‘We’ll get to that in a minute. Firstly, tell me how you are. It’s been a while. You look tired.’
‘Because I’m dealing with a psychopath.’
‘Well, I’m pretty sure we established that years ago. I’ve never pretended—’
‘Not you, Alex. You’re not the only psychopath in town, and you’re certainly not the most challenging.’
But I’m the one you’ve driven 40 miles at night to see, Alex thought with satisfaction.
‘Tell me about it – get it off your chest. I might be able to help.’
‘Oh, Alex, don’t act out of character. The only person you’ve ever been able to help is yourself.’
‘Try me,’ she said. She hadn’t enjoyed anyone’s company this much since the last time Kim had visited. ‘If you’re so sure you’re dealing with a psychopath, it takes one to know one.’
And he or she has your current attention, Alex thought, reading the distraction in her eyes. She was here but not all of her. Alex swallowed down her irritation. She wanted, expected and demanded all of the woman’s focus to be on her.
‘I really would like to help,’ she said as earnestly as she could manage.
Kim sighed. ‘I’ve got a guy who abducts young girls, keeps ’em for a year and then brings them back, safe and sound.’
‘Sexual?’
Kim shook her head. ‘Don’t think so.’
‘Strange answer but okay. Physical harm, psychological harm?’
‘No, and no.’
‘What does he do, take them to Disneyland?’
‘He watches them.’
‘That’s it?’
‘Yep. Feeds them, clothes them, educates them and watches them.’
‘He’s not a psychopath.’
‘His third victim didn’t come back.’
‘He’s not a psychopath.’
‘How can you say that? You’re the one who explained to me that not all psychopaths are violent. You told me they want what they want. Well, he wants to lock up little girls and feed off their beauty. You don’t think that’s psychopathic?’
‘Not at all and you should be pleased.’
‘Hang on, how can you be so sure he’s not a psycho? I’ve given you about four sentences.’
‘If all he does is watch the girls, he’s not what you think he is. Sociopaths, as I like to call us, don’t sit and watch anything. We have to be involved, we have to be playing a game, competing, doing something. Our brains aren’t wired to sit and appreciate beauty. The emotion is too high. We want to own, possess, battle, win. Watching something mundane is just not interesting.’
‘He voluntarily came to the station to assist with our enquiries but has as yet admitted nothing.’
‘Now that is interesting. He’s clearly playing some kind of control game, which might mean he’s narcissistic or a control freak. You say his third victim never came back?’
Kim shook her head. ‘And we’ve found the body of a young girl at a site with a strong connection to him.’
‘Have there been any since number three?’
‘We’re looking, but if there were, they didn’t come back either.’
‘Hmm, interesting’ Alex said. She would have liked to discuss this more, but she’d already seen the guard glance at her watch.
Being a respected police officer got the woman an out-of-hours visit but it didn’t give her the right to stay all night.
‘Okay, I’m glad—’
‘Why should I be pleased he’s not a psychopath?’ Kim asked, frowning and showing that she really did listen to every word.
‘Because it means he has a weakness. He has a vulnerability. However evil you think he is, there will be a string you can latch on to and pull until it unravels him. You just have to look closely enough to find it.’
Kim appeared to be considering her words, but she now needed to move this along. Much as she’d enjoyed their conversation, this meeting was about her and now she wanted the inspector’s full attention.
‘I asked you to visit because I’ve got a parole hearing at the end of the week.’
Kim’s head lolled back as genuine laughter rolled out of her mouth.
‘Thanks, Alex. I really needed that. It’s been quite the day, but the drive was worth it.’
‘I’m serious.’
‘I know. You’re never anything else but – that’s what’s funny. Who the hell is going to let you out of here? You haven’t been rehabilitated. You haven’t changed. You can’t change and you don’t even want to. After getting the additional years slapped on you for trying to murder everyone that stood in the way of your appeal, I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high.’
Alex pushed down her irritation. It was the response she’d expected. Pleasantries were over and it was now down to business.
‘Oh, I do have high hopes, Kim. I am going to get out and, what’s more, you’re going to help me do it.’
Kim’s gaze was now alert and cold. ‘And why the hell would I want to do that?’
Forty-One
Kim felt the air cool between them, as though someone had flicked a switch on the aircon.
She was still kicking her own ass silently for turning up at all. Damn that curiosity when it came to Alexandra Thorne.
What she really wanted to do was haul Steven Harte back into interview room one and ask him if he’d chosen her specifically because she had started her life on Hollytree. Was he under some kind of illusion that gave him a pass or that she would feel an affinity with him that would prevent her doing her job?
‘Because I have two pieces of information that you want,’ Alex replied. ‘The first I’ll give you for free as a good-faith gesture, but the second has a price.’
‘What’s the first?’ Kim asked, willing to play along. For a while. The tension eased by the genuine laugh was creeping back into her neck.
‘Your mother is dying.’
‘Oh, Alex, for fuck’s sake.’
‘I thought you’d want to know.’
‘She’s my mother. I can ring up any time I want to find out about her health.’
‘But you don’t.’
‘Because I couldn’t give less of a shit if she dies or not.’
The staff at Grantley Care Facility, home for the criminally insane, were under strict instructions to contact her only when the woman died.
‘You really want to leave things like this between the two of you?’
‘What the fuck has it got to do with you?’
‘I care about your well-being, Kim.’
‘No, you don’t. You care about trying to get inside my head, and the fact I won’t let you anywhere near me with a lock-pick and a battering ram frustrates the life out of you. You said it yourself a moment ago: psychopaths like to play games and they like to win.’
‘This isn’t about me.’
‘Oh, Alex, everything in your world is about you. Your motive right now is for that information to have some kind of negative effect on me, for it to bring back the memories, but you fail to understand that my mother died the day she walked out of that flat and left me and my brother chained to the radiator.’