‘From that direction, certainly.’
‘This was straight after you came out of the lift?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, say, twenty-past six?’
‘Round then.’
‘Was Bob Garston on his own?’
‘No, he was with Joanie Bruton’s husband.’
‘Roger Bruton, eh?’ Charles looked at Sydnee. ‘Who’d presumably just escorted his wife into Make-up.’ She nodded. ‘So, Tim, you just stayed in the phone booth as they walked past?’
‘That’s what I meant to do, but they stopped just outside and talked for a bit.’
‘Did you hear what they said?’
‘Yes. It was strange. Bob Garston was saying, “I didn’t think anyone knew about it. Still, since you obviously do, you’ll understand that I’m finding it pretty difficult to work in the same studio as the bastard.” And Roger Bruton said, “Joanie’s done a lot of counselling on infidelity in marriage. You ought to talk to her about it. She’s very understanding.” And Bob said, yes, perhaps he would.’
‘And that was it?’
‘Yes. Then they walked on.’
‘And you came out of the phone booth and went into Studio A?’
‘Yes.’
‘To look at your car.’ Tim Dyer did not deem this worthy of comment, so Charles went on. ‘Did you see anyone in the studio?’
A twisted smile came to the contestant’s lips. ‘Only you.’
‘Oh.’
‘I saw you swigging from his glass.’
Charles blushed, but pressed on. ‘So you knew that it didn’t contain cyanide at that point.’
‘Never occurred to me that it would. Why should I think that?’
‘Somebody put cyanide in it between six-thirty and seven.’
‘Well, don’t look at me. What do you take me for? I wouldn’t do anything like that.’
‘No, I don’t think you probably would.’ A new thought struck Charles. ‘Just a minute. You say you saw me drinking from Barrett’s glass. .’
‘Yes.’
‘I didn’t see you.’
‘So?’ Tim Dyer looked uncomfortable.
‘If you’d been behind the curtain round the back of the set, you wouldn’t have been able to see me. If you’d been in the audience seating, I’d have seen you. That means you must have been out of sight, actually on the set.’
‘Well. .’ Tim Dyer began wretchedly.
‘And the only thing on the set big enough to hide you would have been the spinning wheel.’ Suddenly Charles knew he was right. ‘You were behind that wheel. . tampering with it.’
‘No, I wasn’t.’ But the denial carried no conviction.
‘Wouldn’t take much, would it? All you needed to do was fix a counterweight on the wheel, directly opposite the crown, and that would guarantee it would always come to rest with the crown overhead. Simple.’
Charles knew from the man’s expression that he had inadvertently hit on the truth. Confidently, he asked one final question. ‘You didn’t see anyone else in the studio after I left?’
Tim Dyer shook his head miserably and whispered, ‘I went out straight after you. Didn’t see anyone else.’
There was a long silence. Then Sydnee rose to her feet. ‘Better be going, I suppose.’
Charles got up too, and they moved towards the hall. Just before they left the room, Sydnee looked back and said, ‘And, if you want to take up that point about cheating over the car, I suggest you get in touch with our Legal Department.’
Tim Dyer did not respond. He stayed crumpled in his chair, looking as comically guilty as a schoolboy with stolen jam on his face.
Chapter Eight
Sydnee rang Charles the next morning. ‘You were right,’ she said.
‘About what in particular?’
‘Tim Dyer trying to fix the wheel. I spoke to Sylvian this morning.’
‘Who?’
‘Sylvian de Beaune, the designer. I mentioned what we thought might have happened, and he went to check. The set’s in store, you see, waiting for the definite go-ahead on the second pilot. Anyway, there it was — small polythene bag filled with sand, stuck on the back of the wheel with sticky tape, just opposite the crown. As you said.’
‘Quite a feat of improvisation, to sort that out in the studio.’
‘I think Mr Dyer went prepared.’
‘Took the sandbag with him, you mean?’
‘Wouldn’t surprise me. As we know, he’s a very dedicated competitor. He knew the format of the show. He knew about the wheel. I think he planned it in advance.’
‘Bloody nerve. Where’s the traditional British spirit of fair play?’
‘That was invented before game shows.’
‘Yes. I suppose no one could have predicted the day when ritual humiliation would become a participant sport.’ Charles chuckled. ‘God, Tim would have been furious if he’d doctored the wheel and then someone else had got to the final.’
‘He was pretty confident it was going to be him. As he kept saying, there’s a knack to these things. He knew what he was doing.’
‘Hmm. Presumably, if the show had run its course, he would have won his Austin Metro with no questions asked.’
‘Yes. Until you found out about his cheating, there was a possibility that he would have got it, anyway.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. All that guff I quoted from our Legal Department was sheer improvisation. I did consult them, but they were going to look for precedents and come back to me. So, you see, Charles, your quick thinking has saved W.E.T. a few thousand quid.’
‘Good. Not that I think W.E.T. needs the money, but I would really resent the idea of that little wimp Dyer getting it.’
‘I agree. Sylvian, incidentally, was furious.’
‘About what?’
‘The idea of someone tampering with his set. It was his first big one, you see. He’d been assistant on a good few, but this was the first on which he was going to get a sole credit.’
‘I thought he looked rather nervous all day.’
‘He certainly did. Kept fiddling about and rearranging things. Anyway, he really blew his top when he saw what Tim had done. Said it ruined the game. He’s got a strangely puritanical streak, Sylvian. He was particularly annoyed, because he’d already resisted one attempt to fix the result.’
‘What — another of the contestants tried it on?’
‘No, no. It was John Mantle. He asked Sylvian to arrange that the wheel didn’t end up with the crown on top.’
‘Good Lord.’
‘Well, it’s an Executive Producer’s job to keep his costs down. And it was only a pilot. Anyway, as I say, Sylvian refused to do it.’
Charles was not given time to reflect on the perfidy of television producers as Sydnee went on, ‘So, where do we go next?’
‘Which suspect, you mean?’
‘Yes. We’ve still got Trish Osborne and Bob Garston — that is, assuming we’ve found out the full extent of Tim Dyer’s evil-doing.’
‘I’m fairly confident we have. Well, of the other two suspects, Bob Garston at the moment seems much the more suspicious. Trish Osborne had very little opportunity to put the cyanide in the glass during the vital twenty minutes, whereas Bob was certainly around the studio area. He also stood to gain directly from Barrett’s death. .’
‘Has gained from it already. Heard this morning he’s been definitely booked to host the second pilot.’
‘Has he? There was also that strange conversation Tim Dyer overheard. .’
‘About infidelity. .’
‘Yes, marital infidelity. . Could have meant that Bob’s wife had been unfaithful. Has got a wife, has he?’
‘Oh yes. She’s an I.T.N. newscaster. I wonder who she was supposed to have been unfaithful with. .?
‘Be wonderfully neat if it turned out to be Barrett Doran. Which would also tie in with Bob’s line about “finding it difficult to work with the bastard under the circumstances”.’
‘Yes,’ Sydnee agreed excitedly. ‘And that would give Bob another reason for getting rid of his rival.’
‘All interesting speculation. Well, the person he was talking to, and who obviously knew what he was on about, was Joanie Bruton’s husband. I think we should put Trish Osborne in cold storage for a while, and try and find out more from Roger Bruton.’