Penrose hadn’t seen the photograph anywhere in the Simmonses’ flat. He wondered again about the nature of Simmons’s feelings for his niece. It wouldn’t surprise him if Frank turned out to be Elspeth’s real father, although where that left him with Bernard Aubrey and Arthur he couldn’t begin to work out.
‘What about your own family, Hedley? Tell me about them.’
‘I don’t see what they’ve got to do with any of this.’
‘Humour me. What does your father do?’
‘He died when I was a baby, just before war broke out, but he was a blacksmith. My mother was left on her own with six children, but she remarried a few years later, to a farmer, and we moved in with him. He had three children of his own, but we all got on really well. Still do. Most of my brothers and sisters stayed in or around the village, helping on the farm or teaching at the 211
local school. I missed them when I first left home to come here, but I go back as much as I can. I was planning to go in the summer and take Elspeth to meet them. They would have loved her.’
‘Did any of your family serve in the war?’
‘No. We were lucky. My dad was already dead, like I said, and none of my brothers were old enough. My stepfather was con-sumptive, so he was excused military service. It must have been terrible, though. Elspeth talked a lot about her father as we got to know each other better. His illness really upset her.’
‘Did she ever talk about what happened to him or anyone else he served with?’
‘No, just how bad it got towards the end. I think she and her mother both felt guilty for being so relieved when he died.’
‘Let’s go back to Saturday, Hedley. It was your night off, but did you get things ready for the evening performance before you went off duty?’
‘As much as I could, yes. We re-plotted for the first scene right away, but it doesn’t take long now because we’re so used to it.
Miss McCracken likes to check everything before the evening performance, so I was finished quite quickly.’
‘I’ve heard there’s a drinking tradition that goes on after the show. Were you involved in preparing that?’
‘It doesn’t happen after the matinees, but I put the stuff at the side of the wings ready for the evening.’
‘Can you tell me exactly what you did?’
White was beginning to look concerned. ‘It was slightly different on Saturday because Mr Aubrey was taking part, so I made sure there was an extra chair. I fetched the decanter from his office, added a tumbler to the other glasses and checked there was a corkscrew for the wine. Then I stood the whole lot on the shelf ready for Miss McCracken to take down at the curtain-call. It gets in the way otherwise.’
‘Did you take the lid off the decanter for any reason?’
And now concern had turned to fear. ‘Of course not. Why are you asking me about this? Elspeth was dead by then. Has something else happened?’
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Penrose ignored the question. ‘Are you absolutely sure that you didn’t touch the contents of that decanter? Or see anybody else go near it?’
‘I swear nobody touched it when I was there. Tell me what’s going on!’ He was on his feet and shouting now, and there was no doubt in Penrose’s mind that he knew nothing about the second death. Gently, he put a hand on Hedley’s shoulder and sat him back down.
‘I’m sorry, Hedley, but Bernard Aubrey died late last night.
We’re treating his death as suspicious, and I have to ask you again
– apart from Aubrey, did you see anyone near that whisky decanter while it was in your care, or did you touch it yourself?’
Hedley’s self-control evaporated at the news of Aubrey’s death, and he was unable to suppress his grief any longer. ‘How could I be so ungrateful?’ he said at last. ‘I let him down so badly, and then last night, when I was standing outside the theatre in the rain and I realised that Elspeth wasn’t going to turn up, I blamed him for her death. I thought if he hadn’t arranged that ticket, she might still be alive. And I hated him. I wished it was him dead and not her. Now they’re both gone.’
Penrose looked up and wondered why Fallowfield had slipped quietly from the room. He turned back to Hedley and spoke more sympathetically than ever. ‘How had you let Aubrey down, Hedley? Why was he angry with you?’
‘I did something really stupid and he found out about it. Elspeth’s uncle collects theatre stuff, autographs and all sorts of memorabilia. So I stole some of the props from the play to impress him and Mr Aubrey caught me with them. I don’t know why I did it. Frank didn’t ask me to and the really daft thing is that Mr Aubrey would have given them to me after the run if I’d just asked, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted to make Elspeth happy and I knew I could do that by making her family happy. I was supposed to go and see Mr Aubrey after the matinee, but by that time I was too worried about Elspeth and I just left the building as soon as I could.
And I’m sorry, I did lie to you earlier when I said I hadn’t taken the lid off the decanter.’
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‘Go on,’ said Penrose encouragingly.
‘I took a swig of the whisky during the matinee when nobody was looking. I thought it would give me the courage to face Mr Aubrey later.’
At least that narrowed the timing down a little, Penrose thought. Whoever had doctored the whisky could not have done so until after the matinee. He gave White a moment to compose himself, leaving him in PC Bartlett’s care while he went to look for Fallowfield. The Sergeant had not gone far. ‘Rafe Swinburne’s just turned up, Sir,’ he explained, coming out of the room across the landing. ‘He says he’s only nipped back to change his clothes and then he’s going out again, but I’ve asked him to wait until you’ve had a chance to speak to him.’
‘Thanks, Bill. I’ll do it now. You go in with White.’
‘He didn’t know about Aubrey, did he Sir?’
