‘And you think I’m one of these psychos, just because I defended myself?’

‘It’s totally irrelevant what I think. What matters is what you think, or what you know about who you are and how you differ from other people. You said I’d tricked you, but I’ve not revealed anything new to you. You already knew that you were different. You work hard to cover it up, and may I say, you do so with an impressive level of self-control for someone so young.’

‘So why am I here if you’re only telling me what I already know?’ Was she giving too much away? ‘If that’s what’s happening.’

‘So that you have one person who’s on your side and willing to help you.’

‘Help me what?’

Bloom looked at her and said, ‘Help you to choose, Seraphine.’

28

Chief Superintendent Steve Barker had scheduled daily conference calls. Bloom dialled in and listened to the music on the other end of the line. She had planned to rush back from her one-to-one to dial in alongside Jameson, but things had taken longer than expected.

She put in her earphones and scanned through her emails as she waited, opening one from the Crown Prosecution Service solicitor. They were charging her client with inflicting grievous bodily harm. There was no evidence to suggest wounding with intent.

Barker introduced himself and Bloom closed down the email.

In a sobering update, DC Logan revealed that the Birthday Card Game had at least 109 players. He had finally tracked down the game’s website deep in the dark web and, so far, it was totally inaccessible. DC Kaye Willis was yet to hear from the various phone companies regarding the data usage, but she had confirmed that Stuart, Grayson and Lana had all downloaded something similar in the first few hours after disappearing. As Barker set out the priorities for the next few days, Bloom received three missed calls from the same London number. Someone was keen to speak to her. She listened to the voicemail message. A Dr Claude Fallon from the Health and Care Professions Council asked her to return his call as a matter of urgency.

The governing body for professional psychologists was a passive regulator. Bloom had never received a call from them before, not since they’d taken over from the British Psychological Society. But she did as requested and returned the call.

‘Dr Claude Fallon.’ The man had a deep voice and an assertive tone. Bloom guessed he was in his fifties, perhaps older.

‘This is Dr Bloom returning your calls.’

‘Ah yes, Dr Bloom, I’m afraid we have something of a problem. We’ve received a rather serious complaint regarding your suitability to practise.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Yes. We’ve forwarded it on to our Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service. The HCPTS.’

‘Without speaking to me first? What’s it about?’