‘And somebody hid those wedges which were supposed to be put under those same wheels on the last night of the performance. Even if somebody had accidentally or deliberately pushed against the cart, the wedges would have held it.’
‘You must look elsewhere for your culprits. My students are not responsible for the tragedy which has occurred.
‘Perhaps you can suggest who is responsible, then, sir.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘No offence, sir, but you, as producer of this opera which, I understand, has been in rehearsal for several weeks, must have had your finger on the pulse, so to speak. Were there any little rifts, for example, between the deceased and anybody else in the cast? Clashes of temperament, jealousies, quarrels?’
‘Not so far as I am aware. Mr Crashaw was not my first choice for the part, but when I gave it to him there was little or no ill-feeling among the others.’
‘What happened to your first choice, then, sir? Couldn’t he fill the bill?’
‘Oh, it was nothing like that. He was fooling about on a trampoline at his school – he’s a teacher – fell off it awkwardly and was taken to hospital with a fractured leg. It was a very nasty crack, I believe, silly young ass!’
‘So there’s no suggestion he could have been present at the town hall on Saturday?’
‘Ask the hospital!’
Young Tom Blaine came next on the list, but as it was clear, from Ernest Farrow’s evidence, that the mischief with the fastenings of the cart must have been done not earlier than a few moments before Ernest’s own last dialogue with the Player in front of the curtain, young Tom was able to alibi himself without difficulty.
‘I was supposed to have a short scene with Lockit – that’s Mr Haynings – in Act Three,’ he said, ‘but Dr Denbigh cut it out because it’s a bit rude. It’s about…’
‘Never mind what it’s about, lad. Where were you during the last scene, where, as I understand it, Mr Farrow and one of the students have a short dialogue in front of the curtain?’
‘I was in the porters’ room playing backgammon with Mr Caxton until my mother took him home, then I played with one of the porters. You can hear the applause from the porters’ room, so that was my cue to get into the corridor with the other principals ready to take our curtains. The porters, both of them, came with me, because it was their job to hand the bouquets. They get pretty good tips, you see, for staying late and seeing to the bouquets.’
As both porters vouched for all this, there was no more to be said. Granted, however, that Lawrence’s death was the result of a practical joke which had misfired, there was one aspect of it which dangled – almost literally – in the Superintendent’s mind. This was the running noose, instead of a knotted loop, in the hangman’s rope. He tackled Ernest Farrow again.
‘When you tested your knots which anchored the cart, sir, did you also take a look at the noose?’
‘No, I’m afraid I didn’t. We left it in position from one night to the next, you see. It was fastened to one of the iron girders so that it dropped straight down, forming, as it were, a plumb-line from near the roof, the weight of its knot, where the noose was, holding it pretty steady, and all the stage-hands had to do was slip it over Macheath’s head.’
‘At what point in the proceedings would they do that, sir?’
‘It was after they had pinioned and blindfolded him and helped him up on to the cart. They had a small step-ladder – one of those ladder-stool things which ladies use in the kitchen – to get up to reach the noose, and then they just put it lightly round his neck.’
‘So he himself wouldn’t have been aware that on that last evening it had a running noose instead of a knotted loop in it?’
‘I suppose not,’ said Ernest, unhappily. ‘You know, Detective-Superintendent, I’m wondering whether, by some oversight – and don’t think I don’t blame myself, because I do – I’m wondering whether that slip-noose could have been there all the time.’
‘All the time, sir?’
‘Yes, for the dress rehearsal and all three performances. We didn’t use the noose at the dress rehearsal, and the Thursday and Friday nights went off without a hitch, so it never occurred to me to check the noose. I’d checked it at the pre-dress rehearsal —’
‘What exactly was that, sir?’
‘You may well ask,’ said Ernest, his voice rising in remembered anguish. ‘You never saw such a fiasco in your life. We were at it until half-past twelve at night. My poor mother was convinced that I must have met with an accident until I phoned her at midnight and told her I’d be home as soon as I could.’
‘But you inspected the noose on that occasion, sir?’
‘Yes, I did. Not that we ever got around to that last scene on that occasion. We were all so tired and wretched that we didn’t finish the opera.’
‘At what point during that rehearsal did you inspect the apparatus, sir?’
‘At the first interval. The porter at the town hall, under my directions, had climbed up and looped the rope over the girder and I myself had inspected the noose to make certain that it was perfectly safe. The other end of the rope was slung over the girder, not fastened in any way. If the cart had, for any reason, begun to move, the rope should have slid off the girder and fallen on to the stage, thus averting any possible danger to Macheath.’
‘Yes,’ said the police officer grimly, ‘it should have slid off the girder, but it didn’t, and the question is, if not, why not? I may as well tell you, sir, that I’ve climbed up to take a look at that rope myself. It’s fastened securely. The porter must have mistaken your instructions if they were as you say. I’ll see what he has to tell me.’
What the porter had to tell him was simple and conclusive.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Mr Farrow wasn’t too keen on climbing high ladders, so he give me his instructions about looping the rope over the girder. Myself, I didn’t think it would hold, that girder being unpainted iron and of a circular nature; still, I done as I was told. Well, they has this rehearsal what looked like going on till all hours, so at ten-thirty I packs it in. Firstly I finds Councillor Haynings and puts it up to him as ten-thirty were closing time. He says the rehearsal is a right mess, so they couldn’t give up yet, but as how I could go off dooty, him taking full responsibility.’
‘So he locked up the town hall that night instead of you doing it?’
‘Me leaving him my keys, which he returned personally on the Sunday morning, directly he come from church, to my own house. Well, I unlocks on the Monday morning, as usual, and has a look round and sees as the rope, as I knowed it would, had slid off the girder and was on the stage, so I phones up Councillor Haynings, me having his number because of him being chairman, and tells him. So he says, “Well, fix it, man, fix it.” So I gets me ladder again and fixes it, that’s all. I never done nothing wrong. Orders is orders, that’s what I allus says.’
CHAPTER 19
« ^
We have drawn the curtain across an empty stage
‘But you don’t go along with the verdict at the inquest, do you?’ said Laura.
‘Death by Misadventure? It is an interesting choice of words,’ said Dame Beatrice.
‘Wouldn’t Accidental Death have done as well? Not that I believe it, any more than you do.’
‘In the present case, Accidental Death may be ruled out, I think. There were far too many coincidences for this to have been an accident, and the coroner’s jury seem to have shown an intelligent grasp of the niceties of language in phrasing their verdict.’
‘In other words, they suspected it was murder, and we know it was murder, but where’s the proof?’
‘I shall find it. I am not in favour of punishment – none of us should be authorised to punish any other of us…’