Page 63 of The Sleepwalker
‘You usually get by just fine without me.’
Joona knows that if he manages to solve this case, it will open up an opportunity to talk about recruitment. Noah will be relieved, hold a press conference, and then they can sit down and talk about the future.
Everyone knows that Saga is the only suitable partner for Joona, and it really would do her good to return to operative duty.
Her beautiful face is so open and troubled. Her eyes have a darkness to them, and there is an air of desperation about her. Her hair, which once came down to her waist and was plaited with colourful ribbon, is now tied back in a severe ponytail.
Saga currently works part-time behind a desk in the Intelligence Unit, but she wants to be a detective with the NCU and has already spoken to an HR manager.
He listened to what she had to say, took notes and then asked whether she was ready for it, whether she thought she would be able to cope.
‘Yes,’ she replied with a smile.
‘I’m afraid I don’t agree.’
She very nearly managed to thank him for his time, get up, tuck her chair back beneath the table and calmly leave the room.But instead, four framed diplomas ended up shattering on the floor, and she was left with eight stitches in her knuckles and a disciplinary pay deduction.
‘I don’t want to get you in trouble,’ Joona tells her. ‘But it’s hardly your fault if you happen to hear someone thinking aloud.’
As she gets up and studies the images, he takes her through everything they know so far.
‘Makes me think of medieval punishments,’ she says once he has finished. ‘You know, like being hung, drawn and quartered, disembowelment and .?.?. what else, breaking on the wheel, mutilation.’
‘Punishment,’ Joona nods.
‘Aggravated capital punishment, I think it was called.’
‘If that’s the case, what’s the crime?’
Joona’s work phone starts ringing, and when he sees that the call is from Agneta Nkomo, he tells Saga he needs to take it.
‘It was nice being involved, even for a bit,’ she says with a smile as she leaves the room.
Joona moves over to the window to answer the call, looking out across the bare trees in the park. He sees a bearded man standing beside one of the rubbish bins with a half-empty bag in his hand, trying to shake frozen Coca-Cola out of a can.
‘I just wanted to let you know that Bernard and I have decided to document this period in our lives, with the intention of possibly writing a book about the murders and Hugo’s part in the investigation,’ Agneta tells him.
‘I suspected as much when I saw you at the press conference.’
‘We feel that Hugo gives us a unique perspective.’
‘Tell him that Hugo agrees, too,’ Bernard speaks up in the background.
‘I don’t know whether you heard that,’ she continues. ‘But Hugo is on board with the idea, and he’s promised to help as much as he can .?.?. We think we might be able to get him toremember more details.’
‘If he does, if he remembers anything else, I’d like you to let me know.’
‘Absolutely. I mean, the book is one thing, but we’re not going to feel safe until this is all over.’
‘I can understand that,’ Joona replies, turning back to look at the photographs on the wall.
‘Hugo told us that the victim in the caravan had a pale band of skin on his ring finger,’ Agneta goes on.
‘That’s a good first step.’
‘But not from when he was sleepwalking,’ she points out.
‘No, but I wanted to ask—’
