stop!’ Hugo cuts him off.

‘I can’t stop,’ says Bernard, bringing the axe out where Hugo can see it.

For a brief, shuddering moment, the house is completely silent. Any sense of surreality is gone, and sheer panic has taken over, ferociously pulsing through Hugo’s chest.

‘Dad?’ he whispers, taking a step back.

‘You know I’d never be able to hurt you, don’t you?’ Bernard says, looking down at the axe.

‘We can work this out, Dad. It’s going to be OK.’ Hugo rubs his mouth with a shaking hand.

‘It’s going to be OK.’

‘We’ll talk to the police, just you and me.’

‘Yes .?.?.’

‘You don’t need the axe. You’re done with all that.’

‘But Agneta will never understand.’

‘We’ll talk to her. It’ll be OK. She’ll keep quiet for my sake,’ says Hugo, conscious that he has begun to tremble all over.

‘I don’t even thinkyouwill keep quiet,’ Bernard says coldly.

‘Of course I—’

‘But that .?.?. No, it’s by no means certain, not at all, though it’s a choice you have every right to make. I have no intention of letting Agneta stop me, nor the police, nor—’

‘Dad, listen to what I—’

‘No,youlisten.’

‘OK, I’m listening.’

Hugo’s back is drenched in sweat. He has no idea what to do, hasn’t quite managed to put all of the pieces together yet, but what he does know is that the murder in the bedroom was real and that it was his father who killed the man in the caravan.

‘Bringing a child into this world is a great responsibility, and not one you can just shrug off,’ Bernard says, running his free hand through his hair.

‘I agree,’ Hugo whispers.

‘Did you know that my father abandoned my mother and me for a circus girl? Can you believe that? A real-life circus girl from Bulgaria,’ he continues with a smile. ‘What can I say? I was left all alone with my mother, and that didn’t go so well .?.?. But I survived. Against all odds, I might add.’

‘Why don’t we go back to the bedroom?’

‘You don’t understand. This has to be done. It’s what’s right,’ says Bernard, looking down at the axe in his hand again. ‘Perhaps I’ve gone too far, but I was doing it for the children. I almost felt like a superhero at first.’

‘Let’s—’

‘No, hold on, damn it. Let me explain .?.?. It’s all connected. You were so small, sleepwalking,’ says Bernard, knocking impatiently on the bathroom door. ‘All your mother had to do was take care of you, go to your room when she heard the alarm, make sure you got back into bed and didn’t hurt yourself, but she couldn’t even manage that. She was too preoccupied.’

‘I can see why you were angry.’

‘I tried to tell myself that it was a one-off, that she’d learned her lesson. I mean, it was so serious. You really could have died .?.?. But when she did the same thing again two weeks later, it was like it lit a fire in my belly. It was unbearable. All I knew was that I had to put a stop to it, right there and then,’ he says, pointing down at the floor.

‘For my sake.’