Fault in the Structure

anything happens to me, this may do something to put me right with her.” ’

‘Did Melanie herself know about the will?’

‘She must have done. She was shouting the odds loudly enough about it just before she passed out under the influence. I should think half the cast must have heard her.’

‘Including the wardrobe mistress?’

‘La bombe blonde? Oh, yes, definitely. She was flitting about from dressing-room to dressing-room all the performance, putting in a stitch here and chasing up a shoe there and touching up somebody’s make-up with a dab of powder. You know the kind of thing. The only part she herself had was that of one of the chorus ladies, you see, so most of her time she was off-stage.’

‘And I see,’ said Laura, when the bi-lingual guest had gone, ‘what you meant when you said there was one person who couldn’t be said to have an alibi. There was nobody who could vouch for the wardrobe mistress the whole of the time, and she could have heard what Melanie was shouting about the money.’

‘I wonder what she had planned, if anything, before she heard Miss Cardew’s drunken ravings? She must have known about the affair between Miss Cardew and Lawrence, since she herself lived with him. The knowledge that she could expect nothing at his death, except what an appeal to the courts might bring her, probably precipitated an act which, up to that point, could have petered out in mere wishful thinking. Melanie’s baby and the loss of the money clinched matters, I think. Besides, Lawrence may have threatened to inform upon her for the murder of his wife. Well, I think we have enough to take to the police.’

‘Do we want to avenge Lawrence’s death? He was a rotten type, you know.’

‘A tainted wether of the flock, meetest for death? Maybe so. I was thinking of Mrs Lawrence’s death, not his. I feel sure that Coralie killed her.’

‘We can’t bring that murder up, can we?’

‘No, but the police may. That case is not closed.’

‘How about William Caxton? Of course we don’t know he’s Mrs Lawrence’s brother, do we?’

‘Yes, we do. He told me so when he occupied your seat during the first Act. I asked him whether William Caxton was a trade name and he agreed that it was and confessed to being Caret.’

‘Well, he must have been the person that Lawrence went to prison for – to get away from, I mean. He must have threatened Lawrence in some way, and, as you’ve just pointed out, he was in the town hall that night.’

‘I think young Tom Blaine’s evidence absolves him. He was playing backgammon with Tom until Mrs Blaine collected him from the porters’ room to run him home. He was not in the town hall when that cart received the push which hanged Lawrence.’

The police, having listened to Dame Beatrice, paid a surprise visit to Lawrence’s house. They held a search warrant. The missing wedges were found at the bottom of Coralie’s wardrobe. She did not attempt to explain how they had come to be there. She was formally charged with Lawrence’s murder.

‘He had it coming to him,’ she said, ‘the heel! I meant to have his money, but he double-crossed and done me out of it. Born crooked, I reckon. Well, I’ve been give bracelets in me time. Don’t I get a couple from you blokes?’ She grinned amiably at the officer arresting her, patted her hair and went quietly.

—«»—«»—«»—

[scanned anonymously in a galaxy far far away]

[A 3S Release— v1, html]

[April 06, 2007]