Colonel Clancey pursed his ancient lips. "I remember seeing Jinx on the Saturday morning but not on the Monday," he said at last. "I was in the garden and she came out to talk to me. She was hopping mad, far as I recall. Her two brothers were sleeping off hangovers upstairs, and Leo hadn't come home the night before. She asked me if I knew where he'd gone, because they were supposed to be going down to Guildford together, and I said I hadn't seen him for a couple of days." He glanced briefly at his wife. "I also said," he went on firmly, "that she was making a mistake with Leo and she said, 'Don't worry, Colonel, I've already come to that conclusion myself.' Then she went back inside and a little while later, Leo himself showed up."
"You never told me you said that," said Mrs. Clancey.
"Thought you'd be angry," he barked. "You were always so keen on her marrying again."
"Nonsense. It was you kept telling her she owed it to society to have babies. 'A woman like you with brains and initiative,' you kept saying, 'you've got a responsibility to pass on the genes. Can't be doing with all these teenage nitwits producing hundreds while the clever people don't produce any. End up with idiots running the planet.' "
Hastily, Fraser forestalled the development of this argument. "When did you next see either of them?"
"I saw them leave together on the Sunday morning," said Daphne helpfully. "Jinx was wearing a baseball cap because Leo would insist on driving his car with the top down, and I remember thinking how much prettier she'd look in a straw bonnet."
"Why was she going away with him if she'd already decided he wasn't for her?" asked Fraser thoughtfully.
"She has lovely manners," said Mrs. Clancey.
"The Wednesday after," said the Colonel baldly, who had been thinking hard. "We were in the garden, six o'clockish, G and T time anyway, and Jinx came down the path from the garage." He gestured towards the window. "Runs along the fence, don't you know? She was happy as a sandboy, singing her head off, and I called out: 'Who's won the jackpot?' And she popped her head over the top and said: 'How's tricks?' "
"Yes," agreed Daphne, "and I said: 'You're obviously looking forward to your week in Hampshire,' and she said: 'Got it in one, Mrs. C. A change is as good as a rest.' "
Fraser waited for a moment while Goebbels turned on his back and offered his tummy for scratching. "Was that all?" he asked, crooking a sly finger and plucking at the golden fur. They nodded simultaneously.
"You didn't ask her about Leo and how the weekend went?"
The Colonel looked offended. "Good Lord, no," he said. "None of our business. Doubt she'd have told us anyway. Private sort of person, Jinx." He scowled at Goebbels, whose erect penis was showing pinkly through his fur. "Filthy little beast. Kick him off if it upsets you."
Fraser, who hadn't noticed, smiled weakly and uncrooked his finger. "Did you see Leo that day?"
"No. Matter of fact"-the Colonel paused for thought-"I don't recall seeing him at all after the Saturday morning. Hadn't really considered it, to tell you the truth, but now you ask..." He looked inquiringly at his wife. "Do you remember seeing him?"
"For me it was the Sunday," she reminded them.
The Colonel snorted impatiently. "Afterwards, woman, afterwards."
"Well, I wouldn't expect to see him, not as a general rule," she said, addressing her remarks to Fraser. "He never went out of his way to be particularly pleasant. The odd 'good morning' once in a while, and that was the most one could expect. I think he resented us because we'd known Russell and he was afraid we were making comparisons, but we didn't like Russell very much either, and it was a bit of a disappointment to find Jinx had picked the same type again."
Her husband fixed her with a basilisk glare. "The question was, you silly old thing, did you see him after the Sunday?"
She smiled absentmindedly. "I don't think I did, no."
"Not even during the week Jinx was away?" Fraser prompted.
"Definitely not," barked the Colonel, fluffing his mustache, "but then he wasn't supposed to be there. Jinx popped in on the Friday night-that'd be June the third-to say she was off to Hampshire in the morning and he'd be spending the week in Surrey. She said not to bother about watering the house plants but yes, please put some water on the garden when I had the hose running. Back the next Sunday, she told us."
Fraser frowned and leaned down to flick through some papers he'd placed on the floor beside his chair. "I was under the impression she came back on the Friday, June the tenth."
"Well, yes, matter of fact she did. Not that we knew until the next morning. Came looking for me on the Saturday-that'd be the eleventh-and said: 'Guess what, Colonel, the wedding's off as of last night. The bastard's jilted me, and the only bugger is he beat me to it.' " He pursed his lips again and frowned. "And let me tell you, Sergeant, she was pleased as punch about it, looked as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders. Then she went back inside to phone her father, telling me to keep my fingers crossed that he wouldn't make her pay for the cost of the canceled wedding."
"According to her parents, she came home earlier than she'd planned after a phone call on the Friday afternoon. When she got here, she caught Leo packing his belongings, at which point he told her he was going to marry her best friend and left. The implication was that he had been here all the time."
"No," said the Colonel stoutly, "and I'm damn sure he didn't put in an appearance on the Friday, either. I was in the front garden all afternoon so I'd have seen his car."
"Are you sure about that?"
"I certainly am. We have a strict routine. Tuesdays and Fridays, the front garden; Mondays and Wednesdays, the back; Thursdays, shopping. Never varies."
Fraser glanced towards Daphne Clancey, who nodded. "Never varies," she agreed. "I blame the Army for it." A sly smile crept around her mouth. "I blame the Army for a lot of things."
Fraser chewed the inside of his lip in thought. "Why didn't you tell the Richmond police this when they interviewed you after Jinx's accident?" he said.
"Because they were only interested in why Jinx would want to kill herself," the Colonel pointed out. "So Daphne told 'em Leo jilted her, and before I could explain that she didn't seem too unhappy about it, Daphne starts weeping and wailing about the incident on the Sunday. False conclusions being drawn all over the place, if you ask me."
"What's your explanation for the incident on Sunday, sir?"
"It was an accident," he said. "Door blew shut. Goebbels was onto it like a shot. Me, too, for that matter. Hauled her out of the garage and she was right as rain in no time."
"The silly old fool nearly killed himself," said Mrs. Clancey fondly.
Fraser nodded again. "Did she give you an explanation after you got her out of the garage?"
"Just agreed it must have been an accident," said the Colonel, "then begged Daphne to stop fussing. 'I'm all right,' she said."
Fraser had observed the outside of the garage when he arrived. Like the Clanceys', which was separated from it by a narrow pathway beside the four-foot wall that divided the properties, it was part of a two-story side elevation at the rear of the house with access from inside. The front doors faced each other under discreet porches halfway between the corners of the houses and their garages, leaving an enviable stretch of ground between the gates and the front elevations. Jinx's was full of shrubs and small trees, masking the ground floor of the house from the road; the Clanceys' was rather more formal, with rose beds around a small area of lawn. After all, thought Fraser, it wasn't surprising Tuesdays and Fridays were given over to its care. A view of the back garden through their sitting room window showed an area of equivalent size.