The Therapist

Alice tells Thomas she needs a sweater from her case in the hall. She secretly takes the house keys from her bag and puts them in her pocket. However, he quickly joins her, foiling her plan to run out of the house and lock him in. Alice takes out her hair clip when it snags on her sweater, and Thomas comments on her “beautiful hair.” He tells her Leo just texted with the message, “Oliver didn’t have a sister” (338). Alice throws a chair at Thomas as he lunges toward her. She runs out of the house, locking him inside.

The Circle is deserted, and Alice runs to Lorna and Edward’s house. By the time the elderly couple lets her in, Thomas is already there, grasping Edward by the neck. Thomas explains that he left her house by the French doors and entered his own home in the same way. He introduces Lorna and Edward as his parents. Grabbing Alice by the throat, he squeezes until she loses consciousness.

When Alice wakes, she is tied to a chair facing a mirror. She discovers that Thomas’s real name is John as Lorna begs him to stop, insisting that his father needs an ambulance. John begins cutting Alice’s hair close to the scalp. Alice realizes he has been secretly living with his parents all the time, explaining why no one ever saw him arrive at her house.

As Alice tries to devise an escape plan, she deliberately keeps John talking, asking a series of questions. John admits to murdering Justine, Marion, and Nina but clarifies that he did not have affairs with them. He explains that he plays the role of whoever his victims need him to be. He posed as a private investigator with Alice because she needed someone who could help her “atone for [her] sins” (342). John says he worked out that Alice was driving the car when her parents and sister were killed. He entered her house at night with the French door keys Oliver and Nina gave his parents. John expresses amusement that Alice believed she was being visited by Nina’s spirit. Alice guesses that his hatred of women springs from being rejected by the blond woman in the photograph he claimed was Helen.

Lorna announces that Edward is dead. John looks momentarily shocked but refuses to call an ambulance. He explains that his parents moved from Bournemouth to the Circle while he was in Paris, but he hired a private investigator to find them. John reveals that before Alice moved in, he had intended his next victim to be Tamsin. However, Tamsin cut her hair after Nina’s death.

Lorna describes how their son kept them prisoners day and night. If one of them went outside, he kept the other captive. When Edward had his first heart attack, prompted by Nina’s murder, John would not let Lorna visit him in the hospital. Her son also made her lie to the police, threatening to kill Edward if she refused. Despite what she told the police, Lorna did not hear Nina and Oliver arguing, and Nina was not having an affair. At the time of the murder, Oliver was sitting in the square, just as he claimed.

John becomes angry when Lorna says Nina loved Oliver. He claims that, like Marion and Justine, Nina loved him but did not realize it. Alice calls Lorna’s name, trying to encourage her to grab the scissors. John jeers at her, asserting that his mother will not turn against her own family. However, Alice points out that John has just killed his own father by inducing another heart attack. Lorna screams with rage, distracting John. Still tied to the chair, Alice lunges at him, knocking the scissors from his hand. John strangles Alice, but just as she believes she is going to die, he collapses on top of her.

After Lorna stabs her son to death with the scissors, she tells Alice that no one needs to know about her involvement with John. She suggests they stick to the story that Alice came to say goodbye to Lorna and Edward and recognized their son as the gatecrasher from the drinks party. John then attacked Alice and confessed to the other murders.

Lorna stays with her sister while she awaits trial. When Alice visits her, Lorna is consumed by guilt for unwillingly colluding with her son. She admits to writing the letter to Alice that was supposedly from Helen. Lorna reveals that her son’s obsessive nature emerged during his childhood. He often developed fixations with other children and, as a teenager, stalked a teacher. John believed his teacher was secretly signaling that she loved him whenever she released her hair from a ponytail. Doctors diagnosed him with obsessive love disorder.

After John went to university, his parents did not hear from him for years. He then unexpectedly turned up at their home in Bournemouth, claiming he had fought in the Gulf War. John stayed with them for three weeks, building a terrace in the garden, and then disappeared. Justine Bartley’s body was later discovered under the terrace.

Lorna and Edward moved to the Circle to escape John, telling neighbors their son had died in Iraq. When John found them, he threatened to kill them if they revealed his presence. Lorna tried to warn Alice by whispering not to trust “him,” but Alice misheard the advice as not to trust “anyone.” On discovering his mother’s betrayal, John hit her. Alice thanks Lorna for saving her life. Lorna tells Alice to repay her by living life to the full.

Six months later, Alice is back in Harlestone. She receives a visit from Eve, who is pregnant. Eve reveals that all the residents of the Circle plan to move away. Apologizing to Alice, she admits they all feel guilty about disbelieving her and accepting that Oliver was the murderer.

Alice is determined to make a new start. Since the death of her parents and sister, her life has been governed by a desire to be punished. Alice realizes how this guilt colored her relationship with Leo. When she found out he lied to her, she could not forgive him, as she had confessed her role in her family’s death to him. She was also envious that Leo officially atoned for his crime, while the judge at her trial refused to send her to prison. Alice remains friends with Leo, who would like them to become a couple again. However, she is conscious that the relationship would be built on deceit, as Leo does not know the truth about her involvement with Nina’s murderer. Expecting a call from Leo that night, she considers telling him everything.