Joona Linna Crime Series Books 1 and 2: The Hypnotist, The Nightmare

“Don’t you think—”

“You don’t get it.”

“All right. Explain it to me, then,” Erik ventures.

“No.”

They eat in silence. Benjamin stares at the wall.

“The pepperoni’s delicious,” says Simone quietly. She wipes a lipstick mark off her glass. “It’s a pity we’ve stopped cooking together,” she says to Erik.

“When would we find the time to do that?”

“Stop arguing!” yells Benjamin.

He drinks his water and gazes out the window at the dark city. Erik eats almost nothing but refills his glass twice.

“Did you have your injection on Tuesday?” Simone asks Benjamin.

“Has Dad ever missed one?” He gets up and puts his plate in the sink. “Thanks.”

“I went and had a look at that leather jacket you’re saving up for,” says Simone. “I was thinking I could pay the rest.”

Suddenly, Benjamin’s whole face breaks into a smile, and he goes over and hugs her. She holds him tight but lets him go the instant she senses him begin to pull away. He goes to his room.

Erik breaks off a piece of crust and pushes it into his mouth. His phone rings again. It moves across the table, vibrating, but he looks at the display and once more shakes his head. “No friend of mine,” he says.

“Are you tired of being a celebrity?” Simone asks gently.

“I’ve only talked to two journalists today,” he says, with a wan smile, “but that was enough for me.”

“What did they want?”

“It was that magazine called Café, or something like that.”

“The one that has tits on the cover?”

“Usually some girl who looks amazed at being photographed in nothing but a pair of panties with a Union Jack on them.”

She smiles at him. “What did they want?”

Erik clears his throat and says dryly, “They asked me if it was possible to hypnotise women to make them horny.”

“Seriously? How professional.”

“Totally.”

“And the second conversation,” she asks. “Was that a journalist from Ritz or Slitz?”

“Radio News,” he replies. “They wondered what my views were on being reported to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.”

“I’m sorry for your sake.”

Erik rubs his eyes and sighs. To Simone it looks as if he’s grown smaller, shrunk by several inches.

“Without the hypnosis,” he says slowly, “Josef Ek might have murdered his sister as soon as he was discharged from the hospital.”

“You still shouldn’t have done it,” says Simone softly.

“No, I know,” he replies, running his finger around his glass. “I wish …”

He falls silent, and Simone is overcome by a sudden desire to touch him, to put her arms around him. But instead she stays where she is and just asks, “What are we going to do?”

“Do?”

“About us. We’ve said things, said we were going to separate. I don’t know where I am with you any more, Erik.”

He rubs his hand over his eyes. “I realise you don’t trust me,” he says, then falls silent.

She meets his eyes, sees the worn face, the straggling hair, and thinks that there was a time when they almost always had fun together.

“I’m not the person you want,” he goes on.

“Stop it,” she says.

“Stop what?”

“You say I’m not happy with you, but you’re the one who’s deceiving me; you’re the one who thinks I’m not enough.”

“Simone, I—”

He touches her hand, but she moves it away. His eyes are dark; she can see that he has taken pills.

“I need to sleep,” says Simone, getting up.

Erik follows her, his face grey and his eyes glazed. On the way to the bathroom, she checks the front door carefully to make sure it’s locked.

“You can sleep in the spare room,” she says.

He nods indifferently, seeming almost anaesthetised. She watches as he enters their bedroom, emerging a moment later with his duvet and pillow.

In the middle of the night, Simone is woken by a sudden jab in her upper arm. She is lying on her stomach; she rolls over onto her side and feels at her arm. The muscle is tense and itchy. The bedroom is in darkness.

“Erik?” she whispers, but remembers he’s sleeping in the spare room.

She turns to face the door and sees a shadow slip out. The parquet floor creaks. She thinks that perhaps Erik has got up for some reason but realises he should be in a deep sleep, thanks to his pills. Suddenly, she’s frightened. She switches on the bedside lamp, turns her arm towards the light, and sees a bead of blood coming from a small pink dot on the skin.

She can hear soft thuds coming from the hallway. Turning off the light, she slips out of bed, her legs weak. She rubs her sore arm as she eases past the threshold. Her mouth is dry, her legs warm but numb. Someone is whispering and laughing in the hallway, a muted, cooing laugh. It doesn’t sound anything like Erik. Then Simone shudders: once again, the front door is wide open. The stairwell is in darkness. Cold air is pouring in. She can hear something from Benjamin’s room, a faint whimpering.