"Oh good God, girl," screeched the nurse, "what's got into you? You being sick? What you been taking? What you doing with your clothes on? You was fast asleep last time I checked."
Jinx slumped to the floor and stared at her from red-rimmed eyes. "It was a dream, Amy," she whispered. "Only a dream."
"Ooh, you're a wicked girl. I've never had such a fright in my life. You just wait till I tell Dr. Protheroe. I thought you'd done for yourself good and proper.'' She beat her chest. "I could have had a heart attack. And why did you open your windows? Top panes only after nine o'clock, that's the rule. What you been up to?"
Jinx curled into a ball on the tiled floor. "Nothing," she said.
Bodies in Wood Identified
It was confirmed last night by Hampshire police that the two bodies discovered in Ardingly Woods near Winchester on Thursday have been identified as Leo Wallader, 35, of Downton Court, Ashwell, Guildford, and Meg Harris, 34, of Shoebury Terrace, Hammersmith, London. Police are treating their deaths as murder.
Information about the identity of the two victims came from Leo's father. Sir Anthony Wallader, 69, who is angry about what he calls police apathy over the affair. "I identified my son's body on Saturday morning," he claims, "but have had no contact with the Hampshire police since. They tell me my son and his girlfriend were murdered some two weeks ago, yet there is no urgency to the inquiries. I have been contacted by Meg's mother, who lives in Wiltshire, and she is as upset by the police lethargy as I am. We feel it may have something to do with the fact that both sets of parents live outside the County. If this was a Surrey police investigation I would have more confidence."
It is no secret that Leo Wallader was engaged to Jane Kingsley, daughter of Adam Kingsley of Hellingdon Hall, Hampshire, Chairman of FranchiseHoldings, but the wedding was canceled when Leo announced he wanted to marry Jane's friend Meg Harris.
Subsequently, Miss Kingsley was involved in a mysterious car crash on a disused airfield. Police believe this to have been a failed suicide attempt. Despite her testing positive for alcohol when she was rescued from her car, Hampshire police have still failed to charge Miss Kingsley with any offense.
Jane Kingsley's first husband, Russell Landy, was clubbed to death ten years ago with a sledgehammer but his murderer was never found. Hampshire police refused to comment on how Leo Wallader and Meg Harris died, but Sir Anthony said both victims had been brutally bludgeoned. "It was terrible to see," he said. "I dread to think how Mrs. Harris feels."
"We have very little to go on at this stage," said Det. Supt. Cheever of Hampshire police, "but we are pursuing every lead we have. I am sorry Sir Anthony feels as he does but I can assure him we are leaving no stone unturned to discover his son's killer."
Supt. Cheever said he could not confirm that a sledgehammer had been used to murder the couple. "The bodies lay undiscovered for some ten days," he said, "and it is always difficult in those circumstances to be precise about how and when the victims died."
The Times-28th June
*14*
TUESDAY, 28TH JUNE, THE NIGHTINGALE CLINIC, SALISBURY-1:00 A.M.
The two constables surveyed the shattered windshield and the crushed Wolseley trunk with unfeigned disgust. It was parked forlornly by the front door, where Alan had driven it when he realized that without some very prompt action, his dislocated shoulder would require reduction under general anesthetic at the nearest emergency room. He had blared the horn with all the vigor of the angels and archangels sounding the last trump, and sobbed with relief when the night security officer emerged to rescue him, and Veronica Gordon, using strong hands and a steady nerve, guided the bones back into place. Even so, it had been a close call. After fifteen minutes, the joint had been so swollen that the pain was unbearable.
"That's criminal," said one policeman, lighting the damage with his torch. "How many times did you say he hit it, sir?"
"Only once," said Alan, cradling his left elbow in the palm of his right hand, unconvinced that the sling he was wearing was reliable. "I smashed the back in when I was reversing away from him. I'm rather more interested in the fact that he had at least two swipes at me."
"Still, sir," said the other ponderously, "he seems to have done more damage to your car."
"Remind me to show you some pictures of dislocated joints thirty minutes after the event," he said dryly. "Then tell me he did more damage to my car." He led the way into his office, padding wearily to his desk and hitching a buttock onto the edge. "I suppose it's occurred to you he might still be out there."
"Highly unlikely, sir-not with all the activity that's been going on."
The police car had arrived within ten minutes of the 999 call, and, following Dr. Protheroe's description of events-namely, that he had glimpsed a face in his headlights and stopped to investigate-the policemen worked on the logical assumption that an intruder had come with the intention of burglary and the doctor had had the misfortune to get in his way. A thorough check of all the doors and windows, however, had failed to discover any signs of a break-in.
"We can't fault your security, sir," said the larger of the two constables, with a perplexed frown, "which makes me doubt this fellow had cased the clinic very thoroughly. If he was planning a burglary, he can't have known how difficult it was going to be to break in. So are you sure you didn't recognize him? Otherwise, I don't understand why he bothered to attack you. He clearly hadn't committed a crime at that point, not unless he entered and left by the front door, which your security officer says is impossible because he's been at the reception desk since ten o'clock."
"I'm sure. In any case I was beginning to think I'd made a mistake about seeing anyone at all until I felt the hammer brush my arm. I had no idea he was so close to me. I certainly didn't hear him, but as I'd left the car engine running, that wasn't really surprising."
"And you can't think of any reason why someone would want to attack you?"
Alan shook his head. "Unless he knew I was a doctor and thought I had drugs in the car. I've been racking my brains but I can't think of anything else." There would be time enough tomorrow, he thought, to decide whether it had been Jinx's face he saw in the headlamps, or whether his imagination had put her there because she had been on his mind.
"An ex-patient, perhaps, who would recognize your car?"
"I wouldn't have thought so. It's one of the first things I make clear when they arrive. We have a limited supply of drugs on the premises and they're always locked away in that safe over there."
He jerked his head towards the solid Chubb in the corner. "They certainly know I never carry anything in my car."
The constable lowered himself onto a chair and took a notebook from his pocket. "Well, let's get some details down. You say he ran away after smashing the windshield, so you must have had a pretty good look at him then."
Alan plucked a Kleenex from a box on his desk and dabbed at his face, which was still bleeding from where tiny shards of glass had embedded themselves in his skin. "Not really. I was having a hell of a job trying to find reverse with my right hand, so I was concentrating on that."
"Will you describe him for me, please?"