Death on the Air

by Ngaio Marsh

  ‘Yes, of course, I’m most frightfully—’ He backed out of the passage, colliding with a youth who said: ‘Five minutes, please.’

  The dresser called out: ‘Tell them she’s not well. Tell them to hold the curtain.’

  ‘No,’ said Coralie Bourne strongly. ‘I’m all right, Katie. Don’t say anything. Katie, what was it?’

  They disappeared into the room on the left.

  Mike stood in the shadow of a stack of scenic flats by the entry into the passage. There was great activity on the stage. He caught a glimpse of Anthony Gill on the far side talking to a girl. The call boy was speaking to the stage manager who now shouted into space: ‘Miss Bourne all right?’

  The dresser came into the passage and called: ‘She’ll be all right. She’s not on for ten minutes.’

  The youth began chanting: ‘Last act, please.’

  The stage manager gave a series of orders. A man with an eyeglass and a florid beard came from further down the passage and stood outside the set, bracing his figure and giving little tweaks to his clothes. There was a sound of horns and flutes. Canning Cumberland emerged from the room on the right and on his way to the stage, passed close to Mike, leaving a strong smell of alcohol behind him. The curtain rose.

  Behind his shelter, Mike stealthily removed his beard and stuffed it into the pocket of his overcoat.

  A group of stage hands stood nearby. One of them said in a hoarse whisper: ‘’E’s squiffy.’

  ‘Gam, ’e’s going good.’

  ‘So ’e may be going good. And for why? Becos ’e’s squiffy.’

  Ten minutes passed. Mike thought: ‘This affair has definitely not gone according to plan.’ He listened. Some kind of tension seemed to be building up on the stage. Canning Cumberland’s voice rose on a loud but blurred note.

  A door in the set opened. ‘Don’t bother to come,’ Cumberland said. ‘Goodbye. I can find my way out.’ The door slammed. Cumberland was standing near Mike. Then, very close, there was a loud explosion. The scenic flats vibrated. Mike’s flesh leapt on his bones and Cumberland went into his dressing rooms. Mike heard the key turn in the door. The smell of alcohol mingled with the smell of gunpowder. A stage hand moved to a trestle table and laid a pistol on it. The actor with the eyeglass made an exit. He spoke for a moment to the stage manager, passed Mike and disappeared in the passage.

  Smells. There were all sorts of smells. Subconsciously, still listening to the play, he began to sort them out. Glue. Canvas. Greasepaint. The call boy tapped on the doors. ‘Mr George, please. Miss Bourne, please.’ They came out, Coralie Bourne with her dresser. Mike heard her turn a door handle and say something. An indistinguishable voice answered her. Then she and her dresser passed him. The others spoke to her and she nodded and then seemed to withdraw into herself, waiting with her head bent, ready to make her entrance. Presently she drew back, walked swiftly to the door in the set, flung it open and swept on, followed a minute later by Barry George.

  Smells. Dust, stale paint, cloth. Gas. Increasingly, the smell of gas.

  The group of stage hands moved away behind the set to the side of the stage. Mike edged out of cover. He could see the prompt corner. The stage manager stood there with folded arms, watching the action. Behind him were grouped the players who were not on. Two dressers stood apart, watching. The light from the set caught their faces. Coralie Bourne’s voice sent phrases flying like birds into the auditorium.

  Mike began peering at the floor. Had he kicked some gas fitting adrift? The call boy passed him, stared at him over his shoulder and went down the passage, tapping. ‘Five minutes to the curtain, please. Five minutes.’

  The actor with the elderly make-up followed the call boy out. ‘God, what a stink of gas,’ he whispered.

  ‘Chronic, ain’t it?’ said the call boy. They stared at Mike and then crossed to the waiting group. The man said something to the stage manager who tipped his head up, sniffing. He made an impatient gesture and turned back to the prompt box, reaching over the prompter’s head. A bell rang somewhere up in the flies and Mike saw a stage hand climb to the curtain platform.

  The little group near the prompt corner was agitated. They looked back towards the passage entrance. The call boy nodded and came running back. He knocked on the first door on the right. ‘Mr Cumberland! Mr Cumberland! You’re on for the call.’ He rattled the door handle. ‘Mr Cumberland! You’re on.’

  Mike ran into the passage. The call boy coughed retchingly and jerked his hand at the door. ‘Gas!’

  ‘Break it in.’

  ‘I’ll get Mr Reynolds.’

  He was gone. It was a narrow passage. From halfway across the opposite room Mike took a run, head down, shoulder forward, at the door. It gave a little and a sickening increase in the smell caught him in the lungs. A vast storm of noise had broken out and as he took another run he thought: ‘It’s hailing outside.’

  ‘Just a minute if you please, sir.’

  It was a stage hand. He’d got a hammer and screwdriver. He wedged the point of the screwdriver between the lock and the doorpost, drove it home and wrenched. The screws squeaked, the wood splintered and gas poured into the passage. ‘No winders,’ coughed the stage hand.

  Mike wound Alleyn’s scarf over his mouth and nose. Half-forgotten instructions from anti-gas drill occurred to him. The room looked queer but he could see the man slumped down in the chair quite clearly. He stooped low and ran in.

  He was knocking against things as he backed out, lugging the dead weight. His arms tingled. A high insistent voice hummed in his brain. He floated a short distance and came to earth on a concrete floor among several pairs of legs. A long way off, someone said loudly: ‘I can only thank you for being so kind to what I know, too well, is a very imperfect play.’ Then the sound of hail began again. There was a heavenly stream of clear air flowing into his mouth and nostrils. ‘I could eat it,’ he thought and sat up.

  The telephone rang. ‘Suppose,’ Mrs Alleyn suggested, ‘that this time you ignore it.’

  ‘It might be the Yard,’ Alleyn said, and answered it.

  ‘Is that Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn’s flat? I’m speaking from the Jupiter Theatre. I’ve rung up to say that the Chief Inspector is here and that he’s had a slight mishap. He’s all right, but I think it might be as well for someone to drive him home. No need to worry.’

  ‘What sort of mishap?’ Alleyn asked.

  ‘Er – well – er, he’s been a bit gassed.’

  ‘Gassed! All right. Thanks, I’ll come.’

  ‘What a bore for you, darling,’ said Mrs Alleyn. ‘What sort of case is it? Suicide?’

  ‘Masquerading within the meaning of the act, by the sound of it. Mike’s in trouble.’

  ‘What trouble, for Heaven’s sake?’

  ‘Got himself gassed. He’s all right. Good night, darling. Don’t wait up.’

  When he reached the theatre, the front of the house was in darkness. He made his way down the side alley to the stage door where he was held up.

  ‘Yard,’ he said, and produced his official card.

  ‘’Ere,’ said the stage doorkeeper, ‘’ow many more of you?’

  ‘The man inside was working for me,’ said Alleyn and walked in. The doorkeeper followed, protesting.

  To the right of the entrance was a large scenic dock from which the double doors had been rolled back. Here Mike was sitting in an armchair, very white about the lips. Three men and two women, all with painted faces, stood near him and behind them a group of stage hands with Reynolds, the stage manager, and, apart from these, three men in evening dress. The men looked woodenly shocked. The women had been weeping.

  ‘I’m most frightfully sorry, sir,’ Mike said. ‘I’ve tried to explain. This,’ he added generally, ‘is Inspector Alleyn.’

  ‘I can’t understand all this,’ said the oldest of the men in evening dress irritably. He turned on the doorkeeper. ‘You said—’

  ‘I seen ’is card—’

  �
��I know,’ said Mike, ‘but you see—’

  ‘This is Lord Michael Lamprey,’ Alleyn said. ‘A recruit to the Police Department. What’s happened here?’

  ‘Doctor Rankin, would you—’

  The second of the men in evening dress came forward. ‘All right, Gosset. It’s a bad business, Inspector. I’ve just been saying the police would have to be informed. If you’ll come with me—’

  Alleyn followed him through a door onto the stage proper. It was dimly lit. A trestle table had been set up in the centre and on it, covered with a sheet, was an unmistakable shape. The smell of gas, strong everywhere, hung heavily about the table.

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Canning Cumberland. He’d locked the door of his dressing room. There’s a gas fire. Your young friend dragged him out, very pluckily, but it was no go. I was in front. Gosset, the manager, had asked me to supper. It’s a perfectly clear case of suicide as you’ll see.’

  ‘I’d better look at the room. Anybody been in?’

  ‘God, no. It was a job to clear it. They turned the gas off at the main. There’s no window. They had to open the double doors at the back of the stage and a small outside door at the end of the passage. It may be possible to get in now.’

  He led the way to the dressing room passage. ‘Pretty thick, still,’ he said. ‘It’s the first room on the right. They burst the lock. You’d better keep down near the floor.’

  The powerful lights over the mirror were on and the room still had its look of occupation. The gas fire was against the left hand wall. Alleyn squatted down by it. The tap was still turned on, its face lying parallel with the floor. The top of the heater, the tap itself, and the carpet near it, were covered with a creamish powder. On the end of the dressing table shelf nearest to the stove was a box of this powder. Further along the shelf, greasepaints were set out in a row beneath the mirror. Then came a wash basin and in front of this an overturned chair. Alleyn could see the track of heels, across the pile of the carpet, to the door immediately opposite. Beside the wash basin was a quart bottle of whisky, three parts empty, and a tumbler. Alleyn had had about enough and returned to the passage.

  ‘Perfectly clear,’ the hovering doctor said again, ‘Isn’t it?’

  ‘I’ll see the other rooms, I think.’

  The one next to Cumberland’s was like his in reverse, but smaller. The heater was back to back with Cumberland’s. The dressing shelf was set out with much the same assortment of greasepaints. The tap of this heater, too, was turned on. It was of precisely the same make as the other and Alleyn, less embarrassed here by fumes, was able to make a longer examination. It was a common enough type of gas fire. The lead-in was from a pipe through a flexible metallic tube with a rubber connection. There were two taps, one in the pipe and one at the junction of the tube with the heater itself. Alleyn disconnected the tube and examined the connection. It was perfectly sound, a close fit and stained red at the end. Alleyn noticed a wiry thread of some reddish stuff resembling packing that still clung to it. The nozzle and tap were brass, the tap pulling over when it was turned on, to lie in a parallel plane with the floor. No powder had been scattered about here.

  He glanced round the room, returned to the door and read the card: ‘Mr Barry George.’

  The doctor followed him into the rooms opposite these, on the left-hand side of the passage. They were a repetition in design of the two he had already seen but were hung with women’s clothes and had a more elaborate assortment of greasepaint and cosmetics.

  There was a mass of flowers in the star room. Alleyn read the cards. One in particular caught his eye: ‘From Anthony Gill to say a most inadequate “thank you” for the great idea.’ A vase of red roses stood before the mirror: ‘To your greatest triumph, Coralie darling. C C.’ In Miss Gay’s room there were only two bouquets, one from the management and one ‘From Anthony, with love.’

  Again in each room he pulled off the lead-in to the heater and looked at the connection.

  ‘All right, aren’t they?’ said the doctor.

  ‘Quite all right. Tight fit. Good solid grey rubber.’

  ‘Well, then—’

  Next on the left was an unused room, and opposite it, ‘Mr H J Bannington.’ Neither of these rooms had gas fires. Mr Bannington’s dressing table was littered with the usual array of greasepaint, the materials for his beard, a number of telegrams and letters, and several bills.

  ‘About the body,’ the doctor began.

  ‘We’ll get a mortuary van from the Yard.’

  ‘But – Surely in a case of suicide—’

  ‘I don’t think this is suicide.’

  ‘But, good God! – D’you mean there’s been an accident?’

  ‘No accident,’ said Alleyn.

  At midnight, the dressing room lights in the Jupiter Theatre were brilliant, and men were busy there with the tools of their trade. A constable stood at the stage door and a van waited in the yard. The front of the house was dimly lit and there, among the shrouded stalls, sat Coralie Bourne, Basil Gosset, H J Bannington, Dendra Gay, Anthony Gill, Reynolds, Katie the dresser, and the call boy. A constable sat behind them and another stood by the doors into the foyer. They stared across the backs of seats at the fire curtain. Spirals of smoke rose from their cigarettes and about their feet were discarded programmes. ‘Basil Gosset presents I CAN FIND MY WAY OUT by Anthony Gill.’

  In the manager’s office Alleyn said: ‘You’re sure of your facts, Mike?’

  ‘Yes, sir. Honestly. I was right up against the entrance into the passage. They didn’t see me because I was in the shadow. It was very dark offstage.’

  ‘You’ll have to swear to it.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Good. All right, Thompson. Miss Gay and Mr Gosset may go home. Ask Miss Bourne to come in.’

  When Sergeant Thompson had gone Mike said: ‘I haven’t had a chance to say I know I’ve made a perfect fool of myself. Using your card and everything.’

  ‘Irresponsible gaiety doesn’t go down very well in the service, Mike. You behaved like a clown.’

  ‘I am a fool,’ said Mike wretchedly.

  The red beard was lying in front of Alleyn on Gosset’s desk. He picked it up and held it out. ‘Put it on,’ he said.

  ‘She might do another faint.’

  ‘I think not. Now the hat: yes – yes, I see. Come in.’

  Sergeant Thompson showed Coralie Bourne in and then sat at the end of the desk with his notebook.

  Tears had traced their course through the powder on her face, carrying black cosmetic with them and leaving the greasepaint shining like snail tracks. She stood near the doorway looking dully at Michael. ‘Is he back in England?’ she said. ‘Did he tell you to do this?’ She made an impatient movement. ‘Do take it off,’ she said, ‘it’s a very bad beard. If Cann had only looked—’ Her lips trembled. ‘Who told you to do it?’

  ‘Nobody,’ Mike stammered, pocketing the beard. ‘I mean – As a matter of fact, Tony Gill—’

  ‘Tony? But he didn’t know. Tony wouldn’t do it. Unless—’

  ‘Unless?’ Alleyn said.

  She said frowning: ‘Tony didn’t want Cann to play the part that way. He was furious.’

  ‘He says it was his dress for the Chelsea Arts Ball,’ Mike mumbled. ‘I brought it here. I just thought I’d put it on – it was idiotic, I know – for fun. I’d no idea you and Mr Cumberland would mind.’

  ‘Ask Mr Gill to come in,’ Alleyn said.

  Anthony was white and seemed bewildered and helpless. ‘I’ve told Mike,’ he said. ‘It was my dress for the ball. They sent it round from the costume hiring place this afternoon but I forgot it. Dendra reminded me and rang up the Delivery people – or Mike, as it turns out – in the interval.’

  ‘Why,’ Alleyn asked, ‘did you choose that particular disguise?’

  ‘I didn’t. I didn’t know what to wear and I was too rattled to think. They said they were hiring things for themselves and would get something
for me. They said we’d all be characters out of a Russian melodrama.’

  ‘Who said this?’

  ‘Well – well, it was Barry George, actually.’

  ‘Barry,’ Coralie Bourne said. ‘It was Barry.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Anthony said. ‘Why should a fancy dress upset everybody?’

  ‘It happened,’ Alleyn said, ‘to be a replica of the dress usually worn by Miss Bourne’s husband who also had a red beard. That was it, wasn’t it, Miss Bourne? I remember seeing him—’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she said, ‘you would. He was known to the police.’ Suddenly she broke down completely. She was in an armchair near the desk but out of the range of its shaded lamp. She twisted and writhed, beating, her hand against the padded arm of the chair. Sergeant Thompson sat with his head bent and his hand over his notes. Mike, after an agonized glance at Alleyn, turned his back. Anthony Gill leant over her: ‘Don’t,’ he said violently. ‘Don’t! For God’s sake, stop.’

  She twisted away from him and, gripping the edge of the desk, began to speak to Alleyn; little by little gaining mastery of herself. ‘I want to tell you. I want you to understand. Listen.’ Her husband had been fantastically cruel, she said. ‘It was a kind of slavery.’ But when she sued for divorce he brought evidence of adultery with Cumberland. They had thought he knew nothing. ‘There was an abominable scene. He told us he was going away. He said he’d keep track of us and if I tried again for divorce, he’d come home. He was very friendly with Barry in those days.’ He had left behind him the first draft of a play he had meant to write for her and Cumberland. It had a wonderful scene for them. ‘And now you will never have it,’ he had said, ‘because there is no other playwright who could make this play for you but I.’ He was, she said, a melodramatic man but he was never ridiculous. He returned to the Ukraine where he was born and they had heard no more of him. In a little while she would have been able to presume death. But years of waiting did not agree with Canning Cumberland. He drank consistently and at his worst used to imagine her husband was about to return. ‘He was really terrified of Ben,’ she said. ‘He seemed like a creature in a nightmare.’