Bloom turned back to her work. She was not having this conversation. ‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ she said. ‘I had a call from the Health and Care Professions Council yesterday. They’ve received a complaint about my competence to practise and have put me under investigation. I had the formal letter this morning.’

‘Blimey,’ said Jameson. ‘I thought you were about to tell me you were a lesbian.’

Bloom looked at him. She was definitely irritated now. ‘And would that be such a problem?’

Jameson held his hands up and flashed her his don’t-take-offence smile. ‘Not at all. Some of my favourite women are lesbians.’

‘You’re better than that, Marcus.’

‘Sorry, Mum.’ He smirked and took a sip of his coffee. ‘Are you worried? Is there anything to this complaint?’

Bloom passed him the letter. ‘Dave Jones thinks I had an inappropriate relationship with his daughter. He’s claiming that I met her informally outside the consultation rooms and even at my home.’

‘Wow.’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Well, no. Of course you didn’t. You’re … Bloom.’

‘No need to be glib.’

‘I’m not! I’m just saying you’re the most straight-laced, moral person I know. Even our local vicar has more questionable ethics than you.’

Bloom raised her eyebrows.

‘I was a choirboy. Didn’t know that, did you? Dad was really into the Big Man.’

Bloom couldn’t help but smile. He was the best cure for a terrible day. ‘They won’t find any evidence because there isn’t any, but it’s going to tie me up in an investigation.’

He handed the letter back. ‘We’ll sort it. And here’s a question that’s been bugging me. This website is a fortress, right? And our psychopath players all disappear eventually. So why bother with these cards? Why not email people? Or text them? Or even better, WhatsApp? That bloody thing has end-to-end encryption so we’ll never find out what was going on.’

‘I’ve wondered that myself. They must want us to know what they’re doing. Without the cards we wouldn’t know that the disappearances were linked or how many players there were. The recipients are told to remove something from inside – whatever the sticky patch holds in place, I’d guess directions to the website and their unique user reference – so why not tell them to destroy the card too? At the last count we have one hundred and nine people who simply left it behind to be found.’

‘So it’s a calling card, after all.’

‘It’s a Look at me, aren’t I clever? card. That’s what it is.’

‘They’re showing off. They might mess up at some point.’

‘We’re dealing with a very high-functioning psychopath here, so probably not. Most people make mistakes when they become emotional and forget to follow their own rules—’

‘But psychopaths don’t get emotional.’