Page 126 of Psychopath

Harris had frontal lobe damage from blunt force trauma, which showed up on the MRI and was the result Quinn had been hoping for with every participant when he’d first penned the study.

Virgil’s brain activity had stunned the neurologist. Cleo accompanied Quinn during Virgil’s debriefing and stood silently at his side as Quinn went through his findings.

Virgil didn’t look up from the table the entire time. His wrists were cuffed at his back, and he leaned forward in his chair.

“Thank you for taking part,” Quinn finished, then he stopped the tape recorder.

“You were right,” Virgil murmured.

“About?”

“Me not having a plan.” Virgil lifted his head. There was a glint in his grey eyes, and he stared through the glass. “But next time, I will.”

Two officers came into his side of the room and dragged him out.

Cleo squeezed Quinn’s shoulder. “What was that about?”

“When he escaped. I told him he didn’t have a plan to find Luca…”

Cleo shuddered. “That sounded ominous.”

Quinn shook his head and glanced down at the desk at the last sheet. “Just Zane to go.”

“I’ll get him.” Cleo smiled, then disappeared out the door.

Quinn tidied his sheets into a neat stack, needing to move. He bounced his foot on the floor, watching the door Zane was about to appear through.

It took fifteen minutes, and then he was there. Quinn’s breath caught, and he curled his toes in his shoes as Zane stepped across the room.

Cleo shut his door.

There were deep bags beneath Zane’s eyes.

“How are you?” Quinn asked. “After the van?”

“Better. You?”

“Confused.”

Zane lowered his gaze.

“What you told me—”

“I’m here for my debrief, Quinn, that’s all.”

“But Zane—”

“That. Is. All.”

Quinn sighed. “Fine. My study was to determine whether those labelled as ‘psychopaths’ had damaged or underactive brain function in areas said to control emotion, empathy, impulses, and decision-making. I hypothesised that an MRI scan on violent psychopaths would show limited reactions in the Amygdala, Prefrontal cortex, Paralimbic structures and slash or the Ventral striatum.”

Quinn paused, waiting for Zane to nod. He did, and he continued.

“The first part of the study was to find psychopaths. As there’s no ‘official test’, I used studies and theories from other psychologists, including Hare’s twenty-two trait framework. I came up with a checklist of forty traits. Anyone scoring above thirty, I deemed from my research to be a ‘psychopath’. You scored 31 points on the test, thus suggesting you have psychopathic traits and behaviours and making you ideal for the MRI and the secondary phase of the study.”

Zane bit his bottom lip. “31…”

“The neurologist studied your brain activity while at rest and while reacting to visual stimulus, then audible stimulus. Your brain activity was completely normal with good functioning in all of the areas I was interested in. There is no sign of damage, underactivity, or disease, and you have a healthy brain.”

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