inquest. But where there are strong indications that it may not be suicide we can’t risk waiting as long as that without a pretty exhaustive look round.’
‘And there are such indications?’
‘There are indeed.’
‘Strong?’
Alleyn waited a moment. ‘Sufficiently strong,’ he said.
‘What are they?’ Dr Rutherford demanded.
‘It must suffice,’ Alleyn quibbled politely, ‘that they are sufficient.’
‘An elegant sufficiency, by God!’
‘But, Mr Alleyn,’ Helena cried out, ‘what can we tell you? Except that we all most sincerely believe that Ben did this himself. Because we know him to have been bitterly unhappy. What else is there for us to say?’
‘It will help, you know, when we get a clear picture of what you were all doing and where you were between the time he left the stage and the time he was found. Inspector Fox is checking now with the stage-staff. I propose to do so with the players.’
‘I see,’ she said. She leant forward and her air of reasonableness and attention was beautifully executed. ‘You want to find out which of us had the opportunity to murder Ben?’
Gay Gainsford and Parry began an outcry but Helena raised her hand and they were quiet. ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ Alleyn said, ‘that really is it. I fancy you would rather be spared the stock evasions about routine inquiries and all the rest of it.’
‘Much rather.’
‘I was sure of it,’ Alleyn said. ‘Then shall we start with you, if you please?’
‘I was on the stage for the whole of that time, Mr Alleyn. There’s a scene, before Ben’s exit between J.G. – that’s Mr Darcey, over there – Parry, Adam, Ben and myself. Then J.G. and Parry go off and Ben follows a moment later. Adam and I finish the play.’
‘So you, too,’ Alleyn said to Poole, ‘were here, on the stage, for the whole of this period?’
‘I go off for a moment after his exit. It’s a strange, rather horridly strange, coincidence that in the play he – the character he played, I mean – does commit suicide offstage. He shoots himself. When I hear the shot I go off. The two other men have already made their exits. They remain off but I come on again almost immediately. I wait outside the door on the left from a position where I could watch Miss Hamilton and I re-enter on a “business” cue from her.’
‘How long would this take?’
‘Shall we show you?’ Helena suggested. She got up and moved to the centre of the stage. She raised her clasped hands to her mouth and stood motionless. She was another woman.
As if Clem had called: ‘Clear stage,’ and indeed he looked about him with an air of authority, Martyn, Jacko and Gay moved into the wings. Parry and J.G. went to the foot of the stairs and Poole crossed to above Helena. They placed themselves thus in the business-like manner of a rehearsal. The doctor however remained prone on his sofa breathing deeply and completely disregarded by everybody. Helena glanced at Clem Smith who went to the book.
‘From Ben’s exit, Clem,’ Poole said and after a moment Helena turned and addressed herself to the empty stage on her left.
‘I’ve only one thing to say, but it’s between the three of us.’ She turned to Parry and Darcey. ‘Do you mind?’ she asked them.
Parry said: ‘I don’t understand and I’m past minding.’
Darcey said: ‘My head is buzzing with a sense of my own inadequacy. I shall be glad to be alone.’
They went out, each on his own line, leaving Helena, Adam, and the ghost of Bennington, on the stage.
Helena spoke again to vacancy. ‘It must be clear to you, now. It’s the end, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Clem’s voice said. ‘I understand you perfectly. Goodbye, my dear.’
They looked at the door on the left. Alleyn took out his watch. Helena made a quick movement as if to prevent the departure of an unseen person and Poole laid his hand on her arm. They brought dead Ben back to the stage by their mime and dismissed him as vividly. It seemed that the door must open and shut for him as he went out.
Poole said: ‘And now I must speak to you alone.’ There followed a short passage of dialogue which he and Helena played a tempo but with muted voices. Jacko, in the wings, clapped his hands and the report was as startling as a gun shot. Poole ran out through the left-hand door.
Helena traced a series of movements about the stage. Her gestures were made in the manner of an exercise but the shadow of their significance was reflected in her face. Finally she moved into the window and seemed to compel herself to look out. Poole re-entered.
‘Thank you,’ Alleyn said, shutting his watch. ‘Fifty seconds. Will you all come on again, if you please?’
When they had assembled in their old positions, he said: ‘Did anyone notice Mr Poole as he waited by the door for his re-entry?’
‘The door’s recessed,’ Poole said. ‘I was more or less screened.’
‘Someone off-stage may have noticed, however.’ He looked from Darcey to Percival.
‘We went straight to our rooms,’ said Parry.
‘Together?’
‘I was first. Miss Tarne was in the entrance to the passage and I spoke to her for a moment. J.G. followed me, I think.’
‘Do you remember this, Miss Tarne?’
It had been at the time when Martyn had begun to come back to earth. It was like a recollection from a dream. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I remember. They both spoke to me.’
‘And went on down the passage?’
‘Yes.’
‘To be followed in a short time by yourself and Mr Bennington?’
‘Yes.’
‘And then Mr Doré joined you and you went to your rooms?’
‘Yes.’
‘So that after Mr Bennington had gone to his room, you, Mr Percival, were in your dressing-room which is next door to his, Mr Darcey was in his room which is on the far side of Mr Percival’s and Miss Tarne was in her room – or more correctly, perhaps, Miss Gainsford’s – with Mr Doré, who joined her there after looking in on Mr Bennington. Right?’
They murmured an uneasy assent.
‘How long were you all in these rooms?’
Jacko said: ‘I believe I have said I adjusted this infant’s make-up and returned with her to the
