Page 29 of The Psychopath Next Door

‘I think maybe they did. At first.’

‘And then?’

Rose shrugged. ‘For some reason, once they got to know me, they didn’t want me to play with them anymore. I ended up makingfriends with this girl called Jasmine who everyone said was weird and smelly. She was my best friend for ages.’

‘And what happened to her?’

Rose said, ‘Can we have another game of chess?’

It was a subject she clearly didn’t want to talk about.

‘Why did you move to this estate?’ Fiona asked a little later.

She had learned that sometimes you had to wait a long time for Rose to answer. She knew that most people would give up and start talking about something else, or suggest the answer because they couldn’t bear the silence. But Fiona was patient.

‘Mum and Dad were fighting a lot.’

‘Oh, really? That must have been horrible for you and Dylan.’

‘Yeah. I guess.’ Another long silence. ‘Dad was so angry. I never saw him get mad before. Mum’s always been the strict one. The one who yells at us if we do something naughty.’ She frowned like she was remembering something that pissed her off. ‘Dad’s pretty chill.’

‘Sounds like he was stressed out about something,’ Fiona said. She was intrigued but not surprised. She also knew the tension between Ethan and Emma was still there. She’d felt it last week when they’d got home from the Pulp gig. It was obvious they’d had an argument.

She was sure it was something she could use.

A week on from their first trip to Herne Hill, she and Rose were baking cookies in Fiona’s kitchen. Chocolate chip, using a recipe Fiona had found online. She wasn’t a great baker; cooking, in general, bored her. But shop-bought cookies wouldn’t do for the next stage of her plan.

When the cookies had almost cooled, Rose went over to grab a couple.

‘Just one,’ Fiona said.

‘What? Why?’

‘They’re not for us.’

‘Then who?’

‘Remember my friend? The one in Herne Hill?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Rose immediately sounded bored.

‘Did I tell you that he and I have this thing where we play pranks on each other? No? Well, it’s something we’ve been doing for years, and I owe him one.’

‘A prank?’

‘Yeah. It’s a good one. But I don’t want to spoil it for you, so you’re just going to have to trust me. Tomorrow, we’re going back to see him. That will be fun, won’t it?’

‘I suppose.’

Fiona smiled. ‘Do your part properly and you can have two cookies.’

Rose thought about this for a moment and said, ‘Can I have four?’

Now, here they were, back on the street where Max lived. Fiona was holding the tin of cookies, and had promised Rose she could eat however many were left.

‘For the prank to work, I’m going to need to get inside his house,’ Fiona said. ‘When he’s not there.’

‘Okay.’

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