He hadn’t yet briefed his team. Truth to tell, he wasn’t confident he had the facts straight. Illusion and special effects were the stock-in-trade of theatres, so he was wary of anything that happened on a stage in front of an audience, even when it was unscripted. Several hundred theatre-goers believed they’d witnessed an acutely painful and distressing incident and probably they had, but it couldn’t be taken as fact without investigation. Clarion’s burns were real according to the hospital reports, yet the way they had been inflicted gave cause for uncertainty. If, as everyone supposed, the make-up had caused the damage, why hadn’t she screamed in pain at the time it was applied, or immediately after?
His other concern was the possibility of fraud. By all accounts, Clarion the pop singer was on the skids and looking for alternative employment. She’d been hired by the theatre to play a nightclub singer. Typecasting, you might say, and a one-off. Did anyone expect she would go on to a second career in acting? As things had turned out, she’d done the minimum of acting and was expected to sue the theatre for a huge sum, enough for a long and comfortable retirement. Of course the scarring would need to be permanent to convince a court. A grim possibility: had she injured herself for the prospect of a multi-million-pound settlement?
Two conversations were in progress and one was getting interesting. Diamond put a hand over his ear to block out the woman at the next table talking about last night’s
‘It’s obvious she’s deeply troubled.’
He heard the barmaid say, ‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘You work here, love, so you can’t ignore it.’
‘Try me. She hasn’t been in for a drink.’
‘Don’t be like that,’ the man said. ‘Personally, I find the whole thing heartbreaking. She’s there on stage and this gorgeous man in one of the upper boxes seems to be giving her the come-on, so she tries to signal that she’s interested. In fact she’s a lot more than interested. She’s practically shinning up the curtain to get at him. And this meanie doesn’t even ask her out. He cuts her dead, so in desperation… we both know what she did.’
‘If you want to believe it.’
‘Now, come on. It’s common knowledge round here. Do you know which door she used?’
‘Door? Oh, I get you. No, and I haven’t asked.’
‘It may be the one behind you. I couldn’t stay in the job if I were you.’
‘It doesn’t bother me.’
‘If you saw her, it would.’
‘But I haven’t.’
‘Never smelt jasmine around the bar?’
The girl laughed. ‘You get all sorts of smells in this place. Why, is jasmine what she uses?’
‘Exclusively. I’ve smelt it myself.’
‘Where?’
‘In the corridor behind the royal circle.’
Curiosity got the better of Diamond. He turned in his chair. ‘I couldn’t help overhearing what you’re saying. This woman you’re talking about. Who is she?’
‘I wouldn’t call her a woman if I were you,’ the man said.
‘I misheard, then.’
‘The grey lady,’ the man said, smoothing his tie and treating Diamond to a dazzling smile. He didn’t fit Diamond’s image of a scene-shifter, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. ‘She’s our theatre ghost.’
‘Ah.’ Spooks didn’t interest Diamond, and the letdown he felt must have been obvious.
‘Don’t look so disbelieving,’ the man said. ‘She’s real enough. We know precisely when she topped herself and where.’
‘Tell him, then,’ the barmaid said, and winked at Diamond. ‘Pretend you’re shaking in your shoes.’
The man said, ‘She strung a rope over a door right here in the Garrick’s Head and hanged herself, in the year 1812.’
‘And came back as a ghost?’
‘Any number of people have seen her. Are you old enough to remember Anna Neagle? Probably not, if I’m any judge. Dame Anna had her feet on the ground if ever an actor did. She was playing in something in the nineteen- seventies and she and the entire cast saw the grey lady in the upper box, stage right, just as the curtain rose. Imagine that.’
‘They probably did.’
The barmaid cackled with laughter.
‘Be like that,’ the man said in an injured tone. ‘If you don’t want to know, why ask me?’ This had turned personal and he was ruffled.
Diamond gave an honest answer. ‘Just now I thought you were talking about Clarion Calhoun.’
‘That poor creature? There’s nothing spooky about her. I shouldn’t say this, but the accident is a blessing in disguise. She was dreadful in rehearsal.’
The barmaid said, ‘Titus, that’s unfair.’
