Dark Room

Alan frowned at him. 'You haven't suggested that to her, have you?'

'Jesus Christ! Do me a favor!'

'You have to act in good faith, Matthew, and that usually means acting within the law.'

Matthew grinned. 'I know what good faith is, Doc.'

But did he?

The Nightingale employed two gardeners, who were packing up for the evening and who both agreed there had been a sledgehammer in the toolsheds prior to the assault on the doctor. 'I used it myself a week or two back,' said one, 'when I was replacing the fencing posts near the bottom gate.'

'Do you remember where you put it when you'd finished?' asked Alan.

He nodded towards the younger man. 'Tom here took it back on the trailer, same as always.'

Alan turned to the lad. 'Do you remember which shed you put it in?'

There was a moment's awkward silence. 'I didn't put it nowhere,' said Tom, shuffling feet that were too big for him. 'I borrowed it out to my dad to do some building work back home. There weren't no harm. We've only used it here once in six months, and Dad's looking after it like it were his own.'

ROMSEY ROAD POLICE STATION, WINCHESTER-7:15 P.M.

Frank Cheever found the note from his secretary when he returned to his office later that evening, following a fruitless trip to Salisbury after his bird had already flown. 'We couldn't hold him,' said Blake. 'And if you're interested, the solicitor gave us another photograph as he was leaving.' She handed it over. 'I think it was meant for you and not for us. He said to remind anyone who was interested that it takes a minimum of five hours to drive from here to Redcar, and another five hours to drive back again.'

The Superintendent looked at a picture of Miles and Fergus, laying bets on a racecourse. The time was 3:10 p.m; the date was the the thirteenth and the venue, according to a handwritten piece on the back, was Redcar in Cleveland. 'How did Adam Kingsley know Meg and Leo were murdered on the thirteenth?' he grunted suspiciously. 'We don't know for sure ourselves when they died.'

'Because the thirteenth was the day his daughter faked her car crash,' said Maddocks impatiently.

Dr. Protheroe phoned, said the note. The sledgehammer found at the Nightingale Clinic on Tuesday is not the one Harry Elphick saw before the assault. Dr. Protheroe has interviewed the gardeners and has established that the clinic's hammer has been on loan to a Mr. G. Stack for the last two weeks and is still in his possession. Address: 43 Clonmore Avenue, Salisbury. He suggests this rules Miss Kingsley out of suspicion as far as the attack on himself is concerned and further suggests thai you test the sledgehammer in your possession for Leo's and Meg's blood. If it proves positive, he believes this will absolve Miss Kingsley of their murders. There is no way (he asked me to underline 'no' twice!) she could have brought the murder weapon with her to the Nightingale, as she was semiconscious when she arrived by ambulance and has not left the premises since. Dr. Protheroe insisted on the following PS: Why am I expected to do DI Maddocks's work for him? I am tempted to say that had the matter been left to the Salisbury police, the above facts would have been unearthed yesterday afternoon.

Frank tossed the note to Maddocks. 'Well?' he demanded.

Maddocks read it with a frown. 'Not my fault, sir. I can only pursue one line of inquiry at a time.'

'Meaning what precisely?'

'Meaning that you never gave me the chance to follow up. The weapon was handed over to us yesterday afternoon, sir, and I've been chauffcuring you all today. Anyway, Bob Clarke's already given it a clean bill of health. There's no blood on it, only paint.'

'Well, it's a pity you didn't establish ownership yesterday afternoon,' said Frank sharply. 'It might have saved us today's wasted exercise.'

'Hardly, sir,' said Maddocks with careful emphasis. 'You'd have been even more inclined to pursue Miles Kingsley if you knew the hammer had come in from outside.' He looked at the note again. 'I'd like to know what set Dr. Protheroe asking questions of the gardeners. He was listening when Elphick told me he'd seen the sledgehammer before, and believe me, it didn't occur to him any more than it did to me or Fraser that the old boy had got it wrong.' He put the paper on the desk. 'What's the betting the girl put him up to it after you and I left this afternoon?''

'What are you suggesting now? Some sort of conspiracy theory?'

'I'm just commenting on the way we're being drip-fed information that seems to suit a certain party.'

Frank folded himself into his chair and reached for the telephone. 'Find out if DS Fraser's back and send him down to my office,' he said into the mouthpiece. 'Thank you.' He leaned back to look at Maddocks. 'Go on,' he invited.

The DI shrugged. 'It's gut instinct. She's our murderer. You see, I've always wondered how I'd do it if I ever wanted to get rid of someone. The received wisdom is, you keep it simple, engineer a reasonable alibi, and deny everything, but she couldn't do that because of Russell's murder. The police were bound to draw parallels, and whatever method she used to do away with Leo and Meg, she would still be in the firing line.' He stroked his jaw. 'So she's done what I would have done. She's made herself the obvious suspect by tying Leo's and Meg's murders to Russell's ten years ago, and my guess is, she's just waiting for the right moment to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the alibi Meg Harris gave her then is rock-solid. Which will leave us floundering because we've busted a gut to tie the three murders together.'

'Are you saying she didn't murder Russell but did murder Leo and Meg?'

Maddocks nodded. 'Yes. Look, you've read the Met reports. Landy's murder was a contract killing, carried out by one Jason Phelps on the instructions of Adam Kingsley. There was never anyone else in the frame. All this garbage about Adam not allowing Jane to find the body comes from her, and, damn it, she's had a hell of a long time to come up with excuses. She says herself that her brothers have always believed her father was responsible, and that's pretty obvious, frankly, from the way they behave. You don't grow up normal if you think your father's a ruthless murderer. And look at the wife. Drunk as a skunk by ten o'clock in the morning, according to Fordingbridge. We're talking major family breakdown here, and the idea that the daughter's immune from the madness is crazy.' He paused to collect his thoughts, nodding briefly to Fraser as he entered the room. 'I think she's telling us the truth about Russell. At the time of his death, I think she knew nothing about his affair with Meg. I also think she knew nothing about the murder and was genuinely shocked by it. But I'd argue that ten years of living with the knowledge that her father ordered it and got away with it has left her as damaged as she claims her two brothers to