17
After watching Florence Carlotta and her pack depart, Ray sat for a long moment and enjoyed the quiet. He listened to the wind in the tall trees and the distant echo of waves against the beach, perhaps more imagined than real. He turned his attention to his notes, highlighting Carlotta’s comments about Malcolm Wudbine looking after her investments. He wondered how many other colony members had had financial dealings with Wudbine over the years. Clearly, Florence Carlotta, given some careful planning, was in a position to kill Wudbine. Would she have been able to shut off the power, or would she have needed a collaborator? His musings were interrupted by a gentle rapping at the screen door.
At Ray’s beckoning, Tony Grattan walked into the building. After shaking hands, Grattan settled into the chair across from him, shifting from side to side, using the armrests to aid in positioning his narrow frame. He sat ramrod straight, his nose, chin, and shoulders in perfect alignment.
“I trust it’s okay that Flossy and I made the trade. She was most insistent. Quite formidable, that woman. It’s hardly worth the psychic energy to oppose her on issues that are less than of life-shaking importance.”
Ray’s only response was a bemused smile. “Walk me through everything that happened last evening. I would like you to start at the cocktail party. Or even before if something comes to mind that you think might shed light on this crime.”
“Well, I can’t imagine that I have anything more to tell you that you didn’t hear from Flossy. My comments will be skeletal by comparison. She’s probably blended every rumor and innuendo from the last 40 years into her account of last night’s tragic events. That woman has a memory like an elephant, and she holds nothing back.”
Ray noted both the words and tone in which they were delivered. “A chronology without extra elaboration would be perfectly acceptable,” Ray responded. “Just the facts.”
“Well, like you said, I started moving the actors and crew toward the theatre an hour before the performance. I had two motives. First, I wanted to get the characters there and in costume and makeup well before curtain time. I wanted people there early so they would have some quiet time to get into character. And the second motive, which probably should have been the first motive if I was really thinking about this chronologically, was to get people out of there so they wouldn’t have too much to drink. Let someone have two, three, or more drinks and their lines get muddled or disappear by the time they walk on stage.”
“And you were able to succeed….”
“Remarkably well. Good group this year. No unpleasantness or friction. No surly drunks. I circulated through the crowd, pointing to my watch, and everyone got the message. Everyone but Malcolm, of course, because he wasn’t at the party. Arriving late is his modus operandi, always the grand entrance, usually with his entourage in tow.”
“How late was he?”
“We were getting ready for the opening curtain. When he came in, I pointed to Flossy and said, ‘You’re in charge. Get him ready.’ She’s the only one in the colony he couldn’t buffalo. I knew he’d be in place and ready for the second scene.”
“You mentioned his entourage. Who was with Wudbine?”
“Interesting enough, no one that I remember. He might have been accompanied as far as the stage door, but I wouldn’t have seen that.”
“So continue.”
“Well, I knew that Malcolm was under control, and we managed to get through the first scene without any lost lines or other problems. I was worried about the lights. That’s been a problem for years, but now it’s worse than ever. People just keep plugging more stuff in. And with all the thunder and lightning…well.”
“So if something went wrong with the electrical system, do you know your way around the collection of electrical boxes?” asked Ray.
“Oh, absolutely. Not all of them, grant you. But I know the main shutoff. David has always said that if something goes horribly wrong, and he’s getting fried, turn off the master switch first. Don’t touch him or try to remove his body. Turn off the master switch and then attend to him.”
“How many other people know about this?”
“Lots. We have this whole safety procedure, and we go through it every summer during our opening orientation. We show crewmembers where the main electrical shutoff is located, just like we show them the locations of the fire extinguishers and how they work. But some of the old-timers have heard this spiel so often, I’m not sure they bother to listen. They just stand there and nod their heads. But in a real emergency, hopefully someone would remember.”
“Where were you when the lights went off?”
“I was in the green room checking that people were ready to go onstage. I was near the door that opens into the main hall. There was lightning and thunder, the lights blinked and then went out. I just sort of held my position waiting for them to come back on, that’s the way it usually happens. Only this time it didn’t. Then people started using their phones for light. I asked everyone to stay put. Eventually, everything came back on.”
“Give me your best estimate of how long the lights were off?”
“Hard to say, really. Two minutes, maybe more. I was trying to keep people calm. Lots of questions were coming my way. People wanted to know how we were going to handle the situation. That kind of thing.”
“Then what happened?”
“I asked everyone to remain in the green room until I checked with David that it was safe to go onstage. I left the green room and walked backstage to talk to him. I could see that something was terribly wrong. I just stayed in the background. A few minutes later you arrived. I was ordered back to the green room.”
“Before and after the lights went off, were you blocking the green room door?”
“I wouldn’t say blocking. And it’s a big door, two doors, actually. I was off to the left on the inside.”
“When the lights were out, could someone have entered or left without your knowing?”
Grattan’s answer was slow in coming. “I don’t know. But if truth be told, I might not notice comings and goings even if the lights were on. My former wife used to say that I had no sense of what was happening around me. And she would have been right on that. If someone is talking to me, that’s where my focus is. I don’t know if it is a problem of peripheral vision, or something cognitive.”
“So you have no memory of anyone entering or leaving the green room when the lights were out, or immediately before or after?”
“Correct. I do remember David saying that someone had pulled the main disconnect.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“No, not in my memory. That’s the curious thing. Having the lights go off—some of them—that’s no big thing, a common occurrence. But having someone pull the main switch, that’s a big thing.”
“Have there been other acts like this? Maybe one or more individuals, perhaps teenagers, who have been engaged in some mischief or shenanigans?”
“Through the years I can think of cases, even name names of the parties thought to be the troublemakers. We haven’t had those problems in awhile. The population here is getting older. There are almost no young families, not like when I was a kid. And teenagers are few and far between. This event, this messing with the power, is outside the realm of what happens here. Water balloons and toilet paper, maybe, but nothing like this. To my way of thinking, it’s directly connected with Wudbine’s murder.” Grattan paused for a minute. “And you know it’s not rocket science.”
“You’ve lost me,” said Ray.
“All those panels back there. Anyone with limited knowledge of how things work could figure it out. That switch is clearly marked. I think it’s done that way for firefighters. What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t just be looking at colony people. If some outsiders were looking to kill Malcolm, they could figure this out.”