Page 92 of The Psychopath Next Door

‘Rosehasbeen acting weird, and I told you what I think of Fiona.’

She’s a psycho, said Tommy’s voice in my head. At the same time, I wondered at my reaction to what Dylan had said. Of course I had immediately rejected the idea that Rose had done Iris harm – she was my daughter, my little girl – but my gut hadn’t done the same with Fiona.

‘Keira says that her mum said that Rose shows all the signs of having the dark triad of personality traits. After what she did to Henry.’

Dark triad?‘What are you talking about?’

‘Do you not remember what happened at laser tag?’

‘We don’t know what happened. He told us he jumped out of the crow’s nest and fell down the ramp.’

‘Yeah, but only because of all the things Rose was saying to him. Keira heard all of it, and she told her parents, and her mum almost made her stop talking to me. Henry is still having bad dreams, apparently, and has started wetting the bed. He’s convinced Rose is going to turn up at their house and kill him.’

I flashed to an image of another incident I hadn’t witnessed. A four-year-old Rose pushing that kid off the tower at nursery. Then:her face when Albie had his accident. That Ihadseen. And the fear on Henry’s face when they’d been using the hot tub.

I still felt the need to defend her.

‘But that’s crazy. Maybe she said something mean to him – kids do that all the time – but he must have overreacted.’

Dylan shook his head. ‘I knew you’d be like this. You think Rose is all sweetness and light—’

Except I didn’t, did I?

‘—but she’s always been a bit weird. More than a bit, if we’re honest. You know she’s never had any proper friends? It’s because she’s horrible to anyone who tries to get close to her. Like that friend she had at school. Jasmine. Her brother told me Rose really bullied her, made her life hell until Jasmine finally got the guts to tell her to eff off.’

‘You never told us that.’

‘I tried, but you didn’t listen.’

Was that true? I had no memory of it.

‘She’s been much worse recently. I see her and Fiona all the time, whispering. Also, she barely even reacted when that guy died from eating those cookies. I’d be traumatised if I saw something like that. Just about anyone would. But Rose acts like it was something she saw on telly.’

‘But ...’ I couldn’t think of an excuse. Last night it had been me arguing that Rose’s behaviour was down to more than growing pains. Now my instinct was to defend her, to argue the other way.

‘Keira says you’re in denial. Parents of kids with psychological issues often are. Rose always used to put on this act at home, pretending to be an angel. It’s only the last few weeks that she’s stopped acting. Keira says it will be because her hormones are surging, making it harder for her to keep everything under control.’

‘But ... that’s normal, though. It’s called growing up.’

‘No, it’s more than that. Keira says—’

‘Oh my God. Keira. She’s filling your head with nonsense.’

‘Yeah, she also said you’d say that. You’re in denial. I was in denial too, for ages.’

I leaned against the wall. There was a churning sensation in my guts and my heart was pounding. Dylan sounded so mature, as if there had been this grown man living in my house all this time and I’d never noticed. And I could feel myself splitting in two: the part of me that refused to believe my precious daughter could ever do anything awful, and the part of me that had suspected something was wrong. That she had changed.

But she couldn’t have hurt Iris. No way. She was a twelve-year-old girl. She wasn’t capable of being involved inmurder.

‘I need to talk to your mum,’ I said, crossing the office to where my phone was plugged in. As I picked it up I saw all the missed calls from Dylan and, among them, a text from Emma, who was still off work.

Hey. Rose and I are going out for the day with Fiona. Be back around dinner time.

With Fiona?

‘What is it?’ Dylan said, seeing my reaction.

I showed him.

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