‘We’ll find her,’ Bloom said. ‘Have you considered where Lana might have taken Jane, if that’s what’s happened?’

Claire stopped in her tracks. ‘Is that what you think’s happened? Marcus was asking me all these weird questions about Lana the other day, whether I thought she could be sinister, but he wouldn’t tell me why.’

‘I see,’ said Bloom.

‘I think I should know the whole story, don’t you?’

‘Let’s sit down,’ said Bloom, handing Claire a mug of tea. ‘I promise I’ll tell you everything. But let’s wait for Marcus to get back.’

They sat in silence, cradling their steaming mugs and both stealing quick glances at the clock. An hour later, the front door opened and Jameson and Dan walked in.

Claire jumped up. ‘Have you found her?’

Dan shook his head, his curly blond hair falling over his eyes. ‘Sorry, love. We came back to see if there’s any more news.’

Claire sat back down. ‘No. But Augusta promised you’d tell me what’s really going on.’

Jameson gave a small nod. They both knew that it was pointless to hide the truth now.

‘Claire,’ said Bloom, ‘we think the people selected to play this game may have psychopathic personality traits.’

Dan sat on the arm of his wife’s chair. Neither spoke, and so Bloom continued. ‘There are many people who possess these traits and most of them function very normally. They may sometimes surprise us with their actions or their views, but lots of non-psychopathic people do that too. The main thing that differentiates psychopaths from others is that they lack a conscience or any real empathy. They experience emotions more dimly than the rest of us. This makes them more rational on the one hand, but also unconcerned about the impact they have on others.’

‘Why is someone selecting them? Who would hunt psychopaths?’ asked Claire.

‘We can’t be sure. We don’t yet know the content of this game. But my guess is these people are being groomed for something specific, something related to their unique talents.’

‘We know of one player who’s emerged from this game—’ said Jameson.

‘Are you sure you need to cover this?’ interrupted Bloom. Jameson glared at her. ‘Sorry, carry on,’ she said.

‘Faye Graham who disappeared in January turned up at her family home last week.’

‘Well, that’s great news, isn’t it?’ said Claire.

‘I recognize that name,’ said Dan at the same time.

‘She stabbed her husband to death,’ said Jameson.

‘Jesus, Marcus.’ Claire stood. For a moment Bloom thought Claire might throw her tea at her brother. ‘Shit,’ she said in a faraway voice as she sat down again.

Dan took his wife’s hand. ‘What are the police doing about this?’