Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist

He is lying on his back, his mouth tightly closed; his stomach is moving rapidly up and down, and his fingers twitch from time to time.

“I was right when I said the perpetrator started at the soccer field,” says Joona. “He murdered Anders Ek first. Then he went to the house and killed Lisa, the little girl, thought he killed the boy, and killed Katja, the mother.”

“Has the pathologist confirmed that?”

“Yes,” replies Joona.

“I see.”

“So if the killer’s intention is to eliminate the entire family,” Joona goes on, “only the older daughter remains. Evelyn.”

“Unless he’s found out the boy is still alive,” says Erik.

“Exactly, but we can protect him.”

“Yes.”

“We have to find the killer before he can get to Evelyn,” says Joona. He looks Erik directly in the eye. “I need to find out what the boy knows.”

“And I need to do what’s in the best interests of the patient.”

“Perhaps it’s in his best interests not to lose his sister.”

“That occurred to me as well; I’ll have another look at him, of course,” says Erik. “But I’m fairly sure it’s too early. That said, I believe the patient will regain consciousness quite soon, within just a few hours, at least to the extent that we’ll be able to start talking to him. But after that point, you have to understand that we have a lengthy therapeutic process ahead of us. An interrogation could damage the boy’s condition.”

Daniella walks over briskly, wearing a snug red coat. She hands the patient’s file to Erik.

“Erik, it doesn’t matter what we think. The prosecutor has already decided that special circumstances apply.”

Erik turns and looks inquiringly at Joona. “So you don’t need our consent?” he asks.

“No,” answers Joona.

“So what are you waiting for?”

“I think Josef has already suffered more than anyone should have to suffer,” says Joona. “I don’t want to put him through anything that might harm him. But at the same time I have to find his sister before the killer does. And that boy saw the attacker’s face. If you won’t help me find out what he knows, I’ll do it myself, but obviously I prefer the better way.”

“Which is?”

“Hypnosis,” replies Joona.

Erik looks at him. “I don’t even have permission to hypnotize- ”

“I’ve spoken to Annika Lorentzon,” says Daniella.

“What did she say?” asks Erik.

“It’s hardly a popular decision, permitting an unstable patient to be hypnotized, a child in the bargain. But since I am responsible for the patient, she has left the final judgment to me,” Daniella tells him.

Erik exhales, then rubs his eyes with his fingers. “I really want to get out of this.”

“If you don’t mind my saying so, your reluctance to use hypnosis seems to go beyond your prudent concern for the patient’s well-being,” says Joona.

“I have no intention of discussing the matter, but I promised ten years ago never to use hypnosis again. It was a decision on my part that I still think was the right one.”

“Is it right in this case?” asks Joona.

“To be honest, I don’t know.”

“Make an exception,” implores Daniella.

“Hypnosis, then.” Erik sighs.

“I’d like you to make an attempt as soon as you feel the patient is in any way receptive to hypnosis,” says Daniella.

“It would be good if you were here,” says Erik.

“I’ve made the decision with regard to hypnosis,” she explains, “on condition that you then take over responsibility for the patient.”

“So I’m on my own now?”

Daniella looks at him, exhausted. “I’ve worked all night,” she says. “I’d promised to take my daughter to school, I blew that off, and I’m going to have to deal with that tonight. But right now I have to go home and sleep.”

Erik watches Daniella Richards walk down the corridor, red coat flap-ping behind her. Joona looks in at the patient. Erik goes to the washroom, locks the door, washes and dries his face. He takes out his phone and calls Simone, but there is no reply. He tries his home number and listens to the phone ringing, but when the answering machine kicks in, he no longer knows what to say: “Sixan, I… you have to listen to me, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but nothing’s happened, maybe you don’t care, but I promise I’m going to find a way to prove to you that I’m- ”

Erik stops speaking. What’s the point? He knows his assurances no longer have any meaning. He lied to her ten years ago, and he still hasn’t managed to prove his love, not sufficiently, not enough for her to begin to trust him again. He ends the call, leaves the washroom, and walks over to where the detective is gazing into the patient’s room.

“What is hypnosis, actually?” Joona asks, after a while.

“It’s just an altered state of consciousness, coupled with suggestion and meditation,” Erik replies. “From a purely neurophysiological point of view, the brain functions in a particular way under hypnosis. Parts of the brain that we rarely use are suddenly activated. People under hypnosis are very deeply relaxed. It almost looks as if they’re asleep, but if you do an EEG the brain activity shows a person who is awake and alert.”

“I see,” Joona says hesitantly.

“When people think of hypnosis, they usually mean heterohypnosis, where one person hypnotizes another with some purpose in mind.”

“Such as?”

“Such as evoking negative hallucinations, for example.”

“What’s that?”

“The most common is that you inhibit the conscious registration of pain.”

“But the pain is still there.”

“That depends on how you define it,” Erik replies. “Of course the patient responds to pain with physiological reactions, but he experiences no feeling; it’s even possible to carry out surgery under clinical hypnosis.”

Joona writes something down in his notebook. “The boy opens his eyes from time to time,” he says, looking through the window again.

“I’ve noticed.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

“To the patient?”

“Yes, when you hypnotize him.”

“During dynamic hypnosis, in a therapeutic context, the patient almost always splits himself into an observing self and one or more experiencing and acting selves.”

“He’s watching himself, like in a theatre?”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to say to him?”

“Well, he’s experienced terrible things, so first of all I have to make him feel secure. I begin by explaining what I’m going to do, and then I move on to relaxation. I talk in a very calm voice about his eyelids feeling heavier, about wanting to close his eyes, about breathing deeply through his nose. I go through the body from head to toe; then I work my way back up again.”

Erik waits while Joona takes notes.

“After that comes what’s called the induction,” says Erik. “I insert a kind of hidden command into what I say and get the patient to imagine places and simple events. I suggest a walk in his thoughts, farther and farther away, until his need to control the situation almost disappears. It’s a little bit like when you’re reading a book and it gets so exciting that you’re no longer aware of the fact that you’re sitting reading.”

“I understand.”

“If you lift the patient’s hand like this and then let go, the hand should stay where it is, in the air, cataleptic, when the induction is over,” Erik explains. “After the induction I count backwards and deepen the hypnosis further. I usually count, but others have the patient visualize a grey scale, in order to dissolve the boundaries in his mind. What is actually taking place on a practical level is that the fear, or the critical way of thinking that is blocking certain memories, is put out of action.”