Andreas Renalda was watching the performance from the sealed-off royal box. The divider between the two sections had been restored. In one half sat a group of noisily enthusiastic businessmen. On the other side of the brown partition, the millionaire sat in the shadows, absently chewing his thumb. When the door opened a crack it threw a shaft of light across his pale, angry face. ‘You cannot possibly wish to see me now,’ he hissed at May. ‘The American investors are here. It is the time of Orpheus’s big duet. We have the Times critic sitting in the front row.’
‘Fine,’ whispered May. ‘I’ll come in and tell you why I think your wife is in this theatre. Then you can try to convince me that you’re not an accessory to murder.’
Even in the dim light of the box, he could see Renalda blanch. ‘Help me up, damn it,’ he hissed. May opened the door wider, ushering him out into the corridor. For the first time since they had met, Renalda looked unsure of himself. May wondered if he was deciding whether to lie again.
‘Can we talk where your clients can’t hear us?’ May asked as he pulled the box door shut behind them.
‘Here, this is the eviction staircase, nobody uses it any more.’ Renalda unlocked a door on their right and led the way onto a concrete landing faced by damp-tainted ochre walls. ‘What do you need to know about Elissa?’
‘You could start by telling me how long you’ve known she’s alive.’
The millionaire rubbed at his broad forehead, as if afflicted by a migraine. ‘You’re saying that—’
‘Any delay now risks everything you’ve worked for.’
Renalda sighed heavily. ‘She contacted me about eighteen months ago. A phone call out of the blue. At first I did not believe her.’
‘But you arranged to see her.’
‘We met for a drink at the Savoy. She told me that she had been ordered off the island by my brother. Minos had acted in good faith. It is the way of our family, to protect one another. She was very beautiful, very young, and I was blind, a cripple bewitched by a girl who tricked me into marriage. Minos scared her away for my sake. The police found the body of a drowned swimmer a month later, and after I spoke to them, they conveniently decided that it was my wife’s. It suited us for her to appear dead. No loss of face, you understand.
‘But she was alive. Elissa timed our meeting well. I was about to sign the deal with the theatre. She asked me to sign half of my holdings in Three Hundred International over to her. If I did not agree to do so, she said she would go to the press, tell everyone that she was still legally my wife, that I had conspired to have her killed and that she had survived the attempt. Me, who had only ever loved her! I could not allow an ugly court case, just when I was fighting to make a name for myself in London. I was not prepared to risk losing the confidence of our shareholders. But I would not sign over my father’s empire. We drank, and I let her talk until she talked too much. She said she had heard about Minos’s death.’
‘She caused his accident, didn’t she?’
‘She was in the other car, the one that ran him off the road. I saw in her eyes that I had won. She had only one card to play, you see. Any accusation from her would bring a far more serious accusation from me. How the press would have loved that! We had reached an impasse.’
‘So she followed you here, and the trouble began. Do you know where she is now?’
‘Of course. She is here all the time, where I can keep an eye on her at every single performance.’
‘Who is she?’
‘Who do you think? That girl in the chorus, the one you spent the night with.’
May’s jaw fell open. ‘Betty Trammel?’
‘Elissa. Elissabetta. Betty. You see? She is a little older and more experienced than she looks. What could I do, tell Helena not to hire her because she was my wife?’
‘She’s not only your wife, she’s a murderess,’ said May, horrified that he could have been such a poor judge of character.
‘She followed Minos in a state of frustration and anger, and ran him off the road. She did not mean to kill him. And I don’t think she’s harmed anyone in this theatre.’ Renalda gave a sour smile. ‘Although she’s broken a few hearts. I imagine she found it exciting to seduce a boy who could have her arrested.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘Backstage, I suppose, waiting to go on. She’s a natural performer, as I’m sure you have discovered.’
Andreas Renalda pressed his hands against the sides of his calipers to steady himself. ‘God spare me from the designs of angry women.’