Showstopper

12

He would have preferred taking the ride back to Concorde House as Ingeborg’s passenger and hearing her thoughts, but that would have left his own car standing on the Chimneys drive. Life was never tidy for Peter Diamond.

Most of the team were at their desks when he arrived, so he presided over a “catch-up session,” as he called it, insisting they came from behind their screens and sat in a circle at the far end of the room like kids in school. So be it. Nothing was more annoying than fingers working phones and keyboards while he wanted attention. “Between us, we’ve covered quite a bit of the so-called jinx story. What’s your verdict? Does it stack up?”

They were slow to respond. He suspected some were distracted by his new look. They’d have to learn to live with it.

“Too soon to say,” John Leaman said eventually. He was uncomfortable with unproved opinions.

“John’s right,” Ingeborg said. “None of us have got the full picture.”

Diamond had been thinking about the full picture more than he was ready to admit. “For me, it comes down to this: it makes a good newspaper story if you believe in bad luck, and even if you don’t, other people’s troubles make interesting reading. Many, if not most, of the incidents seem to have been accidents or acts of God. Stuff happens, as that American statesman famously said about the Iraq war.”

“He was talking about the looting of the museum in Baghdad, not the war,” Leaman said.

“Doesn’t matter, John. The phrase stuck.”

“And papers always print the bad news,” Keith Halliwell said. “Good news stories don’t interest people.”

“Which is why a jinx makes good reading,” Diamond said. “This morning Inge and I met the woman originally chosen for the plum part of Caitlin Swift, the one who took fright and pulled out. I’m satisfied she wasn’t under orders from anyone else. She insists she acted alone. Her quitting was a setback for the show, so it ticks the jinx box, but I don’t think we need to dig deeper. She’s given up TV work now.”

“Is she bitter about it?” Keith Halliwell asked.

“Bitter with herself, but she doesn’t blame anyone on the show. Am I right, Inge?”

Ingeborg said, “That’s how I saw it, guv.”

“She was treated kindly by the producer, Mary Wroxeter, and there was some kind of settlement. They filled the gap with another actor they’d auditioned before who happened to be Sabine San Sebastian. The show became a hit and Trixie Playfair was soon forgotten.”

“No actor wants that,” Halliwell said.

“I just told you she stopped being an actor. She’s a schoolteacher now. It’s a new way of life.” Concern crept up Diamond’s spine as he spoke the words. He’d soon be out of a job himself.

Halliwell didn’t want to leave it. “She must have hated what happened.”

“Of course. It was a personal failure, but she’s put that behind her, as you do. I don’t see her wanting to make trouble for the show.”

“I’m only saying she almost certainly carries the scars. You can never tell how big a hurt it is.” Halliwell carried scars of his own that no one but Diamond knew about.

“True, Keith, but it happened years ago. The Post must have been hard-pressed to dust that off and use it.” Before Halliwell could say more, Diamond continued without pause, “The next thing to go wrong was the fire in the van while they were filming the pilot episode. It could well have been started deliberately. Some expensive sound equipment was lost and one of the engineers got burnt trying to rescue items.”

“Arson?” John Leaman said.

“Arson can’t be ruled out.”

“Fire investigators usually discover how fires start.”

“Yes, and the insurance company produced a report that I’ve seen. The seat of the fire was literally a seat in the van — the passenger seat. There’s a lot of waiting about at a TV shoot and several sound engineers used the cab between takes. They all denied smoking, but a cigarette butt was given as the likeliest cause.”

“Accidental, then,” Leaman said, more for his own satisfaction than anyone else’s.

“What did the insurers say?” Paul Gilbert asked.

“They agreed it wasn’t deliberate.”

“Did they pay up?”

“They found a clause in the policy obliging the company to take reasonable precautions. Allowing people to smoke in the front seats was held to be unreasonable. After months of arguing, some kind of payment was made, but it didn’t cover the legal costs, let alone the costs of the fire. Was this the jinx? You can just about argue that it was.”

“The guy who was burnt,” Gilbert said. “Was he one of the smokers?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“If he thought he caused the fire, he may have risked his life to keep the damage to a minimum.”

“Speculation,” Ingeborg said.

“It’s all speculation until we nail someone.”

Diamond knew the tensions in the team and didn’t want anyone feeling inhibited from speaking, but the fire investigation had been thorough and he couldn’t see any value in probing more. He moved on. “Next up, two stuntmen were injured during the first season. They were in a rooftop chase and they both fell and broke limbs. I haven’t looked into this one, but I suspect it was a genuine accident.”

Paul Gilbert felt his voice needed to be heard. He was still the IO. “Swift is a high-action show and there are going to be accidents to stunt people. This was serious, so I guess it got reported in the media, but I doubt if it was down to sabotage.”

Leaman said, “You can’t say. None of us can say.” He could always be relied on to expose loose reasoning.

“Which is why I’d like you to follow up on it, John,” Diamond said. “It shouldn’t be difficult to trace the two guys. If there was the slightest suggestion of dodgy goings-on, they’ll know.”

Leaman had walked into that.

“So we come to season three, and incident number four in the Post article, a mystery we can’t ignore because it’s still unsolved. The disappearance of Dave Tudor. He was an experienced assistant producer, Mary Wroxeter’s main support. He didn’t show up for work one day and there was no phone call, text, nothing. He’s not been seen since.”

“What do we know about him?” Halliwell asked. “Was he really up to the job?”

“I heard from more than one source that he was a key man doing a tough job and doing it well. Mary often made last-minute changes that Tudor had to sell to the cast and crew. Don’t ask me how, but he managed to stay popular. Even Sabine speaks well of him. The current producer, Greg Deans, said he doubted if Sabine even noticed him, but she remembered quite a lot. In fact, she’s the only one who came up with a theory. She said he had a bit of a foreign accent and her suggestion was that he didn’t have a work permit and someone threatened to blow his cover.”

“With a name like Dave Tudor?” Halliwell said. “Come on.”

“So he upped and left, just like that?” Gilbert said. “What do you think, guv?”

“I think he’s dead.”

No one said anything for a few seconds.

“Is there something you haven’t told us?”

“No. The way I see it, Tudor was obviously a bright guy doing a good job, really valuable to Mary. If there was a problem in his personal life, she’d have gone out of her way to support him. He’d have known this. There was no reason to quit.”

“He may have got a better offer. Maybe he’s using another name and working for a rival company.”

“That’s unlikely. TV is a small world. He’d have been recognised as soon as he set foot in another studio.”

“Where was he living when he disappeared?”

“Kipling Avenue, at Beechen Cliff. His possessions were still there, as if he meant to come back.”

“I don’t get it. Why would anyone want to get rid of him if he was such a useful guy to have around?”

“That’s the big question, Keith.”

“What was his life outside TV?”

“There wasn’t any to speak of. He lived alone, used the local shops for his everyday needs, had the occasional pint in the local pub, but didn’t socialise. He had a healthy bank balance and there were no unusual payments.”

“Who got the job after he left?”

“One of the other assistants, Candida Jones. She was the obvious replacement, with more experience than anyone else.”

Halliwell widened his eyes. “If we’re looking for a suspect...”

“You mean Candida killed him to get the job?” Diamond wasn’t impressed. “She wasn’t wedded to her career. She left after a year to start a family.”

“Because she wasn’t much good?” Halliwell said.

Ingeborg pounced. “Do you mind? You wouldn’t talk like that about a man.”

“Because when a man starts a family, he stays in the job.”

“If you want to argue that working women shouldn’t be allowed maternity leave, you’re a hundred years behind the times.”

“I said no such thing.”

“We all heard you. And now you’re saying the reason she left was she wasn’t much good.”

Diamond raised a calming hand. “Okay, people. I started this hare when I said she wasn’t wedded to the job. I was out of order. I had no grounds for saying so. I’m sorry. Can we get back to Dave Tudor? I got the impression he was a hard act to follow. Does that make more sense?”

“Barely,” Ingeborg said. “It’s another cliché.” She was really nettled by the sexist remarks. “Is Candida still about?”

“The company probably keeps track, but memories seem to have faded. Greg Deans remembered her because he used to work with her. He was the other production assistant.”

“Did he think she was incompetent?”

“He said nothing of the sort. Can we leave it, Inge?”

“Could Deans be in the frame?”

“As Tudor’s killer? I can’t see why. He was new in the job when the guy went missing. They barely knew each other and he was too inexperienced to have designs on Tudor’s job. His turn as producer came later after Candida retired.”

“He had a quick rise to the top,” Ingeborg said. “From rookie production assistant to boss of the entire show in how many years?”

“Three to four. He’s certainly a smart operator, the obvious person to take charge after Mary died. I heard he can’t match her for ideas, so he makes up for that by efficiency. But a murderer? He had a vested interest in success for the show and still does.”

Gilbert said, “He steadied the ship after Candida left, a couple of years as Mary’s assistant without anything going wrong.”

“It was no cakewalk,” Diamond said. “He will have seen the signs she was drinking heavily. I haven’t said this before, but we need to look at Mary’s death and if there was anything iffy about it.”

He’d thrown a fizzing firecracker into the discussion. Startled looks and frowns were exchanged. Nothing like this had been suggested in the newspaper. If true, it had huge implications.

“We were told it was down to the alcohol,” Ingeborg said, trying to stay composed. “She was far too popular and brilliant for anyone to want her dead.”

“It still has to be checked. In particular her final hours, where she was and who was with her.” He turned to Jean Sharp. “Would you take that on?” He knew the right person to ask to get every detail that was known.

“Of course, guv.”

“The coroner’s office will have a file on the inquest.”

“Leave it with me.”

The suspicion that something was wrong about the sudden death of the brilliant woman everyone on the show was supposed to idolise had been germinating in Diamond’s brain for days. They all owed their employment to her. She was one of those gifted people who turn an idea into an opportunity for a mass of others. Nobody had suggested the over-drinking that killed her was anything else but her own fatal flaw. You had to be a massive sceptic to throw doubt on the conclusion.

He was spreading the workload. Paul Gilbert was already covering Jake Nicol’s disappearance; Diamond himself was investigating Dave Tudor; now John Leaman would probe the accident to the stuntmen, and Jean Sharp would look for anything unexplained about Mary Wroxeter’s death. Daisy Summerfield’s cardiac arrest had happened in Richmond and was being dealt with by the Met. He would remember to call them for an update.

“What’s happening with the tramp?” Leaman asked.

“He wasn’t charged with anything. He’s free to wander the streets.”

“Is he in the clear?”

“I wouldn’t say that. He wasn’t entirely open with us and we’re keeping an eye on him. He’ll stay in Bath for some time now he’s here.”

“How can we be sure of that? If the rigger is dead, as we believe he is, Will Legat is the main suspect, isn’t he? Blood on his clothes. Possession of a weapon. He was found wearing the belt. Men have been sent down for life for less than that.”

“Agreed, John, but we’re looking at two possible murders and maybe even a third.”

“Who is to say Legat wasn’t around at the time Dave Tudor disappeared? He seems to visit here each summer.”

“True. But what did he do with the bodies?”