‘Go on,’ he said.
‘I wanted to know why Adam had sent Kennedy over, so I thought I’d waylay you. I waited under the beech tree until I was so tired I couldn’t wait any longer, then I went back to bed and fell asleep with my clothes on. I was having a nightmare when Amy found me. I’m amazed she didn’t report it. She was scared stiff I’d been doing something I shouldn’t and might be held responsible.’ She examined his face. ‘Or perhaps she did report it and you haven’t told me.’
He shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Then obviously she trusts me more than she trusts you, Dr Protheroe.’
He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Is that what this was? A lesson in who’s trustworthy and who isn’t?’
‘More or less,’ she said, refusing to look at him. ‘You already knew I was outside – Matthew heard you calling my name – but you’ve never mentioned it, not to me anyway.’
Damn Matthew to hell and back! He was going to shred the little toe-rag the first chance he got. ‘Only because I realized I’d made a mistake. I thought I saw you at the side of the road as I drove in but, as it wasn’t you who attacked me, I saw no point in mentioning it. Does that set your mind at rest?’
‘No,’ she said bluntly. ‘You talk about trust as if it can be had for the asking. Well, it can’t, not when you’re up to your neck in it. All I know for certain is that my father’s paying you to look after me, that for some reason he sent his solicitor over to talk to you on Monday afternoon, and that shortly afterwards you ordered half-hourly checks on me before disappearing.’ A glint – of humour? – appeared in her eyes. ‘Then, when you finally reappear, you’re attacked with a sledgehammer and the police come down on me like a ton of bricks.’
Thoughtfully, he scratched his beard. ‘You’ve run those facts into a related sequence when my interpretation is there’s no relation between them at all.’
‘Why did Kennedy come and see you then?’
‘Assuming there were no hidden agendas at work, to remind me that I promised your father you wouldn’t be subjected to therapy you didn’t want. Kennedy taped our conversation and, as I haven’t heard anything since, I’ve concluded that I said the right things in response and not the wrong things.’
‘What did you say?’ she shot at him.
‘I suggested it was Adam and not you who didn’t want you remembering anything.’ He noted her alarmed expression. ‘I also said he’d misread your character entirely and that he was worrying unnecessarily about any rehashing of Russell’s murder because you didn’t share his anxieties on the subject. Mind you, at that stage I was unaware that Meg and Leo were dead, or that you knew about it.’ Her alarm deepened. ‘If I had, I’d have been even more forceful in my remarks on his misreading of your character because I’ve never met anyone, man or woman, who is as self-reliant as you are.’
She plucked at the counterpane. ‘It’s something you learn very quickly when you find yourself on the wrong end of a murder inquiry,’ she said. ‘You never stop watching your back.’
‘Yet you’re so adept at getting everyone else to watch it for you,’ he said mildly. ‘Amy, for one; Matthew, for another.’
She smiled grudgingly. ‘Poor Amy is watching her own back. She’s terrified of getting the sack, but you can’t use what I’ve told you as an excuse. You’re my doctor and everything I’ve said was said in confidence.’ She changed tack. ‘According to Matthew, the police think the sledgehammer that was used to attack you belongs to the clinic. Is that right?’
‘What a mine of information that young man is.’
She ignored that. ‘Is he right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is there any doubt about it?’
‘I don’t think so. One of our security officers went looking for it because he knew we had one. It was abandoned in an outhouse with paint from my Wolseley on the head.’
She sat in deep thought for several seconds. ‘Could your security officer have been mistaken?’ she asked suddenly. ‘I mean, it seems such an odd thing to leave to chance. How could he rely on a sledgehammer being here?’ She searched his face eagerly. ‘He must have brought one with him. It doesn’t make sense otherwise.’
He found himself moved by the terrible yearning in her amazing eyes. Were Matthew and Amy as easily moved? ‘Meaning there’s another sledgehammer out there somewhere?’
She nodded.
‘OK. If it’s there, I’ll do my best to find it, but wouldn’t it be easier just to tell me who he is?’
Her face took on a closed expression. ‘Whoever hit you.’
He straightened with a sigh. ‘No, Jinx, it was whoever tried to kill me.’ You’re not the only one watching your back at the moment. ‘Think about that.’
Matthew Cornell was lounging against the front porch, smoking a cigarette, when Alan went outside. Alan toyed with the idea of tearing his arms off, then abandoned it as a non-starter. All in all, he was growing increasingly fond of his ginger-haired convert.
‘How’s it going, Matthew?’
‘Pretty good, Doc. How’s the shoulder?’
‘So-so.’ He eased the muscles gently. ‘Could have been a lot worse.’
‘Yeah. You could be dead.’
Alan watched him out of the corner of his eye. ‘Any ideas who might have done it? One theory is it was a junkie after drugs.’
‘That’s not the way I heard it.’
‘Is it not?’
‘There’s only one person in the frame and it sure as hell isn’t a junkie.’
‘You mean Miss Kingsley.’
‘She’s the only one with sledgehammers in her background.’ He ground his cigarette out under his heel.
‘Except she doesn’t fit the bill. It was a man I saw in my headlights.’
‘You sure, Doc? You’ve got a loud voice and I was sitting by my window Monday night, having a quiet smoke. I didn’t get the impression you thought it was a man.’
‘And you told her all about it the next morning.’
Matthew grinned at him. ‘Didn’t seem fair not to. It’s a mean old world, Doc, and how was I to know you weren’t going to tell the police? I knew she was out there. She lit up her face every time she had a fag. I was watching her for about an hour before you came back and got clobbered. You should remember where my room is, upstairs on the corner, with windows facing both ways.’
‘Are you saying you saw everything that happened?’
‘Not everything. I watched Jinx for a while, then some time later I heard you calling and looked out the other window. I saw your car parked, then – wham! – your windscreen exploded and I saw a silhouette against your headlights as you roared backwards and piled into the tree.’ He lit another cigarette. ‘I thought, shit, what the fuck is going on and what the fuck do I do about it? And by the time I’d made up my mind, all hell was breaking loose. You were driving up to the front door, blaring your horn, and all the lights were coming on. So I reckoned I’d keep my head down and see what panned out.’
‘Thanks very much,’ said Alan tartly. ‘I could have been dead by the time you came to a decision. You’re required to act in good faith, you know, not stick your head in the nearest bucket.’
He grinned again. ‘Yeah, well, I thought it was only your windscreen that’d been smashed, not your shoulder, and no one dies of a broken windscreen. You should have lights along the drive, then maybe I’d have seen a bit more.’
Alan glared at him. ‘So all you saw was a silhouette,’ he growled, ‘and you don’t know any better than I do who it was.’
‘That’s about the size of it.’
‘Are you planning to elaborate, or is that all I get?’ he said curtly. ‘It may have escaped your notice, but I suffered an unprovoked attempt on my life two nights ago and I’m not keen for a repeat experience.’
Matthew blew a stream of smoke into the air. ‘It was hardly unprovoked, Doc. The way I remember it, you were threatening to stay there all night till Jinx showed herself. You’re too c
onvincing, that’s your trouble. The bastard believed you.’
Alan had forgotten that. ‘So what was he doing there?’
‘Waiting.’ He flicked him a sideways glance.
‘What for?’
Matthew shrugged. ‘For whatever he came here to do.’ He saw thunder clouds gathering on the doctor’s face. ‘Look, Doc, I can guess, same as you can, but that’s not to say either of us’d be right. Personally, I can’t see that scarecrow in number twelve murdering anyone, therefore there’s some maniac wandering around out there, trying to shove the blame on to her. Strikes me he’ll be shitting bricks in case she spills the beans, so my guess is he was waiting to have another go at her.’
Alan considered this for a moment. ‘That can’t be right. You said she was out there for an hour and you saw her face every time she lit a cigarette. If you saw her, then he must have seen her, too, so why not finish her off then?’
Matthew looked down the drive towards where Alan had stopped his car on Monday night. ‘Because he didn’t expect to find her outside. She’d have screamed her head off if he’d crept up on her under the tree.’
‘Not if he’d hit her from behind. She wouldn’t have had time to scream. I didn’t.’
‘Jesus, Doc,’ said Matthew severely, ‘you don’t have much imagination, do you? He wasn’t going to make it look like murder, not after he went to so much trouble to fake suicide last time. He was going to trap her in her room, slit her wrists or string her up from the bathroom door, and you’d have had a suicide on your hands next morning, and the cops would have rubbed their hands and closed their files. My guess is, he’s been waiting for days for an opportunity to slip inside and do the business, but he’s up against it here. He probably didn’t reckon on so many people being on the premises at night. You’ve got good security, Doc, but then you need to with the sort of fees you charge.’ He grinned. ‘There are too many rich bastards in here who’d do their nuts if intruders could walk in and out as they pleased.’
‘Why did he have the sledgehammer if he didn’t plan to hit her with it?’
Matthew shook his head in exasperation. ‘You’re no psychologist, are you? It’s the tool of his trade, Doc, and the rule is, you carry the tools with you just in case. Look at the Yorkshire Ripper, he carried his hammer and chisel with him wherever he went. You should study a bit. This guy’s an organized nutter, and your average organized nutter doesn’t go out unprepared.’
‘Except we’re not talking about a serial killer.’
‘You reckon? Three murders look like a series to me.’
‘Come on, Matthew, there was ten years between them, two of the victims were men and one was a woman, and all three victims were linked to Jinx Kingsley. That’s not a typical pattern for serial killing.’
‘Not yet maybe,’ said Matthew, ‘but I’d say his control’s really slipping now, wouldn’t you? There were nine years between Jeffrey Dahmer’s first and second murders, then in the next four years he committed another fifteen. Will you still be saying this guy isn’t a serial killer when the next poor sod gets bludgeoned to death?’ He saw Alan’s scepticism. ‘Anyway, who’s to say what he’s been doing between then and now? I’ll lay money on the fact that he’s found some other way to work out his aggressions. You should talk to my Dad. He’s represented creeps like this at trial. They’re bloody clever and bloody manipulative, and I’ll tell you this for free, if I were Jinx, I’d have amnesia too.’
‘All she has to do is give his name.’
‘Which means it’ll be her word against his. Get real, Doc. She’s number one suspect, so it stands to reason she’s going to try and throw suspicion on someone else. That’s the name of the game as far as the police are concerned. She needs proof, and my guess is, there is none. I’d say she’s desperately buying time at the moment until she can remember something that will nail the bastard.’
‘She couldn’t be any worse off than she is now.’
Matthew flicked his butt on to the drive. ‘You’re forgetting she’s been through this once with Russell. She already knows what happens when no one’s convicted of a crime. The victim’s nearest and dearest live with the guilt for ever and tear each other apart in the process. Suspicion’s an evil thing, Doc. I know. I’ve been there. My old man’s accused me of some terrible things in the past, not because he knows I’ve done something, but because he’s afraid I’ve done it.’
‘So has she told you who it is?’
‘There’d be no point. What could a junkie do? It’s her father she needs to tell. He’s the only guy with the clout to sort this bastard out once and for all.’
Alan frowned at him. ‘You haven’t suggested that to her, have you?’
‘Jesus Christ! Do me a favour!’
‘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 tool sheds 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 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 June 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 suicide,’ 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 that 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 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 enquiry
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 chauffeuring 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 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 bust a gut to tie the three murders together.’
The Dark Room Page 34