Murder Unprompted

‘Right.’

‘Yes. I gather he had an “artistic disagreement” with Paul Lexington.’

‘“Artistic disagreement” — my foot! You should have seen the contract Lexington tried to get him to sign.’

Charles was glad to have his surmise confirmed. ‘Yes, I shouldn’t think anyone steals a march on Bobby Anscombe.’

‘Or me, Charles. Or me.’

Just as he was returning to his seat, Charles met Malcolm Harris rushing up the aisle. The author had reported in to his ferret-faced women, but was now off again.

‘I should think you’re pleased, aren’t you?’ asked Charles genially.

‘Pleased?’ hissed the schoolmaster. ‘That bastard Banks is just making nonsense of it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean he’s cutting great chunks. Big speeches — just because he doesn’t like them, just cutting them out.’

‘But, Malcolm, he’s not making the cuts. They were made yesterday for — ’

But the author was already out of earshot.

Oh dear. Another black mark for Paul Lexington’s liaison and diplomacy.

The audience settled quickly after the interval and was soon once more caught up in the mounting dramatic tension of The Hooded Owl. Charles found himself swept along too. He realised that the cuts forced on the production had in fact helped it. By trimming down the first act, they kept the pace going, and the second act benefited.

And Michael Banks was growing in stature by the minute. Once again, Charles was aware of Alex Household’s contribution to the performance. With him timing the lines, the star could concentrate just on the emotional truth of his acting, and the result was very powerful.

The Hooded Owl speech approached, and Charles felt the excitement building inside him. As ever, it would be the climax; this time the climax of one of the finest performances he had ever witnessed.

The scene of father and daughter in the bedroom began. Lesley-Jane was still low-key, but it did not seem to matter. It almost helped. The pallor of her acting threw into relief the power of Michael’s.

‘But, Father,’ she said, ‘you will never be forgotten.’

‘Oh yes. Oh yes, I will.’

They stood facing each other. Maybe, over her shoulder, he could see his faithful feed in the wings. Probably not. He was too deeply into the part to see anything outside the stage.

The silence was so total that the auditorium might have been empty.

‘Three generations of us have lived in this house. Three generations have passed through this room, slept here, argued here, made love here, even died here. And the only marks of their passage have been obliterated by the next generation. New wallpaper, new furniture, new window frames. . the past is forgotten. Gone with no record. Unless you believe in some supernatural being, taking notes of our progress. A God, maybe — or, if you’d rather, a Hooded Owl. .”

As he mentioned the bird, he turned his back on Lesley-Jane to look at it in the glass case. Every eye in the audience followed him.

‘Why not? This stuffed bird has always been in the room. Imagine it had perception, a memory to retain our follies. Oh Lord!’

Something had gone wrong. The audience did not know yet, but Charles, so familiar with the script, knew.

Slowly Michael Banks wheeled round. He looked puzzled, and seemed to be looking beyond Lesley-Jane into the wings.

‘No,’ he said. ‘No, put it down. You mustn’t do that to me. You daren’t. Please. Please I — ’

There was a gunshot. Michael Banks clutched at his chest and slowly tottered to his knees. Lesley-Jane turned to look into the wings, and screamed.

The tableau was held for a moment, and the curtain swiftly fell.

The audience didn’t know. Still they weren’t sure. Was this a bizarre new twist of the plot? What had happened? The darkened auditorium was filled with muttering.

Then the house-lights came up. The curtain twitched and the Company Manager, Wallas Ward, resplendent in midnight blue dinner jacket, appeared through the centre.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to have to inform you that, due to an accident to Mr. Banks, we will be unable to continue the performance.’

He did not say that the accident which had befallen Mr. Banks was death by shooting.

And he did not say that, even if they’d wished to finish the play with his understudy, they couldn’t, because Alex Household had run out of the theatre immediately after the shooting.

CHAPTER TEN

CHARLES GOT round to the Stage Door as quickly as he could. Frances followed silently. One of her good qualities was the ability to keep quiet when there was nothing appropriate to say.

They were there before the rush. There were a few people milling around, but not yet the main surge of puzzled well-wishers, police, press and sensation-seekers.

Charles found the Stage Doorman, who was already regaling a little circle of cast with what he had seen. The murder had only occurred ten minutes before, but the old man already saw himself in the role of vital witness, and was polishing the phrases in a story which he would tell many times.

‘I heard the shot over the loudspeaker. I knew there was something wrong. I’ve heard that play so many times in the past few days, I knew the lines wasn’t right. Mind you, then I didn’t know it was a shot. Could’ve been something falling over on-stage, or a light-bulb blowing but something inside me knew it was serious. I felt like a cold hand on my heart. .’ he paused dramatically, relishing the metaphor which he then spoiled by mixing it, ‘. . as if someone had walked over my grave.

‘Next thing I knew Mr. Household was rushing past me out of the door. It was so quick. I didn’t have time to stop him,’ he said, suggesting that under any other circumstances he would have downed the suspect with a flying tackle. ‘Not, of course, that I realised what he’d done then. I didn’t know he’d just shot Mr. Banks.’

‘Are you sure he had?’ asked Charles.

‘Well, of course he had.’

‘I mean, was the gun in his hand?’

‘No,’ the old man was forced to concede, ‘but — ’

‘Was he wearing a jacket?’

‘I think so. I didn’t notice. It was very quick, like I said.’ The old man sounded testy. Charles’s questions were spoiling his narrative flow.

‘Wait here a minute, Frances.’ He went through to the Green Room, hoping that he’d find Alex’s jacket still hanging there, with the gun still cold in its pocket, with all five shots still unfired.

Alex was a prickly person, an unbalanced person, sometimes an infuriating person, but Charles didn’t want to think of him as a murderer.

Various members of the cast were lolling about the Green Room, in various stages of shell-shock. George Birkitt was looking distinctly peeved, aware that Michael Banks had upstaged him in a way that was quite unanswerable. In a corner Malcolm Harris slumped on a chair, pale and whimpering.

The coat-hook was empty. Exonerating Alex wasn’t going to be that easy. And was exonerating him appropriate anyway? All the evidence so far pointed to the fact that he had done the killing.

Charles wandered through the door on to the stage, and found even more evidence. Clinching evidence.

Backstage the overhead working light gleamed on something metal that lay discarded by the door. Charles recognised it instantly.

It was the Smith and Wesson Chiefs Special revolver that he had first seen in the Number One dressing room of the Prince’s Theatre, Taunton.

He knelt down and, so as to avoid leaving fingerprints, felt the barrel with the back of his hand.