The Intruder by Hakan Ostlundh Page A

whether they shouldn’t go to bed that she realized what time it was. She had spent over an hour reading about various alarms. Axel was asleep on the floor in front of the TV. Henrik was talking on the phone in the kitchen and had not noticed anything.
    When Malin came down again after putting the kids to bed, Henrik was sitting on the couch looking at the news. They went from screen to screen, it struck her. The TV, the computer, the cell phone, and then the TV again.
    “Do you mind if I turn it off?” she said, reaching for the remote control.
    “Not at all,” said Henrik with a yawn.
    She turned off the TV and nervously brushed her hair back with both hands.
    “I think we should install an alarm.”
    “Is it because I’m going to Barcelona?” said Henrik.
    “No, that’s not why,” she said. “I’ve really thought through this. We can’t just sit here. We have to do something.”
    “The police are doing something.”
    “I know, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are sitting on a little island seventy miles and one slow car ferry from Visby. It takes an hour to get here.”
    “I see, okay,” he said tiredly. “But how would an alarm help us?”
    “A modern alarm, that doesn’t even cost all that much, can tell us whether anyone has been inside the house while we were away. It can warn us if someone is trying to get in while we’re at home. Besides, it works as a fire alarm and signals water leaks. Well, that’s not the main thing, of course, but I mean if we were going to install one anyway.”
    “That sounds advanced,” said Henrik, and she understood that he was thinking what it would cost.
    “It’s only a couple of thousand,” she said quickly. “Maybe five or six if you want something more advanced.”
    “Boy,” said Henrik, rubbing his chin.
    “I know that we have to keep track of money, but it’s not really that much and it will be paid for by the business anyway.”
    “You’ve got to take in money, too. It’s not enough to just deduct.”
    Henrik’s favorite objection when Malin pointed out that something was deductible. She sat silently looking at him.
    “I guess I’ll have to check on that,” he said at last with a little sigh.
    “A camera can be installed, or several, and they can be connected to the alarm’s motion detector. Then we can know if someone is sneaking around outside the house, even who is driving past on the road.”
    “Really?”
    Malin saw a curious gleam in Henrik’s eyes. She knew that the camera monitoring feature would do the trick.
    “The alarm can even send pictures to your cell phone. Or you can call the alarm and ask it to send pictures.”
    “But you have to be extremely polite.” Henrik grinned.
    Malin grimaced.
    Henrik laughed. “It sounds like Mission Impossible .”
    “I know,” she said. “But it only costs a few thousand.”
    “How many of these just-a-few-thousand-kronor bills are we up to now?”
    “I mean in total. And you can install it yourself.”
    “Hm, sure.”
    She was starting to get tired of arguing, wanted him to just say yes. This was on a completely different level than a new appliance for the home, whatever it was. It was about safety, theirs and the children’s, being able to feel secure. Her eyes were drawn to the two windows where the evening sun was shining in on the red plastic Pastil chair. The children loved to play on it. Malin was just as afraid every time that they would get hurt when they transformed it into a seesaw.
    Henrik had also fallen silent, sitting with a clenched fist against his mouth and pondering what Malin had said. She could easily imagine that he was thinking about how pictures from the house would show up on his cell phone. How he might show customers and associates.
    If he didn’t go along with buying an alarm she would order one anyway and take the money from her own business. Maybe that wasn’t quite fair. Somehow he should also be included and pay because her contribution to