‘According to Susan Temple, the foster mother, Stacey showed all the early traits of a psychopathic child: lack of empathy, extreme tantrums, chronic lying, failure to show guilt or remorse. There were numerous incidents over the years. About six months before the car crash that killed her parents, she attacked another child at school with a rounders bat. She smashed him in the face and blinded him in one eye.’

My jaw drops. ‘And they didn’t lock her up?’

‘Oh, they did. But she was a model patient, took her meds, and eventually her parents took her back. Two weeks later, they were dead.’

‘An accident?’

Millie shrugs. ‘No one could prove it wasn’t. Her father had been drinking – he was under the limit, but the police didn’t dig any further. Susan Temple isn’t in any doubt: it was a straight stretch of road, and Stacey’s father swerved into a tree for no apparent reason.’

‘I can’t believe none of this has ever come out,’ I say. ‘Stacey’s in the public eye. How’s she kept this under wraps so long?’

‘She was a juvenile. The records were sealed. And she’s never put a foot wrong since. Whatever she might have got up to in private, she’s managed to stay under the radar. Susan Temple tried to raise the alarm a couple of times after the crash, but no one wanted to know. She says she’s been waiting twenty years for someone to come and ask questions, but no one ever did.’

‘Have you got proof of any of this?’ I demand. ‘Can you use it?’

‘I’m still trying to figure that out,’ Millie says.

‘Well, I hope for both your sake and this woman’s that Stacey doesn’t find out you’ve been to see her,’ I say. ‘I can’t imagine she’s going to be happy.’

‘Where are the kids?’

‘Meddie’s gone out for pizza again with this Noah,’ I say, making his name sound like a dirty word. ‘Peter’s upstairs in his room.’

‘We need to keep better track of them,’ Millie says.

‘You think Stacey might go after them?’ I exclaim.

‘I don’t know, Tom. It’s not a chance I want to take. Frankly, I don’t want Peter anywhere near her. I worry he—’

A noise behind me makes me jump. Millie and I both turn. ‘How long have you been standing there?’ I demand.

Peter’s flat eyes tell me nothing.

chapter 56

millie

‘Where are you going?’ Tom says.

‘You can’t ask me that,’ I tell him.

Tom follows me into the bathroom and watches as I twist my heavy hair into its neat chignon and pin it in place. ‘What time will you be back?’

‘You know the rules, Tom,’ I say.