Or she simply didn’t care, thought Bloom, but decided to keep that hypothesis to herself. She wanted to be sure before she said anything. She needed to sound out Jameson first and look at this from all angles, because if she was right, this game was much worse than anything they’d anticipated.

‘The game started with a dare,’ she said. She needed to give Mathers something. ‘The card said Dare to Play, so it may be a sequence of dares, culminating in murder. If the dares increase in severity each time, it’s possible the player could become desensitized to the reality of what they’re doing.’

‘You can’t incite people to murder just by giving them a set of dares. People have more sense than that, surely?’

‘Depends on the person.’

‘So if the likes of Blue Whale attract kids who are already suicidal, this game could attract people who want to kill someone?’ The DI stood straighter as her theory picked up pace. ‘Maybe you don’t have the know-how or the guts to bump off your husband, so you sign up for this game.’

‘There were problems in the Graham marriage, as I’m sure you’ll uncover in your investigation,’ said Bloom.

‘But would you do it in front of your kids?’ Mathers leaned back against the work surface. ‘That’s the bit I don’t get.’

‘If you needed the game to give you the motivation to kill, that would imply you had some reservations, which doesn’t fit with then doing it so brazenly in front of your children.’

‘Exactly. So she must have been crazy or off her face, as I said.’

Bloom took a sip of her hot water. ‘Or she intended to kill the children too.’ She knew this must have occurred to Mathers as well. She was an experienced detective and interviewer and there had been no mistaking Fred’s fear. ‘You’re probably aware of this, but there are five key motives for any crime. Necessity: she had to do it to survive. Need: spoils like money or drugs, perhaps. Habit. Emotion – but I don’t think this was a crime of passion. And personality, which can be anything from insanity to getting a kick out of it.’

‘Is she a crazy nutter?’ finished Mathers. ‘What about drugs, though? What if someone gave her something that caused her to hallucinate?’

‘I’d still expect a trigger motive. Let’s say she did take something. Why go home? She’d been missing for nearly three months.’

DI Mathers nodded.

‘Look. These are all hypotheses. I’d keep looking at it from all angles. All I’m saying is that human beings are motivated animals. We tend to have a reason for our actions, and if you can establish the most likely motivation for Faye Graham there might be a chance we can stop this game in its tracks.’

‘If it is to do with the game.’