Blake watched his busy pen for a moment. "So what's the connection with Ardingly Woods? Sledgehammers come two-a-penny on building sites. What's so special about this one?"
"The dead man's fiancee is a patient at the Nightingale, and she appears to be in the habit of losing husbands and lovers to death by bludgeoning." He glanced up from his notes. "Jane Kingsley, daughter of Adam Kingsley. It's been all over the newspapers for the last couple of days."
"I've been busy."
He pushed a tabloid towards her and stabbed a double column with his pen. "Hampshire gave a press briefing yesterday. It's all there."
Blake took the paper and read the piece rapidly. "Well, I can see why Hadden's pissed off," she remarked, laying it back on the counter. "Who do you reckon did it?"
He shrugged as he signed his name. "All I know is I wouldn't want to be employed by Franchise Holdings if they arrest Adam Kingsley. According to the business pages, the shares are sliding already, and that's just on fears he might have been involved." He straightened up. "How are you getting on with the Flossie Hale assault?"
"Not bad." She gave him a rundown of what she'd discovered. "He was carrying a key ring with a black disc embossed with a gold F and H. Flossie thinks they might be his initials but I'm not keen to put that in the description in case she's wrong. What do you think?"
He stared at her thoughtfully for a moment or two, then picked up the newspaper and leafed through the pages, looking for the business section. Inset into the article on Franchise Holdings was a picture of the company's logo-entwined initials against a black background. He showed it to her. "Something like that?"
"What are you, Sarge," said Blake in amazement, "a bloody magician?''
"Just a reader of newspapers. Would you believe, there are two degenerate sons as well as the hammer-wielding daughter?"
THE NIGHTINGALE CLINIC, SALISBURY-9:30 A.M.
The floor around Jinx's feet was awash with newspapers when Alan Protheroe knocked on her door at nine-thirty. "I ordered the lot," she said with a weak smile. "Have you seen what's happening?"
He nodded. "I watched the breakfast news. The shares started sliding again as soon as the market opened."
"Poor Adam, it's very unfair," she said bitterly. "They've been dying to cut him down to size for years and now they've been given the chance." She clenched her hands in her lap. "You know what makes me maddest of all? It's this garbage about no obvious successor. It's a cheap way to parade the family failings. Three of the present board are perfectly capable of taking over if anything happens to Adam, and the City knows it. There was never any question of Miles, Fergus, or me stepping into his shoes. He wouldn't have it. He's worked too hard to watch his children destroy what he built." She sighed. "Well, we're destroying it anyway, between us. It wouldn't matter a tuppenny damn what I'd done if either Miles or Fergus could stand up and be counted."
"What have you done, Jinx?"
"How about this for starters?" she said sarcastically. "I managed to choose three murder victims as husband, fiance, and best friend. It does rather imply there's something rotten in the state of Denmark when three corpses litter the doorstep, don't you think?"
"Yes."
There was a short silence. "Do you know why I hated Stephanie Fellowes so much, and why I wouldn't engage in any of her psychocrap?" said Jinx coldly. "Because she couldn't believe I had nothing to do with Russell's death. Did she put that in her notes?"
"No."
"Are you putting your skepticism in your notes?" Would it hurt so much if she liked him less?
"No."
"But you are keeping notes?" He nodded. "Then what are you writing about me, Dr. Protheroe?"
"They're just private ones." The sexual fantasies of a man going mad from celibacy ... Okay, so Russell pressed the right buttons but did he turn you on?... What are you like in bed, Miss Kingsley?... "Yesterday, for example, I wrote: 'It's a pity Jinx doesn't smile more. It suits her.' "
She promptly frowned. "Instead of saying yes just then, why couldn't you have said: 'The odds against you or your family being involved aren't good, Jinx, but they do exist'? What makes you think I'm so fucking hard that I don't need reassurance, even if it is from a bastard like you?"
He grinned. "Because you'd probably have torn strips off me for being patronizing. We both know you're not a fool and we both know you're up against it. All I can do, in the absence of something concrete to work on, is to point out the pitfalls. It's up to you how you choose to negotiate them."
"It's patronizing to say smiling suits me."
"It wasn't intended to be, but if that's how you choose to see it, then so be it."
"I hate existentialism."
"Sure you do," he said. "Which is why you're such a master of it." He touched the newspapers with the toe of his shoe. "What will happen to Franchise Holdings?"
"If they can't stop the slide, then Adam will resign," she said matter-of-factly. "He certainly won't stand idly by while receivers are sent in. In fact, if you've any spare cash, now's the time to gamble on some shares. They're a bargain at the moment. I guarantee the price will start back up again the minute the panic subsides."
"What about the rumors of financial irregularities?"
"I'm certain there aren't any, or none that can be proved. Adam once said that if 'Nipper' Read of Scotland Yard couldn't get anything on him, then no one could."
"Are you going to buy some shares?"
Her eyes gleamed wickedly. "I already have. I phoned my stockbroker this morning. He's selling everything in my portfolio to buy into Franchise Holdings."
"What if you're wrong and you lose the lot?"
"It'll be in a good cause," she said. "At least I'll know I nailed my colors to the mast when it really mattered."
"Is the motive really as pure as that?"
She looked at him suspiciously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Veronica Gordon tells me your stepmother came last night. I just wondered if there was a little malice mixed in with the altruism." Veronica had been shocked by Jinx's cruelty, far more than she had by Betty's drunkenness: "I think I've underestimated her, Alan. My guess is, she's as ruthless as her father."
"What sort of malice?"
"The sort that jumps up and down and says: 'Look at me, Adam, I'm supporting you. Look at her, she's not.' "
Jinx lit a cigarette. "Chance would be a fine thing, wouldn't it? Will I ever get the opportunity to do that? I don't remember Adam coming here, but perhaps that's something else I've forgotten."
"Have you invited him?"
She gave her faint smile. "I didn't invite Simon Harris, but he still came. I didn't invite Miles or Fergus, but they came. Why does Adam require an invitation, Dr. Protheroe? Surely loving fathers visit their sick daughters as a matter of course."
"Perhaps he's afraid of rejection, Jinx."
"I doubt it. If he were, he wouldn't be so quick to reject everyone else." She returned to his questioning of her motives. "In any case, malice would be redundant where Betty's concerned. She's burned her boats and she's drowning, and I'm not going to lift a finger to help her."
Then why do you look so sad? he wondered.
14 GLENAVON GARDENS, RICHMOND, SURREY-10:30 A.M.
The requestioning of everyone connected with Jane Kingsley, Leo Wallader, and Meg Harris was planned as a rolling program throughout that Wednesday, with questions specifically geared to building a clear picture of their movements and whereabouts each day from the Bank Holiday Monday through to the evening of Monday, June the thirteenth. DS Fraser was assigned to London and interviews with the Clanceys, Josh Hennessey, Dean Jarrett, and Meg's neighbor Mrs. Helms. He began with the Clanceys in Richmond, first explaining the purpose of the questions and then taking them back to Monday, the thirtieth of May, two weeks before Jinx's car crash. "We understand from Leo's parents that he and Jinx returned to London sometime during the late afternoon or early evening. Can you confirm that?" As he spoke, he tickled Goebbels's ears. The tiny little dog had stretched itself along his knees, chin hanging over the edge, and Fraser, thoroughly seduced, was grateful that Maddocks wasn't there to pour scorn on this simple affection.