Now a thin layer of dust lay on the room’s surfaces. She couldn’t imagine that the cleaner would be back any time soon. And, so far, there were no signs that the ex-wife had turned up to claim her children’s inheritance. She probably had little appetite for returning to the former family home in these circumstances.

Marijke turned to the filing cabinet. She might as well try the obvious and look under de Groot first. She snapped on a pair of latex gloves and pulled open the relevant drawer, ticking through the files with her long fingers.

And miraculously, there it was. Exactly as Karpf had predicted it would be. A standard suspension file, distinguishable from the others only because it was a paler shade of manila. There was no identifying tab on the top of the file, but an ordinary white adhesive label on the front was printed with ‘Pieter de Groot. Case notes’.

Marijke gingerly lifted the file out of the drawer. She took it over to the window, the better to read the contents. First, she studied the outside of the file, noticing with a small surge of excitement that there was a faint smear of something dark that gleamed like oil along the bottom corner on the back. She sniffed, but caught nothing from it. Then she opened it. There was a single sheet of paper inside.

Case Notes

Name: Pieter de Groot

Session Number: 1

Comments: The patient’s lack of affect is notable. He is unwilling to engage and shows a disturbing level of passivity. Nevertheless, he has a high opinion of his own capabilities. The only subject on which he seems willing to discourse is his own intellectual superiority. His self-image is grandiose in the extreme.

His demeanour is not justified by his achievement, which seems best described as mediocre. However, his view of his capacities has been bolstered by a nexus of colleagues who, for unspecified reasons, have demonstrated a lack of willingness to question his own valuation of himself.

Marijke read on with a growing sense of disbelief. It was a bizarre and distorted view of de Groot’s personality, if any credence was to be given to the evidence of his friends and colleagues. But the language was clearly an approximation of that used by therapists, justifying Tony’s conclusion that the killer had read and assimilated at least the basics of psychobabble.

She couldn’t wait to let forensics loose on this. From the look of it, it had originated from a computer printer, but beyond that anonymity, there might be traces that could provide a positive lead. The smear on the jacket, for example. For the first time in days, Marijke felt she had a concrete piece of evidence in her hands.