‘Of course we could,’ I said. ‘But Bridget is here, and I think she’d stop us if we tried.’
‘I could outwit her!’ snapped Daisy, the colour still high in her cheeks. ‘Goodness, it’s warm in here. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Felix have turned into old people.’
‘It isn’t warm,’ I said. ‘You’re just cross.’
‘I’m not cross, I’m thinking!’ said Daisy. ‘You mark my words, Hazel, I will find a way out!’
SUSPECT LIST
1. Miss Crompton. MOTIVE: She was Rose’s greatest ally at the Rue Theatre and seems sad that she is dead – but she has also been honest about the fact that Rose’s death will be good for business, and will help the Rue’s money troubles. She clearly cares most about the Rue, and about her company – might she have been willing to hurt one member of it to help everyone else? OPPORTUNITY: She seems to have an alibi from 9 p.m. until just before Rose was discovered missing at 9.30 p.m. – she was onstage with Inigo – but she did also go to the loo for a few minutes. Could this be enough time for her to have gone to the well room with Rose and killed her there? This is NOT enough time – unless her alibi is a lie! NOTES: She did not visit Jim at the stage door until after Rose’s disappearance that evening, meaning that she had no clear opportunity to forge Rose’s name in the book. But could she be working with someone else – like Inigo?
2. Simon. MOTIVE: He does not like Rose. He hinted, and Inigo confirmed, that he was supposed to play Romeo until Rose objected to the colour of his skin. Was he angry enough with her to do something terrible? OPPORTUNITY: He was with Inigo when they overheard the argument between Martita and Rose, but afterwards left him and went upstairs to his own dressing room until the alarm was raised at 9.30. Could he have left it to murder Rose? From our re-enactment of the crime, we know it would have taken him approximately twelve minutes to go down to the well room, murder Rose and go back to his dressing room. NOTES: Visited Jim’s cubbyhole and so could have forged Rose’s name in the book.
3. Annie (Wardrobe). MOTIVE: No clear motive. Rose was friendly with her – but she did seem to be uncomfortable with Rose’s behaviour towards other members of the company. OPPORTUNITY: She was in the loo on the first floor when Martita and Rose had their argument, but was then alone in Wardrobe at the crucial time. It would have taken her approximately twelve minutes to get down to the well room and back again. She has no alibi! NOTES: Visited Jim’s cubbyhole and so could have forged Rose’s name in the book. RULED OUT! Annie has become the second victim. She was seen walking towards Westminster Bridge just before midnight last night; her handbag, coat and hat were found beside the river this morning, and a body which we believe to be hers was found in the estuary. The Inspector thinks she committed suicide – there is a note in her handbag – but we are not so sure. Annie was behaving oddly yesterday, and saying she was afraid. Did she know something about the murder? Has she been shut up by the murderer?
4. Inigo. MOTIVE: He disliked Rose intensely and says that she is the reason why Simon was not able to play Romeo. He also wants to use her death as publicity. OPPORTUNITY: He was with Simon and Miss Crompton when they heard the argument between Rose and Martita, and he says that after this he went back onstage to talk to Miss Crompton until he left to see Jim just before the alarm was raised by Martita at 9.30. If this is true, then he may not have had time – unless he was working with Miss Crompton. He could have gone down to the well room, murdered Rose and gone back onstage in approximately eleven minutes. NOTES: Visited Jim’s cubbyhole and so could have forged Rose’s name in the book.
5. Lysander. MOTIVE: He had been flirting with Rose, but Daisy and Hazel noticed that they had been arguing more and more lately. He is a very threatening person, and he was angry with Rose. OPPORTUNITY: He was in his dressing room, alone, during the time Rose must have been murdered – he does not have an alibi! NOTES: Was at Jim’s cubbyhole when the alarm was raised, and so could have forged Rose’s name in the book. He behaved threateningly towards Daisy yesterday – he seems capable of violence. It would have only taken him approximately twelve minutes to go down to the well room, murder Rose and go back to his dressing room.
6. Jim (stage door). MOTIVE: He did not like Rose, and resented her being part of the Rue. But did he feel strongly enough about her to murder her? OPPORTUNITY: He says he was at his post all evening. Is this true? RULED OUT: He has a limp. He would have needed more time to kill Rose than anyone else, but he was not away from his post for more than nine minutes on the evening of the murder. Even the closest of our other suspects could not have murdered Rose in under eleven minutes.
7. Martita. MOTIVE: She hated the fact that Rose was playing Juliet. She felt that the part should have been hers, and was jealous that Rose was allowed to be the star. OPPORTUNITY: She left the stage when Rose refused to come on to rehearse Scene Five. Inigo, Simon, Miss Crompton and Annie all say that they heard her arguing with Rose in Rose’s dressing room at about 9.05. We do not know where she went after that. Could she have murdered Rose before she raised the alarm at 9.30? NOTES: Visited Jim’s cubbyhole and so could have forged Rose’s name in the book. It would have only taken her approximately twelve minutes to go down to the well room, murder Rose and go back to her dressing room. Rose walked to the well room rather than being dragged there – would she have gone with Martita?
PLAN OF ACTION
1. Check Jim’s stage-door book and ascertain whether Jim can be trusted.
2. Look at timings and decide which of our suspects had enough opportunity to commit the crime.
3. Go back to the scene of the crime and re-enact the murder.
4. Visit Rose’s dressing room and look for clues.
5. Talk to suspects – decide if any of them could be working together.
6. Find out which of our remaining suspects have alibis for the time of Annie’s death.
7. Rule out Martita! (NB Daisy wrote this!)
8. Discover the killer.
5
But Daisy had still not managed to escape when the afternoon post came, and with it two very important things.
The first was a great bundle of newspapers (Uncle Felix and Aunt Lucy like to take them all) – and their evening editions had all heard about Annie’s disappearance.
MURDER IN THE THEATRE!
NEW LEADS!
SHOCKING INTERVIEWS!
WOMAN MISSING!
SECOND BODY FOUND IN RUE MYSTERY!
Daisy and I sat poring over them. Seeing all those headlines made me feel rather sick, and very small. I have never been able to watch how the rest of the world saw one of our cases. I have only lived them, and told the story that Daisy and I saw. These words, none of them from my pencil, turned the real people at the Rue into a story I could not control.
I looked more closely at one.
Missing!
The Evening Bugle has discovered that the Mystery of the Rue Theatre has taken a new and dangerous turn. Annie Joy, 25, of Southend, Essex, a member of the ill-fated Rue Theatre Company, is MISSING from her Soho accommodation, Scotland Yard has confirmed. She was last seen walking towards Westminster Bridge just before midnight yesterday, seemingly in great distress, and the police fear that she may have been intent on causing herself harm.
Sorrow at the Rue
Miss Joy’s disappearance is the latest in a shocking string of events at London’s Rue Theatre. The Rue’s most shining new star, Rose Tree, was MURDERED just two days ago. Is the venue cursed? Its owner, Miss Frances Crompton, was not available for comment, but the director, notable thespian Inigo Leontes, gave this tragic statement: ‘Poor darling Annie was a beloved member of our company, a young woman with marvellous talent. Our production of Romeo and Juliet, which opens in just two days, on Wednesday the 27th of May at 7:30 p.m., will sorely miss her. Tickets are still available from our box office, and I hope the public will flock to see the play, as a loving tribute to both Rose Tree and Annie Joy.’
Vanished into the Night!
/> A witness, who asks to remain anonymous, says that Miss Joy bumped into him as she was walking down Charing Cross Road just after 11:30 p.m. ‘She was wearing a red coat,’ the witness said. ‘She stood out in the fog. She was walking fast and she looked afraid. She stumbled into me and I saw that she was crying. I asked if she needed assistance, but she ran away before I could help.’ She was then seen by another witness at 11:45, near Westminster Bridge. Miss Joy asked this man, who has also requested to remain anonymous, for a cigarette. He says that her hands trembled as she held it up to be lit … This was the last sighting of Miss Joy, before she vanished into the night for ever …
Belongings Found!
Miss Joy’s hat, coat and handbag, badly waterlogged, were discovered on the banks of the Thames this morning. There are reports that a NOTE may have been found inside the handbag, but police refuse to confirm this.
Body Found!
The body of a young woman was also found DROWNED in the Thames Estuary this morning. Did Annie Joy do dreadful violence to herself?
‘Our Little Darling’
Miss Joy’s parents, Henry and Mavis Joy, wept this afternoon at their modest but tidy family home in Southend, Essex. ‘She was our little darling,’ said Mavis, 46. ‘Our youngest. We are devastated, and so is her brother.’
CAN YOU HELP?
Have you seen tragic Annie? She has been described as a slight young woman with curly blonde hair and a red coat. She was wearing red patent shoes and a green scarf and hat, and carrying a blue handbag. If you have any information relating to her, call the Bugle’s office now.
‘What a silly article!’ said Daisy scornfully. ‘Our little darling. I’ll bet you her parents didn’t say any such thing. And look at Inigo turning it on like anything! But at least we have some useful new information. We know Annie’s last movements, and we have the timing of her death all but confirmed as just before midnight. Oh, if only we could get out of this idiotic flat. It’s so hot!’
Daisy kept on turning over newspapers restlessly, her hands smudging the newsprint, while I looked at the second bit of post – a letter addressed to me.
Of course, as soon as I picked it up, Daisy pounced.
‘Ooh!’ she said with relish. ‘Another letter from Alexander.’
I could feel my face heat too. ‘So what if it is?’ I asked defiantly. Alexander and I have been writing regularly since our last case together. I tell myself fiercely that everything is all right between us now. We are friends, and nothing more. But I know that there is a deeper truth beneath this. I feel the same way towards Alexander as ever, and I know how he feels about Daisy, and so nothing is all right, and I do not think it will ever be.
‘No reason,’ said Daisy. ‘What does he say? Has he heard about the murders yet?’
I opened the letter, running my fingers carefully under its seal. I could see Daisy flinching with annoyance – she wanted me to simply rip it open. So I moved more slowly than ever, unfolding it and smoothing it out on my lap like a present.
Dear Hazel,
I hope you and Daisy are well. George and I are in jolly good spirits, though terribly jealous of you gadding about in London. Nothing at Weston can live up to the excitement of what happened when we saw you last.
Our half-term started on Friday, and I’m with George at his people’s again. They’re great, though I miss Mom and Dad Sorry, Hazel, I shouldn’t have said that – I know it’s even harder for you.
Anyway, what I’m writing to say is that we’d love to see you and Daisy again. Or are you too busy and famous for us now? Just in case, we’ll call for you at your uncle’s apartment on Tuesday morning. If you could get away, it’d be spiffing. And we’d love to watch you rehearse your play. It starts soon, right? We want to see Daisy acting the star. Say we can. We miss you.
Alexander
I got the up-and-down, hot-and-cold feeling I have whenever I read one of Alexander’s letters. I could not help being a detective and poring over every word. We miss you was an encouraging clue (although I wished he had said I, not we), but We want to see Daisy acting the star was utterly depressing. It reminded me that, for all I have changed, I am still not the star. I am not the President of the Detective Society. I am only Daisy’s shadow.
‘They want to see us,’ I managed to say. ‘But I don’t think Alexander knew about what happened at the Rue when he wrote.’
‘Of course they will by now! And of course they want to see us!’ said Daisy, frowning and sighing. ‘Alexander is quite obsessed with me – it’s such a bore. But I admit that I always like to see George, and Alexander does at least slightly improve with age. By the time he’s twenty he might be only ordinarily annoying.’
‘Stop saying that he’s obsessed with you!’ I said, and I could feel my face flushing and my heart pounding.
‘But it’s true! Goodness, why do people always get so upset when I say things that are true?’ asked Daisy.
‘Because it’s not nice! Imagine if I teased you about Martita. I haven’t once, Daisy, not once. It’s just the same as how I feel about Alexander, and you might understand it now!’
‘Oh, lay off, Hazel!’ said Daisy furiously. She rubbed at her forehead. ‘I – I suppose you’re right. My brain feels muddled. I’m just so terribly tired of being cooped up inside. Can’t we get out at all?’
‘Certainly not,’ said Bridget, passing by with a duster. ‘Mr M.’s orders.’
‘Oh, please!’ said Daisy, cheeks pink with hope. ‘We’ll be as good as gold, honour bright!’
‘Daisy, stop it,’ said Bridget. ‘I’ve got the kitchen presses to clean, dinner to make and Mr M.’s case notes to type up. Be patient and he’ll let you out tomorrow, I’m sure.’
‘Do you really think so?’ asked Daisy at once.
‘I do,’ said Bridget. ‘He’s a paper tiger. Be good, Daisy, come on.’
‘All right!’ trilled Daisy. ‘Hazel, let’s go to our room and be as good as gold.’
She was using her most polite, grown-up-friendly tone. I eyed her suspiciously. I have learned all too well that, when Daisy speaks in that voice, she means absolutely nothing she says.
6
Of course, I was right.
‘Hazel, we must ignore Bridget!’ hissed Daisy as soon as we had closed the door to our room. Her cheeks were now very red and her eyes were glittering. She slipped her hand over mine and her palm was burning hot.
‘We have to escape and investigate Annie’s accommodation! We have to get to Soho – or at least one of us does. I’m going to climb out of this window, get down into the street, hail a taxi and be away before Bridget can stop me. You must cover for me! I am ordering you as your President to help me now.’
‘Daisy …’ I said. ‘Are you – are you all right?’
‘I have never been better!’ snarled Daisy.
‘Daisy,’ I said again. ‘You look odd. Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?’
‘Of course not!’ cried Daisy hoarsely, and she ran at our window and wrestled with the catch, trying to get outside.
At the same moment, the door to our room opened. Bridget came in, took one look at Daisy and went rushing towards her with a furious cry. She threw herself at Daisy, who was now halfway out of the window, and simply tackled her at the knees. Daisy went down with a shriek, crumpling in Bridget’s arms in a way that looked utterly staged.
But then Bridget drew back and knelt beside her, annoyance melting into concern, and I saw that Daisy was not getting up. Her eyes were closed and that dangerous flush was still across her cheeks.
‘Daisy, love?’ said Bridget. ‘Are you all right?’
I rushed to Daisy’s side and bent down to shake her shoulder. Daisy has done this sort of thing before, and so I was expecting her to flinch against me to show me that she was really only pretending.
But she did not. She stayed limp, and her eyelids fluttered feverishly. I remembered her hot hands, her hoarse voice, her bright cheeks and her flustered b
ehaviour. I had thought they were clues that Daisy was annoyed and excited by the case. But … what if the solution was something far more ordinary?
Bridget picked Daisy up and laid her on her bed. Daisy opened her eyes and struggled to sit up as Bridget felt her forehead.
‘Daisy,’ she said. ‘Stop wriggling about! You’re burning up. You’ve got that flu that’s going around.’
‘I do not!’ said Daisy. ‘I am perfectly – all right – really I am – will you stop making the room spin about like that! It’s really exactly what I’d expect from Uncle Felix, having a secretly spinning room. Hazel, tell him to stop it.’
‘The room isn’t spinning, Daisy,’ said Bridget. ‘It’s your head.’
‘What nonsense!’ cried Daisy. ‘I’ll have you know that there is nothing wrong with me at all. I’m not the weak one – Hazel is. My head does not spin for anything and I—’
Here she broke off in a fit of coughing that made her cheeks redder than ever.
Bridget pushed her back against her pillows.
‘Tell her, Hazel!’ Daisy cried.
‘I won’t tell her anything,’ I said, folding my arms. ‘Daisy, don’t be silly. Look at you! You’ve got exactly what Theresa had – what half the company have had!’
‘Hazel Wong, you absolute traitor!’ gasped Daisy. ‘I shall never talk to you again. This is the end. You’ll be sorry when I die; then you’ll wish you’d been nicer to me.’
Death in the Spotlight Page 15