Full Dark House(49)

Helena Parole was aware of the cast’s sensibilities, but hoped they would be cheered by today’s arrival. Their Orpheus was landing, fresh from a triumphant American tour of The Tales of Hoffmann, the opera wrongly regarded as Offenbach’s only serious work. Miles Stone had hit the big time, but his Orpheus contract pre-dated his rise in stock, and he had not managed to wriggle out of the agreement in time to seize his Hollywood break. MGM was offering him a role in a screwball comedy that would help to cement his image as the smart girl’s sex symbol, but unless something went wrong with Orpheus and the production was cancelled, Miles knew that he would be forced to remain in bomb-strewn London throughout the winter. The film would be recast with someone else, and his window of opportunity would slam firmly shut.

Consequently, the company’s leading player found himself in an ambivalent mood when he arrived to find that Jupiter was dead. It was a tragic loss, of course, but if the cast were so demoralized that the production could not continue, he would be freed.

‘Everybody back to their positions and we’ll take it from Eurydice’s invocation to death.’ Helena Parole rubbed her eyes. The cast was nervy and out of sorts. Anton Varisich, the conductor, was particularly bad-tempered, and seemed unable to control his orchestra, who were coming in late on their cues. On stage, Eurydice lay in the cornfield as Aristaeus stood over her, feeling her pulse.

’La mort m’apparaît souriante, qui vient me frapper près de toi,’ sang Eve Noriac.

Helena threw her script over the seat in front of her. ‘For Christ’s sake!’ she shouted. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘I’m sorry,’ called Eve, rising on one elbow and squinting down at her. ‘I’m used to singing in French. It’s easier for me to remember my lines this way.’

‘The management has decreed we’re to use our sovereign nation’s native tongue,’ snapped Helena. ‘They want a popular hit. The only people who can speak another language in England are foreigners. Let’s go again from the top.’

’Death appears to me smiling, coming to strike me while I’m near you . . .’

Helena sat back and listened. Eurydice had a remarkable soprano range. The plot was of no consequence to a modern audience, a once-saucy parody of classicism that held little meaning for anyone now, and yet Eve invested her words with such conviction that you would listen if she sang addresses from a telephone directory.

Helena was suddenly aware that the music had stopped. ‘What now?’ she cried, sitting up.

‘Someone’s taken my fork,’ complained Aristaeus. ‘It was here a minute ago.’

‘Will somebody find his bloody fork?’ called Helena. ‘Harry, go and look for it, would you?’

‘Can he just mime it for now, Helena?’

‘Helena?’ Aristaeus had walked to the front of the stage and was shielding his eyes from the key lights. ‘Is this a practical?’

‘You know it’s not. I told you that earlier.’

‘So the trapdoor’s not going to open when I reach “Off to the realm of darkness”?’

‘No,’ she replied wearily. ‘We won’t start using the drops and lifts until the end of the week. No sense in wishing more accidents on us, is there?’

‘I can see you’re busy,’ said John May quietly. ‘I’ll wait here until you’re ready for me.’

Helena checked her watch in alarm. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was time for our meeting, Mr May. We’re running behind this morning.’

‘That’s quite all right,’ said May. ‘I’m enjoying the rehearsal.’ He felt like sitting in the dark for a while. Betty had kept him out later than he had intended, and the AA guns stationed in Regent’s Park had been booming for most of the night. On top of this, he had now spent his entire first week’s wages on a girl, and he hadn’t been paid yet.

‘We’re still interviewing everyone who was with Miss Capistrania and Mr Senechal on the days of their deaths,’ May reminded her as they seated themselves in Helena’s arched office above the balcony. ‘I need to talk to your assistant.’

‘Harry, yes, he was there when Charles was killed.’

‘And Corinne Betts, who I’m told actually saw the globe fall.’

‘She’s not on today’s call sheet but Harry has her landlady’s telephone number.’

‘Mr Bryant reckons that casts grow into extended families during the run of a production,’ said May. ‘Is that true?’