'Meg gave me this big spiel about Josh and how badly she was behaving towards him. She said it was my fault, that I was using Russell's murder as a stick to beat her and Leo with because I wanted to make life as uncomfortable for them as I could. We really did have an awful row.' She looked at her hands. 'Well, that's not relevant anymore. I bullied them into going to Leo's house in Chelsea until Monday. I said at least they'd be safer there than in Hammersmith because I was the only other person who knew the address.'
'Did they go?'
'Yes.'
'What time was that?'
'I think it was around midnight. Meg insisted on leaving the flat spick-and-span so that prospective purchasers wouldn't be put off when they went round it.'
'So she was selling it?'
'Yes,' said Jinx again. 'I was going to put it with an estate agent as soon as they left for France. That was part of the deal. Meg's business needed an injection of cash, and I promised to try and raise it through the sale of her flat if she and Leo would agree to make themselves scarce for a while. The plan was for me to explain it to Josh after they'd left'-she faltered-'but Meg got cold feet when she spoke to him on the phone on the Saturday, and decided to postpone the trip so she could tell him in person.' She licked the tears from her lips. 'Josh threatened to pull out of the partnership unless she gave him a few guarantees about her commitment, and they'd been going through such a rough patch recently that she believed he'd do it unless she took the trouble to calm him down.'
Frank studied her bent head curiously. 'I have some problems understanding why they were prepared to go along with all the secrecy, Miss Kingsley, particularly if, as you say, they thought you were being paranoid.'
She stared at him rather bleakly for a moment. 'Meg had done the dirty on me twice. She was in no real position to argue. In any case, Leo was on my side. He was cock-a-hoop about being in France when the news broke. The last thing he wanted was to face the embarrassment of a canceled wedding. He'd have gone immediately if Meg had been free to leave.'
'Why wasn't she?'
'She had a client she didn't want to lose, and a couple of meetings with the bank manager. She said he'd pull the plug on the business if she tried to cancel them. The earliest she could was the eleventh.' She fell silent.
'Then she reneged at the last minute?'
Jinx nodded. 'She only agreed to go along with it in the first place because Leo was in favor, but the minute Josh came down on her like a ton of bricks she dug her heels in, kept calling me neurotic and absurd.' The tears ran down her cheeks again. 'I think she wanted to say she was sorry
'I understand.' He waited again. 'So they left for Chelsea at about midnight on the Saturday? Are you sure they went there?'
'Oh, yes. I followed them. Leo parked in the garage, and I watched them both go inside. Then I went home.'
'What about the cat? What happened to him?'
'We stuck with the original plan, but delayed it until Monday. We left poor old Marmaduke in the hall with some food and the cat tray, but he was only going to be there for thirty-six hours at the most. I would collect the key from the neighbor, rescue Marmaduke, and explain about the flat going on the market. Meg was apposed to call them the minute she got to France, tell them I was kosher and ask them to let me in.'
'But why was it so necessary to keep Mr. and Mrs. Helms in the dark?' asked Fraser. 'You can't have suspected them of being involved in Russell's death.'
'Of course not.' There was a long silence. 'I thought it was my father we needed to be afraid of,' she said at last, 'and I couldn't be sure how much he already knew about Leo and Meg's affair. I know he found out about Meg and Russell, because Miles told me afterwards. That's one of the reasons I thought he might have had Russell killed.' She rubbed her head. 'Leo swore his parents wouldn't have said a word to anyone, but'-she raised her hands in a small gesture of helplessness-'Adam has a way of finding out. If Mr. and Mrs. Helms knew anything in advance, they would tell the first person who asked them. In fact, Meg said it was worse, that Mrs. Helms wouldn't wait to be asked, she'd stand on the street corner and broadcast it to the world.'
'Why weren't you worried about Leo parking his car in Shoebury Terrace if you thought your father was having him and Meg waitched?' asked the Superintendent.
She lifted her head to look at him and for the first time he understood some of the agonies she had been through. 'I was. I tried to persuade him to leave it in Richmond but he wouldn't go along with it. He said that was taking the whole thing to ridiculous lengths. But you see, I knew what had been done to Russell and they didn't. I spent a nightmare week at the Hall, worrying myself sick. I made Leo phone every day to let me know they were all right and to make my family think everything was normal. Then he phoned on the Friday afternoon to say they were leaving thing the next morning, and it was safe to come back and make the announcements. And I thought, thank God, it's all over-I've made a complete idiot of myself, but I don't care.' She held a handkerchief to her eyes. 'I can't explain it because I don't believe in second sight or precognition, but I knew the minute Leo told me he wanted to marry Meg that they were going to die. It was like having cold water thrown over me.' She looked wretchedly towards Alan. 'So I put two and two together and came up with Adam, and if I hadn't, then maybe, just maybe, they'd still be alive.'
'No,' he said. 'It would have made no difference. At least Adam was a terrifying enough prospect to force them to listen to you. They'd have been dead a week earlier otherwise.'
She held out Simon's letter. 'Except that I made them keep the secret,' she said, 'and that's why he killed them. It was the secrecy that made him do it.'
'No,' said Alan, who had read the letter before he took the two policemen to Jinx's room. 'He was a very disturbed man. Jinx. It was his illness that made him do it, and nothing you could have done would have stopped that.'
'The doctor's right, Miss Kingsley,' said Superintendent Cheever. 'The only person who might have guessed that Simon murdered Russell was Meg. She was closer to him than anyone else, in all conscience. If it never occurred to her to be afraid of him, then there's no reason why it should have occurred to you.' He paused. 'Did she ever show any fear of him?'
