‘Do they, though? Couldn’t our killer be fulfilling a ritual? Orpheus faced the rigours of Hell before he was allowed to climb towards the light. I believe true evil is dispassionate, faceless, selfish. A game is being played out right before my eyes. Our perpetrator knows this and is unconcerned, or is so blinded by the need to take action that he’s prepared to take risks.’
May had not seen his partner in this fugue state before. ‘I think you’re wasting your time with all this mythological stuff.’
‘Oh?’ Bryant turned to look at him. ‘Do you have a better idea?’
‘I wouldn’t say it’s better, but I do have a theory.’
‘Would you care to share it with me?’ Bryant jammed an absurdly large briar pipe in his mouth and waited for May to give him a light. He had misplaced his regular pipe. May would spend the next sixty years locating lost objects for his partner.
‘Renalda’s brother is implicated in the death of the tycoon’s wife. Now he’s missing, possibly here. Who would he want to strike at most? At Andreas himself. So he attacks the theatre to destroy his brother’s empire.’
‘But then he gains nothing financially.’
‘What if it has nothing to do with financial benefit, but is simple revenge?’ May leaned on the balustrade, watching the red fireboats pumping water.
‘Why would he have waited until now to take action?’ Bryant checked his watch. ‘I have to find Andreas. He can’t be far from the theatre. Let’s have him removed directly to the unit for questioning, show him we mean business.’
‘That’s more like it.’ May looked up at the dark, scudding sky. ‘Listen.’
Bryant cocked an ear. ‘What? I can’t hear anything.’
‘Neither can I.’ May grinned. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it?’
43
MERRY HELL
‘I have no time to talk to you,’ said Helena Parole impatiently. ‘When we hit our half-hour call in around one hundred and thirty minutes, the backstage area is sealed until the performance ends. Only the audience can enter and leave. Have you ever been backstage before the start of a first public performance? It’s a nightmare, people running in every direction, and there’s barely a corridor more than two feet wide in the entire building. You saw the understage area. Imagine it filled with actors waiting for their stage-lift cues. As far as I know, nobody’s heard from Petrovic. Got a snout?’
John May dug a packet of Three Bells from his jacket and offered her one.
‘We’re not supposed to smoke back here either.’ She flicked a cigarette between crimson lips. ‘All these timber struts. But with buildings ablaze all around us these days, what’s the difference? God knows there are enough fire buckets scattered about. Geoffrey fell over one by the grave trap and nearly broke his ankle. Quite how a bucket of sand is supposed to put out a raging fire is anyone’s guess. The truth of the matter is, anyone caught understage would be fried alive. A theatre’s no place for claustrophobics.’ She rubbed smoke from her eye. ‘This tastes like it’s got vegetable shavings in it.’
‘Mr Bryant got them for me.’ He examined the strangely misregistered lettering on the packet. ‘I don’t think they’re kosher, not at a shilling for twenty. He has a theory that Petrovic’s abduction is somehow separate from the killings. You can’t think of anything that would single her out?’
‘She filled in the same employment forms as everyone else. We don’t check their backgrounds. Right now, we’re grateful to find anyone at all. I suppose it’s possible she had another identity. Have you seen her rent book?’
‘Yes, and I spoke to her landlord about her references. Nothing unusual there.’
‘You know we have a full house tonight. How are you going to keep a check on the doors?’
‘The only admittance to the auditorium is via the front of house. The ushers, bar staff and ticket tearers have to sign the book, and everyone else needs a ticket.’
‘You’ve been around the building, you realize there are a thousand places to hide, and this maniac could be in any of them.’
‘I know that,’ admitted May. ‘We can’t search them all. We’ve only been allocated two extra PCs. Andreas Renalda insists that he’s keeping the production open whatever happens.’
‘I’d better get going. He’ll be here soon.’ Parole finished the cigarette and checked her watch. ‘God, these things burn up fast. What do you make of him?’
‘Seems very determined. A bit of a cold fish.’