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The hospital was quieter than earlier that day, when she’d been there with Gordon Collins. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Lottie’s head felt as if it’d been split open with a mallet, though she’d only needed five stitches. Her black eye and bruised cheekbone would fade. Her damaged foot would heal in time too. Boyd had had ten stitches on the back of his head, and he had concussion. War-wound comparisons would abound once they were back at work.

She glanced over at him on the bed by the window as he slept. Amy and Kirby had agreed to keep Sergio for a few nights so Boyd didn’t have to worry about his son. On the other bed, Diana Nolan was sitting up drinking a cup of tea. Aaron was in the paediatric unit being assessed physically and psychologically. Easing herself off the bed, Lottie winced at the torn ligaments in her foot as she hobbled over to sit beside Diana.

‘I’m sorry,’ the older woman said. ‘I should’ve told you about Charlie, but I was scared witless. I knew what she was like as a teenager, and that made me terrified to challenge her.’

‘Why had you got a birth certificate for Magenta McCabe at your house?’

‘That was Aneta’s birth name. She found the certificate among her adoptive mother’s things when she died, and she gave it to me for safe keeping that day I was visiting Laura in Cuan. She recognised me from the photograph. She recognised Charlie too, at the event. It was like seeing her own reflection, she said, and she was petrified. Though when I saw Aneta’s death photo, she looked nothing like she did that day. How could a woman be so cruel to her own flesh and blood?’

Lottie wasn’t sure of the full story about what had happened all those years ago. ‘We believe Maggie L is Charlie’s daughter. We had Charlie’s DNA on file, as she was present when John’s body was found. We’re not sure if Thomas McCabe is the father. Waiting for DNA analysis on that.’

‘He’s Charlie’s stepbrother.’

‘Really?’ Lottie wondered what that dynamic had been like. ‘He’s not talking. The armed response team were a little too forceful when they broke through the front door. He’s in an induced coma.’

‘And Charlie?’

‘In custody. Talking very little, though Detective McKeown and Superintendent Farrell are doing their best with the interviews.’

‘Such a fucked-up family.’

‘Aneta was registered as Magenta McCabe on her original birth cert. The mother’s name was falsified, but why wasn’t Gordon Collins named? He claims he was Aneta’s father.’

‘My head hurts thinking about it.’ Diana put the cup on the tray and pushed it away. ‘Who knows how that woman thinks. Charlie claimed Gordon raped her when she was sixteen. Said he treated her like a prostitute. I don’t believe that was true. She twisted facts all the time. Twisted people into knots with her warped mind. He believed her when she said she was pregnant by him. He said it happened once. He was vulnerable back then, as was I. He was in Cuan rehab for addiction issues and I was his girlfriend at the time. I hated him after everything that happened. Maybe Aneta wasn’t Gordon’s at all.’

‘Could Thomas have been Aneta’s father?’

‘No, he was only ten years old then. I don’t believe Charlie was that warped.’

‘A DNA test will confirm it one way or the other.’

‘Inspector, how did Charlie come to have such a big house out in the countryside?’

‘I’ve to talk to Gordon Collins about that.’

‘She used everyone she came in contact with.’

Lottie sighed. ‘The more I learn about her, the more I’m convinced she was a dab hand at exploitation. We’ll talk again, Diana. Take care.’

After a torturous walk along the corridor and up in the lift, Lottie reached the ward where Shannon was recuperating. Davy was sitting on her knee, with George standing by the foot of the bed. The days of incarceration had not been kind to her.

George took his son in his arms. ‘We’ll go get juice, Davy.’ He mouthed thanks to Lottie and left her alone with Shannon.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Worse than rehab.’ The young woman attempted a laugh. ‘I owe you a huge thank you.’

‘Doing my job.’

‘She would have killed us all. She told him she’d take us with them, but I know she was too self-consumed to take baggage while she made her escape. I can’t get my head around how she hated her own daughters, both Aneta and Maggie.’

‘I believe Charlie is a classic sociopath. I have to get more information to understand her relationship with Aneta. From what I’ve learned so far, she was forming Maggie in her own image.’

‘I get that she was moulding the child to be like her. Magenta… Maggie had found her knife in a scabbard. I truly believe she was about to kill me until Charlie tasered us both. Where is the girl now?’

‘Child services.’

‘What’ll happen to her?’

‘She’ll need psychological rehabilitation. After that, who knows?’

‘Who cares?’ Shannon pursed her lips glumly. ‘No, that’s wrong. It’s bringing me down to their level.’

Lottie took her hand and squeezed it. ‘You’ll need therapy after everything you’ve been through.’

‘I’ve had my fill of therapists.’

‘At least confide in family or friends. Talk to Jess, if you feel George is a step too far.’

‘Jess is a star.’

‘She is. Lean on her for support.’ Lottie pondered whether Shannon had suffered sexual assault, but didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to add to her trauma. The doctors would confirm it later. ‘Did you view the house at Pine Grove with Charlie?’

‘I did.’

‘Did you not recognise her when you’d been abducted and were living in her house?’

‘I thought she seemed a bit familiar, but then again, I was more interested in the house than in her when I viewed it. Those days in captivity were endless, and every time I looked at her, she was like a different person.’

‘Charlie’s a narcissist as well as the classic sociopath. A chameleon who manipulated everyone. A person I would not like to meet on a dark night walking home alone.’

Shannon smiled weakly. ‘And I just happened to walk home alone and meet the one she manipulated the most.’

‘Thomas is not an innocent in this. Take care, Shannon.’