The idea of seducing her made his stomach lurch. He couldn’t imagine ever touching her intimately again. The only way she could worsen his sudden impotency towards her were if she killed someone right in front of him.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said as she fixed her hair. ‘I have a surprise for you later.’

He watched her every movement, so reluctant to miss a single sign of danger that he refused to blink. He could feel the life draining from his face, and saw his complexion pale in the corner of the mirror.

‘What kind of surprise?’

‘You’ll have to wait and see.’

She spoke seductively, but he knew her better than that. She wasn’t seducing him – she was manipulating him. Whatever the surprise was, he wouldn’t like it. Not one bit.

‘You and your games,’ he said.

‘That’s what you first loved about me. I played with you until you couldn’t take it any more.’

I can’t, he thought. I can’t take it any more.

Samantha appeared in the doorway. She was around the age Amber had been when she murdered her family. He couldn’t imagine someone so young and innocent committing something so twisted. He tried to imagine their daughter creating a fire in the very spot where she stood outside their bedroom door, the way Amber had as her parents slept. To be so evil so young meant something had to be defective in his wife’s brain. A thought niggled at the back of his mind.

What if it’s hereditary?

The thought jabbed at his heart.

She could never. Samantha is good to her core.

He looked back to his wife.

But I’m sure Amber’s parents thought the same.

‘Are you feeling better, Mummy?’

‘Much better, sweetheart. Thank you.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Richard asked. ‘You’re sick?’

‘No, no. I was just tired, that’s all.’

‘If you’re sick, you should stay home. Don’t go next door and waste your energy.’

‘It was a false alarm. You know I’m a hypochondriac.’

I know you’re a killer, he thought as he watched her in the mirror. He thought of a passage in the report, and wondered whether she would use the same method she had used to kill her parents if she decided to kill him too.

Toxicology reports of the cadavers indicate both victims had high doses of diazepam in their systems. The female tenant had been prescribed the drug for anxiety three months prior to the fire. The dosage taken would have likely kept the tenants unconscious during the fire. However, the dosage does not suggest an attempt of suicide by either party, as the postmortem examinations revealed that the medication had been consumed with food.

He eyed his daughter in the doorway. He had to protect her. She was in as much danger as he was.