Page 146 of The Sleepwalker
‘Nothing for me, thank you,’ Agneta replies.
‘I’ll take a hot chocolate,’ Hugo says with a smile.
The doctor leaves the room, and they sit down by the coffee table, which is cluttered with scientific journals and annuals.
‘What was that about his jacket?’ Hugo asks.
‘Hmm? Oh, nothing, he just had a few stains on it.’
‘Man, that’s so stereotypical of a genius, isn’t it?’ Hugo laughs. ‘Not noticing they’ve got sauce on their shirt, or chalk on their face .?.?.’
Lars comes back into the room, holding two mugs of hot chocolate with whipped cream. He takes a seat and asks Agneta whether she regrets her choice, but she just laughs.
‘We spend about a third of our lives in a kind of trance we know next to nothing about,’ he says.
‘It’s nuts,’ Hugo mumbles.
‘A quarter of people have trouble sleeping – not like you, of course, but in other ways. They don’t get enough sleep, or they sleep badly. They have nightmares, grind their teeth, snore .?.?. Someone has to start thinking outside of the box.’
Lars takes a sip of his hot chocolate and ends up with a cream moustache.
‘Can Agneta stay for the hypnosis session?’ asks Hugo.
‘As far as I’m concerned.’
‘Thank you,’ she says.
Lars Grind’s eyes narrow as he studies Hugo. ‘But I do have to say I was a little surprised when you said you wanted to do it again. You were so upset last time.’
‘Do you think it’s bad for me, though?’
‘Not really. It’s more a question of how much anxiety you can handle.’
‘I’ll give it one more go.’
‘Erik Maria Bark is incredibly good – a legend within the fieldof psychological trauma. Though he’s also been in real trouble a few times.’
‘Why?’ asks Hugo.
The doctor waves a hand. ‘Forget I said anything .?.?. You do whatever you want to do. For me, personally, it was extremely interesting to be able to get a glimpse of your nightmares from the inside for once.’
Agneta decides that she should look into Bark’s background, possibly even request to interview him for the book.
‘So what do you think I should do?’ asks Hugo.
‘I don’t want you to feel any pressure. We can still cancel the hypnosis session. I’ll call Erik if you want me to.’
‘But what if I can help stop a killer?’
‘That’s the police’s job, not yours .?.?. But if they can’t move forward without you, perhaps you should give them another chance.’
‘Or else I just do it now, like we agreed.’
‘Or else you just do it now.’
51
Agneta and Hugo are in the suite, waiting for the hypnotist to arrive. The lights in the faux windows have been dimmed to give the illusion of dusk outside.
