‘Sally Bowles, the character played by Clarion.’
‘Understood,’ Dawkins said with a force that made Denise jerk back in her chair. ‘Sally is Clarion, or should I say Clarion is Sally?’
‘Yes.’
‘For simplicity…’ He paused, insisting on a response.
‘Yes?’
‘For simplicity, let’s use their real names.’
As if she was catching this policeman’s pedantry, Denise said, ‘I doubt if her real name is Clarion. She’s a show person, like Madonna.’
‘Or Beyonce,’ PC Reed said to Dawkins, taking the baton and happy to run with it. ‘Duffy, Lady GaGa, Little Boots.’
‘Clarion will do,’ Dawkins said. ‘I don’t need to know her real name.’
PC Reed said, ‘But you just said let’s use – ’
‘Enough,’ he stopped her, and turned back to Denise. ‘What did you use for make-up – greasepaint?’
‘No, that’s hardly ever used in the modern theatre. It’s too heavy and oily. The basic foundation, moisturiser, cream liners, rouge and blusher, powder and the usual liners for eyes and lips. Professional brands made from the best materials. They shouldn’t produce a reaction, certainly nothing like what happened last night.’
‘Shouldn’t, wouldn’t or couldn’t,’ Dawkins said, and he seemed to be talking to himself.
Denise looked ready to burst into tears. It wouldn’t take much more of this abrasive questioning. In fact she was doing more than her interrogator to bring a semblance of structure to the interview. ‘Well, if an actor suffers from acne it can get inflamed, but Clarion had a healthy complexion.’
PC Reed looked up from her notes. ‘Some people have sensitive skin.’
‘Allergies, yes,’ Denise said, ‘but she’d have known. She’d have told me, wouldn’t she?’ Uncertainty clouded her face and her hand clutched at her throat again. ‘Besides, we had the dress rehearsal on Sunday and she was perfectly all right.’
‘Dress rehearsal?’ Dawkins said.
‘Sunday afternoon.’
‘With all the warpaint on?’
She looked pained again, but didn’t take issue. ‘That’s what makes this so hard to understand. If there was going to be a reaction it should have happened then.’
‘Except…’
‘What?’
‘If you used something different last night.’
‘I didn’t. All the pots and sticks were freshly opened, but exactly the same brand. We’ve used it for years in this theatre and never had any problems.’
‘It was Clarion who had the problem,’ Dawkins said.
‘That’s what I meant.’ She sank her face into her hands and sobbed. ‘Oh dear, I feel dreadful about it.’
The damage to Clarion’s face was referred the same day to the head of Bath’s CID, Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond, a man well used to dramas, but not of the theatrical sort. He wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a theatre-goer. He was already putting up barriers.
‘We’re in danger of getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we, ma’am?’ he said to Georgina Dallymore, the Assistant Chief Constable. ‘How do we know it wasn’t an accident?’
‘There are grounds for suspicion,’ she said, bringing her lips together in a way that didn’t invite debate. ‘I’m not proposing a full-scale investigation yet, but we must be primed and ready to spring into action. If this
‘As bad as that?’
‘So the papers say. In case you’re about to remind me that you specialise in murder, I must tell you that this is a kind of death.’
‘In what way?’
‘The end of her show business career. She’s very well known.’
He nodded, thinking she was making a meal out of this. ‘Even I’ve heard of Clarion Calhoun. Daft name, but you don’t forget it.’
‘She’s brilliant at what she does. It’s not my kind of singing, but I can’t deny her talent. The tabloid press are out in force. If there was foul play, we must get onto it before they do. We can’t tag along behind.’
Pressure as always, he thought. One of these days she’ll tell me to take my time over a case. And pigs might fly.
He hadn’t yet fathomed Georgina’s interest in the matter. She was talking as if she had a personal stake.
‘What’s Clarion saying?’ he asked. ‘Does she blame anyone?’
‘She’s refusing to be interviewed. The official line is that she’s in no state to receive visitors. Her lawyers have brought in a private security firm to guard the hospital room.’
