Page 127 of The Sleepwalker
‘Hugo, please listen to your dad,’ says Agneta. She feels like she is finally starting to regain control of herself. ‘This has nothing to do with our book. You know he’s upset because he’s worried. This could be dangerous. You’ve just been outed as the sole witness to a murder.’
The teenager stares at her with a blank look on his face.
‘But I don’t remember anything.’
‘Weknow that, but no one else does,’ says Bernard. ‘To anyone reading your interview, it sounds like you’re a real eye witness. Don’t you see that?’
‘But I said .?.?. I just said I was there, that I’m trying to work through my memories .?.?. The journalist twisted everything.’
‘Because they don’t care. They don’t care that you’re a target now.’
‘Stop it .?.?.’ Hugo says, a flicker of fear passing over his young face.
‘I don’t want to frighten you, but this killer, she’s not just going to give up. She doesn’t want to stop, and she won’t allow anyone to stop her,’ says Bernard. ‘And if she believes what she reads in the paper then there’s a real risk she might try to find you and stop you from talking.’
‘You should be given witness protection,’ says Agneta.
‘Probably .?.?.’ Hugo nods, holding her gaze for a moment.
‘OK, good. I’ll speak to the detective, but I think the bar for that sort of thing is usually quite high,’ says Bernard. ‘Otherwise, I think the lab is probably the best place for you right now. Certainly better than here. I mean, the staff are there around-the-clock, and they have high security. Alarms, cameras.’
Hugo picks up his phone to check whether he has any new messages, and Agneta finds herself wondering whether he might have had a fight with Olga. She noticed a darkness to his expression when her name came up earlier.
‘Is that plan OK with you?’ she asks. ‘Going back to the lab unless we can get you police protection?’
‘Guess so.’
‘But?’
‘The hypnosis .?.?. I don’t know, it was really horrible.’
‘Wasn’t Lars there?’ asks Bernard.
‘Yeah, but what was he meant to do?’
‘He’s meant to look out for your best interests,’ says Bernard. ‘That’s his job.’
‘I want to help the police, though.’
‘And that’s great.’
‘But I can’t hack being hypnotised again. I’m not going back if I have to.’
‘I can bring it up with Lars, if you like.’
‘Yeah.’
‘You started to remember things you saw that night, though, didn’t you?’ asks Agneta.
‘I dunno, it was crazy. They seem to think I saw the killer, and maybe even the murder, too.’
‘Hugo, it would be an incredible help if you could write everything down,’ says Bernard. ‘Anything to do with the hypnosis. How it felt, what the hypnotist said, what you said, et cetera, et cetera.’
‘I’ll try.’
‘Have they told you they want to try again?’ Agneta asks.
‘No. I don’t know. But I’ve been thinking about it and don’t think I can take it.’
