The Memory of Blood(78)

‘So that’s why nobody remembers the old theatre.’

‘He banned all the plays from public performance. Odd, really, when you consider that the English stage has a history of horror, from the blinding of Gloucester in King Lear to the horrific tortures of The Revenger’s Tragedy, where the Duke’s lips are burned away with acid and his eyelids are torn off so he has to witness his wife’s adultery. The Little Theatre was low theatre in the Lord Chamberlain’s eyes, and there was a danger that it might appeal to the lower orders. So he came up with a solution. He allowed plays to be performed in their original French, because he thought only the middle classes would come here then, and they were less likely to be corrupted.’

‘How did you find out about the play?’

‘I was working in the building.’

‘Doing what?’

‘After I finished working for the government, I became a night watchman. One evening I was asked to clear out a load of old boxes from the basement, ready for the dustman in the morning. There were piles of old playscripts inside. I was sitting behind the desk with nothing to do, and some nights Mr Kramer came to look at the building with his producer. I had time on my hands, so I rewrote a few of the plays and submitted them as my own work. I didn’t hurt anyone. These things are ancient history. I just modernised them and bumped up the levels of sex and violence.’

‘You acted with questionable legality,’ said May, ‘but we have bigger problems now.’

‘Are you going to make an arrest?’ Ray asked.

‘You’ll know at the same time as everyone else,’ May replied. ‘I’d make myself scarce if I were you. This place is now off limits.’

Mona Williams’s body was delivered to Giles Kershaw while Banbury cleared the crime scene. The detectives watched what appeared to be a second Grand Guignol play being performed in front of the proscenium arch, then returned to North London.

‘I think we know what we’re dealing with now,’ said Bryant, waving his walking stick at a taxi. ‘Robert Kramer is clearly the target, not the suspect.’

‘But why?’

‘Because he has a secret, something he hasn’t revealed to us in almost a week of questioning. This secret is so great that someone wants him to suffer very badly. They took his child, and that should have been the end of the matter. Then they went after his money man, his best friend, destroying his financial empire in the process. Kramer knows someone is out to get him. But here’s the interesting thing. Despite his secret being known to another individual, he doesn’t know who his own enemy is. Intriguing, no?’

‘A woman,’ said May suddenly.

‘Hm. I was thinking about that possibility.’

‘The harming of a child by throwing it about. Frightening an old lady, but not intending to kill her. It feels like a woman somehow, one who’d been angered by Kramer’s behaviour. Particularly if we say that Gregory Baine’s death was suicide.’

‘I see what you mean. Kramer’s enemy finds out that Mona Williams knows something which can give the game away. But she’s an old lady, she’ll frighten easily—she can be scared into silence.’

‘The plan goes wrong. And revenge is not properly dealt. Kramer’s still around and his life continues; nothing seems to touch him. He’s not as broken up over his child as he was meant to be, because he’s not the father. He’s not destroyed by Baine’s death, because for all we know there could be another offshore company designed to protect his finances from Baine. So there could still be another attempt to hurt him.’

‘But why doesn’t this enemy simply kill Kramer if he wants revenge?’ Bryant asked.

‘Where’s the pleasure in that? Someone needs to see Kramer suffer. Merely being rid of him won’t take away that gnawing anger. The killer wants to watch the pain slowly building in the victim’s eyes. Nothing is working out as it was intended to. Hardly anything has gone right. Something else is bound to happen now.’

‘Women,’ repeated Bryant. ‘There are four in the case. Della Fortess, the female lead; Ella Maltby, the set designer; Jolie Christchurch, the front-of-house manager; and Judith Kramer.’

‘Incredible,’ May marveled. ‘Last week you parked your car to get a bag of boiled sweets and spent the rest of the day trying to remember where you’d left it, but you can remember the name of everyone in the investigation.’

‘I have a system for finding Victor now,’ Bryant replied. ‘I only park in places where I upset people. That way I can always find someone who remembers my car. Hang on, I’ve left one female out. Gail Strong.’