Dark Room

Maddocks watched her performance with cynical objectivity. The story was too pat and too well polished and he saw Dr. Protheroe's hand at work behind the scenes. 'So let me get this straight, Miss Kingsley,' he said acidly. 'Number one: At the time of Russell Landy's death, you and he were not getting on but you told the London police you were. Number two: You believed your father was capable of putting out a contract on your husband but defended him anyway. Number three: Russell and your best friend were having an affair but you knew nothing about it, and she did not reveal it to the police. Number four: She aborted the child she had conceived either by your then husband or the man who later became your fiance, but neither you nor the London police were ever told about it. Number five: When you discovered your friend and your husband had been having an affair, you kept the information to yourself. Number six: Your best friend, who knew she'd had an affair with your husband and knew also that your husband had been murdered, nevertheless proceeded to resurrect an old affair with your fiance and so persuade him to abandon you for her. Number seven: He and she were subsequently murdered in an identical fashion, though in a different location, to the way your husband was murdered.' He arched his eyebrows. 'Is that a fair summary of what you've told us?'

'Yes,' said Jinx honestly. 'To my knowledge, that is accurate-assuming the abortion and the way Meg and Leo were murdered to be true. Those are the only two things I didn't know.'

He nodded. 'All right, then I have one last question on the Landy murder before we talk about Wallader and Harris. According to the reports we have, you were ruled out of direct involvement because you had a cast-iron alibi? Who gave you the alibi?'

'It was Meg,' she said. 'I spent the afternoon and early evening with her and then she drove me to the restaurant for seven-thirty. I waited there about an hour, and when Russell didn't show, I took a taxi to the gallery. Isn't that in the report?'

Maddocks ignored the question. 'Wouldn't it have been simpler to phone the gallery?'

'I did. There was no answer. So I phoned home but there was no answer there, either.'

'Then why assume he was at the gallery? Why bother to take a taxi there?'

'Because it was on the way home.'

'But you paid off the taxi before you went inside.'

'It was nine o'clock at night and the driver wouldn't let me leave the cab without paying. I think he was afraid I was planning to leg it down the nearest alleyway. He said he'd wait five minutes and if I wasn't back by then, he'd go. As it was, I was back within two, screaming my head off. The driver dialed nine-nine-nine while I sat with Russell, then he waited outside till the ambulance arrived. That's why the police had no trouble tracing him afterwards to support my story.'

Maddocks chuckled softly. 'You have an answer for everything, don't you?'

She studied him with a remarkably cool gaze. 'All I'm doing is telling you the truth, Inspector.'

'And let's face it, girl, you've had ten whole years to get it right.'

One of the security staff at the clinic, Harry Elphick, after learning about the assault on Dr. Protheroe, made a detour on his departure to check the outbuildings near the staff parking spaces. He remembered some weeks back seeing a sledgehammer in one of them, and it occurred to him that it might be worth a second look. He reasoned, quite logically, that the most likely person to take a swipe at Dr. Protheroe was one of the more aggressive junkies in his care, and he went on to reason that because the Nightingale was not a prison, then any observant patient had the same opportunities as he to notice the sledgehammer. Harry would have considered it naive rubbish to assume that none of them would bother to attack Dr. Protheroe because they knew he didn't carry drugs in his car. Harry, ex-Army and past his middle years, had little time for the sort of overprivileged dregs that Dr. Protheroe treated, and it was with some satisfaction that he opened an outbuilding door and, after a cursory search, found a sledgehammer with red Wolseley paintwork ground into its head.

'When did you first discover that Leo and Meg were having an affair?'

Jinx stared at her hands for a moment before reaching for her cigarette packet. 'When I came round a few days ago. My stepmother told me.'

Maddocks frowned. 'Are you saying that's the first you knew about it?'

She leaned back in her chair to light a cigarette. 'I don't know,' she said. 'I can't remember anything much from before the accident.'

'What do you remember?'

She stared at the ceiling. 'I remember saying good-bye to Leo at breakfast on the morning of June the fourth. I was coming down to Hampshire to stay with my parents for a few days.'

'That's a very precise memory.'

'Yes.'

'When did you find out they were dead, Miss Kingsley?'

She toyed with another lie, then thought better of it. She was too fond of Dean to drop him in this bastard's shit. 'Sunday,' she said. 'I knew you were lying about what had happened to them, so I asked a friend to phone the Walladers. Anthony told him they were dead and the friend rang me back to tell me.'

'Which friend?'

'Is that important?'

'It depends whether you want me to believe you or not. This friend might confirm that you were genuinely shocked when you heard the news. Otherwise I'm having some difficulty trying to understand how a woman whose best friend and fiance have been brutally butchered can retain such extraordinary composure.'

'My number two at the studio. Dean Jarrett.'

'Thank you. Were you upset when your stepmother told you Leo had left you for Meg?'

She shook her head. 'Not particularly. I was more relieved than upset. I think I made it clear to you on Sunday that I had severe doubts about Leo. I am sure in my own mind that I had no intention of marrying him, irrespective of whether he was having an affair with Meg.'

'Then why did you try to kill yourself?'