Full Dark House(108)
‘Helena says Renalda’s Rolls left immediately after the performance to bring him back here,’ Bryant explained anxiously. ‘If he’s innocent he shouldn’t know what’s happened yet, unless someone’s managed to telegraph him.’
May pulled up the handbrake and climbed out. Bryant loosened his tie and fumbled with the passenger door until May yanked it open. ‘I’m rather nervous about doing this,’ he admitted. ‘You know—accusing someone.’
‘I suppose I’ll have to support you,’ May sighed. Being angry wasn’t going to solve anything. ‘How’s your chest?’
‘A little better, thank you.’
‘Renalda has a very good reason for wanting to sabotage his own production.’ Bryant clutched at his partner’s sleeve. ‘Wait, before we go in, listen to me. The whole thing starts with his brother Minos. Something bothered me when I read Summerfield’s article: if Minos murdered Andreas’s wife, why did he stop there? Because their mother had made him believe that Andreas was protected. She wanted Minos to think that he couldn’t harm Andreas without hurting himself.’
‘I’m with you so far,’ said May, turning up his collar.
‘To do this, she had to make her crippled son believe it, otherwise he would have made them both vulnerable. From the day Sirius decided that this child would own his empire, Diana filled the boy’s head with tales of old gods, and Andreas grew up believing in his protectors. He’s even built a shrine to them in the Palace Theatre. That’s why he chose the Palace, because of the statue of Euterpe on the roof. It was a sign to him. The building was guarded by a Muse.
‘I hadn’t realized who the statue represented at first, because nobody in the theatre could remember, and I was misled because the statue is wrong. Euterpe has a flaming torch in her hand instead of a flute. The original figure had been smashed, so it had to be rebuilt from scratch, but the delicate instrument she held, hard to see from the ground, and much less dramatic, was replaced with a burning brand. This much I know. But now I see how everything fits together.’
‘For God’s sake, let’s get back in the car until you’ve finished. It’s falling like stair rods out here.’ May settled back into his seat and turned on the Wolseley’s heater. ‘Come on then, give me the rest of your hypothesis.’
‘Which gods did Renalda’s mother believe in?’ There was excitement in Bryant’s voice. ‘Euterpe was one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology. Diana summoned the Muses to protect her son. These nine sacred goddesses nurture and inspire, bringing continued wealth and good fortune. But if you’ve ever studied mythology, you’ll know that every request made to the gods exacts a price. The price for this protection was losing Elissa, Andreas’s wife. Andreas believes that everything in his life has been decided by the Muses his mother invoked. Now that Diana is dead, Renalda is exorcizing his guardian spirits, getting rid of them one by one. He no longer has need of them. Worse, they’ve become his gaolers.’
‘What do you mean, his gaolers? I thought they were helping him.’
‘My guess is he doesn’t want their help any more. He wants to prove himself, to make his own way, just as his father did. So what does he do? First he negates Euterpe’s power by daring to stage a sacrilegious play in her temple, the building over which she presides in the form of a debased statue.
‘Then he chooses Offenbach’s version of the Orpheus legend, because it’s a cruel mockery, and because it will give him access to all the representatives of the Muse. The mother of Orpheus was Calliope, one of the Muses, remember?
‘After this, the removal of his gods begins in earnest. He drugs Tanya Capistrania with hemlock, a poison his mother would have taught him how to use, but panics when he can’t tell whether the drug has worked. He isn’t sure the dancer is dead, so he drags Capistrania’s feet through the trellis of the lift to make certain. Tanya, a representative of Terpsichore, the Muse of dance, loses her feet, you see?
‘Next, Renalda impales Charles Senechal, a perfect living example of Urania, Muse of astronomy. How better to kill him than with a giant planet? Urania is usually depicted carrying a globe and compasses.’
May shook his head, trying to free it from the clouds of Bryant’s madness. ‘But surely Senechal was the wrong sex to represent a Muse.’
‘Come on, John, gender is virtually interchangeable in Greek legend. So, where are we? Ah, yes.’ Bryant nodded vigorously. ‘Andreas watches and waits for his next opportunity. Nobody knows when he’s in the theatre, he told us that himself. He spots Zachary Darvell, the son of the performer representing the Muse Clio, proclaimer of history, smoking up in the gods. He waits until Darvell is alone and attacks him with a razor he has taken from one of the dressing rooms, pushing the body over the balcony.