have a deep voice…”
“And I sing so high.” She smiled warmly. “People often mention that. Speaking voices don’t always indicate a singer’s range. I started as a mezzo-soprano, and then, with training, extended my upper register. It’s not that unusual-Joan Sutherland wasn’t a soprano to begin with, either.”
Carol wanted to get down to business. She glanced at Anne, who took out her notebook. After refusing a drink, Carol made the appropriate compliments about the opera, then said directly, “Can you tell me anything about Mr. Raeburn’s death?”
“Poor Collis. That was a dreadful thing for him to do.”
“Did you have any suspicion he might suicide? Did he say or do anything in the days before it happened?”
Alanna had turned back to the mirror and was creaming her face. “No more than usual. Collis was always moody.” She turned to smile at Carol. “We opera singers are all a little crazy, you understand. We spend our working time plotting, killing, being raped, deserted, murdered and/or suffering the pangs of unrequited love, so is it any wonder we’re unbalanced at times?”
Carol didn’t return her smile. “Are you saying Mr. Raeburn was unbalanced?”
Her smile vanished. “Of course I’m not!” A pause, then, “Well, he must have been… to do that.”
“You’re assuming it was suicide.”
Alanna stared at her. “Wasn’t it?”
Carol said, “We don’t know… yet.”
“Kenneth Raeburn assures me it was an accident. He’s persuaded you of that too, has he?”
The hint of contempt in Alanna’s voice stung, but Carol merely said, “I didn’t realize you and Collis Raeburn’s father were friends.”
“Friends? Hardly, Inspector. He wanted Collis to ditch me for Corinne, and he was furious when Collis wouldn’t.”
“Ms Jawalski gave me the impression that she was sure she was going to replace you.”
Alanna threw back her head and laughed. “Gorgeous voice and a brain like a split pea-that’s our Corinne!”
Her amusement seemed quite genuine. Carol said, “Might it be possible that Mr. Raeburn was telling you one story and Corinne Jawalski another?”
Still smiling, Alanna said, “No. I’d had it out with Collis and he’d agreed to ring Corinne and tell her she had no hope of replacing me.” Carol’s skeptical expression made her add, “I knew Collis very well, Inspector. When he said he would do something, he did.” She smiled wryly. “Of course, the trick was to get him to commit himself. He could be slippery as an eel, but once he’d promised, he’d carry it through.”
“You knew him when you were both starting your careers.”
Carol’s statement brought a sudden stillness. “We knew each other when we were young.” She smiled in self- derision. “He was rather younger than me, actually.”
“You were lovers?”
Alanna Brooks cocked her head. “Just what are you getting at, Inspector? That’s old news. I hate to tell you how many years ago it was.”
“I’ve been told that rather recently you renewed the relationship.”
The diva made a derisive sound. “Sure, for publicity reasons. It always titillates the public to think we might be lovers off-stage as well as on. There was nothing in it at all. We both hammed it up for the media, not that they took that much notice, anyway.”
“So,” said Carol, “if your leading man had been Lloyd Clancy instead of Collis Raeburn, you would have been quite happy to play lovers for publicity with him?”
Alanna took a deep breath. “Not Lloyd Clancy, no.”
“What would be the difference? Publicity is publicity.”
“This doesn’t seem at all relevant.”
Carol let the steel show. “I’ll decide that, Ms Brooks. Am I to take it that you don’t like Lloyd Clancy?”
“Like him? I despise him.” She put up a hand. “All right, you’re going to ask me why. It’s a personality clash, nothing more than that.” Carol waited. Alanna went on reluctantly, her pale skin flushed, “I can see I’ll have to be frank, although it’s embarrassing for me. The fact is, I took a romantic interest in Lloyd that he didn’t return. He was quite brutal about it and…” She shrugged. “There you have it.”
Carol asked a few more questions about the relationship which Alanna parried with increasing composure. Carol said, “Have you read
“No, but I was with Collis when he bought a copy.”
Anne’s head came up. Carol said, “When would that be?”
“About two weeks ago, I think. We were shopping together in the city and we went into several bookshops. I’m not sure which one it was, but Collis bought a copy. He said he was interested because of the court case.”
“Have you read it?”
Alanna looked puzzled. “Me? Of course not. Why would I be interested?” Her expression changed. “It’s strange, but Kenneth Raeburn asked me the same thing.”
“Why was that?”
“He came to see me before the performance tonight.” She moved her shoulders irritably. “Can’t stand the way he whispers, can you?”
Carol smiled faintly at this attempt to find common ground and so forge an ephemeral friendship, a tack familiar from many interviews. “Go on,” she said.
“He told me it was becoming quite clear that Collis had accidentally killed himself, but the fact that there was a copy of the handbook in the room was a problem. Asked me if I’d read it, and when I asked why, he said he thought it might have been mine, and I’d lent it to Collis to read.”
“Do you think he really meant that?”
“No,” said Alanna decisively, “he was telling me indirectly that he wanted me to say it was my book, Collis hadn’t gone out and bought it for himself. You see, Inspector, as soon as he’d made the comment, he began to talk about my career-how it could be helped or hindered.”
Carol was intrigued. “What did you read into that?”
“Why,” said Alanna, “that he was telling me if I cooperated it would be to my advantage, and if I didn’t, I’d be very sorry.”
“Did you take it seriously?”
“Of course,” said Alanna. “Kenneth Raeburn loves to pull strings… it’s Napoleonic, I think. If he’d been born taller, it’d have been easier for everyone.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Saturday morning was deceptively sunny, the brisk wind having enough bite to be unpleasant. Carol had got up early, gone for a run with Olga, her neighbor’s German shepherd, and come back to breakfast and
As Carol saw her son, she was filled with an intensity of love that was almost terrifying. Away from him, thinking of him, made her gentle with affection, but when she actually saw David, she was always aware that she had no control over her feelings, and that she could-and would-sacrifice anything for him.
She hugged him and Aunt Sarah, gave the requisite wishes for a good trip to Justin and Eleanor, who were running late and so did not linger, and took her son and aunt inside out of the wind. David immediately went out onto the huge back deck to annoy Sinker and Jeffrey, who had found the only sunny sheltered spots available and were snoozing.
“Where’s Sybil?” asked Aunt Sarah, taking off a red cardigan to reveal a blindingly bright purple top.
Carol felt her throat tighten. She said unemotionally, “She moved back to her house. I would have called you, but I thought it was better to tell you in person.”
