‘I wasn’t very old then. I didn’t properly think about what happened to you. What you went through.’

‘It’s an experience I would never wish upon another human being.’

‘What? The fame and the fortune from a bestselling book? They made a TV documentary too, didn’t they?’

Grant chuckled. ‘Very good, Detective. I’m sure you can imagine my fame was rather short-lived, nothing more than a flash in the pan really, if you pardon the cliché. In many ways I’m thankful for that. I’m guessing you haven’t come here today just to talk about my past, though?’

‘Actually, in a way I have.’

Grant frowned, confused.

‘Ok. So what exactly do you want to speak to me about?’

‘Something I believe you’re particularly knowledgeable about,’ Stephens said.

‘Which would be?’

‘Serial killers.’

Chapter Forty-Three

‘Detective, are you here on official police business?’ Grant asked.

Dani did her best to remain steady. She’d expected this question. She hadn’t shown Grant her police ID – she didn’t have it anymore. She’d spoken to Grant’s wife already the previous week, so she knew Dani really was a detective, but Grant himself had never seen or spoken to her before. Up until that question he’d taken it on trust that Dani was who she said she was, and was acting in an official capacity.

She could lie now, and tell him it was official business, but based on the fact that he’d already shown her to his office and given her a seat, and the problematic situation he was in with his son, she got the sense from Grant that he’d respond better if she told him the truth. Plus she figured that given the shared near-death experiences in their pasts, he may be happy to indulge her.

‘No,’ Dani said. ‘This is personal business. Very personal, actually. You’ve probably heard of my brother. Ben Stephens.’

Grant’s eyes narrowed as his gaze moved from Dani’s face and up to the scar above her ear, then back again. ‘Wait, you’re—’

Dani held her hand up to interrupt Grant’s all too familiar eureka moment. She was sure Grant was used to that himself.

‘Yes. That’s me,’ she said, in a flat voice. ‘My twin brother is a murderer. He killed his first wife, hid it for years, then when his life began to unravel went on a killing spree taking five other lives before he tried to kill me by smashing my head against a doorframe and cracking my skull open with an ornament a family member bought him as a wedding present.’

Grant didn’t react at all to her words.