Not much was said about him during the following Sunday’s rehearsal, though they did get the news from Davina that Gordon Blaine had been questioned by the police. At what level this questioning had taken place she did not know, but they’d been to his house rather than taking him to the station. This information caused a surprising lack of discussion amongst the Devil’s Disciple company. But there was a general view that Gordon’s being questioned was logical. After all, he had built the structure which had killed Ritchie Good.
As she was leaving St Mary’s Hall at the end of her first rehearsal, that Sunday, Carole was approached by Mimi Lassiter. ‘Oh, now you’re in the production you must be a member of SADOS.’
‘Must I?’
‘Yes, nobody can be in a SADOS production if their subscription’s not up to date.’
‘Unless they’re Ritchie Good,’ said Carole, who had heard from Jude about his non-membership. Mimi Lassiter’s face darkened. ‘He wasn’t a member, was he?’
The Membership Secretary agreed that he wasn’t. ‘And look what happened to him,’ she said with something like satisfaction.
They were now out in the car park. Carole looked at Mimi Lassiter, dumpy with her dyed red hair. No wedding ring, post-menopausal, archetypal small town spinster. Then she noticed that Mimi was carrying a Burberry raincoat exactly like her own.
Carole took out her car key and unlocked her clean white Renault. As she did so, she realized that parked next to it was the identical model, also white. ‘Well, there’s a coincidence,’ she said.
‘Just what I was thinking,’ Mimi Lassiter agreed.
‘What, you mean … that one’s yours?’
‘Yes.’
Carole Seddon felt very uncomfortable. The same Burberry raincoat, the same white Renault. Both post-menopausal. And she’d just mentally condemned Mimi Lassiter as an archetypal spinster. Was that how the denizens of Fethering saw her too?
But Mimi was not to be distracted from her cause. ‘Now the subscription of Acting Members is—’
‘But I’m not an Acting Member,’ Carole objected. Unpleasant memories of the School Nativity Play welled up in her. Ooh, that itchy Ox costume. ‘You’ll never catch me acting,’ she said with some vehemence. ‘I am the prompter.’
‘Yes, well, that’s still covered by Acting Membership. Everyone who’s actually involved in the production—’
‘Backstage as well?’
‘Yes, backstage as well. They’re all in the category of Acting Members.’
‘Well, it’s a misnomer, isn’t it?’
‘What?’
‘Acting Member. Acting Member implies that people in that category actually act. It should be Active Member.’
‘I think it’s fairly clear that anyone who’s involved in—’
‘Anyway, what other categories of membership are there?’
‘Well, there’s Supporters’ Membership. That’s usually for people who have got too old to continue as Acting Members but are still involved with the society. And then there’s Honorary Membership, but that was really only set up for Freddie and Elizaveta … you know, because they actually started SADOS and there needed to be some recognition of their enormous contribution to the—’
‘So how much do I have to pay for an Active Membership?’
‘Acting Membership.’
‘It really shouldn’t be called that,’ said Carole.
‘Well, it always has been called that!’ Mimi Lassiter was very worked up. Clearly she didn’t like anyone questioning the way she operated as Membership Secretary. ‘And the subscription for Acting Membership is …’
Carole paid up.
Olly Pinto, in the role of Dick Dudgeon, had just asked if Essie knew by what name he was known.
‘Dick,’ replied Janie Trotman, in the role of Essie.
He then told her that he was called something else as well. But before he could say, ‘The Devil’s Disciple,’ he was interrupted.
‘That’s wrong,’ said Carole. It was the Sunday rehearsal a fortnight after Ritchie Good’s death, and she was beginning to feel at ease in her new role of prompter.
‘I’m sure it’s right,’ said Olly Pinto, on the edge of petulance.
‘No. You said you were called something else as well, whereas what George Bernard Shaw actually wrote did not include the words: “I am called”.’
‘Well, it means the same thing.’
‘It may mean the same thing, but what you said is not the line that Shaw wrote.’
‘All right,’ said Olly Pinto, well into petulance now. ‘I’ll take it back to where I ask Essie what they call me.’ And he delivered the line that Shaw wrote.
‘What?’ asked Janie Trotman.
‘That was your cue. I was giving you your bloody cue!’
‘Keep your hair on. I’m not the one who’s cocking up the lines.’
‘I am not cocking up the lines! Look, I’ve taken on the part of Dick Dudgeon at very short notice and I’m doing my best to—’
‘All right, all right,’ said Janie, who’d heard quite enough of Olly Pinto’s moaning. ‘Dick.’
‘What?’ he asked.
‘You gave me my cue. I’m giving you the line that comes next. Dick.’
‘Well, I didn’t know you’d started, did I?’
‘All right. Well, I have started. Dick.’
Again Olly Pinto tried to get out the line where he mentioned he was called ‘The Devil’s Disciple’.
Again Carole interrupted him. ‘You said “as well”. Shaw actually wrote “too”.’
‘Oh for God’s sake!’ snapped Olly Pinto. ‘“As well” – “too” – what’s the bloody difference? They both mean the same.’
‘They may mean the same, but George Bernard Shaw chose to write one rather than the other. And the play SADOS is doing is the one written by George Bernard Shaw, not by members of the cast.’
Olly Pinto looked as if he was about to take issue, but decided against it. Hester Winstone had been very timid as a prompter. She wouldn’t give the line until one of the actors virtually asked her for it. And she had seemed happy to accept any kind of paraphrase of George Bernard Shaw’s words. Whereas with this new one … blimey, it was like being back at school.
Carole Seddon was surprised to find she was really enjoying her job as prompter. With the text of The Devil’s Disciple in her hand, she had the advantage over the actors. And even the most flamboyant of them looked pretty silly when they couldn’t remember their lines.
Also, although she would never have admitted it to a living soul, she was glad to have the prospect of fewer evenings alone with Gulliver in High Tor, reading or watching television (even about convents and confinements).
Carole and Jude’s conviction that they were engaged on an investigation grew weaker and weaker. Whenever they tried raising the subject with members of the cast, asking for their ideas as to who might have switched the two nooses, nobody seemed to be that interested. Getting The Devil’s Disciple on was much more important than Ritchie Good. He was already old gossip.
Despite his problems with the lines, Olly Pinto was really relishing his elevation to the role of Dick Dudgeon. Previously at coffee breaks during rehearsal it had been Ritchie Good round whom the junior members had gathered. Now it was Olly. He wasn’t a natural to take on the casual insouciance of an amdram star, but he was getting better at filling the role.