Page 181 of The Sleepwalker
‘Yes.’
‘With an axe?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘We need to call Joona.’
‘I will. I just need to gather my thoughts a bit first.’
‘Sit down. I’ll get the food ready.’
Bernard rests a hand on the counter and looks out at the heavy snow falling in the darkness.
‘Have you checked that all of the doors are locked?’
‘Of course,’ she says.
‘Good,’ he whispers.
Agneta studies the dark bruise on his temple. The blood seems to have seeped beneath his skin, pooling at the bottom of his cheek.
‘Do you want us to do it again?’ she asks when he fails to sit down.
‘I think so.’
They work their way through the rooms on the ground floor, double-checking that all of the windows are closed and the sensors intact. They open cupboards and wardrobes, and Bernard goes down to the basement to fetch a drill.
‘I’m going to fix Hugo’s window. We can get a handyman out some other time,’ he says.
Agneta follows him into the hallway and turns on the crystal wall sconce.
Bernard opens the door to Hugo’s room, walks straight over to the damaged window and starts screwing it shut with a handful of sturdy wood screws.
Agneta continues into the living room and glances over tothe windows out onto the lake. She can hear the whirr of the drill on the other side of the display cabinet. The disused door behind it dates from a time when parlours and through-rooms were in vogue, but it has been blocked off behind the tall piece of furniture for as long as she can remember.
She peers beneath the sofas around the coffee table, tries the patio doors, checks behind the curtains and then heads back out into the hall.
She is thinking about the last letter from Hugo’s mother, about the methadone programme Claire mentioned and her use of Swedish, French and English.
‘We should get personal alarms,’ Bernard says when he comes out into the library and puts the drill down on the mantelpiece.
‘That might feel reassuring,’ she replies, remembering that she had been so shaken by the break-in and attack that she was convinced she had seen the light come on in the lake house, when it was nothing but the reflection of the lanterns on the neighbour’s jetty in the window.
‘I checked the cameras, by the way, but I couldn’t see her face,’ she says.
‘The police will have to take a look.’
They pop their heads into the utility room and the little room where they keep their weights and exercise bike before heading upstairs.
Agneta can tell that Bernard is in pain, gripping the handrail as they make their way up the steep staircase to his office.
‘Good grief,’ he says when he sees the mess.
‘I told you.’
Bernard steps forward into the room, picking his way between books and sheets of paper. He sighs as he takes in the broken cabinet, the empty cigar box and the cracked glass on a framed diploma.
‘She took everything of value,’ he says after a moment.
