Heath broke into a smile that lit up his face. ‘I can remember it all as if it were yesterday. My parents were utterly distraught, and particularly my mother, who couldn’t stop weeping. And that was the point. Can you understand that in your very different world? Pamela was always the favourite, mummy’s little angel, the centre of attention. And I hated her for that. I hated both of them. I wanted them to suffer, mother and baby daughter. And they did. I made it happen, me, all by myself. And after I killed my sister, I insisted on attending her funeral. My parents resisted the idea at first, but I prevailed, I was there. And it turned out to be one of the greatest days of my life. I could see the sorrow in my mother’s eyes when they lowered the small white coffin into the ground forever. I tore that woman’s heart to pieces. I ripped it to shreds. Mother was never the same person after that day. She was broken and beyond repair. She blamed herself for leaving the bathroom, leaving me, a mere child, to look after my sister. I planned, I waited for my opportunity, and I took it. Everything worked out exactly as I’d pictured it in my mind’s eye.’ He laughed again, louder this time, virtually manic. ‘Pamela became an angel for real, up there somewhere in eternity, or simply rotting in the ground, and I was number one again. The boy who tried to save his little sister. The boy who did his best to resuscitate her, breaking her little ribs in the process. It was all in the papers, all over the news. I’d been through a horrible ordeal. That’s what the fools said. It’s surprising how much sympathy one gets as a grieving child.’

‘Surely a small part of you must regret your actions? Do you not feel any degree of guilt all these years later? There can be no forgiveness without repentance. Penance follows remorse. You grew up a Catholic. You understand that! Seek forgiveness, or you’ll face eternal damnation in the fires of hell.’

Heath crossed his legs, right over left. ‘Now, let me think. Regrets, do I have any regrets? No, I can’t claim that anything very much has changed a great deal since we last spoke all that time ago. I’m rather proud of what I did. I’d do the exact same thing again in the same circumstances. And why wouldn’t I? Killing the little brat was a logical response to her unwelcome intrusion in my life. Survival of the fittest, red in tooth and claw, isn’t that how creation works? Isn’t that the world your God created?’

The priest felt his chest tighten. ‘You seem to be forgetting peace, justice and love. We are nothing without love.’

‘I killed my sister because I wanted to kill her. I killed her because it served a purpose. Because it amused me to do so. And I got away with it too, that’s what matters. Why did your God let that happen? If it was such an abomination, why didn’t He stop me? Ask yourself that. Has He no interest in your form of justice? Didn’t He love my sister enough to save her from death at my hands? It seems that way to me.’