Jameson turned back to his laptop. ‘Like I said, you love them. Whereas I’m freaking out that the conscienceless are out there murdering their loved ones.’

‘We don’t know that. I find it hard to believe that Faye was the first to start playing and the first to finish. There must be others.’

‘Maybe. But murders happen all the time. The police might have missed the link. We should get protection for Jane and the other families. If we can’t convince the police to foot the bill, I’ve got a few old mates who work privately now.’

‘I think you do our crime-fighters a disservice. If there’d been other linked deaths, I’m sure we’d know.’

‘Can we take that chance? We should assume that the other players will do a Faye.’

‘OK. Talk to the police, then.’

‘And what made you suspect Faye was a psychopath? It wasn’t the kid waving the tiger?’

‘It was, actually. I’d noted some common traits from our interviews, but nothing too alarming. But when Fred described Julia’s lack of fear, things clicked. I asked myself why Julia’s fearlessness stopped Faye. Faye would have seen that Freddie was afraid. She might have recognized such fear, but I don’t think she’d be able to relate to it. But when Julia strode forward and growled – that she could relate to.’

‘She saw herself in Julia?’

‘I think most six-year-olds would instinctively know that something was wrong. Julia might not have witnessed her father’s murder, but her mother would have been covered in blood and carrying a knife.’

‘But she wasn’t scared.’

‘Exactly.’

Jameson looked horrified. ‘Can a child even be a psychopath?’

Bloom exhaled slowly. ‘Some would say so. Personally, I think we’re born with certain tendencies that are either exaggerated or negated by our experiences. But there may be a few characteristics that are fixed from birth.’ She thought about Seraphine. The girl had described her parents on numerous occasions as fabulous, but the description always felt too overstated to ring true, and she could never back it up with any examples of how they were fabulous. The true nature of Seraphine’s home life remained a mystery.

‘So potentially psychopathic traits can be inhibited in the right circumstances?’

‘I didn’t say that. There’s evidence that the brain of an adult psychopath functions very differently to that of other adults, but it’s impossible to say whether those differences are innate. Some share your fear – they argue that psychopaths are the natural predators of our species – but they’re also our wildest adventurers, our risk-takers, those willing to sail across an ocean with no knowledge of what’s on the other side.’

‘So you’re saying they contribute? That they’re essential?’