me?’
Nightingale blew smoke up at the ceiling as he wondered how much he should tell her. She seemed rational enough but he wasn’t sure if that was an act or not. He shrugged. ‘I thought we should meet. That’s all.’
‘Are you worried that you might be crazy?’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because I’m in an asylum. And if you’re right and we share the same DNA then maybe you’re crazy, too. Because this whole Satanism devil-worship thing does suggest that you might have the odd screw loose.’
‘I hadn’t thought of it that way.’
‘Liar,’ she said. ‘I can see it in your eyes that you’re lying. How do I know the whole thing’s not a lie? How do I know this isn’t some stupid therapy that Keller wants to try on me?’
‘Like I said, I don’t gain anything by lying to you. Have you got a few million quid tucked away that no one knows about?’
‘I wish.’
‘So try to trust me on this. We’re siblings. Same father, different mothers.’
She rubbed her face. ‘Do you know who our mothers are? Our birth mothers?’
‘I met mine,’ said Nightingale. ‘I don’t know who yours was.’
‘How did you find her?’
‘Through Gosling’s records. I traced her to a nursing home.’
‘Can you do the same and track down my mother? My birth mother?’
‘I’ll try,’ said Nightingale. He sipped his coffee. It was bitter and tasted of chemicals. ‘Can I ask you something, Robyn?’
She shrugged. ‘I guess,’ she said. ‘Seeing as how you’re my long-lost brother.’
He looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes. ‘What they said you did… to those kids. Did you do it?’
‘I’m in here, aren’t I?’
‘There are plenty of innocent people in prison. That’s why they have appeals.’
‘What do you want me to say? That it’s all a terrible misunderstanding? That I’m innocent and there’s been a miscarriage of justice?’
‘Something like that, yeah.’
She grinned, jutting her chin up and wrinkling her nose. ‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ she said. ‘But yeah, I did it. Killed them, all five of them.’ She paused. ‘Allegedly.’
40
D r Keller slowly stirred his tea and nodded at the plate of biscuits in front of Nightingale. ‘Please, help yourself,’ he said.
Nightingale picked up a custard cream and dipped it into his tea. ‘She doesn’t seem like a killer,’ he said.
The doctor continued to stir his tea. ‘Sociopaths are adept at concealing their true natures,’ he said. ‘Every emotion they display is learned behaviour. They have no true emotions but if they are smart they learn to mimic them.’
‘They act, is that what you mean? They pretend to be happy or sad or angry?’
Dr Keller nodded. He put his spoon on the saucer so carefully that it made no sound. ‘In a nutshell, yes.’
‘She seems so normal. Even made a few jokes.’
‘Don’t get me wrong,’ said Dr Keller. ‘I’m not suggesting that she’s a danger to you or to anyone else in this institution. But she is insane. I can assure you of that.’
‘Why do you say that? She looks and sounds normal, so how do you, as a professional, come to the conclusion that she’s mad?’
Dr Keller chuckled quietly. ‘Mr Nightingale, we would never put it as crassly as that.’
‘But that’s what you mean, isn’t it? You’re saying she’s as mad as a hatter despite the outward appearance.’
‘She killed five children, Mr Nightingale. And she has expressed absolutely no remorse.’
Nightingale put his biscuit into his mouth, chewed and swallowed.
‘Did she talk to you about the killings?’ asked the doctor.
‘Only to admit that she’d done it.’
‘No explanation, no asking for understanding or forgiveness?’
Nightingale shook his head. ‘Just said that she’d killed them.’
‘That, right there, is textbook sociopathic behaviour,’ said the doctor. ‘A normal person would be full of guilt and remorse. Or would at least offer up some sort of explanation for their actions. But Robyn tells us as little as she apparently told you. Yes, she did it, she killed those five children, but she won’t say one word about what drove her to it.’
‘And that’s par for the course?’
‘I’d say that it applies to a third of the inmates here, yes. She has therapy sessions, one on one with medical staff, and group sessions with other inmates present, and, while she’s pleasant and sociable, she never opens up.’
‘But it’s not denial, is it? If it was denial she would be saying that she didn’t do it, right?’
‘Correct,’ said Dr Keller. He sipped his tea, watching Nightingale over the top of his cup.
‘Earlier, you said there was no cure.’
‘That’s right. She’s hard-wired as a sociopath and nothing we can do can change that. There’s no operation that will alter the way she thinks, and there’s no miracle drug that we can use. She is what she is, I’m afraid.’
‘So she’ll never be released?’
‘I would think it highly doubtful,’ said the doctor.
Nightingale picked up another custard cream and dunked it into his tea. ‘I know this is going to sound stupid, but there’s no doubt that she did it, is there?’
Dr Keller’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘Well, the thing is that, because she pleaded guilty, there wasn’t a lot of information released to the court. She pleaded guilty to five murders and received five life sentences. But there were no details of what she did or how she did it. Her legal team didn’t speak in mitigation, so the media only got the bare facts.’
‘And you think there might have been a miscarriage of justice?’ Dr Keller shook his head. ‘First of all, she pleaded guilty. Second of all, she continues to admit her guilt. And third of all…’ He leaned forward. ‘I’ve seen the files, Mr Nightingale. I know what she did and, considering the circumstances under which she was arrested, I can assure you there is no doubt as to her guilt.’
‘Red-handed?’
‘Literally. She was awash in the boy’s blood.’
‘She used a knife — that was in the papers.’
‘She gutted him like a pig,’ said the doctor. ‘But first she slit his throat so deeply that his head was almost severed.’
‘Fingerprints? DNA?’
‘The knife was in her hand when the police turned up. And as I said, she was covered in his blood.’
‘How did the cops know where she was?’ asked Nightingale.
‘That I don’t know,’ said the doctor. ‘But they found her with the body. Covered in blood, holding the knife.’
‘And the other killings?’
‘All children. All gutted. And she confessed to the lot.’
‘But never said why she did it?’
Dr Keller shook his head. ‘Not a word.’
Nightingale took his pack of Marlboro out of his raincoat pocket, but put it away when he saw the look of disapproval on the doctor’s face. ‘This is going to sound a little off the wall, but was there any sort of occult slant to the killings?’
