Bryant & May 01; Full Dark House

∨ Full Dark House ∧

22

BLOCKING

“I’m offended that you should even ask,” Benjamin Woolf bristled. He never looked more suspicious than when he was trying to appear injured. “I represent a great many artists.”

“I’m not saying you had anything to do with their deaths, even though no one actually saw you at the time of Senechal’s impalement,” Bryant snapped. “You’re very touchy for an agent.”

“We don’t all have hides like rhinos, Mr Bryant.”

“How many other performers in the company do you represent?”

“Oh, quite a few.”

“Exactly how many?”

Woolf made an effort to look innocent and failed. “I’d have to work that out and get back to you.” The detectives had set up a base in the company office, and were seeing everyone who had been present in the auditorium when Charles Senechal had met his death.

“Do you have some kind of special deal going on with the cast members you represent?” asked Bryant.

“Something like that.” Woolf ran a finger along his thin moustache.

“Are you on friendly terms with them all? How close were you to Miss Capistrania and Mr Senechal, for instance?”

“I keep a respectable distance from all my clients. I’m there when they need me. I give them advice and support, I listen to their problems, nothing more.”

“But it’s a twenty-four-hour job, isn’t it? You take their calls when they come off stage at night, cope with their insecurities, assuage their doubts?”

“Of course. All theatrical agents worth their salt do.”

“Do you know much about their personal lives? Who they were closest to, who they were amorously involved with?”

“Some are forthcoming, others aren’t. I don’t pry, if that’s what you mean. They have to tell you some things, obviously.”

“What did Tanya Capistrania have to tell you?”

“You must understand she had very few friends in this country. She told me she was seeing someone in the company. I don’t know much about Charles except that he’s married and has a flat in Paris. His wife and son are on their way here right now.”

“So Miss Capistrania was having an affair and Charles wasn’t.” Bryant sucked hard on his pipe, trying to keep it lit.

“For all I know he could have been. Performers become very tight-knit during the course of a run. They form liaisons that last only while they’re working together.”

“Would you care to divulge the identity of the man Miss Capistrania was seeing?”

“I suppose it won’t do any harm to the young lady now,” sighed Benjamin. “But you musn’t say I told you. It was Geoffrey Whittaker.”

“The stage manager?” Bryant was surprised. He didn’t look the type to conduct a torrid affair.

“It’s not the first time he’s got up to this sort of thing. He’s pretty well known by the Piccadilly commandos.” He was referring to the squad of prostitutes who brazenly worked around the Circus, stepping out of doorways to accost servicemen on leave.

“He’s a bit old to be a Lothario. What about Miss Capistrania?”

“Tanya was famous for upstaging her fellow players. She was very driven to succeed. The usual story, pushed by her family from an early age. Nobody’s got much good to say about her.”

“And Charles Senechal?”

“The opposite. Everyone thinks – thought – he was wonderful. He’s played all three of the baritone roles in Orpheus before, a consummate professional and a wonderful singer.”

“I see. What about some of the others who were there when it happened, Harry – what’s his surname, Cowper? And Corinne Betts?”

“Corinne’s seeing one of the shepherds. A boy in the chorus. I don’t think it’s anything more than mutual convenience. Harry, well, he’s a bachelor. Let’s leave it at that.”

“So there are a few amours in the background. Any risk of blackmail with Harry?”

“I suppose there’s always a risk, but the theatre’s safer than most places. Outside the Palace, people keep asking if I’m a visiting calypso player. In here, nobody cares about the colour of my skin. Why are you interested?”

“The globe could have been intended to hit anyone, couldn’t it?”

“Oh, I see. Harry’s well liked. There’s often someone like him in a theatre company, born to be a den mother to the rest. Runs around after people making them feel better. Nurses the bruised egos. Corinne’s got a bit of a mouth on her, but I don’t know that she’s made any real enemies. Some of the cast went to Café de Paris to see her perform her comedy routine a couple of weeks ago, and she bought them all drinks afterwards. It won her a lot of friends.”

“So there are no real connections that you can see, apart from the fact that Miss Capistrania and Mr Senechal were both performers represented by you.”

“May I remind you that I’m the one losing out here.” Woolf made a further effort to look pained, but appeared to be suffering from heartburn. “They were more than my clients. They were investments.”

“I’d say everyone’s investments are in danger of disappearing now, wouldn’t you?”

“No,” replied Woolf, “no, I wouldn’t. Don’t you know the show always goes on?”

“If I find reason to suppose that anyone else’s life is in danger, I won’t hesitate to close down the production.”

“Aren’t you a bit young to have that authority?” asked Woolf, alarmed.

“I’m not sure,” Bryant admitted, giving up on his pipe, “but it would be interesting to find out. Let me get this clear in my head. While the globe was being cut loose, there were four people actually on the stage: Mr Senechal, Miss Betts, Miss Wynter and Mr Cowper. Mr Mack was further back in the wings, Miss Parole was in the stalls with Mr Whittaker, Miss Penn, Mrs Thwaite and Mr Varisich, heading in the direction of the pass door. Stan Lowe was manning the stage door, and you were out in the front box office. What were you doing before the siren sounded?”

Benjamin thought for a moment. “I was talking to Elspeth. I left the auditorium, but then I heard the commotion and ran back in.”

“To your knowledge, was there anyone else near the stage or in the stalls?”

“I don’t think so – wait, Anton was still in the orchestra pit. Eve and Olivia were arguing about something as they came out, a problem with a dress, so they must have been nearby.”

“Do you think it likely that any of them could have climbed the gantry to the globe and cut it loose?”

“I don’t see how,” interrupted May. “The gantry is clearly visible from the stage.”

“Then there’s someone we haven’t accounted for,” said Bryant, prodding his partner in the shoulder. “Someone else in the theatre. Someone up there, in the dark.”