Stagestruck

‘Now?’ Ingeborg asked.

‘Sooner the better. And take Fred with you.’

Her eyes doubled in size. Insubordination threatened. She’d already done more than her share of mothering Dawkins.

But the man himself was ecstatic. ‘You’re sending me?’

‘Yes, but keep a low profile. Leave the talking to Ingeborg. Any problem with that, Inge?’

She said with an effort at control, ‘No, guv.’

Galvanized, Dawkins was already making for the door.

After they’d left, Halliwell said, ‘He’s keen.’

‘Keen to get out of here, anyway,’ Diamond said. ‘Well, people. How has it been? Busy this morning?’

One of the civilian staff spoke up. ‘A number of phone calls. Sergeant Dawkins handled them.’

‘In his inimitable style, no doubt.’

‘There was one message from the Assistant Chief Constable.’

‘Georgina? He didn’t say.’

‘It’s logged.’

‘What do you mean – logged?’ He had a mental picture of felled trees.

‘Stored in the system. I believe the ACC wants to speak to you.’

‘Why didn’t someone tell me before this?’

‘If you look at your in-box, sir, you’ll find Sergeant Dawkins marked it as priority.’

‘My in-box? He’s got a tongue in his head. He was here until a few minutes ago.’

‘I think he may be shy.’

‘Have you seen the suits he wears? Shy he is not.’

The blood pressure soared to a dangerous level. It was a good thing Dawkins had left the building.

In her eyrie on the top floor, Georgina was in a benign mood when Diamond entered and muttered an apology about not responding sooner.

‘It isn’t urgent, as I thought I made clear to Horatio.’

He was thrown by the name. He had to dig deep to recall who Horatio was and when it came back to him, he wasn’t thrilled. How was it that the so-called shy man, Dawkins, was on first-name terms with the Assistant Chief Constable?

Georgina was thinking of other things. ‘All the trouble at the theatre – did you get to the bottom of it?’

‘Not yet, ma’am,’ he said. ‘It’s more complex than I first thought.’

‘The suicide?’

‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure it was a suicide.’

Her eyebrows lifted like level-crossing gates.

‘She left no note,’ Diamond said.

‘I expect she was too distressed. People with suicide in mind aren’t always so organised.’

‘And we haven’t been able to prove a definite connection with the caustic soda incident. We’re still working on it. Denise Pearsall doesn’t seem to have had any grudge against Clarion.’

‘I’m not sure I’m following you,’ Georgina said. ‘Are you suggesting she died by accident?’

‘I’m wondering if she jumped at all.’

‘Now you’ve lost me altogether.’

‘She may have been pushed.’

Georgina blinked. ‘I can’t think how.’

‘Neither could I until this morning when I had another look backstage. Foolishly I’d assumed she climbed a ladder to get up to the loading bridge. Today I learned there’s a way onto it from the second floor.’

‘Is that significant?’

‘It is if someone wanted to murder her. Much simpler than climbing a vertical iron ladder.’

‘Murder? Peter, are you serious?’

‘There’s a dressing room up there, just the one, not in use in the present play. I found clear evidence somebody was in there recently. It would make a useful base for anyone intending to ambush her.’

Georgina let him know she would need a lot more convincing. ‘It’s far more likely she went in there herself prior to taking her own life.’

‘Even so, I’m having the room checked by a scene of crime team.’