Half an hour later, Alan stood with Jinx at her window and watched a tall, well-built man in an immaculate suit emerge from the back seat of a Rolls-Royce. ‘Your father?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’ve never explained why you call him Adam.’
‘What makes you think there is an explanation?’
He smiled. ‘Your expression every time the subject comes up.’
She watched the tall figure disappear from view into the building. ‘I wanted to punish him, so I did what God did and cursed Adam for allowing his wife to seduce him.’ She turned to Alan. ‘I was seven years old. I’ve called him Adam ever since.’
‘You were jealous of Betty?’
‘Of course. I didn’t want to share my father with anyone. I adored him.’
Alan nodded. ‘In spite of everything, I suspect you still do.’
‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m long past adoration. But I do admire him. I always have done. He achieves while the rest of us get by.’
‘Well, I hope you recognize that he’s making the first move,’ said Alan casually. ‘Will you be generous to him?’
‘If I’m not, the clinic won’t get paid.’ She smiled slightly at his expression. ‘Don’t go sentimental on me, Dr Protheroe. The one thing you can be sure of is that my father will never change. He’d sue if he thought you’d deliberately poisoned my mind against him.’
‘So what happens now?’
‘I’m discharging myself. I’m not your patient any more. I think we say goodbye.’
‘Where will you go?’
‘Back to Richmond.’
‘Does your father know Miles and Fergus are there?’
‘Not unless they’ve told him.’
‘If they need a good barrister, then don’t forget Matthew’s father. I’m told he’s one of the best.’
Jinx smiled and tapped her pocket. ‘Matthew’s given me his card. I thought I’d use the gains I’ve made on the Franchise Holdings shares to pay his fees. Matthew says they’ll be exorbitant.’ She shrugged. ‘Then, with luck and a little emotional blackmail, I may persuade Adam to acknowledge Betty and the boys again once it’s all over.’
‘You don’t think it might be better to let Miles and Fergus fight this battle alone?’
‘Probably.’
‘Then why don’t you?’
‘Because they’re my brothers,’ she said, ‘and their mother’s the only one I’ve ever known. It’s worth another try, don’t you think?’
‘It depends whether you believe in the triumph of hope over experience.’
‘I do. Look at me. Look at Matthew.’
He nodded. ‘Matthew’s very fond of you, Jinx.’
‘Yes.’ She listened for footsteps approaching down the corridor. ‘But only because I have the same black eyes as his dying fox. He wants to train as a vet when he leaves here. Has he told you that?’
Alan shook his head.
‘He’s a sucker for wounded animals. People, he can take or leave.’
‘He’s not so different from you then.’
She gave a little jump as Adam’s footsteps sounded at the top of the stairs. ‘On the whole,’ she said in a rush, ‘I’m not quite so prepared to leave them as I used to be. Perhaps my judgement’s improving.’
‘That’s good.’ He smiled down at her. ‘The Nightingale’s achieved something then.’
‘Except that I don’t think it was the Nightingale.’ She crossed to the door and stood with her back to it. ‘I don’t always look like something the dog threw up, you know. You’d be amazed what a little hair does for me.’ She hesitated. ‘I – er – I suppose you wouldn’t like to look me up in a month or two when I’m more presentable?’
He shook his head. ‘Not really.’
She blushed with embarrassment. ‘It was just a thought, Dr Protheroe. Rather a stupid one. Sorry.’
There was a loud knock on the door. ‘Jane, are you in there? It’s your father.’
Alan lowered his voice. ‘The name is Alan, Jinx, and who the hell needs hair? I only ever fantasize about bald women.’
Another knock. ‘Jane? It’s your father.’
Her eyes gleamed. ‘I’ll be with you in ten minutes, Adam,’ she called. ‘There’s something I have to do first. Can you wait in the foyer for me?’
‘Why can’t I wait in there?’
The Nightingale’s administrator lifted an eyebrow. ‘I’ll be psychotic in two months,’ he murmured. ‘It does a man no good to keep his feelings zipped up as tightly as this. I’m in considerable pain here.’
Jinx was shaking with laughter as she quietly locked the door. ‘It’s a woman’s thing, Adam,’ she called to him in a quivering voice. ‘You’d only be embarrassed.’
‘Oh, I see. Well, no rush,’ said her father gruffly. ‘I passed Dr Protheroe’s office on my way in. I’ll have a word with him while I’m waiting.’
‘You do that,’ she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. ‘You’ll like him, Adam. He’s your sort of man. Straight as a die and larger than life.’
The Dark Room
With her debut, The Ice House, Minette Walters won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel of 1992. Rapidly establishing a reputation as one of the most exciting crime novelists writing today, her second novel, The Sculptress, was acclaimed by critics as one of the most compelling and powerful novels of the year and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best crime novel published in America in 1993. In 1994 Minette Walters achieved a unique triple when The Scold’s Bridle was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year. Her following five novels, The Dark Room, The Echo, The Breaker, The Shape of Snakes and Acid Row, were also published to further critical acclaim throughout the world and her ninth novel, Fox Evil, won the 2003 CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction. Her short novel Chickenfeed was written for World Book Day to encourage emergent readers and was voted the 2006 Quick Reads Readers’ Favourite.
Minette Walters lives in Dorset with her husband and two children.
By the same author
The Ice House
The Sculptress
The Scold’s Bridle
The Echo
The Breaker
The Shape of Snakes
Acid Row
Fox Evil
Disordered Minds
The Devil’s Feather
The Chameleon’s Shadow
and
The Tinder Box
Chickenfeed
(Quick Reads)
Praise for Minette Walters
The Ice House
‘Terrific first novel with a high Rendellesque frisson count’
The Times
The Sculptress
‘A devastatingly effective novel’
Observer
The Scold’s Bridle
‘A gothic puzzle of great intricacy and psychological power’
Sunday Times
The Dark Room
‘A marvellous, dramatically intelligent novel. It shimmers with suspense, ambiguity and a deep unholy joy’
Daily Mail
The Echo
‘It grips like steel . . . Passion, compassion, intelligence and romance are what Walters offers with no quarter for squeamish cowards’
Mail on Sunday
The Breaker
‘Stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of crime novels . . . Existing fans will love The Breaker, new readers will be instant converts’
Daily Express
The Shape of Snakes
‘Breaking all the rules of popular fiction, Minette Walters asks as much of her readers as many literary novelists, and yet she offers them a book as gripping as any thriller’
Times Literary Supplement
Acid Row
‘Humane intelligence enables Walters to twist and turn her plot . . . Acid Row is a breathtaking achievement’
Daily Telegraph
Fox Evil
‘Fox Evil
is the work of a writer at the peak of her confidence and supreme ability’
The Times
Disordered Minds
‘A powerful, acute and vivid work from a staggeringly talented writer’
Observer
The Tinder Box
‘If there wasn’t a recognised school of crime writing called Home Counties noir before, there is now. Minette Walters invented it and remains the undisputed Head Girl’
Birmingham Post
The Devil’s Feather
‘One of the most powerful yet nuanced practitioners of the psychological thriller . . . always keeps the narrative momentum cracked up to a fierce degree’
Daily Express
Chickenfeed
‘A marvellous little story, thoroughly intimate with human nastiness’
Evening Standard
The Chameleon’s Shadow
‘No wonder Minette Walters is the country’s bestselling female crime writer. But even this label does not exactly do justice to the scope and breadth of her gripping, terrifying novels . . . The Chameleon’s Shadow is another classic’
Daily Mirror
First published 1995 by Macmillan
First published in paperback 1996 by Pan Books
This edition published 2008 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-330-52853-5 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-52852-8 EPUB
Copyright © Minette Walters 1995
The right of Minette Walters to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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The Dark Room Page 39