Page 77 of The Psychopath Next Door

In her original plan, she had thought that driving a further wedge between Ethan and Emma would make everything easier, with both her mission and its aftermath. But thinking about it, she decided it didn’t make too much of a difference. The important thing was that Rose was fully ready now. It was time to speed things up.

Very soon, she would have Ethan exactly where she wanted him.

27

I returned to work the day after we got back from Shropshire. The shop was busy, which helped to distract me, and I should have been happy. Emma and I were getting along better than we had in years. Even Dylan had commented on it: ‘What’s up with you two? Anyone would think you actually like each other.’

We knew we still had work to do. There were a lot of wrinkles that needed to be ironed out. But I was confident it was going to be okay between us.

There were, however, two things gnawing at my good mood.

First, Rose’s behaviour on the trip and the continuing tension between her and Emma. I couldn’t work out if it was emotional growing pains or something more. I did hope, though, that the two of them spending this week together would help, and I had my fingers crossed that by the weekend they would be best friends again, and we would be reassured that our daughter wasn’t growing devil horns and a pointed tail.

The second thing playing on my mind was my growing worry about Fiona. Not the hug I’d exchanged with her – because that’s all it had been, a comforting hug – but my concern that, well, to use Dylan’s words: there was something sketchy about her. Like, when she doesn’t know you’re watching her, she changes.

Last night, I had gone round to pick up Lola’s stuff. Fiona was friendly, relaxed, asking about the trip, wanting to know if Rose had enjoyed herself. I wanted to get out of her house quickly so didn’t tell her about the incident at laser tag. But while we chatted I tried to surreptitiously study her. Had she deliberately tried to break me and Emma up, encouraging her to contact Mike while flirting with me? If I’d thought she wanted me, and that the stuff with Mike was part of a scheme to send me into her arms, I would have understood it. Seeing her after the trip, I was nervous, worrying she would be all over me. But she showed no signs of liking me in that way at all. She acted like we were nothing more than neighbours. I was simultaneously relieved and confused.

Butwhyhad she led Emma towards the meet-up with Mike and then acted as if she knew nothing about it? There was something devious about her behaviour.

It played on my mind all day at work. So much so that, when I got home, instead of going into my house, I headed over to see Iris.

She invited me in and I immediately spotted the suitcase in the hallway.

‘Oh, you’re going away?’

‘Yes.’ She beamed. ‘I’m off to Canada. I’m going to visit my son and see my grandchildren.’

‘That’s so lovely. Are you on your way out right now?’

‘No, I’ve got a taxi picking me up at one. Early-morning flight from Heathrow. I’m so excited, Ethan! And I wouldn’t be able to afford it without you.’ I followed her into the kitchen. ‘I was actually going to come over and ask if you could keep an eye on the house for me.’

‘Of course.’

We were standing by her kitchen window, which gave me an excellent view of both my house and Fiona’s. Iris followed my gaze.

‘Everything all right?’ she asked. ‘You seem like there’s something on your mind.’

I hesitated. This was why I’d come over here. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve remembered where you know Fiona from, have you?’

She exhaled with frustration. ‘No. It’s been driving me crazy. I can feel it right there, just beneath the surface. I probably need to be hypnotised to free the memory.’

I looked at her and she laughed.

‘That wasn’t a serious suggestion. A friend of mine was hypnotised and she still thinks she’s a chicken.’

‘Really?’

Another laugh. ‘Oh, Ethan, what’s happened to your sense of humour? Tell me again what you know about Fiona. Perhaps it will shake something loose.’

We sat at the kitchen table and went through it all again. She had grown up in Western Australia but moved here when she was in her early twenties. She used to work in Canary Wharf, something to do with banking.

‘Has she ever mentioned any friends?’ Iris asked. ‘Boyfriends or ex-husbands?’

‘No, though I think she’s bisexual. And, as far as I’ve seen, she doesn’t have any friends.’

This had only just struck me. It was odd, wasn’t it? It wasn’t as if she was completely new to the Greater London area. But I hadn’t ever seen anyone visit her house and she never appeared to go out, unless it was with Rose. She had never mentioned any friends either.

Iris fetched her iPad and her reading glasses. ‘Let’s have a look and see if we can find her online. Fiona Smith, yes?’

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