‘Find yourselves a pew.’
The only possibilities were dining chairs heaped with cardboard boxes containing crockery.
‘These things are waiting for a valuation,’ Melmot said.
‘Selling up?’ Diamond asked, gesturing to DC Gilbert to clear some space for them all. The prospect of coffee and lemon drizzle cake had all but vanished.
‘Not the house. Just some of the contents. You wouldn’t believe the upkeep of a place this size. It’s death by a thousand cuts. Most of my ancestors’ portraits have gone, including, I may say, two Knellers and a Gainsborough. Each time I sell something I have to justify it to my mother, who thinks I’m a wastrel. By the way, she won’t interrupt us if you’re brief. She remains in her room until eleven. After that, she’ll be on the warpath.’
‘Let’s go for it, then. I was told you were phoned some time yesterday by Clarion wanting to see the evening performance.’
‘That’s correct.’
‘You knew already that she’d dropped the lawsuit. You heard from her lawyers, you told me.’
Melmot nodded, wary of what he might be asked.
‘So you were well disposed to the lady?’
‘We’ve been over this before. I told you I was a fan.’
‘But your admiration must have been tested by the lawsuit hanging over you.’
‘A temporary difficulty. Others took it more seriously than I.’
‘Denise, for one.’
‘That’s a matter of conjecture, isn’t it?’
‘Not since we found the suicide note.’ Diamond watched the reaction before adding, ‘Didn’t you hear?’
Melmot blinked several times and turned a shade more pink. Plainly, the Theatre Royal’s bush telegraph had malfunctioned. But then Diamond remembered that the discovery had been known only to Ingeborg, Fred Dawkins and himself. If three members of CID can’t keep quiet, who can?
No point now in keeping back the news.
‘How desperately sad,’ Melmot said after he’d been told, but it was lip service. Anyone could tell he wasn’t either desperate or sad.
‘Yes, if Clarion had withdrawn her threat earlier, Denise might not have taken the action she did.’ Diamond gave a shrug that would not have disgraced a Frenchman. ‘But then a lot of unpleasantness would never happen if we had the gift of hindsight. Getting back to Clarion, can you recall her exact words when she phoned you yesterday?’
‘That’s asking too much.’
‘Near enough to exact, then.’
‘I’ll try. She had my mobile number from a couple of weeks ago when I made arrangements for her to stay here. She phoned me about three in the afternoon. I was surprised and rather relieved to hear her voice.’
‘But you already knew she wasn’t going to sue.’
‘Yes, but not from Clarion herself. There was no hint of reproach. She used my first name and asked if I’d heard she was out of hospital. She said she was staying at the Cedar of Lebanon in Bristol and was wondering if there was some way she could get to see the play she’d had so much to do with. I took it as an olive branch.’
‘Was anything said about the lawsuit?’
‘No, we avoided that. I said we’d be delighted to welcome her and she said immediately that she didn’t want to make an occasion of it. She wanted to come unannounced and in secret. She wasn’t ready yet to meet the cast or any of her fans.’
‘Because of the scarring?’
‘I suppose. We didn’t go into that. I had what I thought was the rather good idea of letting her see the show from a private box. It’s not the best sight-line in the house, but it has the great advantage of being discreet. If you sit well back you’re invisible to the audience.’
‘You suggested this over the phone?’
‘Yes, and she liked it immediately.’
‘So you made plans?’
‘Certainly. I didn’t order her car, but she told me to look out for a black Mercedes limo. I laid on everything at my end of things, getting Binns, the security man, to meet her and escort her upstairs.’
‘Did you tell anyone else?’
‘Only Hedley Shearman. He had to know, as theatre manager. I asked him to look in at the interval and make sure she was comfortable.’
‘Didn’t you see her yourself?’
‘Only when she arrived. She was a little late, just before curtain up, and it was the briefest of conversations. I had other duties in the interval, so I had to rely on Hedley to take care of her.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Take care of her. God only knows what happened. It now appears she died during the interval.’
‘Where were you?’
‘In the interval? In the 1805 Rooms, pressing the flesh.’
‘The 1805 Rooms?’
‘It’s our VIP suite. Named after the year the theatre was built. We had a casting director from the National and several of our sponsors.’
‘You were there for the whole twenty minutes?’
‘It went on for longer, in fact. Some minor alarm backstage.’
‘This would have been Fräulein Schneider reacting to the grey lady – as she supposed at the time.’
‘Actors.’ He clicked his tongue in disapproval as if speaking of prodigal sons.
‘You haven’t answered my question: were you in the 1805 Rooms for the whole of the interval? I can easily check, but it would be simpler hearing it from you.’
‘The bulk of the time. I slipped out towards the end to find out what the delay was about and while I was making my way backstage the second half started.’
‘So there was a period of time when you were between the 1805 Rooms and backstage?’
‘A very short period. Is that significant?’ He managed a look of innocence that faded when Diamond declined to answer.
‘And at what point did you learn that Clarion was dead?’
‘After the final curtain as I was leaving the theatre. One of the front-of-house staff told me an ambulance had been called to someone who had apparently collapsed and died in the Arnold Haskell box. Dreadful. I knew who it was, of course. The whole world fell in on me. Couldn’t think how it had happened. They told me Hedley was dealing with it. In my state of alarm I couldn’t face anyone and I knew there was sure to be an explosion of media interest. Let’s admit it: I panicked.’
‘You left the theatre?’
‘Returned here in turmoil and spent a sleepless night trying to work out what to tell people.’
‘People like us?’
‘Not you. I’ve told you the honest truth. It’s all those reporters I dread. They’ll twist it into a filthy scandal. They always do.’
Diamond was tempted to say not much twisting would be needed and see what reaction that would get, but the last brief comment interested him. ‘Why, have you been on the receiving end before?’
‘Not in a serious way. This is something else.’
‘Yes, it’s huge,’ Diamond said. ‘I’m holding a press conference this afternoon.’
On the drive back to Bath, he asked Gilbert what he’d made of Melmot.
‘Didn’t like him, guv. He’s all front. Chairman of the board and all that.’
‘True.’
‘There wasn’t much real sympathy for either of the women who died in his theatre. All he thinks about is what the press will make of it. He said he was a Clarion fan, but he isn’t grieving for her.’
‘She let him down,’ Diamond said. ‘He had great hopes. He saw an opportunity and brought her to the theatre to be in this play, offered to let her stay with him.’
‘Hoping to get inside her knickers?’
‘I wouldn’t express it in those terms. He claims not. He said she stayed in a different wing of the house.’
‘He’d say that, wouldn’t he?’
‘I’m inclined to believe him. He’s a mummy’s boy, and you’d understand why if you met his mother. Aside from all that he was getting credit from the theatre people for finding a star performer and she was supposed to be grateful for getting the part. But it all turned sour. She didn’t stay long in the house.’